Marijuana propaganda has been around for decades

Below is an excellent letter to the editor from the Morgan Hill Times addressing the racist lies used to outlaw marijuana and hemp back in the 1930s.


Dear Editor, 

I wonder if the citizens of Santa Clara County realize that the marijuana laws they seek to enforce are based on absurd racist lies and tall tales about ultra violence that never happened.

- "Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice." (Hearst newspapers nationwide, 1934)

- "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 can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." - Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger

- " ... the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races" - Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger, 1930

- "Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death." - Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger, 1937

- "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind." - Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger

- "(Smoking) one (marihuana) cigarette might develop a homicidal mania, probably to kill his brother." (see U.S. Government Propaganda To Outlaw Marijuana - http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t3.htm )

Whenever anyone is punished for a "marijuana crime," the case is founded on pure perjury because there is zero evidence that marijuana use has ever harmed anyone. The fact that city councils and police eagerly seek to enact more and more cannabis prohibition laws shows the depth of the racist corruption and pure injustice embedded in their rotten souls. When they stand against medical use of marijuana, they double their perfidy.

Why do you allow Police Chief David Swing to claim that: "(there will be) a significant rise in crime, and high costs for enforcement and prevention if medical marijuana dispensaries are allowed in Morgan Hill" when the truth is that people going to banks face more than twice the risk of being involved in a violent crime than someone in a marijuana dispensary.

The facts speak against Chief Swing's assertions because Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck debunked those claims when he said, "Banks are more likely to get robbed than medical marijuana dispensaries." In 2009, the LAPD received reports of 71 robberies at the more than 350 banks in the city, compared to 47 robberies at medical marijuana facilities which number at least 800. The plain truth is that people face a much higher risk of injury going to their local bank than at a marijuana dispensary.


Ralph Givens, Daly City