Reefer Madness – 1895 to the Present – Chapter 5: 1920-1930 – Devil’s Smoke
In this chapter DML looks carefully at the 1920s, where parental hysteria becomes more common, and demonization returns. Emily Murphy’s drug menace/reefer madness magazine articles (which then got turned into a book) were published, and then Canada’s anti-pot law was passed just a year later.
DML also notices the exact same type of racist, ignorant, hysterical propaganda has carried over from the previous decade, along with the striking contrast against the anti-pot propaganda made by photos of relaxed-looking potheads and acres of industrial hemp and an assortment of legitimate pharmaceutical cannabis products with very revealing labels and catalogues.
Special thanks to the Cannabis Museum for sponsoring the creation of this series. The introduction to this series (Reefer Madness – 1895 to the Present) can be found here. Chapter 1 can be found here. Chapter 2 can be found here. Chapter 3 can be found here. Chapter 4 can be found here.
“Smoked in cigarettes, the Mexican marihuana or loco weed stupefies, lulls the brain: then drives its victims into a frenzy. Men and women alike commit murder and acts of violence when saturated with the poison. . . . Young girls, sitting at tables in underground dives, are taught to puff ‘devil’s smoke.’ And the fruits are lawlessness, violence, assassination!”
– “‘LOCO’ CIGARETTES That Drive Men Mad,” Oakland Tribune, Oct. 2nd, 1921 (1)
Image #1: Young woman lighting Hookah, 1920 www.thecannachronicles.com/young-woman-lighting-hookah-1920/
Taking advantage of the general ignorance of the readership of newspapers on the subject of cannabis medicine, most stories about pot in the 1920s involved avoiding connecting the drugstore drug “cannabis” or the field crop “hemp” with the insidious street drug “marihuana” or “hasheesh” or “loco weed” – because the drugstore drug and the field crop had no stigma, and assigning stigma to marijuana was the common underlying theme of nearly all the cannabis information of this era.
Image #2: “A California Hemp Field,” San Francisco Bulletin, San Francisco, California, June 26th, 1920, p. 12
For example, the following excerpt from an article in the October 31st, 1920 Des Moines Register assigned to cannabis effects of confidence and aggression that seem obviously based on an ignorant and bigoted author’s smear campaign, rather than relaying some honest anthropological assessment, providing an ethno-botanical appraisal, or relating a personal experience;
“To the woman who has eaten hasheesh every sensation changes its normal character. She thinks that her beauty is irresistible. She thinks that she charms multitudes when she opens her mouth. She thinks she is a bird and can fly over the tree tops. She takes a ride in a taxicab and believes she has been to the moon. She listens to a street organ and weeps because it sounds like heavenly music. The after effect of hasheesh eating is an irresistible impulse to kill somebody. In consequence, many of the confirmed hasheesh eaters of Paris have to be accompanied by attendants.” (2)
Image #3: “‘LOCO CIAGRETTES’ That Drive Men Mad,” Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, October 2nd, 1921, p. 63
Image #4: “‘LOCO CIAGRETTES’ That Drive Men Mad,” Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, October 2nd, 1921, p. 63
In a Tulsa, Oklahoma article full of both demonization and racism, the headline screamed “SAYS MARIHUANA PLANT OF THE DEVIL – ‘Jazz Weed’ Condemned as Source of Crime in Southwest.” The body of the article was even worse:
“Marihuana, a weird ‘jazz weed’ frequently used by Mexican drug addicts, is the source of much crime in the southwest, according to Inspector Fred C. Boden of the board of pharmacy of California, who has started an unrelenting fight to curb the use of the narcotic. ‘Eliminate marihuana and crime among the labouring classes of Mexican will be appreciably reduced.’ said Boden. ‘Prevent persons from planting and growing the weed and much wickedness will be spared the world.’” (3)
Image #5: “SAYS MARIHUANA PLANT OF THE DEVIL – ‘Jazz Weed’ Condemned as Source of Crime in Southwest,” Tulsa Daily World, Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 30th, 1921, p. 4
Image #6: Cannabis was often called a “narcotic” even though it does not share the toxicity or withdrawal symptoms that are typical of true narcotics. “Drugs Worth Three Million Are Destroyed,” The Herald, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 16th, 1922, p. 9
Image #7: “The yearly collection of narcotics seized by the Narcotic Bureau of the New York Police Department during the year 1924. These 1516 parcels representing 2732 arrests are valued at $2,500,000. The individuals shown are Police Commissioner Richard K. Wright and Special Deputy Police Commissioner D. Carleton Simon.” New York, 1925 https://www.thecannachronicles.com/yearly-collection-of-narcotics-1925/
Image #8: “DIPPY DAFFODILS GROW ON BIRD SEED PLANT – Hemp Leaf Turned Into Marihuana Causes Smoker to Become Madman and Run Amuck,” The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, April 30th, 1922, p. 24
Even when reporters didn’t explicitly call cannabis a narcotic, it would often be lumped together with the two other recently criminalized and stigmatized drugs – cocaine and heroin. This guilt by association would make marijuana criminalization easier.
