History 

        To give a brief background, marijuana was once used as a cash crop for years until big business owners in the 1930s saw hemp as a potential threat to their businesses and stood to potentially lose millions of dollars, as well as their companies.  At the time, hemp was being manufactured into paper and plastics which threatened successful business tycoons such as William Randolph Hearst and E. I. du Pont.  The Hearst Corporation was du Pont’s logging company which produced his cheap-pulp paper in an effort to replace hemp paper in the late Nineteenth Century (Fairy).  Hearst’s company was also a major consumer of du Pont’s paper and neither of them wanted to see hemp paper run them out of business.  Both men feared hemp paper because, unlike du Pont’s paper which spoiled after a short time, hemp was a high quality product which cost less because hemp paper did not require deforestation.  Fortunately for the both of them, Hearst was also the owner of a chain of newspapers where he took full advantage of the power of the press by deliberately publishing falsified horror stories and “enhanced accounts of marijuana-crazed black men raping white women” (Murphy).  Hearst was a “racist who hated minorities, particularly Mexicans...portray[ing] Mexicans as lazy, degenerate and violent marijuana-smokers who stole jobs from ‘real Americans’” and printed such stories in his papers (IMDb.com).  Hearst’s stories were not backed with any factual evidence to support his claims, but the facts were not important because his yellow journalism did exactly what he had intended it to do.  Through his deception he was able to manipulate the public opinion into believing his lies about marijuana to a point where they too wanted it made illegal.  

Adding to this conspiracy was the appointment of Harry J. Anslinger as the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.  Anslinger was the nephew of the then Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who was also conveniently du Pont’s chief financial baker (Murphy).  Anslinger testified before congress and demanded a total ban on marijuana using the stories featured in Hearst’s papers as evidence and drew upon themes of racism and violence to draw attention.  Being the lying racist that he was, Anslinger made comments such as, “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men” and testified under oath that “Marijuana is the most violent causing drug in the history of mankind” (Guither).  Through public deception and big business owners corruption, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937 making marijuana, hemp, and any other product associated with marijuana illegal, protecting big businesses from losing power and money.  The truth about The Marijuana Tax Act remains hidden in the shadows which is part of the reason people are left in the dark and have such a negative view towards marijuana.  In the process, no real evidence was found to subject marijuana to the false accusations presented, and no medical facts backed up the argument to ban marijuana.  It was simply made illegal by racists who wanted to protect a few businesses from becoming bankrupt.

 Sources

Fairy, Bud. "How Marijuana Became Illegal." Bill Orton, 09/26/1997.

<https://www.ozarkia.net/bill/pot/blunderof37.html>.

Guither, Pete. "Why is Marijuana Illegal." Drug WarRant, 2011. 

<https://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/>.

Murphy, Kathleen. “How Marijuana Became Illegal.” Washington Free Press. 3 Jun 2009.

<https://wafreepress.org/article/090304marijuana.shtml>