Every day, whether in the news, in school, or at work we are bombarded with fact upon fact, allegation upon allegation and myth upon myth, but how much do we really know about Cannabis Sativa? Cannabis Sativa is known world wide by many different names: pot, hashish, weed, hemp, gunja, grass, etc. These are all synonymous with marijuana. Along with many different names there are many different stereotypes: "lazy people smoke it," "it causes lung cancer," "its use leads to other drugs," the list goes on and on. These stereotypes are what I hope to discuss in this paper.
To fully understand where these stereotypes stem from and why they exist I must first show some background information about hemp and why it is illegal today. For nearly three centuries the world has known, used and abused this particular plant. Popular artists have used it, musicians have sung about it, presidents have grown and used it, and nearly every form of society has had to deal with it. Where did it start?
The marijuana plant's usage and cultivation dates back as far as 8000 B.C. and was used primarily for linen. Along with linen, hemp was also used for paper and clothing garments (Colombia.) It wasn't until many years later (2700 B.C.) that people started smoking and using it as a medicine. Once it was used in this way its popularity as a mind altering drug began to spread until it became common in nearly every part of the world.
Hemp has the ability to grow in very unfavorable conditions, which makes it both beneficial and easily available. Early in the 1900s it was used widely for sails, since it produced the toughest cloth called canvass (hyperreal). During this time hemp had begun to make a large impression on America society; it was easy to grow, cultivated fast and had many uses. It was also during this time that people started to put stereotypes on marijuana users and the plant itself. One of the first instances of prohibition against marijuana occurred just after the Spanish-American war.
"It was well known that the Mexican soldiers who fought America during the war...smoked marijuana. Poncho Villa, a Mexican general, was considered a nemesis for the behavior of his troops, who were known to be especially rowdy. They were also known to be heavy marijuana smokers.
After the war had ended and Mexicans had begun to immigrate into the South Eastern United States, there were plenty of jobs in agriculture and industry and Mexicans were willing to work cheap. Once the [great] depression hit and jobs became scarce, however, Mexicans suddenly became a public nuisance. It was said by politicians (who were trying to please the White working class) that Mexicans were responsible for a violent crime wave. Police statistics showed nothing of the sort -- in fact Mexicans were involved in less crime than Whites. Marijuana, of course, got the blame for this phony outbreak of crime and health problems, and many of the states made laws against using cannabis." (qtd. in Hyperreal)
The story concerning the actual legislature passed against marijuana is really quite intriguing. According to Jack Herer, who wrote The Emperor Wears No Clothes and an expert on the "hemp conspiracy," the acts bringing about the demise of hemp were part of a large conspiracy involving DuPont, Harry J. Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and many other influential industrial leaders such as William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Mellon (qtd. in peter).
In the next few paragraphs I will describe how this was viewed as a controversy. First we will start with William Hearst. Widely known for being one of the leaders for "yellow journalism" (which was so named because the paper would soon turn yellow after it was printed on), Hearst was also known for his enormous timber acreage, timber that was used to produce paper. During this time hemp was also being used to produce paper, due to its ability to produce extravagant amounts of pulp. According to Popular Mechanics, "10,000 acres devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average [forest] land,"(qtd. in peter). The ability for hemp to produce so much more pulp then timber would have easily driven Hearst out of business, had the Marijuana Tax Act not been passed. Herer goes on to say that Hearst popularized the term "marijuana" in order to create fear in the American Public. "The first step in creating hysteria as to introduce the element of fear of the unknown by using a word that no one had ever heard of before..."marijuana'" (qtd. in peter).
Also at this same time a little thing called prohibition was starting. One of the biggest problems with prohibition is that it started a large crime wave. During this wave a government body known as the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (today known as the DEA) was reformed and a man named Harry J. Anslinger was appointed (by his uncle, Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury) head in 1931. After prohibition failed and was repealed, Anslinger began to turn his sights towards prohibiting drugs, the biggest being marijuana. "Anslinger personally frequented parent's and teacher's meetings giving scary speeches about the dangers of marijuana, and this period of time became known as Reefer Madness,"(hyperreal).
Coincidentally, during this time a company, DuPont, had begun to develop new synthetic materials. These new materials included nylon and specifically rayon. Hemp had been primarily used as the fiber for making rope and clothes at the time, as it was economical and stronger. Rayon would have been unable to compete with the strength of hemp fiber or its economical process of manufacturing (peter).
Andrew Mellon's involvement is simple. Mellon was chairman of Mellon Bank which was the chief financial backer of the DuPont company. Mellon, as stated before, was also Anslinger's uncle, so it doesn't take much to draw a connection between DuPont, Anslinger, and Mellon, and itıs obvious that all of these groups, including Hearst, had strong motivation to prevent the growth of the hemp industry, (peter).
