This is a fun bit of "reefer madness" history with quotes from old news articles. It's long, but I found it to be quite entertaining. Odd, Old News: The Big War on Marijuana–100 Years Ago Odd, Old News: The Big War on Marijuana–100 Years Ago – Redheaded Blackbelt Nuggets of old news are served up by David Heller, one of our local historians. Odd Old News turns its newspaper gaze back 100 years to highlight how far cultural values and laws have changed with regards to “the deadly marijuana weed”, the “poison marihuana vine”, “loco weed”, “the deadly weed which frequently causes its users to run amok”… known today as cannabis. Many are familiar with the 1930’s racist demonization of marihuana through its association with minority races, and the federal crackdown aided by such movie classics as “Reefer Madness”. The decades preceding this era show a slowly growing awareness of this “evil menace” to the mental health of the public. With a long tradition of use in Mexico, marihuana’s spread on the West Coast came from itinerant workers along the border who shared their habit with U.S. soldiers. It also made its way into prison populations. On the West Coast, at a time when opium use was rampant, and its U.S. usage had surpassed that of the Chinese, marihuana was regarded as a drug of the lower classes. Newspapers did their best to portray the dangers of this new drug, said to be more addicting than opium, and one that would render the user hopelessly insane within five years of steady use. Dramatic portrayals of any violent crimes committed by marihuana users reinforced the media image of smokers as criminals. One’s sub-conscious ego stands amusedly by and observes a second ego go through the most ridiculous capers … Upper left, method of inhaling the drug; below, a deadly backyard crop and a user ‘rolling her own.’ On the East Coast, a different socio-economic class was already familiar with marihuana in its hashish form: “As early as 1853, recreational cannabis was listed as a ‘fashionable narcotic’. By the 1880s, oriental-style hashish parlors were flourishing alongside opium dens, to the point that one could be found in every major city on the east coast. It was estimated there were around 500 such establishments in New York City alone. An article in Harper’s Magazine (1883), attributed to Harry Hubbell Kane, describes a hashish-house in New York frequented by a large clientele, including males and females of ‘the better classes,’ and further talks about parlors in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago”. One East Coast man’s hashish high made the news: “MR. BINNS TRIES HASHEESH From the Baltimore Sun, March 6. A well-dressed young man, who gave the name Binns, came to the City Hospital. He had yielded to a strange desire to enjoy a dose of hasheesh, a drug that produces curious results. He told the doctor that he had some doubts as to the locality of his face, which to him seemed situated at least two feet from where it really was. Then he was dubious whether he had any legs or was simply walking on his chin. The latter idea seemed to have a firm hold on him, for he stamped his feet on the ground a dozen times. His request to be relieved was pitiful. He feared that someone would steal an arm or leg from him. After medical treatment Binns felt better.”(Excerpt from the New York Times, March 7, 1884) (snipped) I wonder just how much hash young Mr Binns had? Granny
LMAO i Love To Be That High! Its Fun. "He Told The Doctor He Had Some Doubts as To The Locality of His Face" ~Toni~