Pubdate: Sun, 13 Dec 2015
Source: Fort Collins Coloradoan (CO)
Contact: http://www.coloradoan.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Copyright: 2015 The Fort Collins Coloradoan
Website: http://www.coloradoan.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1580
Pubdate: 13 Dec 15
Author: Erica Freeman
Note: Erica Freeman is owner of Choice Organics and a columnist who 
will cover marijuana and its intersection with our community.

THE ETYMOLOGY OF MARIJUANA PROHIBITION

Marijuana. It's a word we're all are familiar with, especially if 
you've been living in Colorado for the last five years.

It's a word that can stir up emotions immediately, regardless of 
where your convictions lay. It is a word that is rampant in headlines 
across the U.S., increasingly so every day. It is a word that was 
introduced into our lexicon innocently enough, only to be kidnapped 
by the social media of the time and used to vilify and condemn a 
plant that never meant any harm.

Prior to 1910, the plant was referred to as cannabis and it was 
widely consumed medicinally. The American Medical Association 
commonly used cannabis in tinctures, syrups and extracts to treat and 
cure a huge variety of ailments, always referring to the plant as 
cannabis or hemp. Around 1910, the U.S. saw a large influx of legal 
Mexican immigrants fleeing a country torn by civil war. These 
immigrants brought with them the word "marihuana." This word was 
largely responsible for the eventual criminalization and demonization 
of a plant that had been used for centuries by multiple cultures to heal.

It was an innocent word in the beginning, until two men hijacked it 
and used it to turn a nation of people against a plant responsible 
for the pain relief and curing of so many. William Hearst and Harry 
Anslinger - two incredibly influential men - decided cannabis was a 
threat to their plans for power and wealth.

Hearst was a newspaper tycoon at the time; he owned several 
newspapers and also the timber companies that produced the paper on 
which his publications were printed. Anslinger was newly appointed as 
the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and he had 
decided that cannabis was a threat to society. The two men (along 
with a few other famous cohorts) proceeded to launch a massive 
campaign, using Hearst's newspapers, to convince the public that 
despite all the evidence to the contrary cannabis was "the most 
violence-causing drug in the history of mankind," to quote Anslinger.

The first order of business in the public demonization of cannabis 
was to re-brand the plant as "marihuana," and then proceed to falsely 
connect its consumption to widespread violence and crime. Many people 
reading the newspapers had no idea that marijuana and cannabis were 
one and the same; they thought marijuana was a new, terrible drug on 
the street that needed to be stopped at all costs.

The campaign proved to be effective, and in 1937 Congress passed the 
Marijuana Tax Act which essentially criminalized cannabis. It wasn't 
only the general public that was misled by this propaganda, however; 
the AMA also was misled. It was not until the last minute that they 
realized that marijuana and cannabis were the same and what the 
implications of this Act would be for the medical community: cannabis 
would no longer be a viable medicine.

By 1941, the last vestiges of cannabis were removed from the U.S. 
pharmacopoeia and the medicinal qualities of this plant were no 
longer recognized in the U.S. The downfall of a miracle plant, and 
all possible because of a simple name change.

I think I will negate Hearst and Anslinger's efforts, and return the 
miracle plant its dignity by calling it what it is: cannabis.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom