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6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
people we don't like? That's how all the drug laws originated. 
and it drives me bonkers. Okay, I don't get that upset about it.
Here's a quick run down incase no one is familiar with the history
In 1930, Harry Anslinger, the head of the brand-new Federal Bureau of Narcotics, was unsatisfied with regulating only cocaine and opium. When he went in front of a congressional panel in 1937 to push his pot prohibition bill, he said, "We seem to have adopted the Mexican terminology, and we call it marihuana."
While he sounds all innocent there, like he just picked up the word from who knows where, many surmise that he was actively using the term to focus the discussion on recreational use. His terminology distanced the plant as much as possible from its common medical and industrial uses, where it was more often referred to as cannabis or hemp. Using "marijuana," most commonly associated with recreational use among poor Mexican immigrants, was a sneaky bit of branding for the bill he wanted passed.
Dr. William C. Woodward, legislative counsel of the American Medical Association, showed up to the same 1937 hearing to protest Anslinger's feigned semantic innocence, accusing him of switching the name to fool groups that would have otherwise been opposed to the bill.
"I use the word 'cannabis' in preference to the word 'marihuana,' because cannabis is the correct term for describing the plant and its products," Woodward said. "It was the use of the term 'marihuana' rather than the use of the term 'cannabis' or the use of the term 'Indian hemp' that was responsible, as you realized, probably, a day or two ago, for the failure of the dealers in Indian hempseed to connect up this bill with their business until rather late in the day."
As an example of the racial dimension of Anslinger's animus toward cannabis, here's one of his quotes on the subject: "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use," he said. "This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."
It was also used to confuse people who didn't know that cannabis and marijuana were the same plant.
