I believe that one of the main reasons marijuana should be legal is because of the way it was criminalized in the first place.

In the years before the depression there was a significant growth of Mexican-Americans in the Western part of the United States as a result of the revolution in Mexico in 1910. As the depression hit, larger farms started using the Mexicans as cheaper labor, which in turn put many smaller farmers out of business and caused much tension. These Mexican laborers were known to use the marijuana plant as a recreational drug by smoking the leaves of the plant. Sprouting from the many Mexicans working on farms, many farms harvesting the hemp plant popped up in Mexico itself.

Around the same time many Mormons from the Salt Lake City area were traveling to Mexico. In their return they would bring back marijuana for the sole purpose of recreational use. The Mormon Church did not approve of this behavior and ruled against it, which in turn prompted the very religious state of Utah to pass the first known law against marijuana in 1915. Many other Western states followed in years to come. But, it was not until the state of Montana outlawed the drug in 1927 that the truth behind the outlaw came out. It was noted that a Texas senator said on the Senate floor: “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is that makes them crazy.” This comment alone can show that these laws where not backed by anything but racism against Mexican-Americans.

On the other side of the country we found the marijuana “problem” being directed towards Latin Americans and black jazz musicians. At this time, marijuana was a big part of the music (especially jazz) scene. Many musicians even calling reference to the drug in their songs, such as Cab Calloway’s “That Funny Reefer Man.” Because of the ongoing racism at this time, this led to negative outlooks against marijuana. A quote found in an editorial in a 1934 newspaper stating: “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white women twice.” What this person is basically saying is that, although blacks are inferior to whites, while under the influence of marijuana, blacks will act in inappropriate ways.

One of the biggest reasons for the criminalization of marijuana is a man named Harry Anslinger. In 1930, Mr. Anslinger was given control of a new section of the federal government called the Bureau if Narcotics and found this to be an extremely good career opportunity. His goal was to build up the agency, and he believed that working on making marijuana illegal at the federal level would help this. Except his way of going about making this substance illegal was by fundamentally creating a problem based on past propaganda of racism and violence. According to the Journal of American History, here are a few of Mr. Anslinger’s claim’s he presented before the Senate in 1937:

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and 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.”

As anyone could see from these outlandish accusations, there is no proof or facts behind any of these. Everything said by Harry Anslinger was a lie and an attempt to sway a very naïve society to further his career in government.

Harry Anslinger had some help on his side. The owner of many newspapers nation wide, William Randolf Hearst, helped Anslinger through the practice of yellow journalism. Yellow journalism, in short, is biased opinion masquerading as objective fact. Moreover, the practice of yellow journalism involved sensationalism, distorted stories, and misleading images for the sole purpose of boosting newspaper sales and exciting public opinion. Hearst was not just doing this to be nice and help out Anslinger, he had himself in mind as well. For one thing, Hearst had a lot riding in the timber industry because of his involvement in the newspaper business, if the use of the hemp plant was to remain legal, the hemp paper could become competition for him. Another reason for him helping was because of his hate of Mexicans. Because of this hate towards Mexicans he did not hesitate to print lies about the Mexicans involvement in “devils drug” marijuana because it was exciting to read and sold newspapers, and in turn made him money. This is one example of a story found in one of Hearst’s newspapers:

“Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim’s life in Los Angeles?… THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMIES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES – that is a matter of cold record.”

This and many other stories where not backed up by any evidence of marijuana use, nor did they have any proof that marijuana could cause such behavior in the first place. During the hearings of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association summed it up with this:

“… We are referred to newspaper publications concerning the prevalence of marijuana addiction. We are told that the use of marijuana causes crime. But yet no one has been produced from the Bureau of Prisons to show the number of prisoners who have been found addicted to the marijuana habit. An informed inquiry shows that the Bureau of Prisons has no evidence on that point."

From then, after the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, more and stricter laws against the production and use of marijuana were passed eventually making marijuana illegal.