What if Cannabis had never been outlawed in America? Would the drug be just as popular as Alcohol and Tobacco are today?
What if Cannabis had never been outlawed in America? Would the drug be just as popular as Alcohol and Tobacco are today?
IOTL the banning of marihuana was driven by racism -- it was associated with Black jazz musicians and Hispanic immigrants. There wasn't much of a pro-marihuana lobby, as far as I know.
So, I can't think of any 20th century PODs.
True, although it certainly didn't help that "substitution" fears(basically the precursor to the gateway theory of today), had also become somewhat widespread up north.....or that Big Tobacco was becoming wary of competition(do note, btw, that the Marijuana Tax Act was introduced by a North Carolina congressman.....and N.C. just happens to be one of the primary tobacco growing states. Just something to think about).
One thing that might help keep the ban from going national.....is more companies like Philip Morris(a surprisingly progressive employer for its era, btw) popping up(or existing companies reforming!) . One thing that I found somewhat recently, is that they actually did, in fact, seriously consider growing a little bit of the stuff during the '70s, and lobbying for legalization(which is surprising, given what had happened just 40 years prior). Of course, that seems to have ended with the start of the Reagan era....but what if Reagan hadn't been elected? Might Philip Morris have continued on it's surprising quest to assist in legalization lobbying?
Hemp-made everything, from paper to plastic, as well as animal feed, cooking oil, clothing etc.Hemp made ropes remain a larger portion of the market rather than being replaced by nylon rope.
The US would have been placed under considerable international pressure, the League of Nations had sought to ban it as a result of lobbying by the Egyptians. I think a ban would have been almost inevitable eventually.
That makes sense. Weren't opiates and cocaine restricted as a part of Prohibition, although they'd been easily available legally until then, as well?Nobody seems to talk much about it, but I kind of think that the repeal of prohibition created an attitude that new vices (marijuana) need to be nipped in the bud before they become popular.
So, US still producing and forcing their imports, while some other non European countries trying to ban them? I smell Pot War toward Egyptians
I know what would have been a good turning point in marijuana prohibition. Marijuana had been banned due to the machinations of a Mr. Harry Anslinger, the first Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962. He was helped in this campaign by William Randolph Hearst who was very racist toward the Mexicans who smoked it, and who was probably opposed to hemp as an industrial competitor. It portrayed marijuana as something spewed forth from the devil. A lot of this campaign had enormous racial undertones, which Anslinger denied. "Two Negros took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days under the influence of hemp. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis." [1]
By 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act used a special loophole to make marijuana impossible to grow legally in the US. But one politician remained skeptical of Anslinger's claims: Fiorello La Guardia who opposed prohibition in all it's forms. In 1939 he convened a scientific committee that became known as the La Guardia Committee to investigate Anslinger's claims. By 1944, they found almost all of what Anslinger said to be untrue. Anslinger, however used his influence to suppress the report, and exerted his control over Hollywood, making sure he could approve any drug related movies that were produced.
What if the La Guardia report had reached President Roosevelt? That should be the turning point.
[1] James A. (1986). The War on Drugs: Heroin, cocaine, crime, and public policy. Palo Alto: Mayfield Publishing Company. p. 231. ISBN 0-87484-743-5.
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