This is in response to the article Marijuana: Gateway Drug or Bringer of Benefits? by Question Everything.
Marijuana did not exist in America until the early 1900’s. Hemp, or cannabis as it was also known, had been used for thousands of years all over the world for medicinal, industrial, religious and recreational purposes, but the Mexican slang term “marihuana” was not observed in use until 1895, and that was by the revolutionary Pancho Villa, in Mexico.
Throughout American history, going back to the Mayflower pilgrims themselves, hemp was a major agricultural commodity, with such importance that its cultivation was mandatory throughout many of the early colonies. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were outspoken advocates of hemp cultivation, and it was upon hemp paper that the Declaration of Independence was drafted. At the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, hashish was served to guests. Hemp has been used to make fabric, paper, rope, and later even cars and fuel by Henry Ford. It was used to relieve many medical conditions, including loss of appetite, whooping cough, and addiction to drugs such as alcohol and opium. When fabric was needed for the war effort in WWII, the U.S. government, after it was made illegal that is, began their “Hemp For Victory” campaign, encouraging American farmers to grow this illegal crop.
Hemp paper can be made at less than half the price of wood-pulp paper, with less use of toxic chemicals, and without destroying large trees which take many years to grow back to a viable size. So why exactly is this incredibly beneficial plant illegal still today, over 50 years later? Well, I’ll tell you this- it’s not because it is a “gateway drug”. In fact, everything the Drug Warriors say about cannabis is a lie. Yes, everything. It’s all a lie. Most of us know this already, but to say so is seen as a heresy. Why is it a lie? Because there are two reasons, neither of which is drug use or personal health, that cannabis is illegal- money and racism. Let me explain.
So first the racism. We’re looking at the 1930’s here, so the Great Depression has set in, jobs are scarce, and many formerly prosperous Americans find themselves in a dire situation, many completely broke and near starvation. The end of the populist Mexican Revolution in 1919 had caused a massive influx of immigrants through our totally porous borders, and those Mexicans were now competing with Americans for the few jobs that were around. The Americans of course did not like this, and the Mexicans were seen as dirty criminals who did not share the same mores and values as Americans. As I’m sure we can all understand today, there was a good deal of racism directed against them. Blacks, having been slaves until about 60 years before, were still the victims of the massive racism we are all familiar with- lynching, Jim Crow laws, cross burnings, and general harassment and violence were common to blacks all over the country, as they had been for quite a long time. They were seen as stupid, lazy, dirty, lacking in morals, and, as with the Mexicans, competition for already scarce jobs. What does this have to do with cannabis prohibition? Nothing by itself, but lots when we add in the second ingredient.
Money.
Most of us are familiar with William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper mogul and subject of Orson Wells’ classic “Citizen Kane. By the 1930’s, Hearst had built himself an empire or newspapers, tabloids, magazines, and film companies so vast that his power to shape public opinion was virtually unmatched. Many attribute both the assassination of President McKinley and the Spanish-American War to his agitations, and, whether or not this is true, the mere claim that his writings could have caused such events is testament to the massive influence he exerted over public attitudes and opinions. Hearst had himself a media empire, but he also had a near-monopoly on timber acreage in the U.S. Trees, that is, which are used to make paper. In the early-30’s, the advent of a new, more efficient way of making hemp into paper by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, combined with the invention of the “hemp decorticator”, a revolution in the harvesting of hemp, spelled bad news for wood-pulp paper, and so for Hearst as well, who stood to lose big, big money if hemp paper became the standard. Remember, hemp paper can be made at less than half the cost of wood paper, which is a pretty big incentive to use hemp.
So you’re a multimillionaire media mogul who exerts immense influence over public opinion, and a “new” product is about to ruin you- what do you do? Exactly as he did- demonize it. Hearst didn’t get so rich and powerful by chance, he did it because he was smart and ruthless, and he knew just how to get things done. Already an unabashed racist, he used his newspapers, magazines, and films to perpetuate an image of hemp as “marihuana”, a rarely-used Mexican slang-word chosen by Hearst for its sinister, foreign sound., as the domain of Mexicans and blacks, already reviled by much of white American society, and the cause of erratic behavior and crimes such as murder, rape, and irrational violence.
As if Hearst himself wasn’t powerful enough, hemp also had two other enemies in the form of Lammont DuPont, head of DuPont Chemicals, and Andrew Mellon, DuPont’s powerful and prominent banker. DuPont made their money from synthetic fabrics, such as nylon, and from plastics, both of which could be made from hemp at far less cost. Widespread cultivation and utilization of hemp would have been catastrophic for DuPont, not only because of plastics and fabrics, but because they had recently entered into a multimillion dollar deal with Hearst to process his wood into paper. Hemp cultivation, while bad for Hearst, could mean the absolute end for DuPont. Mellon was DuPont’s banker, so his stake in this is obvious, but, while Hearst could shape public opinion, Mellon could exert influence right where it counted. His nephew-in-law was Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and the man responsible for making hemp illegal through a back-door loophole. Anslinger pushed through the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937, making cultivation of hemp legal only if a tax stamp were obtained from the government.
The stamps didn’t exist, and so could not be obtained. Immediately following this, DuPont filed patents for nylon, plastic, and a paper-bleaching process. And that was that. This is not conjecture on my part, not is it a conspiracy theory, it is historical fact which can easily be verified using internet search engines or other sources. This is why cannabis is illegal, and it remains illegal despite protests from doctors and their patients, politicians, and regular people all over the world- because 70 year old racist propaganda is still effective, though now it is disguised as the “War on Drugs”, put forth as a public health issue, and those who choose to see things how they really are suffer ridicule due to stereotypes. What is today’s stereotype of a pot smoker? Cheech and Chong- stereotypical Mexican pothead burnouts that would have made Hearst proud.
So is cannabis a “gateway drug”? If it is, it is only because it is illegal, which is a convenient catch-22 that the drug warriors love to exploit. Because it is illegal, the people who sell it often sell other illegal drugs, particularly in inner cities, whether they be crack, heroin, acid, dust, geltabs, meth, GHB, ecstasy, or anything else that can be passed on for a profit. I will tell you from experience that this is how I first came into contact with other drugs- the guy I bought weed from also had some acid, so I decided to try the acid. The same happened with other drugs- I would set out to buy cannabis, and the dealer would have something else that I’d eventually try. Now, I never personally came into contact with things like heroin, crack, and meth, for which I am very thankful, but friends of mine did, and a couple have died as a result of their addictions.
If cannabis were available at stores it would not be a gateway drug, because the other drugs would not exist alongside it, and people who did not have an interest in hard drugs would stand far less of a chance of getting involved with them. It could be taxed and regulated, the money used to improve, among other things, our schools, so that children can learn to spot mindless propaganda before it spirals out of control.
If you wish to read further about the history of hemp and why it is illegal today, check out The Emporer Has No Clothes by Jack Herer and Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts by Lynn Zimmer, both available on Amazon.
