Drug Abuse

 

 

Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2009

Source: Red and Black, The (U of Georgia, GA Edu)

Copyright: 2009 The Red and Black Publishing Co., Inc.

Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website: http://www.redandblack.com/

Author: Nick Panetta

Note: Nick Panetta is the public relations director of UGA NORML.

 

MARIJUANA LAWS ARE 'COMPLETE LUNACY'

 

Historically, marijuana drug laws are the product of a lack of

knowledge, and what must either be described as propaganda or complete

lunacy. Prior to the federal Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, 27 states had

passed laws against marijuana. Those states could be categorized into

three groups: Southwestern, Northeastern and Utah.

 

Looking at the legislation, it's obvious the Southwestern states

outlawed marijuana to control an undesired Mexican population. It

wasn't marijuana that legislatures were fighting, it was its users;

cheap Mexican labor was a problem. Congressmen rallied around

statements such as, "All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff

[marijuana] is what makes them crazy," and "Give one of these Mexican

beet field workers a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette and he

thinks he is in the bullring at Barcelona."

 

Northeastern states had entirely different reasons for the ban.

According to a 1919 New York Times editorial, "No one here in New York

uses this drug marijuana. We have only just heard about it from down

in the Southwest, but we had better prohibit its use before it gets

here. Otherwise all the heroin and hard narcotics addicts . and all

the alcohol drinkers . will substitute this new and unknown drug marijuana."

 

Utah, however, enacted a marijuana law for its own reasons. When the

Mormon Church decreed polygamy a mistake in 1910, those in

disagreement fled to Mexico. Failing to establish settlement, the

group returned to Utah in 1914 with marijuana. The Church, opposed to

euphoriants of any kind, declared marijuana prohibited and wrote it,

with other religious prohibitions, into the state's criminal law.

 

With 27 states prohibiting marijuana, it wasn't long until federal

legislation tried to control this "growing problem." Not yet able to

mandate criminal law, a common states' rights issue of the time, the

legislation came in the form of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

 

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 moved through congress very quickly. The

Congressional committee hearings lasted one hour each over two days.

The hearings featured several testimonies: Harry Anslinger (the newly

named Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics), industry

spokesmen for rope, paint and birdseed, and medical testimony from

Drs. James C. Munch and William C. Woodward.

 

Each argument can easily be paraphrased. Mr. Anslinger essentially

said marijuana was a "national menace." The paint and rope spokesmen

didn't care; they could use other resources. The birdseed spokesman

claimed they absolutely needed marijuana seeds to produce shiny coats

and to this day possess an exemption to use "denatured seeds."

 

Dr. Munch conducted an experiment, from which he couldn't draw a

conclusion. Dr. Woodward, a representative of the American Medical

Association, stated, "The American Medical Association knows of no

evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug."

 

The bill went to the Congressional floor on Aug. 20, 1937. It was

there for less than two minutes.

 

When asked what the bill concerned, the Speaker replied, "I don't

know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think

it's a narcotic of some kind."

 

When asked if the AMA supported the bill, one member of the committee

replied, "They support this bill 100 percent." This was a lie, but the

bill passed anyway.

 

It then cleared the Senate without debate, and President Franklin D.

Roosevelt signed it into law.

 

Afterward, Mr. Anslinger named Dr. Munch his expert witness, a

position he held until 1962. During that time, Dr. Munch went on to

repeatedly testify, "After two puffs on a marijuana cigarette, I was

turned into a bat," and claimed that he flew around the room for 15

minutes before finding himself at the bottom of a 200-foot high ink

well.

 

>From that point on, when the public perceived an increase in drug use,

the answer was new criminal law with harsher penalties in every

offense category.

 

When the federal government discovered that organized crime was funded

through illegal narcotics, even harsher penalties were enacted.

 

Through repetition of this pattern, drug penalties increased eightfold

over 20 years. The war on drugs had begun.

 

Don't believe me? You can read all the original documents here:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/history.htm.

 

Nick Panetta is the public relations director of UGA NORML.

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