LAWS BUILT ON LIES SHOULD NOT STAND
LIE: “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 usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others” (Harry J. Anslinger)
TRUTH: Obviously a racist agenda.

LIE: “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” (Harry J. Anslinger)
TRUTH: Obviously a racist agenda.

LIE: “Marijuana causes insanity criminality and death” (Harry J. Anslinger)
TRUTH: No such evidence exists.

LIE: “Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind” (Harry J. Anslinger)
TRUTH: No such evidence exists. Evidence by the lack of response to the Governments continued war on marijuana users would indicate passiveness.

CONTRADICTION and LIE: Harry J. Anslinger testified to Congress in 1948 that Marijuana rendered its users pacifist and so peaceful that they would lose the will to fight and that the Communists could use this to sap our soldiers will to fight. (The Emperor Wears No Cloths, Jack Herer)
TRUTH: Marijuana use in the Vietnam conflict was prevalent but did not keep our soldiers from fighting.

TRUTH: The Marijuana Tax Act was passed in the Senate after a question was asked if the AMA approved of the legislation and Congressman Vinson LIED and said the AMA supported the legislation after Dr Woodward had testified that The AMA disapproved. (The Marijuana Conviction, Bonnie and Whitebread II)

LIE: Marijuana causes brain damage. (DARE Program)
TRUTH: Over a period of 6 years Playboy, NORML, and High Times had to sue the Federal Government under the Freedom of Information Act to find out the methodology of the study. Dr Heath/Tulane Study, 1974 Rhesus Monkeys were administered 63 joints of Columbian grade marijuana through a gas mask with no oxygen in 5 minutes over a 3 month period. The fact that the monkeys survived the ordeal at all is a testament to how nontoxic marijuana really is. The brain damage was caused by oxygen deprivation in combination with carbon monoxide poisoning. It was simply a study of asphyxiation associated with heavy smoke inhalation. (The Emperor Wears No Cloths, Jack Herer)

LIE: The narcotic content in Marijuana decreases the rate of the heart beat and causes irregularity of the pulse. Death may result from the effect on the heart.
Prolonged use of Marijuana frequently develops a delirious rage which sometimes leads to high crimes, such as assault and murder. Hence Marijuana is called the “killer drug.” The habitual use of this narcotic poison always causes a very marked mental deterioration and sometimes causes insanity. Hence Marijuana is frequently called “loco weed.”
While the Marijuana habit leads to physical wreckage and mental decay, its effects upon character and morality are even more devastating. The victim frequently undergoes such moral degeneracy that he will lie and steal without scruple; he becomes utterly untrustworthy and often drifts into the underworld, where with his degenerate companions, he commits high crimes and misdemeanors. Marijuana sometimes gives man the lust to kill, unreasonably and without motive. Many cases of assault, rape, robbery, and murder are traced to the use of Marijuana. (1936 anti-marijuana pamphlet from the World Narcotic Defense Association) (The Marijuana Conviction, Bonnie and Whitebread II)
TRUTH: There is just no evidence to support these claims.

LIE: Marijuana has no known medical use.
TRUTH: In 1972 NORML petitioned Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs to have marijuana rescheduled from a Schedule 1 drug. After 16 years of stonewalling by The United States Government a hearing was finally scheduled in September 1988. DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young after hearing extensive testimony from patients and doctors on the medical benefits of marijuana proclaimed “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many of the foods we commonly consume. For example eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care.” It was determined that marijuana was effective in controlling nausea associated with chemotherapy, pain, and spasms associated with Multiple Sclerosis. She recommended that marijuana be rescheduled to a Schedule 2 drug and that still has not happened. (Marijuana Rescheduling Petition Docket No. 86-22)

For many decades marijuana use has been portrayed as a menace to society using yellow journalism and scare tactics to incite fear among people about the dangers of marijuana use. In almost all cases the evidence posted is exaggerated or fabricated with the sole purpose to scare people into believing that action must be taken to save our youth from marijuana or they will end up insane, dead or in prison. Harry J. Anslinger was a master at this propaganda often addressing Congress about the evils of marijuana while reciting sensationalist articles about crimes attributed to marijuana use from William Randolph Hurst’s vast array of newspapers and describing in horrid details how marijuana was destroying the youth of our country. Some believe and the circumstantial evidence is compelling that marijuana was made illegal to protect William Randolph Hurst’s timber industry as well as the Dupont fiber industry from competition with hemp. Whatever the reason for making marijuana illegal, its prohibition has done far more damage to society than marijuana could have ever done on its own. Our country now has the highest per capita incarceration rate of any nation on earth and this is mostly because of the war on drugs with special emphasis on marijuana. Since there is no moral difference between using marijuana and any other drug including alcohol and tobacco why are we as a society using the power of the Federal Government as a tool to try to ruin the lives of those who chose to use marijuana. Many marijuana users believe that marijuana use is safer and healthier than alcohol or tobacco use and the evidence to support these beliefs is steadily growing. Study after study refute and dispel claims of ill effects and damage done to marijuana users and some are even showing health benefits attributed to casual use of marijuana.
If the allegations of marijuana being made illegal at the behest of William Randolph Hurst and the Dupont Corporation are true then our freedom was sold to corporate America to increase profit for them and protect their business interest. If the allegations are not true then we were just duped into panic to save ourselves from an imaginary plague. Either way we should end the travesty that has harmed our freedom and our image to the rest of the world. For a nation that promotes freedom and democracy for the rest of the world, we aren’t doing a very good job of keeping our house in order. If we are a free people we should stop the practice of trying to ruin the lives of marijuana users for doing something morally indifferent that drinking alcohol. As a child we would recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school and the last phrase was “With Liberty and Justice for All”. There is no justice in persecuting people for using marijuana and the war against drugs is eroding our liberty. Let’s stop the madness and end the war against marijuana and its users.

Randy Johnson
Itsmycountrytoo.org