Corned Beef Renegade
Banned
Lady night when I was going out to the local 7/11 to buy a pack of lucky spliffs a thought occurred to me; What the US government had at some point tried to criminalize weed the same way they did alcohol in the 1920s?
DBWI: Marijuana illegal
- Thread starter Corned Beef Renegade
- Start date
Oh, come on. Get real. Who's going to enforce such a law. My brother's father-in-law tells stories of FBI agents toking on breaks back then.* If the COPS are smoking, it'd be a worse fiasco than alcohol Prohibition.
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*OOC: yup. Really.
A good PoD for something like that would be sometime in the 1930s, after Prohibition. The government would be looking for something to criminalize after Prohibition failed (in order to appease the temperance crazies) and maybe marijuana would look like an easy target.
I mean, it would be pretty hard to get the government to ban marijuana when hemp was such an important part of the economy in a lot of places, but it could be done.
The aftermath of something like that wouldn't be as catastrophic as a lot of people are saying, most likely you'd get a lot of people put in jail for no reason and the criminalization reversed after a decade or so, like Prohibition but with less gangster violence.
I mean, it would be pretty hard to get the government to ban marijuana when hemp was such an important part of the economy in a lot of places, but it could be done.
The aftermath of something like that wouldn't be as catastrophic as a lot of people are saying, most likely you'd get a lot of people put in jail for no reason and the criminalization reversed after a decade or so, like Prohibition but with less gangster violence.
The most plausible route I can think of is that maybe Southern and Western racists & tobacco + booze barons come together with their Northern counterparts, and allies, during the FDR administration, and manage to win over enough people to shove their agenda through. Of course, they tried federal cannabis prohibition IOTL, but it failed largely thanks to several progressives, including Jeanette Rankin, coming out against it(and, of course, their opposite numbers were wholly in favor of it, not the least of which included Ted Bilbo from Miss.), not just because of the racism & (mainly anti-Mexican) xenophobia involved, but because it also would have hurt a lot of small farmers, too.
Unfortunately, however, by 1936, a large majority of states had already banned it, including virtually the entire South, a large chunk of the West and Midwest, and several Northern states. And it took until 1992 for the Feds to step up and make it legal again throughout the whole country(despite the protests of hardcore conservatives and nearly every major tobacco company outside of Philip Morris). If Federal Prohibition had passed.....it could have taken even longer. And if DuPont and certain of the timber and chemical companies had had their way, even hemp might have been in danger of being fully banned.
The black market economy would be pretty tough. This is already the case with illegal drugs like cocaine, but think about it: with half the population smoking weed, how would the black market look like? Coce-based gang warfare would be a kindergarden compared to that.
Orville_third
Banned
We might never had Governor Leary of California. That was the main issue on which he defeated Ronald Reagan.
Well, if the US hadn't legalised it then half of Europe wouldn't have either. Britain definitely wouldn't - which would have lost them all that tourist revenue from Ireland, since Irish teens went to buy dope there until Ireland finally legalised it in 1997.
On a more positive note, I doubt if we'd have had the appearance of what sensationalists call the 'Big Dope' lobby.
On a more positive note, I doubt if we'd have had the appearance of what sensationalists call the 'Big Dope' lobby.
Less severe gang war during Prohibition. Black October was the last nail in the coffin for people like Anslinger; without it their "reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men" crap would have gained more traction.
OOC: HUEHUEHUEHUEHUE
OOC: HUEHUEHUEHUEHUE
Honestly, I can't see it, but if you wanted to make a timeline with marijuana being illegal, I'd do something with the textile industry.
Hemp has been used a lot in textiles throughout history, so if the man made fabrics industry wanted to weed out (pardon the pun) marijuana, they could swing some money one way or another in congress... bingo... it's now outlawed and along with it non-marijuana hemp. After all, artificial fabrics are better and all that.
Just a thought.
Hemp has been used a lot in textiles throughout history, so if the man made fabrics industry wanted to weed out (pardon the pun) marijuana, they could swing some money one way or another in congress... bingo... it's now outlawed and along with it non-marijuana hemp. After all, artificial fabrics are better and all that.
Just a thought.
Well, if I recall this correctly, culture historian Robert Sobel(yes, that Robert Sobel, the author of "For Want of a Nail"), back in 1976, offered a look at what if Jeanette Rankin hadn't made her rather convincing speech to Congress on that warm April day in 1936. It basically ends on a note suggesting the possibility that the Drug War could possibly become significantly worse than IOTL, and, trust me, the OTL War on Drugs(coke, meth, etc.) was pretty bad as is.
If I remember correctly, both Monsanto and DuPont wanted a ban on cannabis because they fear legal growing of a related plant, hemp, would cut into sales of synthetic fibers. But Dow Chemical and Johns-Manville put their foot down and said no (especially Johns-Manville, since they discovered hemp fibers made for a great house insulating material).
And thank G*d it stayed legal--in the countries where cannabis was banned, we had a large spate of people dying from people smoking cannabis loaded with sometime quite dangerous substances. Keeping it legal meant the FDA and BATF could strictly enforce purity standards, and we didn't have a spate of people suddenly getting seriously ill or dropping dead from smoking one "joint."
Besides, with hemp growing still legal, it made it possible to build lighter airplanes--General Aviation airplanes built with hemp fiber structures by the late 1950's were very popular, and General Motors--who had experimented around with fiberglass structures on the Corvette prototypes in the early 1950's, ended up with hemp fiber structures for that famous sports car.
Hemp fibers are still relevant even now, thanks to it being part of the composite structure used on the Boeing 787 (OOC: this was probably the name of the shelved 7J7 project to replace the 727 and larger 737 models from the late 1980's powered by two GE UDF propfan engines) short to medium range airliner, the plane that has set new standards for quietness and fuel efficiency even now.
And thank G*d it stayed legal--in the countries where cannabis was banned, we had a large spate of people dying from people smoking cannabis loaded with sometime quite dangerous substances. Keeping it legal meant the FDA and BATF could strictly enforce purity standards, and we didn't have a spate of people suddenly getting seriously ill or dropping dead from smoking one "joint."
Besides, with hemp growing still legal, it made it possible to build lighter airplanes--General Aviation airplanes built with hemp fiber structures by the late 1950's were very popular, and General Motors--who had experimented around with fiberglass structures on the Corvette prototypes in the early 1950's, ended up with hemp fiber structures for that famous sports car.
Hemp fibers are still relevant even now, thanks to it being part of the composite structure used on the Boeing 787 (OOC: this was probably the name of the shelved 7J7 project to replace the 727 and larger 737 models from the late 1980's powered by two GE UDF propfan engines) short to medium range airliner, the plane that has set new standards for quietness and fuel efficiency even now.
It would have had awful consequences for Rastafarianism. Think about it: being denied the use of cannabis for spiritual purposes could have created a feeling of persecution, and if they'd gone ahead with using it regardless of legality, then they could have become associated with illegal activities (completely unjustly, of course). I doubt the faith would have gone mainstream the way it has OTL.
For instance, I doubt Cassius Clay would have converted and become Cassius Freeman...
For instance, I doubt Cassius Clay would have converted and become Cassius Freeman...
Yeah - a lot of people underestimated him, but he turned out to be one of Jamaica's best leaders in a long time.