WHY IS MARIJUANA ILLEGAL?

Racism, Social Stigma and Criminalization: Uncovering Marijuana's Sordid Past

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit substance in the world.
According to the FBI, one cannabis user is arrested every 40 seconds
in the United States.

The trade of marijuana is also one of the most profitable
international businesses in the world, raking in billions and
billions of dollars every year. It knows no boundaries, political or
geographical.

Despite most governments' best efforts to eliminate the trade of it,
weed is nearly impossible to get rid of because of its sheer
pervasiveness in our world and our culture. There is a very real
social stigma built around weed, and it can sometimes be hard to
separate the myth of marijuana from the reality.

There are decades upon decades of economic, political, medical, and
even racial views of this drug that need to be peeled away to uncover
the truth.

Marijuana, besides being one of the most common drugs, is also one of
the oldest. Everyone from practicing Hindus to the Assyrians
routinely used cannabis as both a medical treatment and a religious ritual.

Marijuana was even sold openly at medical markets in the U.S. from
the 1700s through the late 1800s.

However, the legality of marijuana was heavily influenced by racism
and xenophobia in the early 20th century. In 1910, large numbers of
immigrants came into the U.S. to flee the Mexican Revolution and
brought with them the concept of smoking hash recreationally.

Many Americans, especially the multitude of unemployed at the time,
feared and resented the immigrants. By 1931, 29 states had passed
anti-cannabis legislation.

The federal government's attitude towards marijuana was also one of
racism and suspicion.

Take Harry J. Anslinger, the first director of the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics, who, in 1937, said, "There are 100,000 total marijuana
smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and
entertainers," he said. "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."

Clearly, a vicious social stigma was being built around marijuana,
and it would prove to be long lasting.

Weed is still considered a deleterious drug to this day, and those
impressions can be traced back to the early - to mid-20th century,
when the American government propagated outrageous and over-the-top
myths about marijuana's effects on the human brain.

It was claimed - through informational films, the most infamous being
Reefer Madness - that ingesting hash would cause everything from
sexual promiscuity to full-blown dementia in people.

In reality, the effects of marijuana are much harder to determine and
much less dramatic.

According to a case study done by the medical department at UCLA,
marijuana does not increase a person's chances of getting cancer in
any significant way. It also doesn't cause people to commit more
violent crime or become sex-crazed maniacs, as shown in early
anti-marijuana propaganda films.

These early claims about weed seem laughable now, but some remnant of
them persists to this day in many people's minds. It is much less
clear how smoking weed affects a person's mental health, however.

In a study done earlier this year, Dr. Stanley Zammit of Bristol
University in England found that those people who smoke cannabis are
40 percent more likely to have a psychological disorder than those
who don't. It is not clear, however, if those with pre-existing
mental conditions are more prone to smoking marijuana or vice versa.

Another confusing aspect about marijuana is the debate over the
so-called "gateway drug" theory.

This theory proposes that people who use marijuana regularly are more
likely to use harder drugs eventually than someone who never smoked cannabis.

Some scientists have debated and even refuted this theory, but
several tests have been done with results pointing towards its
validity. For instance, a study done in Australia that involved
children who smoked weed regularly at the age of 15 were in some
cases 15 times more likely to be using hard amphetamines by their 20s.

So why is marijuana illegal if its legal status was determined by the
public's xenophobia and racism a century ago? So many stigmas have
grown up around it over the years that legalizing it now is a more
daunting task than ever before.

With all that said, marijuana isn't exactely good for you. The smoke
inhaled is on par with that of smoking a cigarette and some studies
even claim that one joint is equal to smoking five cigarettes. The
tendency for weed users to hold the smoke in their lungs for long
periods of time increases the damage that it does.

But it's not clear that THC is carcinogenic, said a report in Time Magazine.

"The latest research suggests that THC may have a dual effect,
promoting tumors by increasing free radicals and simultaneously
protecting against tumors by playing a beneficial role in a process
known as programmed cell death."

It is still very much associated with crime, counter-culture and ill
health, despite other drugs being just as likely, if not more likely,
to be involved with such things. There is a growing movement in the
U.S. and elsewhere around the world to legalize weed once and for
all, an uphill battle to say the least.

Can this movement overcome the strong social stigmas surrounding
marijuana that have persisted for nearly a century? It is a complex
issue, with many gray areas in both the medical and political fields.
The legalization issue will be explored in part two of this series.