Here is the link to the original: Source
June 4, 2010 – The answer is simple and can be summed up in three words. RACISM, GREED and LIES.
You see? It was the perfect crime under the auspices of law. ♦ Anslinger could justify his new high profile position within the United States Government. ♦ Hearst had the ability to widely disperse scandalous racial propaganda via his own newspaper network. ♦ Dupont wanted to eliminate it’s competition for textiles and automotive fuel. ♦ The pharmaceutical companies couldn’t identify or standardize cannabis dosages. Why would they anyway? If folks could grow their own medicine they wouldn’t have to buy it!
Throughout American history and as far back as the 1600s, hemp farming has been popular and sometimes mandatory. In 1619, the first American Hemp Law was passed at Jamestown colony in Virginia. This law made it mandatory for all farmers to grow hemp seed. In fact, if you lived in Virginia between 1763 and 1767 you could be hauled off to jail for NOT growing hemp during times of shortage. Back in those days it was entirely possible for a man to use hemp as currency and even pay his taxes using the crop. In the 200 years to come hemp remained a popular and profitable crop and wouldn”t even be recognized as a recreational drug until the 1900s.
By the early 1900s, trouble was brewing and times were tense in the American west as the Mexican Revolution was heating up just the other side of the border. This triggered a huge influx of Mexican-Americans which really pissed off a lot of small farmers as the larger farmers consistently employed cheap Mexican labor. Less than a decade later in 1910, the violence from Mexico spilled over onto American soil and created even more racial tension. In 1929, The Great Depression made matters worse. Jobs were hard to come by and there were rumors the Mexicans smoked marijuana and brought it into America via Mexico. The state of California freaked out and passed the first state law banning all preparations of marijuana and what they termed “loco weed”. It’s important to note that there is no distinction between marijuana and hemp, guilty by association I presume.
About this time the eastern part of the country had it’s own rebellious uprisings to deal with. Authorities conveniently blamed these issues on black jazz musicians since they were known to smoke marijuana. One newspaper editorial written in 1934 states:
“Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.”
In 1930 Harry J. Anslinger was named the director of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics who soon collaborated with wealthy American newspaper baron William Randolf Hearst who had plenty reason of his own to support the war on marijuana.
First off, Hearst had sunk tons of dough into the timber industry up to this point and he needed this industry to support his ever-growing newspaper empire. Secondly, there was new machinery designed to process hemp paper cheaply. This was a huge threat and no doubt would be a formidable competitor to Hearst’s business interests. Finally, Hearst most definitely hated Mexicans since losing almost 1200 square miles of potentially profitable timberline to Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution.
DuPont chemical company soon came on-board in support of the marijuana eradication effort. Pierre DuPont happened to be the President of General Motors in 1920 and he knew that the Hemp Breaker had been patented. This invention would make hemp processing easier and more efficient by cutting, baling, and separating the hemp fiber from the hurd so like Hearst, DuPont wanted to eliminate marijuana as a competitor right from the start.
Several powerful pharmaceutical companies quickly followed suit in support of this war on marijuana. So begins the propaganda smear campaign of the century…
The following is an excerpt from the house committee that passed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937:
Member from upstate New York: “Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?”
Speaker Rayburn: “I don’t know. It has something to do with a thing called marijuana. I think it’s a narcotic of some kind.”
Member from upstate New York: “Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?”
Member on the committee jumps up and says: “Their Doctor Wentworth came down here. They support this bill 100 percent.”
…and there you have it! A ridiculous law based on nothing but a lie! Source
Please enjoy this propaganda film from 1966. I know I did!