The Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
SIERRA
EDUCATIONAL NEWS
– Nov. 1938 (Vol. 34 page
40)-Official Journal of California Teachers Association.
155 Sansome St. S.F. Ca.
“MARIHUANA”
– By Mrs. Pearl Kendall Hess, Director,
Medical Temperance and Health, National Women's Christian Temperance Union.
MARIHUANA
is a narcotic, from an annual plant Cannabis sativa of the hemp family and known
in North America as "marihuana", a Mexican word of obscure derivation.
On this continent it is smoked in the form of cigarets.
The
plant thrives according to environment, varying in height from 3 to 16 feet; the
rough, erect stem is branching and angular; the leaves are alternate or opposite
and deeply lobed. The culture of
marihuana probably originated in China; subsequently it was grown in India and
Persia; now it occurs wild or is cultivated on practically every continent.
It is grown for
three purposes: 1. Fiber out of which twine, rope and textiles are made. 2. Seed
from which comes an oil valuable in the arts as a substitute for linseed oil. 3.
The dangerous resin, a narcotic drug.
International Significance
History
records the latter use of it before the Christian era.
For centuries it has been a curse in Oriental countries.
About 1090 A.D., the "Order of Hashishan"
was founded in Persia.
The cruel acts of this sect, known in both Asia and Europe, were due to
the use of "Hashish",---an Arabic term from which is said to
have come the English word "assassin". In Turkey hashish is the oldest known narcotic drug.
The
Geneva convention in 1895 defined Cannabis.
At that time little was known of the menace in the United States.
Since then, recognizing the peril, the League of Nations has added
Cannabis to the list of narcotics needing re-definition and increasing
supervision. A sub-committee was
appointed to make a survey of the situation.
At the 1937 session the exhaustive report made by this committee was
prepared by Dr. J. Bouquet of Tunis, the
greatest expert on Cannabis in the world.
On addiction he says: "The use of Cannabis, whether smoked or
ingested in its various forms, undoubtedly gives rise to a form of addiction
which has serious social consequences."
Original Drawing Of A Victorian "Tea Party"
(Marijuana) Circa Mid 1800's
Action
As
with all narcotics, Cannabis retards normal functioning of body and mind.
In many ways its action is similar to that of alcohol or morphine.
According
to the individual Cannabis may produce, in so-called moderate doses, narcotic
results varying from mild intoxication to a dead drunk.
Its toxic effects appear to act on the higher nerve-centers exclusively.
There is first an exaltation with a sense of well-being, followed by
uncontrollable laughter, self-satisfaction, extravagant ideas lacking in
continuity, and an increased feeling of physical strength and power.
Accompanying
this is a stimulation of the imagination, followed by a more or less delirious
state characterized by vivid kaleidescopic visions, sometimes of a sensual kind,
but occasionally of a gruesome nature, when the addict
may develop a delirious rage and become temporarily irresponsible and likely to
commit violent crimes.
The vicious qualities of the drug render it highly
dangerous to the body and mind upon which it operates.
Eventually it weakens the physical powers.
It destroys the will, causes the user to lose the power of connected
thought, produces imaginary situations and frequently leads to insanity.
The
ability of Cannabis to remove moral inhibitions is said by some authorities to
be more powerful than that of any other drug, not excepting heroin.
Because of this it is used by the underworld to entrap prospective
victims.
"The
general use of cigarets by all classes of society makes it easy for the
drug-peddler to foist the marihuana cigaret on the unsuspecting boy and girl who
think it smart to try something that promises a kick in it*".
Illicit
Traffic
Until
about ten years ago there was little traffic in marihuana except in parts of the
Southwest. The weed, both
cultivated and in its wild state, is now spread over an extensive area.
The
marihuana cigaret is known to the underworld as reefer", "muggle",
"grifo", moota", "kiff" and "Mexican
shamrock."
With
cohorts recruited from the youth of the land this curse during the past decade,
has created a serious national problem.
In
at least 29 states the traffic is dangerous and increasing rapidly.
While
certain sections of the public have tolerated the publicity minimizing the
extent of the evil and the crime-producing qualities of the drug, the youth of
the land has been led to believe that marihuana is "harmless" and
"not habit-forming." This,
plus the "try anything once" hoax, has produced terrifying results.
"The
problems of greatest menace in the United States seem to be (1) the rise in the
use of marihuana with inadequate control laws; and (2) the over-supply of
narcotic drugs available in the Far East which threatens to inundate the western
world." (journ. Amer.
Med. Assn., Jan. 23, 1937.)
Medical
Use Negligible
The
value of Cannabis as medicine is thus discounted in the report of Dr. Bouquet to
the League of Nations: "From the medical point-of-view it is possible that
little objection would be raised to drafting limitations upon medical use of
derivatives." The
Public Health Service of the United States concedes that there is no medical use
for the drug because its effects on human beings are so variable and because
there are better substitutes.
Crime
"Opium
has all of the good of Dr. Jekyll and all the evil of Mr. Hyde.
This drug is entirely the monster Hyde, the harmful effects of which
cannot be measured".-H. J. Anslinger, Federal Commissioner of Narcotics.
Since
marihuana has proven to be a drug of addiction and an alarming factor in the
creation of degeneracy, the public should act promptly concerning the spread of
the menace.
From
North, South, East and West have come reports of petty crimes, murders and
insanity caused by the use of this deadly drug. In some cities marihuana joints exist because of the
prevalence of the habit.
Confessions
Confessions:
"A certain boy was a swell fellow until marihuana got him.
Like the rest of us he thought the weed was not habit-forming.
He smoked so many he could not quit.
Finally he went crazy." "Sometimes
we would go to a beer tavern and smoke, the boys always supplying the ‘muggles’.”
I know at least twenty boys whom I have seen smoking (marihuana) cigarets*."
Court Cases: "A man under the influence of
the drug attempted to shoot his wife but killed her grandmother instead and then
committed suicide." "A
man 25 years old, charged with criminally assaulting a 10-year-old girl, entered
a plea of not guilty because of insanity. He
was convicted and sentenced to death." "A young boy who had become addicted to smoking
marihuana cigarets killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, wiping
out the entire family except himself*."
Legislation
By
the passing of the Marihuana Taxing Act, signed by the President on August 2,
1937, the United States became the fifty-first nation to recognize the
seriousness of the traffic in marihuana. This
law will enable international, federal and state forces to cooperate, each
acting in its own sphere toward suppression of the traffic for illicit use, no
matter in what form the traffic is conducted.
All
states have some form of legislation covering production and use of marihuana.
There laws can be enforced only through informed and militant public
opinion.
*Hearings
before Committee on Ways and Means. House
of Representatives, Seventy-fifth Congress.
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