By
Jay Fox
Brooklyn,
NY, USA
Box Brown’s most recent
work, Cannabis - The Illegalization of
Weed in America, tells the story of how cannabis came to be vilified and
turned into an illicit substance in the United States. Its pared back,
grayscale illustrations and laconic narration follow cannabis’ initial use in
India, its cultivation in the New World, its recreational use in Mexico, and
how the racist and anti-immigration policies of the early 20th
century gave birth to Reefer Madness and the War on Drugs. Well-researched,
witty, and ultimately optimistic, the novel is a wealth of absurd (but true)
stories about what happens when racism and anti-drug paranoia are allowed to
flourish.
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| Jay Fox |
Like many histories about
cannabis in the U.S., Brown’s narrative focus is Harry J. Anslinger, the head
of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a precursor to today’s Drug Enforcement
Agency. With the exception of perhaps former FBI head J. Edgar Hoover or former
President Richard Nixon, no other person was more responsible for turning
cannabis from a folk medicine, industrial crop, and relatively benign
intoxicant (these were well before the days of strains like Godfather OG) into
a menace that was once considered as dangerous as heroin by many Americans. Cannabis
was Anslinger’s white whale.
As Brown reveals, Anslinger
would have almost been a comically one-dimensional authority figure and peddler
of patently false tales had he not had so much power or the ability to shape
policy (sounds familiar). Despite repeated arguments from researchers, doctors,
scientists, and even New York City’s Depression-era mayor, Fiorello La Guardia,
Anslinger’s fountain of misinformation and outright lies found their way onto
the pages of newspapers and magazines (again, sounds familiar). Not only was he
responsible for the “gateway theory,” he also repurposed tabloid stories to
turn them into cautionary tales about the effects of “devil weed” and to drum
up anti-immigration sentiment.
Anslinger used his
connection to publisher William Randolph Hearst to plant these stories. As they
evolved from flagrantly racist tales of Mexican murders and African-American
rapists, they began to focus on how cannabis turned seemingly normal (white) individuals
into killers and corrupted (white) youth. His most gruesome stories were known
as his “Gore Files.” Brown’s illustrations of these bizarre episodes are most
certainly the highlight of the book.
Surprisingly, Brown does
not spend a great deal of time discussing the Beats or the counterculture of
the 1960s. This is not a criticism. Far too much attention has been paid to the
way that artists like Allen Ginsburg and John Lennon became the targets of
bogus investigations. Unfortunately, this has overshadowed how the original
targets of anti-cannabis policies were people of color, particularly Latinx
immigrants in the Southwest and black jazz musicians in cities like New
Orleans, Chicago, and even New York. On top of focusing on the stories of these
individuals, Brown also calls attention to how anti-drug policies continue to disproportionately
impact communities of color.
Ultimately, however,
Brown ends his book on a high note. Despite all the propaganda and
misinformation, despite the absurd sentencing rules and restrictions on
research and the vapid (but effective) “Just say no” campaign of the 1980s, cannabis
advocates persevered. They continued to push for decriminalization, for more
research, and for increased access to a medicine that has been cultivated by
humans for thousands of years. As Box notes: “Whatever is yet to come in the
future, cannabis will grow. And humans will harvest.”
For those who are
unfamiliar with the story of weed in America, this is an excellent
introduction.
Link:
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