Part 3
A reason not to smoke cannabis?
As the whole country reels from recent reports concerning the lack of spaces in the United Kingdom's jail systems some of us must again raise questions about a law that from the outset was misappropriate. It can be clearly argued that this law has achieved nothing but to incarcerate generations right up until today, becoming a major waste in police, judicial and custodial time and more importantly its resources.
Did you know that?
The story begins back in El Paso around 1819 to 1929 with a law created that reeks of suppression and injustice against migrant Mexican workers. Many of these Mexicans would relax after work by consuming the herb plant marijuana then called hemp weed. The Mexicans migrants' major problem was being up against an indigenous white population of Americans. They did not like the Mexican migrant workers being there.
A fight that involved one Mexican worker and three White Americans was uneven but the Mexican came out on top. This was, they claim, because the Mexican was high on the drug marijuana. This meant it being immediately outlawed by the El Paso city council. It also became a tool of suppression to stop, search and jail many of the Mexican migrant workers.
"There was fun in the House Health Committee during the week when the marijuana bill came up for consideration. Marijuana is Mexican opium a plant used by Mexicans and cultivated for sale by Indians. 'When some beet field peon takes a few rarest of this stuff,' explained Dr. Fred Fulsher of Mineral County 'he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico so he starts to execute all his political enemies...' Everybody laughed and the bill was recommended for passage."
(Quote: A publication in the Montana Standard on January 27th 1929)"Records progress on a bill in that Southern state that would amend the general narcotic law:Other Southern States were also pressing for a federal law against marijuana to persecute Mexicans that saturated the workforce with cheap labour during The Depression. The demands of this growing viewpoint were eventually adopted by Harry J Anslinger."
(Quote: Encyclopaedia Harry J Anslinger)see more...