Affidavit To Support The San Francisco: Fill & Download for Free

Since the 1700s, marijuana was available throughout North America in a wide variety of medications, but saw a major surge in popularity after 1839 thanks to William Brooke O’Shaughnessy, whose research while in India helped its image both in Europe and the New World. It was most popular during the “snake oil” phase of medications in the late 1800s, being used as an ingredient in a wide range of tinctures and drinks used to cure and treat numerous types of ailments. In personal correspondence, it’s been revealed that former Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and James Madison, as well as Benjamin Franklin and Mary Todd Lincoln, all smoked hashish. George Washington himself grew hemp in his garden and referred to it as a staple crop of America. Across the pond in 1890, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the physician to Queen Victoria, wrote a summary in the The Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, touting cannabis’ medicinal benefits. The Queen herself utilized it for her menstrual cramps. In 1892, Sir William Osler authored the first textbook of Internal Medicine, and advised that cannabis was the most effective treatment for migraines.Prior to 1910, the Spanish term for cannabis, marihuana, was mostly unknown, and it was instead known as hashish or Indian hemp. In 1909, the San Francisco Police Department reported only one case of the use of hashish in Emergency Hospitals in the last six years, and that it was accidental and a result of polydrug use. In 1911, Hamilton Wright was promoted to the Chief Architect of the US narcotics policy. He categorized all mind-altering substances as “drug evils,” and thought that if the ban of opioids were to happen, people would only move to hashish. Specifically targeting the “very undesirable Hindoos” (Sikh and Punjabi, among other East Indian immigrants) as spreading their terrible drugs to white people. Racism soared in the area, and during the first Progressive Era wave of anti-narcotics legislation, California became the first US state to outlaw marijuana in 1913.The US’ prohibition of alcohol in 1920 played a major hand to the spreading popularity of cannabis throughout the country. Speakeasies were springing up around the country, providing an illegal hub where patrons could consume any alcohol they pleased, and providing another home for marijuana enthusiasts. Marijuana’s popularity soared as jazz musicians toured the country, reaching points where a viper (term at the time for a cannabis smoker) could roll and smoke a joint on a public road with no repercussions. Numerous companies jumped at the opportunity as well, and branded cannabis cigarettes became rather popular. Brands like Cannadonna, Cigares De Joy and Grimault all contained cannabis, specifically marketed for the treatment of asthma, but typically used recreationally. Physicians at the time agreed with cannabis’ effects as well, and in 1921 alone, over 3 million prescriptions included cannabis.In the early 1930s, the Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, had mass amounts of his funding cut. To solve this issue, he realized he needed a new substance to fight in order to keep his paychecks coming in. On top of this, government records show that he was contacted by William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont company, prominent figures in the lumber and petrochemical industries, offering financial aid should he help them to demonize a new competitor on the market; hemp. This may sound like a harsh interpretation of the events, but Anslinger himself actually admitted to this version of his story later in his life, stating he was aware all along that “there is probably no more absurd fallacy than the claim that [cannabis] caused violent crime.”He began the Reefer Madness campaign, backed by the US Government, publicly blaming the Mexican and black communities for trying to poison America’s youth. Falsified ads and paid-off doctors made the plant out to be worse than any other drug in the nation. Harry J. Anslinger gave a statement before Congress that “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death!” He would go on to say, in this same statement to Congress, that “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 causes white women seek sexual relationships with Negroes,” “Makes darkies think they’re as good as white men,” “Makes Mexicans thirst for white blood,” and is “the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”Anslinger’s use of the term marihuana was generally unknown to physicians attending the original Congressional Hearings, and as such, were unaware of the actual substance being attacked, therefore unwilling to defend it. They weren’t aware of what was being lost until it was too late, and the physicians that did dispute his claims were met with literal threats from Anslinger himself. His speech spread throughout the nation, and within days, his false propaganda was being reported as complete truth; with special help from Heart’s own newspaper. His statement that “Mexicans, Greeks, Turks, Filipinos, Spaniards, Latin Americans, and Negroes may be traced to the use of marihuana,” was followed by entire police departments supporting the claims by stating that cannabis is the cause for the majority of murders and “sex outrages.” A movie was even made in 1936 called Reefer Madness, whose plot revolves around a young boy who kills his entire family with an axe after smoking a joint given to him by a Mexican man. In this same year, the first automated machine for harvesting and process hemp was invented, and Anslinger saw increased pressure from his financial backers in the lumber industry to destroy their rivals.The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed the next year, effectively banning all marijuana in the country. Joints were specifically targeted, with newspapers and even school textbooks stating that “harmless” tobacco cigarettes were being spiked with marijuana, sometimes clarifying that it’s specifically being done by Mexicans or black people, to drive children insane. An estimated 45% of patent medicines at the time had some form of marijuana in it.Technically, the new law didn’t outright ban cannabis as a plant. Instead, one was now required to purchase a Treasury Department tax stamp before they could legally cultivate, possess, use, sell or give away cannabis. However, attaining this stamp included a nightmarish maze of affidavits, sworn statements, depositions and thorough investigations by the Treasury Department police. Any physician wishing to prescribe cannabis had to provide all information on their client to the government, and if at any point the prescription was rejected, the physician faced a $2,000 fine and five years’ imprisonment. You can see how it was suddenly preferable to not take the risk.One of the worst parts of this ordeal is that the US Government was fully aware that Harry J. Anslinger’s claims were false. Scientists, baffled by these claims, proved through numerous studies in the early 1940s that marijuana had no connection to violence or infidelity. The government even began listening, and in 1969, the United States Supreme Court even ruled that the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was unconstitutional and a violation of the Fifth Amendment rights.The scientific community’s insistence for marijuana’s legalization, or at least decriminalization, came at a head in 1971 when a bipartisan commission recommended President Nixon remove the federal ban on marijuana. Nixon’s response was to form the Shafer Commission and the Nixon Marijuana Commission with the specific goal of finding reasons to continue marijuana’s ban. The Shafer Commission later presented him with the Shafer Report, which included a wealth of scientific evidence in favor of the plant being decriminalized and allowed for use by adults. Soon after, the Nixon Marijuana Commission similarly recommended legalizing recreational cannabis. Instead of listening to the report, he disregarded it entirely, requested the commission be disbanded, passed the Controlled Substance Act, and soon after formed the DEA and began the infamous War on Drugs. Schedule I, the worst rank and new home of marijuana, is described as having no medical value and having a high chance for abuse. Hilariously enough, marinol, which is synthetic THC, was placed in Schedule III.In 1994, Nixon’s aid and the White House Domestic Affairs Advisor from 1969 to 1973, John Ehrlichman, gave his reasoning behind this decision. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana, and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”That’s a real quote. The criminalization of marijuana and the War on Drugs as a whole were a method to bully his political opponents and attack minority groups, solely in the name of racism. The government itself has always been aware of this as well. This is evident even inside the DEA, as Francis L. Young, the Chief Administrative Law Judge at the time, sent a report in 1988 to reclassify marijuana as one of the safest therapeutic agents known to man, but was turned down by his superiors.Some would like to hear that it’s gotten better, and despite numerous state’s steps to legalize it on their own terms, marijuana still carries a mandatory minimum. First offenses can land you in prison for two to ten years in states where it’s illegal. According to the FBI, marijuana accounts for nearly half of all drug arrests. Despite the fact that white and black people smoke marijuana at essentially the same rate, black people are nearly fifteen times more likely to be arrested for marijuana use than their white neighbors.There’s no happy ending to this. There is in some places like California, Nevada, Colorado and Washington, among others, but until the federal ban on marijuana is removed and it’s reclassified from a Schedule I substance (on par with heroin, MDMA, LSD, worse than meth, cocaine, codeine, fentanyl, Adderall, Ritalin, Demerol, OxyContin, etc.), the marijuana industry is going to be extremely hindered and innocent people are going to keep going to federal prison for taking care of their health.