Hasheesh, and Indian drug, is brought from southern states and Mexico and is said to be deadlier than cocaine or heroine.” (sic) (4)
Image #9: “DOPE SELLERS USE CIGARETTES AS SHIELD,” Harrisburg Telegraph, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 18th, 1922, p. 11
Image #10: “There is increased interest in the production of hemp, a high priced crop adapted to the hot interior valleys, since the perfection of a machine for removing the gum from the fibre. Here is a typical field of hemp, with part of the crop cut and bleaching in the field. Note the hight of the hemp compared to that of the man.” “New Decorticator Makes Hemp a Profitable Crop,” The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, September 10th, 1922, p. 146
In Canada, Judge Emily Murphy was whipping up racial hatred with her book The Black Candle. Written mostly about opium and heroin (and the non-white men who lured white women into using them), the book had a chapter on “Marahuana,” written mostly through quoting authorities in American newspapers, sticking to the standard narrative:
“Marahuana is known by chemists and physicians as cannibis indica, and more commonly as Indian hemp. Sometimes it is called hasheesh or hashish. . . . Last year fifty-four persons were convicted for using, or peddling it in Los Angeles, California. Charles A. Jones, the Chief of Police for the city, said in a recent letter that hashish, or Indian hemp, grows wild in Mexico but to raise this shrub in California constitutes a violation of the State Narcotic law. He says, ‘Persons using this narcotic, smoke the dried leaves of the plant, which has the effect of driving them completely insane. The addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Addicts to this drug, while under its influence, are immune to pain, and could be severely injured without having any realization of their condition. While in this condition they become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty without, as said before, any sense of moral responsibility. When coming under the influence of this narcotic, these victims present the most horrible condition imaginable. They are dispossessed of their natural and normal will power and their mentality is that of idiots. If this drug is indulged in to any great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict.” (5)
Image #11: The Black Candle, Emily F. Murphy, “Janey Canuck,” Thomas Allen, Toronto, 1922
Image #12: The Black Candle, Emily F. Murphy, “Janey Canuck,” Thomas Allen, Toronto, 1922, p. 47
Image #13: The article goes on to add: “The drug most used in Canada is cocaine, she said. Opium is too easily detected. Heroin is becoming more used than formerly, and the deadly eastern hasheesh is also making its appearance.” “CHILDREN USE LARGE AMOUNTS OF DRUGS SOLD,” Saskatoon Daily Star, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, September 23rd, 1922, p. 8
Image #14: “Drug Octopus Can Throttle White Race, States Speaker,” Star-Phoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, September 28th, 1922, p. 1
In September of 1922, Vancouver Chief of Police James Anderson refuted some of Murphy’s statistics, arguing that her claims of a drug menace were a “gross exaggeration” by a significant factor:
“The speaker stated, according to the press report, that our arrests for 1922 total more than 1000. This is gross exaggeration. The report presented to me on May 11 shows that between that date and January 1 only 114 arrests were made, and since that time the arrests are but half of that number, a total of 171, which is far short of 1000. Judge Murphy’s figures for 1920 are just as wide of the mark.” (6)
Image #15: “JUDGE’S REMARKS ON DRUG MENACE FLATLY DENIED – Police Chief Refutes Allegations by an Edmonton Official – EVIL HERE IS NOT WORST IN CANADA – Figures Quoted as to Arrests Are Shown to Be Incorrect,” The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, B.C., September 29th, 1922, p. 12
Murphy’s public dressing down in September did not stop her from traveling to Ottawa in October to speak to the members of the Women’s Canadian Club, on the subject of “The Drug Menace in Relation to the Anglo-Saxon Race.” (7) Murphy’s 20th century biographers describe her as a “crusader” (8) and a “rebel” (9) – no doubt for her feminist activism – but more modern evaluations of her zero-in on her preoccupation eugenics and with drugs “bringing about the downfall of the white race.” (10)
Image #16: “POPULAR AUTHORESS IN OTTAWA,” The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ontario, October 25th, 1922, p. 1
