On April 20th, 2009 at 4:20pm, a lone couple raised a sign proclaiming “Legalize Freedom.” The scent of marijuana smoke thickened the air as a group of adults silently protested the criminalization of the herb by passing a pipe. These peaceful freedom fighters are part of a silent majority who use cannabis medicinally, recreationally, and spiritually. They represent a strong contrast to the anti-marijuana propaganda infiltrating American society since the early 1900s.

The criminalization of marijuana encapsulates a long, complicated history of racism, greed, and social control in America. However, surprisingly, one of America’s first colonies found marijuana a valuable asset. In 1610 the Jamestown colony’s first edict was to require all households to cultivate Indian hemp. They used the plant as a resource to create fiber, cloth, and medicines. By 1850, the Census Bureau reported that 8,327 plantations grew hemp, providing cordage for baling cotton, cloth, and canvas.

Marijuana did not have a negative stigma until 1910 when the Mexican immigrants flushed the labor force in Southern California. The Mexicans frequently used marijuana as a relaxant after a day of hard labor. The white populace began to associate marijuana with the unruly actions of the Mexicans. After a Mexican man was involved in a bar fight in El Paso, the “loco weed” was truly feared. This prompted the El Paso Ordinance of 1914 to outlaw marijuana, and America’s first step towards prohibition.

Anslinger, America’s first drug czar, created potent propaganda to scare people away from marijuana after a failed attempt at a crackdown on the rising opium and heroin market. Reefer Madness filled the public with lies claiming marijuana caused temporary insanity and would create sex-crazed men who would rape a woman at the slightest provocation. Soon the public was demanding the government to create more laws to protect them from the “drug.” Although scientific studies were conducted on the effects of marijuana, Anslinger, and later President Nixon, chose to gain public approval by ignoring, discrediting, and even blackmailing the authors of such studies. Nixon continued Anslinger’s crusade on the “War on Drugs.” He went on to create the DEA and claim that “homosexuality, dope…uh immorality in general—those are the enemies of strong societies.”

Though thirteen states now recognize marijuana for its medicinal merit, activists have a great hurdle to surmount. Roughly 1.5 million Americans are arrested each year for drug violations, with 40 percent for marijuana possession. Instead of concentrating on addictive or dangerous drugs, the DEA uses marijuana as a scapegoat. This is an easy way for government systems to obtain statistics of being “hard on crime” and controlling the psychoactive drug that induces “free-thinking.” Perhaps next year on April 20th, Oregon can unite to rally for a legislature and consciousness change. America should have evolved from using fear as a tool to control the masses, and the citizens should be more observant than to let the government’s greed interfere with their freedom.