To be honest, I wish I was offered weed as much as I was told I would be in D.A.R.E. commercials, but that wasn’t the only thing we were lied to about.
There has been a series of studies that show that those who smoke marijuana are generally healthier, thinner, fitter, and more active than those who don’t use. It doesn’t make you lazy, dumb, or unsuccessful. That was all propaganda that was derived from a racist state who wanted to fear monger the populace and have an easy reliable excuse to target people of color in our nation. We’ve spent an exorbitant amount of money based around a lie and PROVEN to be a lie.
In an interview with Harper’s Magazine in 1994, John Ehrlichman, former Nixon aide was quoted as saying, “You want to know what this is really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” Said with the bluntness of someone who has been publicly disgraced and made to do a stretch in federal prison. With nothing left to lose, he said this 5 years before his death.
Take a second and think about the consequences of the actions of that admission. To this day there are still people in prison over this lie, disproportionately people of color. Banks won’t work with individuals who work in the cannabis industry, making it difficult to get any type of loan, especially home loans.
Education on marijuana is still heavily monitored and removed from social media sites. ALL of this is based on a lie. Even after that quote in 1994 people are still being arrested and jailed over a substance that has been in our medical dictionaries since before Christ. Archeologists have discovered that cannabis was used in clay pots during religious ceremonies before the written word was invented.
If you’re as upset and outraged at this as I am, here are some ways you can show your support to those who have been so negatively impacted by the failed war on drugs.
Check out The Last Prisoner Project - Where they’re hoping to set free the over 40,000 individuals who are incarcerated over this lie.
Tell President Biden: Follow Through on Your Commitment to Expunge Marijuana Records
Appropriations: Congress Shouldn’t Use Taxpayer Dollars To Shut Down Legalization
The Senate: A Proposal To End Marijuana Criminalization Has Been Released By The Senate Leader
“The Mace Bill”: Republican Legislation To End Prohibition, Expunge Records, and Promote Small Businesses Filed
If you want to see more on this check out
Adam Ruins Everything - The Sinister Reason Weed is Illegal
Why weed is Good | Let Lee Explain
Puff, Puff, Pass: Dark History of Cannabis