Modern drug historians minimize her involvement with the creation of cannabis prohibition in Canada, (11) but her widely read articles in Maclean’s magazine must have had some effect on its formation, and her constant propaganda against non-white drug dealers must have had some effect on how those drug laws were eventually enforced. (12) Canada had begun prohibiting drugs with the Opium Act of 1908 which prohibited opium, followed by the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act of 1911 which added morphine and cocaine to the list. Cannabis was added in 1923, without any debate. (13)
An image of a bare-naked victims – including bare breasted women – wrapped up in big evil serpents came with the Christmas eve edition of many newspapers all over the USA at the end of 1922, along with this headline in a massive font:
“The One Wicked Drug the Lawmakers Forgot – How only Two or Three States Have Statutes Aimed at the Insidious Mexican Hasheesh Which Wrecks the Lives of Its Victims Even More Quickly Than Cocaine, Heroin or Opium” (14)
Image #17: “The One Wicked Drug the Lawmakers Forgot,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 24th, 1922, p. 48
The journalist in this case followed a predictable pattern of mixing a bit of truth with a massive lie. A cannabis user could easily tell the genuine effects of cannabis use from the made-up part, but most people were not cannabis users back then:
“After three or four puffs the beginner’s mind becomes confused. There is, at first, a harmless sort of mental exhilaration. All the worries and sordidness in the user’s life fade away. He finds himself floating through space as if on a cloud and doing everything, in fancy, that he ever wanted to do. Ideas follow each other rapidly. Time, however, is unbelievably prolonged. Minutes seem like days; hours like weeks and days like years. An excellent idea of this prolongation of time is seen by comparing an ordinary motion picture film with that of the so-called slow motion camera. Then comes a period in which hallucinations dominate the addict. Motiveless merriment or maudlin emotion usually follows, after which a pugnacious attitude ensues. It is this stage that endangers society. It is the stage which made the cowboys of our frontiers quick to adopt the Mexican word ‘loco’ (crazy) which is applied to peons and Indians who run amuck. Cattle, took, have been known to run amuck after eating the plant. Reaction following the use of marihuana gravely endangers the morals and continuous indulgence brings catalepsy and incurable insanity. In confirmed addicts the complex of symptoms shows great similarity – a deathlike pallor, twitching muscles, furtive eyes with yellowish, red streaked eyeballs, cat-like nervousness and rapidity of speech.” (15)
Image #18: “The One Wicked Drug the Lawmakers Forgot,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 24th, 1922, p. 48
Image #19: “Hemp weed from 1924.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lto-hmhm-cannabis1924.jpg
Image #20: “Youth of Land Being Poisoned by Narcotics, Declares Annie Laurie,” Annie Laurie, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, January 21st, 1923, p. 1
Image #21: “Report Bares Dope Problem Facing US,” Annie Lauries, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, January 21st, 1923, p. 12
Image #22: “MARIHUANA MAKES FIENDS OF BOYS IN 30 DAYS: HASHEESH GOADS USERS TO BLOOD-LUST,” San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, January 31, 1923, p. 11
As well as exaggerated negative side effects, there was also a racist double standard. If a white man or woman showed confidence, it was a positive thing. But a non-white showing confidence could only mean one thing – challenging white supremacy in a violent manner! Especially Mexicans – it turned Mexican soldiers into killing machines, as this Baltimore article pointed out two years later:
“Marihuana brings all the cruelty that is in a man to the fore. It gives him a desire to fight and unlimited confidence. Mexican generals give it to their soldiers before going into battle, and a soldier under its influence may die in his tracks but will never retreat.” (16)
Image #23: “MARIHUANA CRAZY,” Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, Los Angeles, California, August 20th, 1924, p. 2
In 1924, the world’s first film featuring marijuana was released. Titled The Cloud Rider, it involved a bad guy named Juan Lascelles who owned “a fleet of aeroplanes which he uses in smuggling drugs.” (17)
Image #24: Delaware County Daily Times, Chester, Pennsylvania, May 26th, 1925, p. 9
Image #25: https://mabumbe.com/movies/titles/280054/the-cloud-rider/images
Just as parental hysteria surrounding teen cannabis use justified the introduction of a pot cartel today, it justified the creation of prohibition 100 years ago. For example, in April of 1925, the headlines reported on the arrest of a Los Angeles woman: “MARIHUANA SALE BRINGS LONG TERM – Woman Gets Maximum Jail Penalty of Charge Made by Boy of Seventeen.”
