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THE DEVIL'S WEED |
THE REEFER MADNESS ERA |
Marihuana a calling card to addiction |
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OFFICIAL POLICE JOURNALS
(An Editorial Opinion)
Not to be confused with the (more notorious) True/Crime True/Detective genre of magazines: Official police journals were those that were actually published by and primarily for Law enforcement organizations and personnel. Varying in size and quality, from small mimeograph newsletters to large glossy covered magazines, their role in the creation of the anti-Medical Marihuana laws was instrumental.
Starting in the early 1930's they began a slow but steady stream of propaganda. Mostly these seem to be general anti-dope articles, with Medical Marihuana being just one of the drugs. But always, Medical Marihuana was mentioned in the negative, as the "killer drug" or as the "weed of madness and death" etc., with little or no mention of its uses in medicines.
Remembering that police officers, even back than were subject to the perils of what is now being termed "Group think." A condition which springs up in any work environment where individuals work and congregate almost exclusively among themselves. There for the importance of what was being written about in those journals; -- In effect, this is what Cop’s back then were thinking.
Of interest to students of the Reefer Madness campaign is that official D.E.A. magazines were still talking in terms of Medical Marihuana as an instigator (the cause) of violent crime well into the 1980's. To our knowledge none of them have ever apologized for their actions.
– Dec. 1939 - Published by the Kansas Medical Society
The following is (only) part of an article, taken from the March 1938 issue of Finger Print (a semi-private, semi governmental) magazine. It is present here solely as an example of what was making its way into print at the time. Please note that it is only one of many such articles that were published in governmental and Law enforcement publications at the time.
The Marihuana Menace
– BY A'COURTE HUDSON
Federal Bureau Reports
From the Federal Narcotics Bureau, incomplete reports upon Marihuana for a year period ending about November 10, 1934. In the city of New York alone there were 300 convictions for the violations of the Marihuana law; in the State of California there were 135 convictions, 1,512 pounds of the drug were seized and 2,035 actual growing plants were destroyed. 25,000 cigarettes were taken in the state of Oklahoma. In Pennsylvania there were 71 convictions, in Ohio 60, and in Texas 50. Florida recently enacted the Uniform Narcotic Act with the Marihuana control provision, and within a month 22 arrests were made in Tampa for the sale of Marihuana. Since then more than 50 pounds of drug and over 1,770 cigarettes have been confiscated.
On June 7, 1935 it was reported that Marihuana was found to be growing in the San Quentin prison yard. From some of this cigarettes had been made and smoked by some of the prisoners. As a result two prisoners were placed in the dungeon. June 17, 1935, in the backyard of a deserted house in Brooklyn, N. Y., police came across a large growth of Marihuana, and destroyed it.
The state narcotic agents of California raided a ranch growth of Marihuana near Azusa, and found that the amount seized was enough to make some $25,000 worth of cigarettes.
It can be seen that there is no need to smuggle the weed into this country, for it grows here too well and seems to be produced upon a large scale.
From the city of New Orleans comes the following report. Of a group of 450 persons[prisoners] there were 125 Marihuana addicts, young people whose ages ran from 18 to 31 years; out of 37 murderers 17 were addicted to the use of this drug, and out of 193 persons convicted of large thefts 30 were users of the weed. About one out of four arrested in that city were Marihuana addicts.
Now let us see some actual cases taken from the records of the Federal Narcotic Bureau.
Florida. A young man who had become addicted to smoking Marihuana cigarettes, while under the effects of the drug, imagined that a number of people were trying to cut off his arms and legs, seized an axe and killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, wiping out the entire family.
Smuggled Into Prison
Michigan. Some time ago some Marihuana was smuggled into the state prison at Marquette. At the same time a gain and ammunition were also Smuggled in. From the effects of the drug one prisoner named Tyczak, shot and killed the prison doctor and a trustie.
California. A man while under the effects of Marihuana decapitated his best friend, then coming out of the influence of the drug was amazed and horrified to see what he had done.
Cases of sexual assault and rape are numerous while under the spell of Marihuana and it is this increase of cases of this type that is beginning to bring the importance of immediate action to the heads of all families, schools and civic clubs.
Some cities have passed ordinances against the drug, among them being, Kansas City, Mo. ; St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn ; Lexington, Covington and Newport, Kentucky. The agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics have done much to aid in the fight against Marihuana, in aiding the successful passing of municipal ordinances governing the growth and sale of Marihuana in some cities in those states in which there were no statues covering the subjects, as well as in those states in which the enforcement agencies were lax.
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