Racism.Since the 1700s, marijuana was available throughout North America in a wide variety of medications. In personal correspondence, it’s been revealed that former Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and James Madison, as well as Benjamin Franklin and Mary Todd Lincoln, all smoked hashish. George Washington himself grew hemp in his garden and referred to it as a staple crop of America. Cannabis saw a major surge in popularity after 1839 thanks to William Brooke O’Shaughnessy, whose research while in India helped its image both in Europe and the New World. It was most popular during the “snake oil” phase of medications in the late 1800s, being used as an ingredient in a wide range of tinctures and drinks used to cure and treat numerous types of ailments. Across the pond in 1890, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the physician to Queen Victoria, wrote a summary in the The Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, touting cannabis’ medicinal benefits. The Queen herself utilized it for her menstrual cramps. In 1892, Sir William Osler authored the first textbook of Internal Medicine, and advised that cannabis was the most effective treatment for migraines.Prior to 1910, the Spanish term for cannabis, marijuana, was mostly unknown, and it was instead known as hashish or Indian hemp. In 1909, the San Francisco Police Department reported only one case of the use of hashish in Emergency Hospitals in the last six years, and that it was accidental and a result of polydrug use. In 1911, Hamilton Wright was promoted to the Chief Architect of the US narcotics policy. He categorized all mind-altering substances as “drug evils,” and thought that if the ban of opioids were to happen, people would only move to hashish. He specifically targeted the “very undesirable Hindoos” (Sikh and Punjabi, among other East Indian immigrants), claiming they were spreading their terrible drugs to white people. Racism soared in the area, and during the first Progressive Era wave of anti-narcotics legislation, California became the first US state to outlaw hashish in 1913.The US’ prohibition of alcohol in 1920 played a major hand to the spreading popularity of cannabis throughout the country. Speakeasies were springing up around the country, providing an illegal hub where patrons could consume any alcohol they pleased, and providing another home for marijuana enthusiasts. Marijuana’s popularity soared as jazz musicians toured the country, reaching points where a viper (term at the time for a cannabis smoker) could roll and smoke a joint on a public road with no repercussions. Numerous companies jumped at the opportunity as well, and branded cannabis cigarettes became rather popular. Brands like Cannadonna, Cigares De Joy and Grimault all contained cannabis, specifically marketed for the treatment of asthma, but typically used recreationally. Physicians at the time agreed with cannabis’ effects as well, and in 1921 alone, over 3 million prescriptions included cannabis.In the early 1930s, the Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, had mass amounts of his funding cut. To solve this issue, he realized he needed a new substance to fight in order to keep his paychecks coming in. On top of this, government records show that he was contacted by William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont company, prominent figures in the lumber and petrochemical industries, offering financial aid should he help them to demonize a new competitor on the market; hemp. This may sound like a harsh interpretation of the events, but Anslinger himself actually admitted to this version of his story later in his life, stating he was aware all along that “there is probably no more absurd fallacy than the claim that [marijuana] caused violent crime.”He began the Reefer Madness campaign, backed by the US Government, publicly blaming the Mexican and black communities for trying to poison America’s youth with this new drug; marijuana. Falsified ads and paid-off doctors made the plant out to be worse than any other drug in the nation. Harry J. Anslinger gave a statement before Congress that “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death!” He would go on to say, in this same statement to Congress, that “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 causes white women seek sexual relationships with Negroes,” “Makes darkies think they’re as good as white men,” “Makes Mexicans thirst for white blood,” and is “the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”Anslinger’s use of the term marijuana was calculated and intended, as it was generally unknown to physicians attending the original Congressional Hearings, and as such, they were unaware of the actual substance being attacked, therefore unwilling to defend it. They weren’t aware of what was being lost until it was too late, and the physicians that did dispute his claims were met with literal threats from Anslinger himself. His speech spread throughout the nation, and within days, his false propaganda was being reported as complete truth; with special help from Hearst’s own newspaper. His statement that “Mexicans, Greeks, Turks, Filipinos, Spaniards, Latin Americans, and Negroes may be traced to the use of marihuana,” was followed by entire police departments supporting