The article ends with this paragraph;
“Mrs. Telles and her son, Adolfo, run a small store at 1076 South Soto street, near the school, and according to Deputy City Prosecutor Gillbert, has conducted a traffic in marihuana for some weeks, selling to both boys and to girls. Adolfo Telles pleaded not guilty and will be tried Tuesday.” (18)
Image #26: “Mystery of the Strange Mexican Weed,” The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, August 24th, 1924, p. 84
A pro cannabis voice made it to the front page on May 1st, 1925. Under the headline “Cannabis Indica Is Wonder of Drugs, Professor Says; ‘Not Banned by U.S. Law’,” the following was offered to readers:
“Cannabis indica, also known as Indian hemp, produces more pleasurable sensations than any other drug, according to Prof. J. Earle Galloway, professor of material medical at Des Moines university, who has made a special study of its effects. ‘Time is blank and space is of no consequence to anyone under the influence of the drug,’ he said last night. ‘The subject is in a dream state. He realizes that he is doing things he ought not to do bot yet is powerless to act. In matters of distance, everything seems far away although it may be near at hand. In fifteen or twenty minutes you can travel around the world and may be in a dozen different lands. There is always a dual personality present, you and yourself. Your whole being is on a higher plane and you see yourself removed from the world.’ The feeling is a pleasurable one, Professor Galloway stated, and the effects of opium are sottish in comparison. The drug is greenish in color and can be purchased in extract, powder or semisolid, or liquid form.” (19)
The article ran next to a news story about a politician who accused another politician of drugging him with cannabis in order to win a speakership contest.
The June 21st, 1925 edition of the Pittsburgh Press featured a two-page in-depth article (20) about the shady underworld culture of Calexico, California – a border town in a fertile valley that straddled both Mexico and the United States. This valley included a series of towns above Calexico including El Centro, Imperial and Brawley, which were all apparently teeming with Mexicans in possession of marijuana.
The article began with this headline:
“Wickedest Spot in America – Closed! Like the Famous ‘Outcasts of Poker Flat,’ the Mexican Governor Suddenly Padlocks the Notorious Resorts Along the Border and Drives Out the Motley Horde of the Underworld Scum.”
Image #27: “Wickedest Spot In America – Closed!” The Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 21st, 1925, p. 99
Below a large illustration of a bunch of well-dressed people drinking, gambling and flirting with each other was a photo of a lineup of “A Pathetic Herd of Dope Addicts” (Mexicans) and their white captor – Chief of Police Hardwick of Calexico, California. The text below the photo indicates they were rounded up in Mexico and brought back into the US to be locked up.
Image #28: “Wickedest Spot In America – Closed!” The Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 21st, 1925, p. 99
Chief Hardwick had also caught white people with marijuana in previous news clipping. In an article titled “THREE HELD IN DRUG RAID AT CALEXICO – Federal Officials Say the Hollywood Dope Ring is Rounded Up,” Chief of Police Hardwick teamed up with Customs Collector Shepard to stop three very caucasian-sounding-named people with “a wholesale quantity of morphine, heroin, cocaine, marihuana, whisky, hypodermic syringes and needles.” It was all for medical use, the accused argued. (21)
Image #29: “THREE HELD IN DRUG RAID AT CALEXICO,” The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, January 11th, 1924, p. 4
In this Mexico-adjascent part of California, there was something in the papers every few days about someone being caught with marijuana. In a particularly racist story from 1917, the El Centro paper the Imperial Valley Press rocked this headline:
“MARIJUANA IS BEING RAISED – VICIOUS PLANT FOUND GROWING IN BRAWLEY. – WILL CUT IT DOWN – CAUSES MUCH CRIME SAY THE COUNTY OFFICIALS. – Mexicans and Negroes Chew It, Then Go on a Disastrous Rampage.” (22)
Image #30: “MARIJUANA IS BEING RAISED – VICIOUS PLANT FOUND GROWING IN BRAWLEY – WILL CUT IT DOWN – CAUSES MUCH CRIME SAY THE COUNTY OFFICIALS – Mexicans and Negroes Chew It, Then Go on a Disastrous Rampage.” Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, California, June 8th, 1917, p. 1
Ten years later, the racism was hidden in the body of the text. The headline from a story in the same newspaper said “STATE TO DECIDE IF VALLEY CROP IS HEMP OR MARIJUANA.” Inside the story, the readership learned that
“Tests are being made at San Francisco to determine whether or not some 200 acres of plant now growing in Imperial valley will be allowed to continue to grow and harvested as hemp or whether it will be ordered destroyed by state authorities as marijuana. About a month ago Sheriff C. L. Gillett, aroused by what was believed an excessive use of marijuana by Mexicans in the valley, began an investigation to determine its origin. … According to Chief Benson, marijuana causes many dangerous forms of mania and its addicts are more feared by narcotic agents than any other form of drug addicts. He said that his department has already obtained information that marijuana smoking has already been taken up by school children in the state to a greater extent than the use of any other drug. … the only persons who can lawfully raise it are duly licensed druggists.” (23)
Image #31: “STATE TO DECIDE IF VALLEY CROP IS HEMP OR MARIJUANA,” Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, California, December 2nd, 1927, p. 5
In 1925, Eli Lilly advertised its entire catalogue of drugs in a hardcover doctor’s manual: Handbook of Pharmacy and Therapeutics. Inside were many cannabis medicines, including “Elixir No. 26” – a compound that contained cannabis and other sedatives, and “Fluid Extract No. 96” – one ounce of cannabis indica in nine ounces of alcohol. Elixir No. 26 was used for delirium tremens (alcohol withdrawal), acute mania, epilepsy, chorea and convulsions. Fluid Extract No. 96 was to be used in delirium tremens, insanity, hysteria and migraine. They also sold just the flowering tops of Cannabis Indica by themselves, of which the properties and uses were identical with their fluid extract. (24)
In case you missed that, a major US pharmaceutical firm continued (since at least 1908) to recommend using cannabis for “acute mania,” “insanity” and “hysteria” – at exactly the same time as exactly the same drug continued to be blamed for causing mania, insanity and hysteria in newspapers across the US.
