Why Cannabis Was Made Illegal: A Brief and Racist History

In recent years there has been a large spark in the debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana for both recreational and medical use. Most people have an opinion on whether or not they believe the substance should be legal and what access level the public should have to it. It is not only in the United States that this debate is prominent, it is also prominent in European countries and Canada. When talking about legalization of marijuana, we must look at why it was deemed illegal by the government in the first place.

Marijuana is a substance that does not have fields of research on long-term effects and the research people do have access to has only been produced in recent years. What we do know is people cannot overdose on marijuana, unlike other illegal drugs, deaths related to marijuana are to do with irresponsible use, such as driving while impaired, or it being mixed with stronger more dangerous drugs such as fentanyl. There has been research done that concludes that marijuana has negative effects on adolescent brain development but that is still fairly new so there was no way to have that kind of knowledge this back in the early 1900s. So why was cannabis made illegal long before we had any research surrounding the negative effects of marijuana use?

The substance was banned to target minorities in the United States and potentially in Canada as well. Mexicans were known to use marijuana so the government chose to make it illegal to promote racism against the racial group. They would say that it would kill American children if they were to use it and drive people to become criminals. By publishing anti-marijuana propaganda and making it illegal, they flagged users as criminals and restricted immigration.

In countries such as Canada that are seen today as a multicultural and accepting, it is quite possible there was the same racial motivation surrounding government making cannabis illegal, in 1923, 14 years earlier than the United States. When looking at Canada's motive to make marijuana illegal, there is seemingly no motive. While they were making substances such as heroin and cocaine illegal, they threw in marijuana, despite there being a lack of debate or conversation surrounding the use of cannabis. Canada was one of the first countries to make it illegal, and they did so with seemingly no motive.

Cannabis use was prominent in cultures all over the world long before it became a topic widely discussed. In North America, marijuana use can be traced back before the arrival of Europeans in Aboriginal pipes. The First Nations Peoples of North America used cannabis for medicinal purposes. When the anti drug bill was introduced it was a racist act against Chinese immigrants.The government would blame them from bringing opium to the country and trying to turn Canadian children into drug users. Very similar to the reason the United State made the substance illegal. They used the bill to stop allowing Chinese immigrants into the country. The reason parliament included marijuana is unclear, but it could have been to discriminate directly against the First Nations people. At the time the government and church were preforming a cultural genocide against the First Nations, so it is very possible the racism was a factor in the decision.

The debate over legalization continues to this day. The substance is fully legal in countries such as Canada for people over the legal drinking age and partially legal in places such as the United States.While most other countries the substance is fully illegal most are opening up to medical marijuana and exploring the substance’s medicinal purposes. The reasons the substance was made illegal in Canada and The US are racist, but whether or not it should be fully legalized is still an open debate.