the claims by stating that cannabis is the cause for the majority of murders and “sex outrages,” mostly from minorities. A movie was even made in 1936 called Reefer Madness, whose plot revolves around a group of teenagers who smoke marijuana, and proceed to murder someone with their car, commit suicide, attempt to rape people, hallucinate and descend into madness. In this same year, the first automated machine for harvesting and processing hemp was invented, and Anslinger saw increased pressure from his financial backers in the lumber industry to destroy their rivals.The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed the next year, effectively banning all marijuana in the country. Joints were specifically targeted, with newspapers and even school textbooks stating that “harmless” tobacco cigarettes were being spiked with marijuana, sometimes clarifying that it’s specifically being done by Mexicans or black people, to drive children insane.Technically, the new law didn’t outright ban cannabis as a plant. Instead, one was now required to purchase a Treasury Department tax stamp before they could legally cultivate, possess, use, sell or give away cannabis. However, attaining this stamp included a nightmarish maze of affidavits, sworn statements, depositions and thorough investigations by the Treasury Department police. Any physician wishing to prescribe cannabis had to provide all information on their client to the government, and if at any point the prescription was rejected, the physician faced a $2,000 fine and five years’ imprisonment. You can see how it was suddenly preferable to not take the risk. An estimated 45% of patent medicines at the time had some form of marijuana in it before the ban.One of the worst parts of this ordeal is that the US Government was fully aware that Harry J. Anslinger’s claims had no evidence to back them up. Scientists, baffled by these claims, proved through numerous studies in the early 1940s that marijuana had no connection to violence or infidelity. The government even began listening, and in 1969, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was unconstitutional and a violation of the Fifth Amendment rights.The scientific community’s insistence for marijuana’s legalization, or at least decriminalization, came at a head in 1971 when a bipartisan commission recommended President Nixon remove the Marihuana Tax Act altogether. Nixon’s response was to form the Shafer Commission and the Nixon Marijuana Commission with the public goal of researching the substance to consider this, but the real, declassified goal of finding any reason to continue marijuana’s ban. The Shafer Commission later presented him with the Shafer Report, which included a wealth of scientific evidence in favor of the plant being decriminalized and allowed for use by adults. Soon after, the Nixon Marijuana Commission similarly recommended legalizing recreational cannabis. Instead of listening to the report, he disregarded it entirely, requested the commissions be disbanded, passed the Controlled Substance Act, and soon after formed the DEA and began the infamous War on Drugs. Schedule I, the worst rank and new home of marijuana, is described as having no medical value and having a high chance for abuse. Hilariously enough, marinol, which is synthetic THC, was placed in Schedule III.In 1994, Nixon’s aid and the White House Domestic Affairs Advisor from 1969 to 1973, John Ehrlichman, gave his reasoning behind this decision. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana, and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”That’s a real quote. The criminalization of marijuana and the War on Drugs as a whole were a method to bully his political opponents and attack minority groups, built on racism and lies. The government itself has always been aware of this as well. This is evident even inside the DEA, as Francis L. Young, the Chief Administrative Law Judge at the time, sent a report in 1988 to reclassify marijuana as one of the “safest therapeutic agents known to man,” but was turned down by his superiors.Some would like to hear that it’s gotten better, and despite numerous state’s steps to legalize it on their own terms, marijuana still carries a mandatory minimum. First offenses can land you in prison for two to ten years in states where it’s illegal. According to the FBI, marijuana accounts for nearly half of all drug arrests. Despite the fact that white people are statistically more likely to consume marijuana, black people and Latinos make up 46.9% of those arrested for marijuana charges, even though they make up just 31.5% of the US population. Over 659,000 US citizens were charged with marijuana law violations in 2017 alone, with 90.8% of those being possession only, despite the majority of US states having legalized medical marijuana.There’s no happy ending to this. There is in some places like California, Nevada, Colorado and Washington, among others, but until the federal ban on marijuana is removed and it’s reclassified from a Schedule I substance (on par with heroin, MDMA, LSD, worse than meth, cocaine, codeine, fentanyl, Adderall, Ritalin, Demerol, OxyContin, etc.), the marijuana industry is going to be extremely hindered and innocent people are going to keep going to federal prison for taking care of their health.

