HISTORY BEHIND POT REVEALS CULTURAL WAR

If more Americans were familiar with the history of marijuana prohibition, there would be no "green harvest" debate.

Editorials like yours would be accused of political incorrectness. Prior to the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and subsequent "reefer madness" campaign, few Americans had even heard of marijuana. Recreational use was limited to Mexican migrants and a handful of black jazz musicians. Historians have theorized that the first marijuana laws were a racist reaction to Mexican laborers taking jobs from whites during the Great Depression.

Legislation was passed in large part due to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst's sensationalist yellow journalism. Incredibly violent acts were allegedly committed by minorities under marijuana's influence. The blatant lies used to justify marijuana prohibition lend credence to the theory that marijuana laws were originally a means of further disenfranchising minorities. (Interestingly enough, whites did not smoke marijuana until the federal government began demonizing the plant.)

The drug war has always been a culture war. These days the marijuana leaf is associated with the counterculture by Americans who would like to turn the clock back to the 1950s.

Make no mistake, marijuana laws have nothing to do with health outcomes. Alcohol and tobacco are deadly killers, yet perfectly legal. Likewise, the government does not incarcerate skydivers, rugby players or people with poor diets in order to protect their health. The drug war is reprehensible.

Robert Sharpe, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, George Washington University