Image #32: ONE-FOURTH PINT CANNABIS, U.S.P., FLUID EXTRACT No. 96, ELY LILLY AND COMPANY, INDIANAPOLIS, U.S.A., circa 1925, bottle from Herb Museum collection, photo by Bert Easterbrook.
Image #33: ONE-FOURTH PINT CANNABIS, U.S.P., FLUID EXTRACT No. 96, ELY LILLY AND COMPANY, INDIANAPOLIS, U.S.A., circa 1925, bottle from Herb Museum collection, photo by Bert Easterbrook.
Image #34: Seventh Revision, HAND BOOK OF Pharmacy and Therapeutics: LILLY, ELI LILLY AND COMPANY, The Hollenbeck Press, INDIANAPOLIS, U.S.A., 1925, p. 51
Image #35: Seventh Revision, HAND BOOK OF Pharmacy and Therapeutics: LILLY, ELI LILLY AND COMPANY, The Hollenbeck Press, INDIANAPOLIS, U.S.A., 1925, p. 39
During the 1920s, if one was arrested for a cannabis offence, you would likely be humiliated in the newspapers if there was anything about your operation journalists could mock. For example, in November of 1925, newspapers all over the USA reported on the arrest of Andres Huerta, who sold hash to sailors disguised as a woman (and who was associated with the hashish farm discovered in Queens two weeks later):
“MYSTERY ‘DRUG WOMAN’ WHO SUPPLIED SAILORS WITH HASHEESH, UNMASKED AS MAN, POLICE DECLARE. When Andres Huerta of the Seaman’s Mission, New York City, was arrested, police allege that a mysterious ‘drug woman,’ who had been reported to be supplying sailors with hasheesh, had been found. A supply of raw dope was found when he was taken into custody, police assert, and he had feminine apparel. Huerta is shown above between the detectives who arrested him.” (25)
Image #36: “MYSTERY ‘DRUG WOMAN’, WHO SUPPLIED SAILORS WITH HASHEESH, UNMASKED AS MAN, POLICE DECLARE” The Central New Jersey Home News, New Brunswick, New Jersy, October 29th, 1925, p. 5
Image #37: “Dr. Welch Inspects Hashish Farm – ‘Hashish Farm’ Is Inspected By Two City Commissioners; Anxious to Destroy Crop,” Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, November 14th, 1925, p. 24
Image #38: “DOPE’S PASTURE,” Daily News, New York, New York, November 14th, 1925, p. 99
Image #39: “GARDEN OF HELL.” Daily News, New York, New York, November 14th, 1925, p. 15
Image #40: “Long Island City’s Hashish Farm Destroyed by Firemen Under Simon,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, November 15th, 1925, p. 20
Image #41: “Mexican Marihuana Weed Invades Kansas; Smokers Are Made Insane,” Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, November 21st, 1925, p. 14
An early attempt to challenge the “loco weed” narrative came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In December of 1925, Dr. W. W. Stockberger of the USDA made statements to the press, which ran against the grain in terms of reporting on cannabis;
“‘There is no reason to become excited about the sporadic outbreak of hasheesh addiction,’ Dr. W. W. Stockberger of the bureau of plant industry, U.S. department of agriculture, stated to Science Service. Hemp has been cultivated as a fiber plant in Kentucky and other states for many years, and wild hemp is found in rich bottom lands all the way from the Atlantic coast to the western plains. While these hemp plants are not rich in the resins from which hasheesh is made, they do produce at times at least a little of them, which the drug firms buy up to make into veterinary medicine. Yet tho they have had ample opportunity, workers in the hemp fields have never become addicts.’ ‘The hasheesh-producing varieties of hemp were introduced extensively into American culture a few years ago through the efforts of the department of agriculture.’ Dr. Stockberger continued; ‘for cannabis has a very large and legitimate use in veterinary medicine.’ The cultivation of the drug hemp was carried on mainly in South Carolina. Large numbers of negro laborers were employed in the business, yet no cases of hasheesh addiction were reported. . . . ‘Recent reports of the smuggling and use in this country of the Mexican hemp derivative ‘marijuana’ or ‘marihuana’ were no news to us.’ Dr. Stockberger stated. ‘We have had correspondence with El Paso and other border cities in Texas for a good many years about the situation. The reported effects of the drug on Mexicans, making them want to ‘clean up the town’, do not jibe very well with the effects of cannabis, so far as we have reports, which simply causes temporary elation, followed by depression and heavy sleep. I suspect that the Mexican bravo does not take his marijuana straight, but mixes it with something else, possibly cocaine, or a couple of shots of mescal or bad whisky. That combination could easily bring on fighting madness.” (26)
