THE REEFER MADNESS ERA
NewsPaper Index

==== THE CONSPIRACY ====




While originally the newspaper index was meant to be used almost exclusively by historians and active journalists, trying to locate sources of information or reference points. It soon became evident that many others from Medical Marihuana supporters to conspiracy buffs would also find interest in it.

But before going any further a question. For those of you who believe that a conspiracy of sorts was involved. Here is a sort of question for you: How could any group of people, no matter how wealthy or well connected, possibly take control of the whole of the newspaper media? In a society which values its "Freedom of the Press," this would seem a most formidable (if not impossible) task today, and given the much, much larger number of newspapers (some cities had as many as 16) in the 1930's --- even more so.

Unfortunately the answer to the question of HOW was ... "Very Easily."

Anyone who has done even a quick scan through some of the newspaper articles our museum has collected from that era can't help but notice two letters - 'AP' - such as in the "Associated Press." It seems that there was no need to go to each and every newspaper editor and/or publisher and attempt to co-op them. All one needed to do was control a few of the national wire services and a few other news sources; sources that in turn were relied upon by local newspapers to provide them with their national news stories.

It was the Associated Press that kept feeding the nation a constant stream of boring, yet negative articles (everything from statistics on marihuana arrests to a short article on a public school teacher who was going to speak on the subject at some local civics group) etc. The purpose of these articles seems to be NOT to shock, but to keep the subject in a negative light and constantly before the public eye.

Additionally, it has been noticed that many of the worst articles (Marihuana made him take an axe and cut her head off, etc.,) appeared in the Sunday supplements, newspaper magazines that were written and controlled by national, not local, interests.

Of course, the Bureau of Narcotics (forerunner to the D. E. A.) did everything possible to encourage local Reefer Madness articles, and provided as much technical and logistical support as possible. And then, unfortunately, there were too many unscrupulous reporters who had no regard for the truth.

While the name of the New York Times (Pulitzer Prize winning) Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, who in 1933 at the height of Stalin's organized famine in the Ukraine (which killed millions) wrote articulate denials on the subject e.g.; "Any Report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda," may be well known. How many of us recognize the name of Julius Klein, who in 1935 wrote a series of Reefer Madness articles for the St. Louis Star times. That he knew he was lying is not in question; one of the articles misquotes a military study conducted on marihuana so skillfully that there is no question that he had complete knowledge of the truth.

At a later time (long after the campaign), even Harry Anslinger speaking in total disgust would report that many a newspaper editor had done a great disservice to the county, even going so far as to give examples:
"One reporter on a Southwestern newspaper pointed out that there was a suspicion of marihuana use in a case. Next day the headlines read, "Gang of Marihuana Crazed Hoodlums Leave Bloody Trail." "Questioned, the scribe had nothing tangible on the marihuana angle and claimed that the heading had been composed in the editorial room." ***[and than again]*** "Several years ago a story appeared in a Midwestern paper headlined, "Doped by Marihuana, Youth 'Goes Crazy' in County jail Cell." It sounded interesting in print and quoted the jailer at length on the evils of marihuana. When checked the jailer denied even mentioning marihuana and the reporter stated that he had had no information regarding marihuana but had simply written the story as a humor story because the jailer was "quite a character." --- The Traffic In Narcotics by H. Anslinger
It seems that even the D.E.A. wanted to back off from what had happened.







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