Andrew VK3BFA wrote:
On Jul 22, 4:42 am, "Steve B" wrote:
"Tim Wescott" wrote in message


I am 62 years old. I remember seeing "Reefer Madness" and other films
during "health" class. And then my real world experience. And then the PBS
series showing that marijuana, as well as most "drugs" were use to target
minorities, even to the point of murder. And how one administrator after
another has failed dismally.


Yep, remember seeing Reefer Madness (a DEA film) - was about as
useful, accurate, and informative as the sex education films we were
shown.....
Wasn't your DEA basically founded by (cant remember) someone who built
an empire out of scaring people about things that were not previously
controlled because they weren't a problem? - Your Mr Hoover of the FBI
did basically the same thing......

Andrew VK3BFA.


It was a bit more involved than that, but basically, yes...
For instance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots

Pot had been used by everybody for generations and several of out founding
fathers had vast acres growing - for hemp (was used for rope before manilla).

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.

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.

Anti-drug campaigners warned against the encroaching "Marijuana Menace," and
terrible crimes were attributed to marijuana and the Mexicans who used it.

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 "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.


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 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.


After a lurid national propaganda campaign against the "evil weed," Congress
passed the Marijuana Tax Act (1937). The statute effectively criminalized
marijuana, restricting possession of the drug to individuals who paid an excise
tax for certain authorized medical and industrial uses.




Excerpted from Frontline - The War on Marijuana.