Taking a Close Look at Marijuana History

As the U.S. considers legalizing marijuana federally, and the national political conversation on the topic takes great steps forward, it is worth reflecting on the history of marijuana in the country— as the drug went from commonplace to illegal, and it's now heading back toward legalization again.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cannabis - along with opiates and cocaine - could be found in your local drug store, often in liquid hashish form. Despite medicinal trends, pure recreational use was not widely accepted. It was not until further into the twentieth century that marijuana cigarettes were introduced to the U.S. by Mexican immigrants.

In 1906, the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act created the first attempt to federally regulate marijuana. The Act required medicine producers to list cannabis on their labels, so bothered consumers could avoid it. Between 1914 and 1925, half of the states in the U.S. passed laws prohibiting marijuana altogether, coinciding with the successes of alcohol prohibition by temperance campaigners of the day. Politicians and the media chimed in, warning of the grave threat that narcotics posed to the nation. Newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst’s empire used “yellow journalism” to tarnish the cannabis plant’s reputation, associating cannabis with violent crime. It has been said that Hearst’s goal was to destroy the hemp industry altogether. In addition, rumor has it that the powerful DuPont petrochemical company – as well as DuPont’s major financial backer and key political ally, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon – shared in this goal: Mellon was the wealthiest man in America, and he had heavily invested in DuPont’s then-new nylon fiber industry. However, both DuPont and Mellon believed nylon’s success depended on its ability to replace a traditional resource – hemp.