The Ballad of Mary Jane

by David Banyas

It is well known that the Eskimo have 200 different terms for snow because it is so much a part of their lives. That being said, let’s discuss the topic of this piece. It’s called 420, Acapulco gold, Aunt Mary, bhang, bomb, boo, bush, chronic, doobie, gage, ganja, grass, grefa, hay, hemp, herb, Indo, J, Jane, karas, kif, Maryjane, Mary Warner, meserole, mighty mezz, moota, muggles, pod, pot, smoke, snop, Texas tea, weed, or yerba. Rolled into a cigarette, it’s a blunt, joint, joystick, kick stick, left-handed cigarette, reefer, roach, spliff, or a twist. With it, you must blow a stick, blast, puff, smoke a bowl, take on a number, toke up, or weed out. Then, you will be bent, blind, bonged out, flying, fried, gonged, high, junked, noddy, spaced, stoned, switched on, trippy, or zoned. And people will call you dope fiend, pothead, burner, or space cadet. It’s Marijuana: the dried leaves of the Cannabis sativa plant also known as hemp. And it’s on the legislative block again. Legalize it? Or Keep it criminalized? The pros and cons have been aired for centuries.

Although there is some controversy about exactly when marijuana was first used, its history extends well into antiquity. Chinese and Indian use may date as early as several millennia before Christ and certainly no later than 800 B.C. The ancient mid-Asian cultures of Scythia, Persia and Assyria record its use as early as 700 B.C., and it was established in the Islamic world by 1000 A.D. While Europeans had cultivated cannabis for its fiber at least as early as the Renaissance, psychoactive use was introduced only in the nineteenth century when Napoleon’s armies brought hashish back to France from Egypt. The drug did not become popular, however, beyond the small group of artists and writers (including Gaultier, Hugo, Baudelaire, and Balzac) who made up the “Club de Haschischins.” Spanish and English settlers introduced cannabis for fiber and seed to the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it was a major crop in the United States.

The plant was widely grown and used for the strong hemp fiber inside the stalk of the plant. At one time, in fact, the Virginia government required all farmers to grow hemp. It was used in textiles for clothing and shoes, military equipment and even luggage. It is still used in many materials of progressive shops and catalogs. The medicinal value of the leaves was tantamount for many treatments during America’s early history. And medical communities have steadfastly supported it since those days. Just as the soybean is now, hemp was versatile in practical applications. Hemp farms were just as lucrative as soybean farms are today. Crops of it were even grown right here in Central Pa. Cultivation fell off in the late 1800s as imported hemp proved more affordable, but it left a legacy of hundreds of thousands of acres of wild marijuana, the eradication of which would become a major problem for U.S. law enforcement officials in the 1930s.

During the Great Depression, Mexican immigrants were scapegoated and blamed for many lost jobs. They were also credited with introducing the marijuana leaf to America as a recreational substance, although 1) it was already growing everywhere, and 2) doctors prescribed marijuana doses to patients who needed medicine (marijuana was listed in the United States Pharmacopia as a recognized medicine from 1850 to 1942) to be taken in the same manner as those who enjoyed its effects: smoked or eaten. It was a very short jump from there to saddle marijuana with evil qualities through misinformation.

Publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst employed all of his resources (reduced to 17 newspapers during the Depression), which included the New York Daily Mirror, the New York Journal-American, the Chicago Herald-American, the Los Angeles Examiner, and the Boston Sunday Advertiser, to make marijuana just one more casualty of the extreme nationalism expounded upon since before the Spanish-American War. Through his extensive publishing and film enterprises, Hearst was able to exert a great influence on American public opinion.

In essence, marijuana was criminalized through racist dogma and unsubstantiated hatred and fear. As it once more goes through the Capitol Hill wringer, MODE invites you to reflect on its convoluted history. As always, take this as a teaching. For the truth in any matter, educate yourself.

1600-1890s - Domestic production of hemp encouraged:
American production of hemp was encouraged by the government in the 17th century for the production of rope, sails, and clothing. (Marijuana is the mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves that comes from the hemp plant.) In 1619 the Virginia Assembly passed legislation requiring every farmer to grow hemp. Hemp was allowed to be exchanged as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. Domestic production flourished until after the Civil War, when imports and other domestic materials replaced hemp for many purposes. In the late nineteenth century, marijuana became a popular ingredient in many medicinal products and was sold openly in public pharmacies. During the 19th century, hashish use became a fad in France and also, to some extent, in the U.S.

