Cannabis has been used as a natural medicine as early as 2900 B.C.E, yet the history of the medicine, in the United States, is rooted in government corruption, misinformation, and systemic racism. As medical cannabis made its way to the US, politicians and intolerant newspaper organizations marginalized minority communities by demonizing the plant with smear campaigns and sensationalism. The plant has been and continues to be vilified with laws targeted to criminalize immigrants, Black Americans, and the LGBTQ+ community. Here is a brief history of medical cannabis in the United States.
In 1842, Sir William B. O’Shaughnessy, a physician, studying medical cannabis traveled to India and brought his findings back to the United States. He recommended medical cannabis for pain management and a part of anti-nausea treatment. Viewed as a medical cannabis pioneer, O’Shaughnessy advocated for its use as medicine and in 1850, cannabis was added to the United States Pharmacopoeia. The U.S. Pharmacopoeia is an official medical publication for setting standards for all over-the-counter medications and prescriptions. “Extractum Cannabis” was listed as a treatment for over 100 different conditions including: alcoholism, cholera, convulsive disorders, gout, insanity, leprosy, menstrual cramps, opiate addiction, rabies, tetanus, and typhus, to name a few. By the mid-late 1800s, alcohol-based tinctures, made with the Indica variety, were patented, and became well established as mainstream medication.
The first recorded use of “marijuana cigarettes” in the United States, was in 1874, used by Mexican soldiers and immigrants. The use of “marijuana” by Mexican American immigrants concerned William Randolph Hearst – a prejudiced newspaper owner of the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division. Hearst stood to lose billions as industrial hemp engineering advanced. Hemp is sustainable crop derived from specific cannabis cultivars used for fiber, paper, fuel, and food – more bioavailable than traditional timber and cotton. Over the next several decades, Hearst amplified subjective articles demonizing cannabis.
In 1892, Sir William Osler’s textbook The Principles and Practice of Medicine became the leading medical text in the English-speaking world, saying “cannabis is the most satisfactory remedy” for migraines. As more physicians and pharmacists recommended medical cannabis to treat a myriad of debilitating conditions, Hearst and government colleagues used yellow journalism tactics to ignite the 1898 Spanish American War and targeted minority oppression. After the turn of the century, Hearst deliberately produced articles on “The New Threat to America – Marijuana.” In 1903 the first marijuana prohibition law, pertaining to only Mexicans was passed in Brownsville, TX. With increased abuse of narcotic remedies, such as opium, morphine, and cocaine, the Food and Drug Act, led by the Food and Drug Administration, was passed in 1906 to combat the abuse.
In 1914, The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act defined drug use as a crime in America, declaring doctors would no longer be allowed to prescribe opiated-based drugs. The act levied a tax on the non-medical use of narcotics, punishing patients and physicians. From 1910 – 1920, Hearst’s newspaper made unsupported claims that most violent incidents were not from cocaine or alcohol, but from “marijuana-crazed negroes raping white women”.
The malicious propaganda worsened. In 1930, Harry Anslinger, a government official, became the head of the new Federal Bureau of Narcotics and in 1936, “Reefer Madness” was released as an anti-marijuana move to vilify the Black jazz culture as using the devil’s lettuce. In 1937, Anslinger testified before congress saying, “marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind,” stating “there are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz, and swing, results from marijuana use causing white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes.”
The political fabrication of the non-toxic plant was seen, by medical professionals, as tabloid sensationalism. In 1937 Anslingher proposed the Marijuana Tax Act making the possession and sale of cannabis illegal under federal law. The American Medical Association (AMA) and physicians testified against this unusual tax law and the government overreach. Shortly after, Anslinger read aloud before congress Hearst’s newspaper articles and the bill passed without further consultation from the AMA or their lawyers.
