KS Rep Steve Alford of Ulysses was caught on tape saying during a public forum that the reason marijuana is illegal is because African Americans “character makeup, their genetics and that,” responded poorly to the drug.
People don’t remember the past, said Alford. Well Alford doesn’t remember the past either.
Exactly why was Marijuana made illegal? Here’s what the history books tell us.
Dating as far back at the 1800s cannabis was a popular medicinal substance and was sold in many pharmacies across the nation. The Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906 required the labeling of over-the-counter medicines containing cannabis, but their use was legal.
Around 1910, as a result of the Mexican Revolution, Mexicans began immigrating to the U.S. to escape the conflict. Bringing with them cannabis, which they referred to as “marihuana.” Instead of consuming it in medicinal products, the Mexicans smoked it. This was a new concept for White Americans.
The media began to play on the fears of the public spreading claims about “disruptive Mexicans” with their dangerous marihuana. Newspapers ran headlines speaking of the “Mexican menace” or the “marijuana menace” and claimed Mexican men were going crazy from smoking marijuana and were killing people. El Paso, Texas became the first U.S. city to ban marijuana in 1915, and city officials started rounding up Mexicans who smoked marijuana and had them deported.
“Reefer Madness,” the anti-marijuana propaganda film, came out in 1936. By 1937, 46 of the 48 states passed laws banning marijuana use. That same year, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, which made it so it was illegal to have marijuana unless it was for specific medical or industrial reasons. That law was eventually ruled to be unconstitutional, but it was eventually replaced.
The Federal government began requiring minimum prison sentence for drug crime with the passage of the Boggs Act of 1952 and the Narcotics Control Act of 1956. In 1970 the Controlled Substance Act made marijuana a schedule 1 drug, which meant it had no “accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
