To
understand how cannabis became so stigmatized, you have to understand something
about a plant that is very similar to cannabis but different enough that
making it illegal would be preposterous: hemp.
If I
told you there was a plant available to us today that could be grown in pretty
much any soil, could thrive without the use of pesticides, and could be
farmed with very little maintenance, and that this magical plant could be
used for a very large number of necessities and goods we use today, but we are
doing nothing about it, would you think to yourself, “Joe you must be high or
on some other cheap drug”?
Well,
I’m not high nor do I get high, but let me tell you, there is a plant available
right now and it is often mistaken for marijuana, but it has capabilities
that are beyond what you could imagine. It’s called hemp.
Right
off the top, hemp looks very much like marijuana and is technically in the same
family of plants. But unlike modern maryjane, it does not contain anywhere near
the amount of THC needed for someone to get high if they were to smoke it.
The funny thing is, in the United States, hemp is just as illegal to grow
as marijuana is. But how can this be? If we can’t get high from it, then what’s
the problem?
In the past, hemp was used
for many things: clothes, cars, plastics, building materials, rope, paper,
linens, food, medicine and so on. In fact, it used to be mandatory in the
United States for farmers to grow hemp if they had the land. You can find out
even more about hemp here.
The Medical Marijuana ...Laurie
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The fact is, hemp was very
popular throughout the 1800s and 1900s because it was incredibly
useful and easy to grow, and its derived products were so long lasting. But one
day that all changed; it became illegal and so did its friend cannabis
(marijuana). How did this happen?
The History
During
Hoover’s presidency, Andrew Mellon became Hoover’s Secretary of the Treasury
and Dupont’s primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry J.
Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
Secret
meetings were held by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and
a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain
intact, hemp had to go. This then led them to take an obscure Mexican
slang word – ‘marihuana’ – and push it into the consciousness of America. The
reason why they changed the name was because everyone knew of hemp and how
amazing it was for the world. They would never be able to get away with banning
hemp, so they used a name they knew no one would recognize.
Not
long after this plan was set in place, the media began a blitz of ‘yellow
journalism’ in the late 1920s and 1930s. Yellow journalism is essentially
journalism where stories with catchy headlines are put into the mainstream
media to get attention, yet these stories are not well researched or backed up.
They are often used simply to sway public opinion. Many newspapers were
pumping stories emphasizing the horrors and dangers of marihuana. The “menace”
of marihuana made headlines everywhere. Readers learned that it was responsible
for everything from car accidents to looser morals, and it wasn’t long
before public opinion started to shape.
Next came several films
like Reefer Madness (1936), Marihuana: Assassin of Youth (1935) and Marihuana: The Devil’s Weed (1936), which were all
propaganda films designed by these industrialists to create an enemy out of
marihuana. Reefer Madness was possibly
the most interesting of the films, as it depicted a man going crazy from
smoking marijuana and then murdering his family with an axe. With all of these
films, the goal was to gain public support so that anti-marihuana laws could be
passed without objection.
Have a look at the following
regarding marihuana from The Burning Question, aka Reefer Madness:
- A
violent narcotic
- Acts
of shocking violence
- Incurable
insanity
- Soul-destroying
effects
- Under
the influence of the drug he killed his entire family with an axe
- More
vicious, more deadly even than these soul-destroying drugs (heroin,
cocaine), is the menace of marihuana!
Unlike most films with a
simple ending, Reefer Madness ended with bold words on the
screen: TELL YOUR CHILDREN.
In
the 1930s, things were different from today in significant ways. The
population did not question authority or the media to the extent that we do
now, and they did not have tools like the Internet to quickly spread
information and learn about things that were happening. Most built their opinions
and beliefs off of the news via print, radio, or cinema. As a result (and
thanks to the explicit instruction of mainstream news), many people did
tell their children about marihuana. Thus, public opinion about this plant was
formed.
On
April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law, the bill that outlawed hemp,
was directly brought to the House Committee on Ways and Means. Simply put, this
committee is the only one that could introduce a bill to the House floor
without it being debated by other committees. At the time, the Chairman of the
Ways and Means was Robert Doughton, who was a Dupont supporter. With vested
interest, he insured that the bill would pass in Congress.
In an
attempt to prevent the bill from being passed, Dr. James Woodward, a physician
and attorney, attempted to testify on behalf of the American Medical
Association. He mentioned that the reason the AMA had not denounced the
Marihuana Tax Law sooner was that the Association had just discovered that
marihuana was hemp (or at least a strain of it).
Hemp
and marijuana are both varieties of Cannabis sativa, but this distinction was
purposefully obscured from the public. Since the law was not focused
on banning one or the other, both found their way into the ban. The AMA
recognized cannabis/marihuana as a medicine found in numerous healing products
sold that had been used for quite some time. The AMA, like many others, did not
realize that the deadly menace they had been reading about in the media was in
fact hemp.
In
September of 1937, hemp prohibition began. What was arguably the most useful
plant known to man at the time, at least in the West, became illegal to grow
and use: cannabis (marijuana) and hemp, one used to give a bad name to the
other, even though neither should have realistically garnered that negative
backlash. To this day, this plant is still illegal to grow in the United
States.
To the public, Congress
banned hemp and cannabis because it was said to be a violent and dangerous
drug. In reality, hemp does nothing more than act as an amazing resource to
virtually any industry and any product, and cannabis is and can be a useful
medical substance that, when administered correctly, can
have many benefits. But it should also be mentioned that
cannabis has been abused over the years and does have its negative side
effects. This is a reality many in the community don’t want to admit but it has
to be said. We know the effects it has on regular users under 25 years old as
well as what heavy regular use can do to serotonin levels. [1]
Fast
forward to today, and it is clear we are in some trouble when it comes to how
we treat our environment. The resources and practices we use today for energy,
as well as product creation, are very harmful and toxic to not just our planet
but ourselves. Despite the awareness that exists about hemp as an option to
transform how things can be done on this planet, governments continue to ban
this plant, and it is still often mistaken for marihuana due to their similar
appearance.
Luckily,
much more cultural and regulatory progress is being made on the side of
cannabis to not only illustrate the value of it medically, but also to better
understand its potential dangers. This helps to work out the difference
between fact and fiction so we can use the plant responsibly while taking
advantage of its benefits.