PROPAGANDA AND CANNABIS 1

Running head: PROPAGANDA AND CANNABIS

Bureaucratic propagandas effect on Cannabis.

David “Toby” B. Meyers

University of Phoenix

January 20, 2009

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Print media effects people’s opinion on political and medical issues. Some people believe

everything they read without question. This very conformist ideal, this propaganda has led us to

believe that the Cannabis plant is the “Devils weed” (Stadie, 1936) and is “Satan’s tool” (I.Y.G.,

2005; Green, Unknown) for causing “Reefer Madness.” (Gasnier, 1936) This essay will explore

the time line of the beginning of Cannabis prohibition in the United States during the last

century, looking at medical fact versus the propaganda of pulp fiction and newspaper articles

used to create the false concept that Cannabis is a deadly drug, causing madness, violent

behavior and sexual deviance. Showing the effect of propaganda by government officials and

racial prejudice this essay will show propagandas’ effect on American Culture. Not to mention a

lie that has cost us billions to imprison people that who possess a plant that has a billion uses not

just recreational consumption. (Kampia, 2007)

“Harry J. Anslinger 1892-1975 is widely considered to be the first United States "drug czar". He

served as the Assistant Prohibition Commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, before being

appointed as the first Commissioner of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Narcotics on August

12, 1930, serving until 1962 when he was dismissed by President John F. Kennedy. It would

appear that Anslinger was a conservative who truly believed marijuana to be a threat to the future

of American civilization; his biographer maintained that he was an astute government bureaucrat

who viewed the marijuana issue as a means for elevating himself to national prominence. The

responsibilities once held by Harry J. Anslinger are now largely under the jurisdiction of the U.S.

Office of National Drug Control Policy,” (Fact-Archive. com, 2005).

Harry Anslinger was appointed the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. He

frequently used racial slurs in public to describe blacks and Hispanics; he was a known racist.

(Wishnia, 2008) "Reefer makes ‘Darkies’ think they’re as good as white men." (Anslinger, 1929)
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Anslinger did not have jurisdiction over Cannabis at this time, he had an obsessive

preoccupation. With the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s gore files and some help from William

Randal Hearst’s’ newspapers to sensationalize marijuana (Herer, 1985) (Hearst had lost a

substantial amount of land from Poncho Villa’s Pot smoking, (FFC, 2006) siesta taking, army

during the Spanish-American war of 1898.) and some support from Lamont Dupont of DuPont

chemicals (KT Botanicals, 2007). Anslinger literally went around claiming homicidal atrocities

committed while under the influence of marijuana. (Wierichs, 1995; Guither, 2009; Primal

Seeds, 2000; Herer, 1985) Hearst’s newspapers reefer madness articles in the early thirties

created a clamor across the country and has been referred to as “Reefer Madness,” (Murphy,

2009; Speaker, 2002). In reference to the false claim of the delusional state that happened when a

person smoked Cannabis or rather Anslinger’s term “marihuana.” The correct English term is

Cannabis, "A California man decapitated his best friend while under the violent spell of the

smoke!" (Newsweek, 1937) "Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug that nerved the murderous

arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim's life in Los Angeles? . . . Three-fourths

of the crimes of violence in this country today are committed by dope slaves - that is a matter of

cold record.” (Laurie, Unknown) The fact was that Hearst paper manufacturing division,

Kimberly Clark and virtually all other timber, paper and large newspaper holding companies,

could lose lots of money in current and previous holdings, because people would not buy their

products if they could buy hemp paper and products legally.

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 introduced by commissioner Anslinger basically made Cannabis

illegal by making the treasury responsible for giving tax stamps to Cannabis farmers who were

producing legally for the government and corporate producers of Hemp products. It did not

criminalize it outright. The Treasury Department does not issue tax stamps, or did not at the time

and it was unusually written to tax about a dollar an ounce. Each ounce would have to be paid for

in advance, by farmers’ way out in the boonies. This also came with five years in prison if they
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were in possession or growing without the tax stamp. (Solomon, 2000; Turner, 1998) The

American Medical Association (A.M.A.) lawyer William C. Woodward and Ralph Lozier of the

National Oil Seeds Institute testified against this legislation, (Turner, 1998) saying that there was

no medical proof that Cannabis caused any ill effects and was use quite often in manufacturing.

Woodward repeatedly asked why this bill had been “prepared in secret” and stated “marihuana is

not a drug, simply a name given to Cannabis.”

“Because of, its low profile and sly wording, many congress people were unaware that one of

America's biggest and most profitable industries was being legislated into history.” (Turner,

1998)

This act passed on October second. The first person arrested, on that day, was a white and

patriotic farmer from Colorado. Samuel Caldwell was arrested that day for possession of two

joints without the tax stamp. (Spencer, 2009) It was not white farmers that commissioner

Anslinger hoped to arrest. "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are

Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. 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." (Anslinger, 1937)

In February 1938, Popular Mechanics hailed hemp as the "New Billion Dollar Crop.”