Image #42: “HASHEESH PLANT IS MERE COMMON WEED,” The Buffalo News, Buffalo, New York, December 11th, 1925, p. 21
On December 28th, 1925, Mexico outlawed the cultivation of marihuana. The newspapers mentioned it along with the following explanation;
“Marihuana leaves, smoked in cigarettes, produce murderous delirium. Its addicts often become insane. Scientists say its effects are perhaps more terrible than those of any intoxicant or drug.” (27)
Similar to the photos that officers who enforced alcohol prohibition laws would take with their stills – and similar to narcotics officers with their hauls of drugs, guns and money today – police commissioners and officers would love to take “trophy photos” of the illegal drugs and plants they confiscated. They also would chronically over-estimate the influence their arrests and confiscations would have on the over-all market, as a way of justifying their police budgets:
“New York authorities discovered an Indian hemp farm at Hunts Point avenue, Long Island city, which is believed to have been the source of most of the local supply of hasheesh. Deputy Police Commissioner Simon is shown examining one of the plants before they were burned.” (28)
It appears that this is the same hasheesh farm reported on in New York newspapers six weeks earlier.
Image #43: “New York Had a Hasheesh Farm,” Cook County Herald, Arlington Heights, Illinois, January 1st, 1926, p. 6
The use of parental hysteria to increase the intensity of the war against cannabis users became the spearhead of cannabis prohibition in 1926. In that year, the newspaper from Hamilton, Ohio had a headline that read; “HASHEESH CIGARET VENDORS PROVIDE EVIL FOR YOUTH.” In that article we learn of an 18-year-old marihuana smoker who eventually gets lectured by a wise elder regarding the evil origins of the drug;
“And do you know that the Assassins or Hasheesh Eaters were a Mohammedan sect and that the Mohammedan religion prohibits the use of liquor?” (29)
Even in the 1920s, the Muslims and the Mexicans took turns acting as the scapegoat for the US establishment media. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Image #44: The beginnings of the stigmatization of pharmaceutical cannabis. On the right is a PISO’S ad for a cannabis cough medicine which does not mention it contains cannabis, perhaps due to the stigma. On the left is a PERTUSSIN cough medicine using the stigma against cannabis as a selling feature of it’s “non-cannabis” cough medicine. The Kentucky Post, Covington, Kentucky, February 25th, 1926, p. 9
Image #45: “Haul Of ‘Hell Flowers,’” The Fresno Morning Republican, Fresno, California, June 14th, 1926, p. 2
Another newspaper article that challenged the dominant anti-pot messaging in 1920s was one from the New York Times (30) – and reprinted elsewhere – (31) which reported on a 1926 government committee in Panama investigating cannabis – which came to the conclusion that marijuana doesn’t make white people insane:
“The committee, in reporting to the Governor of the Panama Canal, stated: ‘The influence of the drug when used for smoking is uncertain and appears to have been greatly exaggerated. The reports seem to have little basis in fact, and there is no medical evidence that it causes insanity. Tests conducted by our local board confirm the evidence that the plant is not a habit-forming drug, and no pleasurable sensations nor acts of violence were observed. The board concluded that there is no evidence that the marijuana grown locally is a habit-forming drug in the sense of the term as applied to alcohol, opium, cocaine, &c., or that it has any appreciable deleterious effect on the individuals using it.’ The board recommended that no steps be taken by the authorities of the Canal Zone to prevent the sale or use of marijuana, and that no special legislation on that subject was needed. In some States of the United States, California being one, marijuana is classed with cocaine, heroin, opium and other dangerous narcotic drugs, and penalties are applied for violation of the regulations governing its use. It is realized that the experiments in the Canal Zone were limited and not conclusive, as they were made only on Anglo-Saxons.”
