The coffee break, the smoke break and the happy hour are established drug routines. Each of these drugs had a volatile ride in the past. Then there are aspirins and pain killer and in America the opioid crisis, with nearly 50,000 deaths on an annual basis. Cannabis can address pain without the debilitating side effects caused by many traditional pharmaceuticals. In America, with Goldman Sacks on the sidelines, sofar limited to Canadian tie ups, and breathing down the neck of politicians and the DEA: rescheduling of Marijuana is on the cards. It should have never been lumped together with heroin and cocaine- but now that dispensiaries are becoming a more familiar sight on American streets, the DEA has increased their annual order of marijuana for research purposes, drastically, from 1000 lbs to 5400. The quality of the weed they provide for official research purposes , ie CDB and THC contents, will hopefully be better than in the past. Statistics confirm that states with medical marijuana have a considerable, up to 25% lower death rate from opiods.
It seems one of the key drivers on state level ( in the north eastern States) after the Harrison Tax Act ( which only focused on Opium/morphine and cocaine) in the run up to the 1937 Marijuana Tax ACT -has come full circle: I’m talking about the fear that drug addicts and alcoholics might turn to marijuana once their ‘old’ drugs are no longer available. It was this fear that led to anticipatory state laws. Apart from some musician in New York nobody knew anything about marijuana in that part of the U.S.
The difference: today officals reluctantly welcome marijuana is the lesser of two evils and might keep users off the hard stuff.
Contrary to the popular opinion, marijuana legislation did not start with Anslinger’s (shameful) tax Act of August 1937 but had evolved on state levels in the preceding 20 years. The MTA of 37 only framed them on a nationwide, federal level.
The Southwestern States and the Rocky Mountains were directly experiencing the inflow of thousands of Mexican immigrants, mostly lower class, who brought marijuana with them. The distrust and dislike against these crazy Mexicans informed and shaped the early Marijuana laws in thes states.
Charles Whitebread, Professor of Law, USC Law School A Speech to the California Judges Association 1995 annual conference at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/whiteb1.htm
THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT AND THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE:
AN INQUIRY INTO THE LEGAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN
MARIJUANA PROHIBITION at https://www.votehemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The_Forbidden_Fruit_and_The_Tree_of_Knowledge.pdf
