Why they outlawed marijuana in US

[ars_longa]

"Harry J. Anslinger, a former railroad cop and Prohibition agent, is almost singlehandedly responsible for outlawing marijuana...
When he was named America's first drug czar in 1930 Anslinger initially tried to keep the Bureau of Narcotics clear of the marijuana issue because he knew eradication would be impossible. The stuff grows, he said, "like dandelions." But in the budget squeeze of Great Depression he decided to create a little excitement by transforming marijuana from a low grade nuisance into an evil "as hellish as heroin". To add a little spice he played the race card.
"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men... the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races... most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."

Most Americans had never heard of the weed. Clearly Congress hadn't either. The transcript of the 1937 Congressional Hearings on the Taxation of Marijuana are "near comic examples of dereliction of legislative responsibility,", according to one legal observer. The principal witness was Commisioneer Anslinger and his evidence consisted of newpaper clippings. The solitary nedical expert, Dr. William Woodward of the AMA, undermined Anslinger's testimony by pointing out that the facts in these newspaper clippings had originated with the Commissioner himself.

But the hour ws late and it was time to move on. In a vote they didn't bother to record, on a maatter of little interest, a handful of Congressmen forwared a bill that would one day fill the nation's prisons to the roof beams."


(source: "Reason", v.38#4, 09/2006), see also www.commonsensedrugpolicy.org

Original article.

Via ivan_ghandhi

No comments needed, of course.

Comments

[anspa.livejournal.com]

Арин, а ты чо куришь бывает? =) Почему это тебя так затронуло?

[(Anonymous)]

Some interesting facts you will not find readily available in main stream media or respected institutions.

The building of early American colonies as well as the American Revolution would not have been possible if it were not for a very special plant. The Cannabis / Hemp plant was used throughout the world since the beginning of time for just about everything that mankind needed. Paper made from hemp was used for books, bibles, maps, and money. You can produce 4 times as much paper from an acre of hemp as you can from an acre of trees at 1/4 the cost, 1/5 the pollution, it is 10 times stronger and lasts up to 1000 years instead of only 50. And it can be recycled 4 times as many times as paper from wood pulp. The Constitution was printed on hemp paper as well as the first 3 drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Even great sailing ships like the U.S.S. Constitution were made primarily out of hemp. Hemp is the STRONGEST natural fiber on the planet. Hemp is 26 times stronger than cotton and 10 times longer lasting. The first Levi jeans were made out of hemp as well as all of the soldier's clothes for the Revolutionary War. It requires no chemicals to grow, has very few natural enemies, and grows in the widest variety of climates of any weed or plant. It is also the FASTEST GROWING plant on the planet, growing 4 times faster than corn. The seeds from the hemp plant provide the highest source of complete vegetable protein of any food source on earth. Even higher than soybeans. It has also been re-realized lately that the hemp seed is the highest source of Essential Fatty Acids in the world. ESSENTIAL, meaning :NECESSARY FOR LIFE, Fatty Acids are necessary for us and beneficial for cleaning the cholesterol out of the arteries naturally. All oils in the supermarket are bad since they are placed in clear plastic containers and exposed to direct sunlight. They become as bad as saturated fats, and end up CAUSING cholesterol buildup, leading to heart attacks, etc. Hemp seed oil can even be used as a machine-grade lubricant for engines and other machines replacing petroleum oil from the ground.

Henry Ford built his Ford Model-T using hemp to line the side panels. The impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel alone. This would eliminate many vehicular deaths today. The Model-T was also designed to run on hemp fuel which Henry Ford grew. This was displayed in Popular Mechanics in Feb. of 1938. Concentrated extracts of Cannabis from the flowers were the 2nd most used medicines in America for 150 years for over 100 separate medical illnesses. It is probably the best natural medicine for Glaucoma, stress, and controlling nausea, and works very well for arthritis , asthma, and epilepsy. It is estimated that Hemp would have at least 50,000 commercial uses if it were legal in America today.

The reason that Hemp is illegal in America today is because the main families in America (Masons), the Harrimans and Rockefellers (Standard Oil), the Whitneys (Eli Whitney-Cotton Gin), Dupont (Chemicals in wood pulp processing and cotton pesticides), and Hearst (Newspapers, Media) find it more profitable to sell us unnecessary chemicals, unneeded dug-up petroleum oil, immune system destroying pharmaceuticals, and axed up trees cut into real thin slices, all at over-inflated prices and at the expense of our health and living environment. For these companies, the real problem is that one cannot patent a natural plant. Almost everything produced in America by large corporations is exported for sale on the world markets. The total value of oil, petrochemicals, and pharmaceutical sales totals hundreds of billions of dollars. However, with the availability of over 50,000 new products and the necessity to manufacture them, America would be a much richer nation if the farmers and the average citizen were allowed to grow this valuable crop.

это я - мать твоя...

[(Anonymous)]

Соглашаясь с твоей позицией (человек ДОЛЖЕН иметь право выборв) и будучи совершенно уверена, что индивидум имеет право принимать решение по поводу своей жизни, хочу спросить: акакбыть мне, если принятое им решение начинает вредить моему здоровью и я оказываюсь в условиях, когда нет выбора? Ну, например, ты захочешь курить выдыхая дым мне в лицо... или просто в том помещении, где мое рабочее место? Или включишь кондиционер, а я от этого простуживаюсь?