Image #46: “MARIJUANA CALLED SAFE,” The Windsor Star, Windsor, Ontario, December 2nd, 1926, p. 20
Image #47: “FEAR Narcotic Drugs!” Boston Daily Advertiser, February 23rd, 1927. NYAM Collection. https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2019/09/16/opium-in-the-library-a-smorgasbord-of-twentieth-century-understandings-of-addiction-and-drug-use/
Image #48: “Heroin, Once Heralded as ‘Safe,’ Now Regarded as Worst ‘Narcotic,’ Drives Victims to Bold Crimes,” Annie Laurie, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, February 25th, 1927, p. 9
Image #49: “ORIENTAL DOPE HARVEST IS FOUND RIPENING HERE,” Evening Courier, Camden, New Jersey, August 17th, 1927, p. 12
Image #50: “Weed Drives Widow, Four Children Insane,” Public Opinion, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, August 22nd, 1927, p. 6
Image #51: Zulu Men Smoking Dakka, 1928 www.thecannachronicles.com/zulu-men-smoking-dakka-1928/
Image #52: Nautch: Dancers in Kashmir, 1928 www.thecannachronicles.com/nautch-dancers-in-kashmir-1928/
Image #53: “Here is a Weed Called Miggles; To Smoke It Gives You the Giggles,” The Edmonton Bulletin, Edmonton, Alberta, July 13th, 1928, p. 15
Image #54: “MORE ‘Mary Jane’ LAUGH ADDICTS,” The South Bend Tribune, South Bend, Indiana, September 2nd, 1928, p. 33
Image #55: “MORE ‘Mary Jane’ LAUGH ADDICTS,” The South Bend Tribune, South Bend, Indiana, September 2nd, 1928, p. 33
Image #56: “MORE ‘Mary Jane’ LAUGH ADDICTS,” The South Bend Tribune, South Bend, Indiana, September 2nd, 1928, p. 33
The same “parental hysteria spin” we see today in most of today’s anti-pot propaganda was also used again in 1928. Then, the headline read;
“War on Hashish Smoking Is Carried to Congress in Effort to Save Children – Ranks of ‘Muggle-Heads’ (Marihuana Smokers) Grow as Terrible Drug Gains Widespread Hold Among School Students – New Orleans Leads Fight to Wipe Out Evil.” (32)
Inside the article we find out that
“According to leading medical authorities marihuana causes insanity in those who use it habitually.” (33)
And then – under the heading “Gives Enormous Profit,” they advertised the massive margins that the black market provided, virtually guaranteeing an increase in new smugglers and dealers:
“These marihuana cigarettes, or ‘muggles’, retail at the rate of two for 25 cents. . . . In some of the cabarets they command the fancy price of 25 cents straight. There is an enormous profit in the marihuana traffic. A kilo, the regular unit of the trade, which weighs 2.2 pounds, can be bought in Mexico for $10 to $15. Smuggled into New Orleans by sailors and stewards, it sells for $35 to $50 a kilo, which leaves a nice margin for the smuggler.” (34)
Three days later, a story on page 23 of an Indianapolis, Indiana paper, yet again the parental hysteria was encouraged. The headline read; “MISSOURI FIGHTS NEW DRUG EVIL – Movement Starts to Curb Use of Marijuana by Thrill-Seeking Youths.”
Inside the article, we learn that:
“Kansas City police have started a crusade against the weed as the result of the recent arrest her of a Spaniard who had been selling marihuana cigarettes to students of Central high school here and of the University of Kansas. … Youths take marihuana to ‘steam up’, they say. A cigarette of the weed is a first aid to the boy or girl who aspires to be the ‘life of the party’ and to be known as a ‘hot one’. It frequently induces in the user a feeling of ecstasy, which is likely to be followed by torpor and eventually by insanity.” (35)
Seven days after that, another nearly-full page propaganda campaign against pot was unleashed. The headline in the Detroit Free Press read;
“A Home-Grown New Drug That Drives Its Victims Mad – Raised in Any Backyard and Smoked in Cigarettes, Marihuana Is the Most Deadly Narcotic Now Fought by the U.S.” (36)
The article’s small text is even worse;
“Marijuana is a weaker sister of Indian hemp. But its effects, produced through the use of a greater amount than of the latter drug, are the same in the end – madness. The addict, after five years of smoking, becomes violently insane, is seized with a strange desperation that leads to violence and later to a fiendish desire to mutilate or kill.” (37)
After tying hasheesh to the assassins and the “Old Man of the Mountain” and claiming “his followers chewed the hemp before the were excited to commit murder,” the writer – Bruce Grant – continues describing in detail the particular type of madness that Marihuana use resulted in;
“The smoker of marihuana soon finds that he has difficulty in concentrating on anything. His mind leaps from idea to idea. And many times he returns to a first subject after the passage of hours and continues where he left off. It is then that he is verging on madness.” (38)
The lies about the effects were followed by some racism:
“But the Mexicans have not named the plant amiss when they call it loco weed. For when a peon (Mexican laborer) has smoked a pipeful of it he turns completely insane, runs amuck – and kills.” (39)
The article ends with a prediction regarding the future – a very accurate prediction;
“That some drastic regulation will come is certain, considering the fact that Mexico has long ago made it illegal to possess or smoke this maddening weed.” (40)
Image #57: “A Home-Grown New Drug That Drives Its Victims Mad,” The Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan, December 30th, 1928, p. 86
