Why racism is the reason behind weed being prohibited

People have been smoking weed for thousands of years, and it has been legal in many countries all the way up to the last century. So why did this change, and what does the prohibition have to do with racism?

It began in the US with a man by the name of Harry. J. Anslinger. He served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He led the war against alcohol in the US prohibition period from 1920 to 1933. When the prohibition on alcohol was coming to an end, his bureau was not needed anymore and funding was cut. Harry. J. Anslinger was not fond of this and wanted to save his bureau, by starting a new war against some other drug. He saw that there was a negative view against Mexicans and tried to use this as an advantage. Back then, weed was embedded in Mexican culture, so he used the negativity towards Mexicans, to get the public to dislike weed as well. He did this by spreading lies through propaganda, stating that weed had negative properties with no scientific evidence to back him up. The properties were suicidal tendencies, insanity and murderous tendencies, which we today know are false. He lied about the health effects, saying that weed is more harmful than cocaine and heroin. He also just used blatant racism, in his campaign as seen in these quotes.

“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 to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”

“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

Although these statements would be unacceptable in this day of age, his campaign was successful and the war on weed began.

Reefer Madness trailer, a propaganda movie from 1936.

Why has this spread to the rest of the world?
The reason that weed is illegal in so many countries is that the idea of prohibiting weed spread from the US to the UN and led to three UN treaties. the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In many cases, the countries involved did not research weed before signing the treaties. This means that if you are living outside the US chances are that your country probably made weed illegal in 1961.

Want to learn more? Then this video is very interesting.