Since the 1700s, marijuana was available throughout North America in a wide variety of medications. In personal correspondence, it’s been revealed that former Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and James Madison, as well as Benjamin Franklin and Mary Todd Lincoln, all smoked hashish. George Washington himself grew hemp in his garden and referred to it as a staple crop of America. Cannabis saw a major surge in popularity after 1839 thanks to William Brooke O’Shaughnessy, whose research while in India helped its image both in Europe and the New World. It was most popular during the “snake oil” phase of medications in the late 1800s, being used as an ingredient in a wide range of tinctures and drinks used to cure and treat numerous types of ailments. Across the pond in 1890, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the physician to Queen Victoria, wrote a summary in the The Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, touting cannabis’ medicinal benefits. The Queen herself utilized it for her menstrual cramps. In 1892, Sir William Osler authored the first textbook of Internal Medicine, and advised that cannabis was the most effective treatment for migraines.Prior to 1910, the Spanish term for cannabis, marijuana, was mostly unknown, and it was instead known as hashish or Indian hemp. In 1909, the San Francisco Police Department reported only one case of the use of hashish in Emergency Hospitals in the last six years, and that it was accidental and a result of polydrug use. In 1911, Hamilton Wright was promoted to the Chief Architect of the US narcotics policy. He categorized all mind-altering substances as “drug evils,” and thought that if the ban of opioids were to happen, people would only move to hashish. He specifically targeted the “very undesirable Hindoos” (Sikh and Punjabi, among other East Indian immigrants), claiming they were spreading their terrible drugs to white people. Racism soared in the area, and during the first Progressive Era wave of anti-narcotics legislation, California became the first US state to outlaw hashish in 1913.The US’ prohibition of alcohol in 1920 played a major hand to the spreading popularity of cannabis throughout the country. Speakeasies were springing up around the country, providing an illegal hub where patrons could consume any alcohol they pleased, and providing another home for marijuana enthusiasts. Marijuana’s popularity soared as jazz musicians toured the country, reaching points where a viper (term at the time for a cannabis smoker) could roll and smoke a joint on a public road with no repercussions. Numerous companies jumped at the opportunity as well, and branded cannabis cigarettes became rather popular. Brands like Cannadonna, Cigares De Joy and Grimault all contained cannabis, specifically marketed for the treatment of asthma, but typically used recreationally. Physicians at the time agreed with cannabis’ effects as well, and in 1921 alone, over 3 million prescriptions included cannabis.In the early 1930s, the Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, had mass amounts of his funding cut. To solve this issue, he realized he needed a new substance to fight in order to keep his paychecks coming in. On top of this, government records show that he was contacted by William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont company, prominent figures in the lumber and petrochemical industries, offering financial aid should he help them to demonize a new competitor on the market; hemp. This may sound like a harsh interpretation of the events, but Anslinger himself actually admitted to this version of his story later in his life, stating he was aware all along that “there is probably no more absurd fallacy than the claim that [marijuana] caused violent crime.”He began the Reefer Madness campaign, backed by the US Government, publicly blaming the Mexican and black communities for trying to poison America’s youth with this new drug; marijuana. Falsified ads and paid-off doctors made the plant out to be worse than any other drug in the nation. Harry J. Anslinger gave a statement before Congress that “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death!” He would go on to say, in this same statement to Congress, that “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 causes white women seek sexual relationships with Negroes,” “Makes darkies think they’re as good as white men,” “Makes Mexicans thirst for white blood,” and is “the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”Anslinger’s use of the term marijuana was calculated and intended, as it was generally unknown to physicians attending the original Congressional Hearings, and as such, they were unaware of the actual substance being attacked, therefore unwilling to defend it. They weren’t aware of what was being lost until it was too late, and the physicians that did dispute his claims were met with literal threats from Anslinger himself. His speech spread throughout the nation, and within days, his false propaganda was being reported as complete truth; with special help from Hearst’s own newspaper. His statement that “Mexicans, Greeks, Turks, Filipinos, Spaniards, Latin Americans, and Negroes may be traced to the use of marihuana,” was followed by entire police departments supporting the claims by stating that cannabis is the cause for the majority of murders and “sex outrages,” mostly from minorities. A movie was even made in 1936 called Reefer Madness, whose plot revolves around a group of teenagers who smoke marijuana, and proceed to murder someone with their car, commit suicide, attempt to rape people, hallucinate and descend into madness. In this same year, the first automated machine for harvesting and processing hemp was invented, and Anslinger saw increased pressure from his financial backers in the lumber industry to destroy their rivals.The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed the next year, effectively banning all marijuana in the country. Joints were specifically targeted, with newspapers and even school textbooks stating that “harmless” tobacco cigarettes were being spiked with marijuana, sometimes clarifying that it’s specifically being done by Mexicans or black people, to drive children insane.Technically, the new law didn’t outright ban cannabis as a plant. Instead, one was now required to purchase a Treasury Department tax stamp before they could legally cultivate, possess, use, sell or give away cannabis. However, attaining this stamp included a nightmarish maze of affidavits, sworn statements, depositions and thorough investigations by the Treasury Department police. Any physician wishing to prescribe cannabis had to provide all information on their client to the government, and if at any point the prescription was rejected, the physician faced a $2,000 fine and five years’ imprisonment. You can see how it was suddenly preferable to not take the risk. An estimated 45% of patent medicines at the time had some form of marijuana in it before the ban.One of the worst parts of this ordeal is that the US Government was fully aware that Harry J. Anslinger’s claims had no evidence to back them up. Scientists, baffled by these claims, proved through numerous studies in the early 1940s that marijuana had no connection to violence or infidelity. The government even began listening, and in 1969, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was unconstitutional and a violation of the Fifth Amendment rights.The scientific community’s insistence for marijuana’s legalization, or at least decriminalization, came at a head in 1971 when a bipartisan commission recommended President Nixon remove the Marihuana Tax Act altogether. Nixon’s response was to form the Shafer Commission and the Nixon Marijuana Commission with the public goal of researching the substance to consider this, but the real, declassified goal of finding any reason to continue marijuana’s ban. The Shafer Commission later presented him with the Shafer Report, which included a wealth of scientific evidence in favor of the plant being decriminalized and allowed for use by adults. Soon after, the Nixon Marijuana Commission similarly recommended legalizing recreational cannabis. Instead of listening to the report, he disregarded it entirely, requested the commissions be disbanded, passed the Controlled Substance Act, and soon after formed the DEA and began the infamous War on Drugs. Schedule I, the worst rank and new home of marijuana, is described as having no medical value and having a high chance for abuse. Hilariously enough, marinol, which is synthetic THC, was placed in Schedule III.In 1994, Nixon’s aid and the White House Domestic Affairs Advisor from 1969 to 1973, John Ehrlichman, gave his reasoning behind this decision. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana, and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”That’s a real quote. The criminalization of marijuana and the War on Drugs as a whole were a method to bully his political opponents and attack minority groups, built on racism and lies. The government itself has always been aware of this as well. This is evident even inside the DEA, as Francis L. Young, the Chief Administrative Law Judge at the time, sent a report in 1988 to reclassify marijuana as one of the “safest therapeutic agents known to man,” but was turned down by his superiors.Some would like to hear that it’s gotten better, and despite numerous state’s steps to legalize it on their own terms, marijuana still carries a mandatory minimum. First offenses can land you in prison for two to ten years in states where it’s illegal. According to the FBI, marijuana accounts for nearly half of all drug arrests. Over 659,000 US citizens were charged with marijuana law violations in 2017 alone, with 90.8% of those being possession only, despite the majority of US states having legalized medical marijuana. Despite the fact that white people are statistically more likely to consume marijuana, black people and Latinos make up 46.9% of those arrested for marijuana charges, even though they make up just 31.5% of the US population.There’s no happy ending to this. There is in some places like California, Nevada, Colorado and Washington, among others, but until the federal ban on marijuana is removed and it’s reclassified from a Schedule I substance (on par with heroin, MDMA, LSD, worse than meth, cocaine, codeine, fentanyl, Adderall, Ritalin, Demerol, OxyContin, etc.), the marijuana industry is going to be extremely hindered and innocent people are going to keep going to federal prison for taking care of their health.