Mark October 17th on your calendar, for many Canadians a new chapter in deregulation will begin. It’s the day marijuana will become legal. Before we can deal with the ramifications of the decision it would be wise to look at how we as a society arrived at making it illegal in the first place.
The first venture down this road in North America started with cannabis not booze, although booze made restriction on a Federal Justice Scale much more possible.
What if I was to tell you alcohol, cannabis and cocaine were not prohibited for health reasons in the beginning?
Alcohol prohibition was due to a religious fervor across the land, the led to the 18th amendment in the United States and spilled over into Canada for a short time. What does this have to do with pot? I will explain that.
Alcohol was a fervor spiritually and it ignited the Federal Legislative agenda. Prior to that Cocaine, Opium, Heroin and Marijuana were legal in some areas and not legal in others. Creating the federal law under the 18th amendment allowed for federal inter-state restrictions.
When did all this begin? It started with Opium. It had everything to do with racism. See… the Chinese men were coming as foreign laborers. Opium was seen as the preferred drug of Chinese men. White male legislators feared drug crazed Chinese men would attack white women. Therefore they could make opium illegal and arrest Chinese men for possession.
Cocaine had a similar history. In 1863 a French chemist came up with a mixture of coca leaf and wine as a new recreational stimulant. From there others became more adventurous and products with cocaine included soda pop.
The Coca Cola company was born two decades later. Originally the Coca Cola we buy off the shelf was using cocaine in the product and sold to wealthy white and wealthy black consumers. From there Southern State Legislators complained that middle income black males were getting access to Coca Cola in bottles and they began to outlaw the use of cocaine in the product for fear cocaine crazed coca cola drinkers would or were attacking white women.
Lets go back a bit here. In 1910 the Mexican Revolution sealed the fate of Marijuana use in North America. Thousands of Mexican civilians fled Mexico to the safety of the Southern Border States and the Governing bodies of the Southern States, passed Pot Laws in order to stem the flow of migrants by deporting them for violations of the law. Again the first prohibition was to stem the flow of Mexicans into those States.
In the midst of this – prohibition of alcohol was the first success in the war on all other controlled substances. The problem was prohibition law wasn’t sustainable. On Dec 5th 1933 the twenty first amendment repealed the Prohibition act. This left the new Federal Law Enforcement Agency without funding for their major purpose of, existence. They were then given jurisdiction over other federal laws, kidnapping, crimes crossing State Lines and so on. Then attention was spotlighted on the easiest of the societal sins Marijuana. A full propaganda campaign went into action. Reefer Madness the film that created panic and distorted public opinion was shown everywhere. I remember seeing it in school myself in the nineteen fifties. So Marijuana became the poster boy for all drug ills of the known world. Where farmers once grew hemp for rope and clothes and even paper they were suddenly forbidden to grow it at all. New federal laws made it illegal to even experiment practically for medical purposes.
More lives have been destroyed not by Pot itself, but by the prosecution of possession. If a person was caught they were made a criminal with a record and restriction of their future job pursuits and social standing in the community. Just the same as booze two generations before.
So new questions arise. On October 17th Governments are going to admit they were wrong about a plant they deemed dangerous. People will no longer be criminals for possessing it within the restrictions of the law. So what about all the lives that were needlessly destroyed for possession?
Remember the primary focus in reality for outlawing pot was based on race not health. Legalizing it will now find new non stigma attached uses for Marijuana after all these years.
NOTE: No I am not suggesting we legalize cocaine or opium or other drugs. The reason I sited them was to demonstrate the reason for the law was not made evident most were pieces of legislation devised from a skewed view of race and social conditions of the time. If you want to research more type in ‘When did Marijuana become illegal?’. There is plenty of sources to choose from.
Fred Steele
Fred will have more to say on this subject in the days ahead