At that time, medical publications almost always referred to the plant by its formal name – Cannabis, yet media outlets touted “marijuana” as the violence causing culprit used by Mexicans. Over the next several decades, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics evolved into the Drug Enforcement Agency [DEA]. In 1962 Anslinger was forced into retirement, by President John F. Kennedy, after Anslinger tried to blackmail the University of Indiana and censor their publication The Addict and the Law. For over 30 years Americans grew up accepting Anslinger’s statements of the herb being evil, addictive, and deadly, yet there have been zero fatal overdoses ever recoded from Cannabis.
In 1970 the Controlled Substance Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon and cannabis became classified as Schedule 1 narcotic – a drug with the most potential for abuse, dependence, having no medical value and categorized along with Heroin, LSD, ecstasy, and peyote. The U.S. government continued to slander cannabis resulting in the imprisonment of millions, particularly people of color, and the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. In 1976, Robert Randall, who suffered from glaucoma, brought a lawsuit to the US federal government, arguing his possession charges should be nullified due to his medical use of cannabis and became the first legal medical marijuana patient since the Marijuana Tax Act. The same year, the US government banned the federal research of cannabis to suppress information on its healing potential solidifying its Schedule 1 status while limiting competition with the pharmaceutical industry.
In the 1980s, the Reagan administration, fearful of the gay community, expanded the War on Drugs while Nancy Reagan lead the “Just Say No” campaign. During the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s, patients affected by wasting syndrome, advocated for medical marijuana access in California, but were forced seek relief in the illicit market. In the late 80s, NORML, High Times and other pro-cannabis organizations indicated that pharmaceutical companies would lose billions, annually, if cannabis were made legal in the United States. At this time President George Bush, and his family, were large stockholder in pharmaceutical companies, such as Eli Lilly, Abbot Labs and Pfizer, while the administration supported the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program across American schools.
With the stigma of cannabis rates of incarceration, from non-violent drug offences, skyrocketed from 50,000 to 400,000, from 1980-1997, as private prisons profited. As more people died from wasting syndrome, LGBTQ+ activists in California shared their compassionate stories of cannabis stimulating appetites in those with HIV and demanded action. In 1996, proposition 215, The Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act, was enacted by popular vote, allowing doctors to recommend cannabis to medical patients. This was an incredible win for medical cannabis supporters, instilling hope, and setting in motion a wave of state medical cannabis reformation. In 1997 the New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial calling for a change in the federal status of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II, as cannabis has medicinal value.
With the turn of the millennia, the University of California established the center for Medicinal Cannabis Research and held the first therapeutic study in over 20 years. In 2003, the U.S. Government received a patent, number 6,630,507, for the therapeutic use of cannabinoids as an antioxidant and neuroprotectant, yet still classifies it as a Schedule I. In 2017, West Virginia became the 29th state to legalize medicinal cannabis. The Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed previous administrative policies barring federal law-enforcement officials from interfering with marijuana sales in states with legal marijuana sales in 2018. Presently in 2020, 33 states and DC have legal medical cannabis laws with 11 states having recreational laws. During the Covid-19 pandemic medical cannabis establishments across the country were deemed essential business and many recreational establishments remained opened across the country.
Every year there are approximately 16,500 deaths from NSAIDS (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug such as Acetaminophen, Aspirin, and Ibuprofen) and 10.3 million people misuse prescription opioids, while zero overdoes have ever been recorded from cannabis. As it continues to be classified as a Schedule I narcotic, the United States government holds a patent on cannabis’s anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. To this day medical cannabis in the United States is directly tied to racial oppression, misinformation, and government corruption. Prohibitionists harnessed a specific type of hatred already paging the country: racism, to fuel the fear of cannabis. Smear campaigns injected pejorative fear by using the word “marijuana” and creating negative stigma of the non-toxic medicine to vilify people of color. As the tides turn, justice demands nothing less than the lifting all penalties (criminal and civil) related to cannabis, the reformation of all cannabis laws and to de-schedule the plant so it may once again be seen as mainstream medicine.