1906 - Pure Food and Drug Act:
Required labeling of any cannabis contained in over-the-counter remedies was implemented.

1900-20s - Mexican immigrants introduce 
recreational use of marijuana leaf:
After the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Mexican immigrants flooded into the U.S., introducing to American culture the recreational use of marijuana. The drug became associated with the immigrants, and the fear and prejudice about the Spanish-speaking newcomers became associated with marijuana. Plus, public resentments were still boiling from the Spanish-American War in 1898. Anti-drug campaigners warned against the encroaching “Marijuana Menace,” and terrible crimes were attributed to marijuana and the Mexicans who used it.

1930s - Fear of marijuana:
During the Great Depression, massive unemployment increased public resentment and fear of Mexican immigrants, escalating public and governmental concern about the problem of marijuana. This instigated a flurry of biased research which linked the use of marijuana with violence, crime and other socially deviant behaviors, primarily committed by “racially inferior” or underclass communities. By 1931, 29 states had outlawed marijuana.

1930 - Creation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN):
Harry J. Anslinger was the first Commissioner of the FBN and remained in that post until 1962.

1932 - Uniform State Narcotic Act:
Concern about the rising use of marijuana and research linking its use with crime and other social problems created pressure on the federal government to take action. Rather than promoting federal legislation, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics strongly encouraged state governments to accept responsibility for control of the problem by adopting the Uniform State Narcotic Act.

1936 - “Reefer Madness”:
Propaganda film “Reefer Madness” was produced by the French director, Louis Gasnier. “Assassin of Youth,” “Dope, Inc.,” “Devil’s Harvest,” and many other forms of literature and films that are dubbed “propaganja” were the only media on the subject. The Motion Pictures Association of America, composed of the major Hollywood studios, banned the showing of any narcotics in films.

August 2, 1937 - Marijuana Tax Act:
After a lurid national propaganda campaign against the “evil weed,” Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act. The statute effectively criminalized marijuana, restricting possession of the drug to individuals who paid an excise tax for certain authorized medical and industrial uses. It was passed in a very unorthodox way: no one who would have objected to the bill was informed of its existence until just days before the actual hearings. The American Medical Association sent a representative to object to the banning of cannabis medicines, but the bill passed.

Forty years later to the day, President Jimmy Carter officially, and unsuccessfully, proposed to decriminalize marijuana.

1944 - LaGuardia Report finds marijuana less dangerous:
New York Academy of Medicine issued an extensively researched report declaring that, contrary to earlier research and popular belief, use of marijuana did not induce violence, insanity or sex crimes, or lead to addiction or other drug use. In 1938, the mayor internationally renowned for his political integrity, Fiorello LaGuardia declined to an herbal witch hunt. He instead assembled a team of 28 leading, impartial physicians, psychiatrists, research chemists, pharmacologists, and sociologists to make a comprehensive series of sociological, medical, and psychological studies of the marijuana problem in New York City. Published in a limited printing in 1944, the report was based on exhaustive analyses over a period of years. The conclusions flatly contradicted the mythology of the day:

“In most instances, the behavior of the [marihuana] smoker is of a friendly, sociable character. Aggressiveness and belligerency are not commonly seen…The marihuana user does not come from the hardened criminal class and there was found no direct relationship between the commission of crimes of violence and marihuana. Marihuana itself has no specific stimulant effect in regard to sexual desires. There is no organized traffic…among New York City school children, and any smoking that occurs in this group is limited to isolated instances.” (The US Dept of Health and Human Services agrees, saying in 1995 that “Contrary to popular belief most teenagers have not used marijuana and never will. Fewer than one in five high school seniors are current marijuana users.” (Marijuana: Facts for Teens)) “Smoking marihuana can be stopped abruptly with no resulting mental or physical distress comparable to that of morphine withdrawal in morphine addicts.

“Marijuana does not change the basic personality structure of the individual. It lessens inhibition and this brings out what is latent in his thoughts and emotions but it does not evoke responses which would otherwise be totally alien to him. No evidence was found of an acquired tolerance for the drug.

“From the study as a whole, it is concluded that marihuana is not a drug of addiction, comparable to morphine, and that if tolerance is acquired, this is of a very limited degree. Furthermore, those who have been smoking marijuana for a period of years showed no mental or physical deterioration which may be attributed to the drug. The lessening of inhibitions and repression, the euphoric state, the feeling of adequacy, the freer expression of thoughts and ideas, and the increase in appetite for food brought about by marihuana suggest therapeutic possibilities…”

1940s - “Hemp for Victory”:
During World War II, imports of hemp and other materials crucial for producing marine cordage, parachutes, and other military necessities became scarce. In response the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched its “Hemp for Victory” program, encouraging farmers to plant hemp by giving out seeds and granting draft deferments to those who would stay home and grow hemp. By 1943 American farmers registered in the program harvested 375,000 acres of hemp.

1951-56 - Stricter Sentencing Laws:
Enactment of federal laws (Boggs Act, 1952; Narcotics Control Act, 1956), which set mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses, including marijuana. A first-offense marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years with a fine of up to $20,000.

1960s - Marijuana use popular in counterculture:
A changing political and cultural climate was reflected in more lenient attitudes towards marijuana. Use of the drug became widespread in the white upper middle class. Reports commissioned by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson found that marijuana use did not induce violence nor lead to use of heavier drugs. Policy towards marijuana began to involve considerations of treatment as well as criminal penalties.

1968 - Creation of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs:
This was a merger of FBN and the Bureau of Dangerous Drugs of the Food and Drug Administration.

1970 - Repeal of most mandatory minimum sentences:
Congress repealed most of the mandatory penalties for drug-related offenses. It was widely acknowledged that the mandatory minimum sentences of the 1950s had done nothing to eliminate the drug culture that embraced marijuana use throughout the 60s, and that the minimum sentences imposed were often unduly harsh.

Marijuana differentiated from other drugs: The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act categorized marijuana separately from other narcotics and eliminated mandatory federal sentences for possession of small amounts.

1972 - Shafer Commission:
The bipartisan Shafer Commission, appointed by President Nixon at the direction of Congress, considered laws regarding marijuana and determined that personal use of marijuana should be decriminalized.

“Marihuana's relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it. This judgment is based on prevalent use patterns, on behavior exhibited by the vast majority of users and on our interpretations of existing medical and scientific data. This position also is consistent with the estimate by law enforcement personnel that the elimination of use is unattainable.

“Rather than inducing violent or aggressive behavior through its purported effects of lowering inhibitions, weakening impulse control and heightening aggressive tendencies, marihuana was usually found to inhibit the expression of aggressive impulses by pacifying the user, interfering with muscular coordination, reducing psychomotor activities and generally producing states of drowsiness lethargy, timidity and passivity.” – Raymond P. Shafer

Nixon rejected the recommendation, but over the course of the 1970s, eleven states decriminalized marijuana and most others reduced their penalties.

1973 - Creation of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA):
A merger of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) and the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) created the infamous Drug Enforcement Agency.

1974 - High Times founded: High Times is not only the premier journal of marijuana-related news, stoner culture, humor and adventure, but a name brand instantly recognized by anyone who has ever been interested in that part of our culture.

“It is obvious that our readers want to hear about a broad range of contemporary and historical subjects. We have no desire to be limited to being the magazine of substances that people put in their mouth.”

— Founding Publisher/Editor Thomas King Forçade

1976 - Beginning of parents' movement against marijuana:
A nationwide movement emerged of conservative parents' groups lobbying for stricter regulation of marijuana and the prevention of drug use by teenagers. Some of these groups became quite powerful and, with the support of the DEA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), were instrumental in affecting public attitudes which led to the 1980s War on Drugs.

1986 - Anti-Drug Abuse Act - Mandatory Sentences:
President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, instituting mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes. In conjunction with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the new law raised federal penalties for marijuana possession and dealing, basing the penalties on the amount of the drug involved. Possession of 100 marijuana plants received the same penalty as possession of 100 grams of heroin. A later amendment to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act established a “three strikes and you're out” policy, requiring life sentences for repeat drug offenders, and providing for the death penalty for “drug kingpins.”

1989 - Bush's War on Drugs:
President George Bush declares a new War on Drugs in a nationally televised speech. Reports of police brutality triple.

1996 - Medical Use Legalized in California:
California voters passed Proposition 215 allowing for the sale and medical use of marijuana for patients with AIDS, cancer, and other serious and painful diseases. This law now stands in tension with federal laws prohibiting possession of marijuana.

CLICK HERE to find out about the facts and Fictions of Cannabis. 

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