The biggest reason's that Marijuana was prohibited in the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, were not those of health or moral issues, but those of racism and selfishness. In fact when the American Medical Association found out about the bill, two days before it was passed, they sent representatives to object the banning of cannabis. Even with this opposition the bill was still passed, in large part to the testimony of Harry J. Anslinger (qtd in Hyperreal).
The reason that Hemp is still illegal today is largely due to a misinformed society. Another reason is due to a large amount of false statistics and misleading studies that were prepared as scare tactics for the government by Dr. Gabriel Nahas. According to "10 things every Parent, Teenager, and Teacher should know about Marijuana," these stats and studies were so biased that Nahas was eventually fired by the National Institute of Health in 1976, and he even renounced own studies as meaningless." These statistics are usually the ones that get heard the most, "Marijuana is worse that cigarettes," and "marijuana causes brain damage." These statistics, however, are very false. In one of the studies Nahas "brutally captured wild monkeys, then virtually suffocated them in marijuana smoke over a period of 90 days," (10 things...)
Some of the common stereotypes associated with Marijuana and those who advocate its us are, "marijuana users are more likely to move on to other drugs, marijuana causes lung cancer, marijuana advocates just want it legal so they can smoke it." However, like most stereotypes these are very false. To explain: First "Marijuana is a gateway drug," has been used as staple of anti-marijauna claims for many years, almost too many since it has been proven false. The most recent and repeated version of the gateway theory -an analysis conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance abuse at Columbia University- asserts that youthful marijuana users are 85 times more likely than non-users to use cocaine. To obtain this figure, the proportion of marijuana users who had ever tried cocaine (17 percent) was divided by the proportion of cocaine users who had never used marijuana (0.2 percent). The "risk factor" is so high not because of the amount marijuana users who tried cocaine but because of the large amount of cocaine users who have used marijuana. This can be related the same way that most marijuana users are more likely to have used legal drugs like alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine rather than non-users for marijuana.
Alcohol, tobacco, and nicotine do not cause people to use marijuana. And Marijuana does not cause people to use cocaine, heroine, or LSD. There is no pharmacological basis basis for the gateway theory, since marijuana does not change brain chemistry in a way that causes drug-seeking, drug-taking behavior (rolling stone, 77).
Does Marijuana cause Lung Cancer? The short answer: no. The long answer: First of all,"there are no epidemiological or aggregate clinical data suggesting that marijuana-only smokers develop lung cancer," (Zimmer). It is often said that marijuana smoke contains such high amounts of irritants that marijuana users are at a higher risk of lung disease than tobacco users. This would be true if marijuana smokers smoked the same amounts as tobacco smokers. Most tobacco smokers consume more that 10 cigarettes (some more than 40) per day. Regular marijuana smokers seldom smoke more than 3-5 cigarettes per day and most consume far fewer (Zimmer). This shows that the amount of irritant inhaled by marijuana smokers almost never comes close to that of tobacco smokers.
"You just want to legalize it so you can smoke it." This is the most common stereotype afflicted on pro-marijuana activists. Although some may want it legal in order to smoke it, others want it legal for far better reasons. For instance, if marijuana was made legal, with age restrictions, such as alcohol and tobacco, and taxed, the government could raise nearly billions of dollars in a very short time. If Marijuana was package and sold like cigarettes, the government could place a high tax on it and people will still buy it. The reason for this is because marijuana prices are so high, due to it being illegal, that dealers often put a very steep price on their product. If the government took over it could seriously lower the prices, but still make a very large profit. The money gained from the tax of marijuana could be used to help the billion dollar losing "War on Drugs" and fight against other hard drugs that are actually dangerous for you.
If Marijuana was made legal, the hemp could be used to produce everything from paper to automobile fuel. The paper would last longer than timber paper, and also reduce the amount of forests being cut down everyday. The fuel could be used to power everything from cars to boats. In fact pressed hemp seed oil can power a diesel engine (Hyperreal). In addition the fuel would be cleaner burning than current fuels, since it is free from metals and sulfur. Also it would cut down on relying on other nations (Saudi Arabia, Iraq...) for our oil and fuel.
So you see that just because somebody supports marijuana legalization it doesn't mean they just want to "smoke" it. In truth they probably want to make the untied states a better place to live. Even if they did smoke it, what's the harm. It relieves stress, suppresses nausea, stimulates appetite, treats asthma, relaxes muscle, treats glaucoma and retards tumor growth(Cohen, 1980.) This along with thousands of other uses are just some of the reasons that marijuana should be made legal.
The next time that somebody tells you something about marijuana or tells you that they think marijuana should be made legal, don't jump to stereotyping them, or marijuana. If you do this you are no better than the thousands of people who never realize the abundance of benefits that can come from this one plant. If you question anything that has been written in this essay, I implore you to research for yourself. Knowledge is power.
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--http://www.hyperreal.com/drugs/marijuana/hemp/FAQ-alt.hemp-- 1994.
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Nadelmann, Ethan A. "Reefer Madness 1997: The New Bag of Scare Tactics." Rolling Stone
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