Cannabis Prohibition & Racism

Finally cracking a smile since the inauguration, I heard that this past April my home state of New York made me proud by finally legalizing cannabis. Some may sigh with relief that they can peacefully continue their morning wake and bake routine without worrying about getting pulled over by the police and getting slapped with excessive fines or jail time. I, like many others, choose to look towards the legalization as steps towards racial justice. But before we can delve into what that means for the future of this plant, we need to discuss the propaganda of a disgusting racist named Harry Anslinger.

In 1937, Anslinger started calling cannabis ‘marijuana’ to associate the plant with Mexicans (as ‘marijuana’ is the spanish term for the plant). His whole platform for hating cannabis, fueled by racist garbage, was partnered by the lies of ‘Reefer Madness’ (the 1936 film, not so much the 2005 musical, which was a satire). Anslinger also led the charge for the Marijuana Tax Act, which placed a tax so high on sales of hemp and cannabis, that no one could afford to produce the products (Jordan). Unfortunately, Anslinger wasn’t the only person who wanted to use the plant as a tool to destroy communities of color. There are also ex presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan who we have to thank for the many lives ripped apart by mass incarcerations over a plant that literally has countless medical benefits.

Reporter Dan Baum wrote an article for Harper’s Magazine called “Legalize It All: How to Win the War on Drugs,” in which John Enrlichman, the Watergate co-conspirator flippantly admitted:

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” (Baum)

Considering what that monster had said it shouldn’t come as a shock to you that he basically just shrugged and walked away afterwards. Nixon invented the War on Drugs and the Reagans amplified the hysteria throughout the 80s under the guise of blind nationalism and there are still BIPOC families paying the price for their propaganda. Black Americans are nearly six times more likely to be incarcerated for drug-related offenses than their white counterparts, despite equal substance usage rates (Pearl).

Learning all of this even more indepthly, it angers me to know that there are still folks in jail for obtaining or selling a product that I just purchased from a store the other day. The only way to start making it right is to expunge the records of those incarcerated for this crime and restore their right to vote. However it starts with erasing the extensive racist lies spread by Harry Anslinger, the Nixon administration and the Reagan administration (to name a few).

An organization that I recently learned about is the Last Prisoner Project. Their mission is to work to redress the harms of cannabis criminalization through legal intervention, education & criminal justice reform advocacy. Lastly, educating yourself and keeping up with politics is a great way to get involved in steering our country towards a brighter future. By reading this article you’re already a step towards being the change.

Work Cited:

Baum, Dan. “Legalize It All: How to Win the War on Drugs.” Harper’s Magazine, Harper’s Magazine Foundation, 2016, harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all.

Jordan, Dante. “The Long, Racist History of Cannabis Prohibition.” Farmer and the Felon Cannabis Co., Farmer and the Felon, 14 July 2020, www.farmerfelon.com/blog/long-racist-history-cannabis-prohibition#.

Pearl, Betsy. “Ending the War on Drugs: By the Numbers.” Center for American Progress, Center for American Progress, 27 June 2018, www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2018/06/27/452819/ending-war-drugs-numbers.