(ParaScope, 1999) United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) made a movie called

Hemp for Victory (U.S.D.A., 1942). American farmers were required to see the film. Not

everyone was of the opinion that Cannabis makes people who consume cannabinoids crazy.

Odds are that congress did not associate the term marihuana, with Indian hemp or its proper term

Cannabis indica. Propaganda newspaper articles, Pulp Fiction and Detective magazines, depicted

the evil Mexican drug ‘marijuana’ as smoke that caused madness, psychosis and sexual derision

that was against rigid atavistic social rules, set by puritan values and racism caused a paranoid

public opinion sway against Cannabis between 1936-1961. (The Reefer Madness Era, 2008)
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Marijuana propaganda is still as common today as it was in the thirties. Most people understand

this is nothing but paranoid sensationalism.

“Hmm, ‘potheads’… I took the blow on that one. The ads are humorous, but, ‘potheads’ are

falsely stigmatized. Not everyone who smokes pot turns into a bowl of Jell-o.” (Bock, 2008)

“Propaganda; Not a single fact on any of those above the influence posters. Did you know that

The Partnership for a Drug Free America has the biggest ad budget of anything in America, even

the Armed Forces? This is not about public health.” (Origin, 2008)

There is no medical proof that Cannabis has caused any ill effects in the average recreational

smoker even though many anti-drug organizations still claim that ‘marijuana’ makes you stupid.

Cannabis is the most valuable material on the face of the planet. Keeping it illegal keeps money

in the pockets of a few, which prey on the superstitious to sell deadly petroleum, strip forests and

create toxic waste. Petroleum products are a lame imitation of the benefits of Cannabis.

“Farming 6% of the continental U.S. acreage with ‘Cannabis’ biomass crops would provide all of

America's energy needs.” (Herer, 1985) Cannabis materials are far superior to wood pulp fiber

products and petroleum textiles, they are eco-friendly as they break down naturally and are non-

toxic. All petroleum products cause are toxic, cancer causing and harmful to the environment.

The petroleum market could simply be replaced with Cannabis derivatives and textiles. (Herer,

1985) Cannabis is the single most valuable material on the face of the planet. Keeping it illegal,

keeps high revenue in the pockets of a few elite that prey on the superstitious to sell deadly

petroleum, strip forests and create toxic waste as a lame imitation of the benefits of Cannabis

products. (Davis, 1997) Cannabis materials are far superior to wood pulp fiber products and

petroleum textiles, they are environmentally friendly as they biodegrade naturally and are

completely non-toxic except as allergen. Hemp can be produced 20 times as fast as paper, as pine

produces 30 tons in 20 years, hemp can produce, under indoor conditions, more than 30 tons in
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one year. (Herer, 1985; Mitchell, 1954) This could be taken to mean that deforestation would not

have to happen with the production of industrial hemp paper. (Davis, 1997) A common

misperception is that low Cannabinoid yield Cannabis hemp, known as hemp textiles, was

introduced during the sixties and that cannabis smoking is a direct result of breeding that strain

for recreational use. That myth is false because “Tetra-hydro-cannabinol (T.H.C.) was isolated by

Raphael Mechoulam, Yechiel Gaoni and Habib Edery in 1964.” (Murphy, 2009; Brown, 2006;

Friedman, 2005). The oldest recorded smoking stash is carbon dated, to be 25,000 years old.

(Russo, et al., 2008) The United States Constitution is written on hemp paper (Briggs, 2007;

Herer, 1985) so was the Magna Charter (Briggs, 2007; Davis 1997; Herer, 1985) and the first

printed book the Gutenberg bible (Briggs, 2007; Herer, 1985).

“Hemp is the only plant on earth that supplies all three essential fatty acids: 6-Omega, 3-Omega

and Super GLA.” (Stewart, 2002; Herer, 1985) “Cannabis was legal tender from 1631 until the

early 1800’s.” (Herer, 1985) They passed into law, quietly and sneakily a proposition that

outlawed the world’s most useful plant. Harry Anslinger, Lamont DuPont and William Randal

Hearst with help of a ‘rope’ specialist and intimidation tactics against American Medical

Association (A.M.A.) lawyer William C. Woodward and Ralph Lozier of the National Oil Seeds

to keep them silent, to perpetuate the biggest fraud of American politics. They did this through

racist grandstanding, Pulp Fiction novels and Propaganda articles that had no facts, to achieve

wealth, political standing and personal vendetta against Mexicans and Blacks and poor people.

What a bunch of self-serving loser idiots.

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to Meyers, D: "Toby Nixon" ..

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