Image #58: “Drug Grown In Backyards Menace to U.S. Youth,” The Morning News, Wilmington, Delaware, January 18th, 1929, p. 9
In 1929 the silent film High On The Range was released. It was the earliest movie featuring marijuana where images of the marijuana in question is accessible on the internet – provided movie goers with their first real taste of reefer madness. The story features Dave, “a naive rancher who becomes a murderer after smoking less than a full joint.” (41) “Dave” decides to try a joint out to see for himself what the fuss is about, and kills someone before he smokes the entire thing. It was a silent film, and one of the dialogue panels reads
“They’re Marihuana weed, a devilish narcotic; and if you smoke them, you go bughouse, loco, and want to raise h—- in general.” (42)
Image #59: High on the Range (1929) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz0IXoJfXZY
Image #60: High on the Range (1929) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz0IXoJfXZY
Image #61: High on the Range (1929) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz0IXoJfXZY
Image #62: High on the Range (1929) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz0IXoJfXZY
Image #63: High on the Range (1929) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz0IXoJfXZY
Image #64: Family Garden, 1920’s www.thecannachronicles.com/family-garden-1920s/
Image #65: 1928 Parke Davis Cannabis Tincture: antiquecannabisbook.com/chap4/ParkeDavis.htm
Image #66: MARIJUANA: MEDICAL PAPERS, 1839-1972, EDITED BY TOD H. MIKURIYA, M.D., MEDI-COMP PRESS, Oakland, California, 1973, p. 66
Image #67: “Last of all, look at how much emphasis has been placed on the words ‘Standardized By Physiological Assay.’ It must be remembered that this was the age of generic drugs, and each pharmaceutical house sold essentially the same drugs that all others did. What they were actually selling was a set of quality and manufacturing standards. It cannot be emphasized enough that most of the early problems associated with Cannabis (and other botanical pharmaceuticals as well) were caused by the variations in strength or potency between one batch and the next. Someone rightfully described it as a pharmaceutical crapshoot. However, by the late 19th Century, Parke-Davis (along with other pharmaceutical houses) started using physiological testing to assure consistency. Dogs would be given samples of the product as it was being manufactured, and their bio-signs monitored. (Note: No dogs ever died as a result). The make-up of the fluid-extract, which was being manufactured in large beer-vat like containers [See Picture] would than be adjusted accordingly.” antiquecannabisbook.com/chap4/Tincture.htm
The hysteria kept being stoked. On January 29th, 1929, a story about the Mexican border town Juarez (across the border from the US border town El Paso) was the setting used, and violent effects was the stigma applied;
“‘Smokers of marihuana,’ the chief said, ‘are powerless to distinguish right and wrong, and do not hesitate in carrying out their violent notions.’ . . . it is generally believed that marihuana leaves a permanent effect on the brain so that the smoker or drinker never regains his original mental status.” (43)
This story accompanied another story next to it about pot being added to the list of prohibited drugs. And this story had multiple references to young smokers;
“Sellers of the weed have a clientele among boys, especially in South El Paso, police have discovered. A smoker under the influence of the weed is said to be much more dangerous than a man intoxicated by alcohol. The effects of marihuana are powerful and impair judgment to an extent which permits putting into instant action the most violent thoughts. . . . According to (U.S. Marshal R. C.) Callen, use of the weed is increasing thruout the southwest and particularly in states like Colorado, which employ large numbers of Mexicans, who bring it into this country with them. ‘School children are becoming users of the weed in Colorado.’ said Callen.” (44)
Looking back on the entire decade of the 1920s, one can find many statements by pot prohibitionists that attempt to paint non-whites – especially Mexicans – as more likely to use marihuana than whites, and thus more criminal than whites. One can see parallels over the last ten years. The people who today unfairly stigmatize drug users are the exact same people who also unfairly stigmatize Hispanics (45) – just like 100 years ago.
And just like Ignatius, third Bishop of Antioch, a cannabis prohibitionist in the early 2nd century, the early 20th century cannabis prohibitionists use the myths of the devil and of hell to literally demonize cannabis. Stigmatization was the main weapon of the prohibitionists, but demonization would still occasionally be brought back into play.
For the next 90 years or so three themes – 1) stigmatization of the drug by those with no experience using the drug, 2) racism and 3) attempts to illicit parental hysteria – would continue to be found in mass media stories about cannabis. Those who have persecuted the relaxed, hungry, happy pot users – or those who have participated in scapegoating in general – have never really demonstrated much originality, so society was doomed to be submitted to these themes over and over again, year after year.
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