Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
From: Robert G Halvorson <norml@henson.cc.wwu.edu>
Subject: REEFER RACISM!
Message-ID: <1993May3.203458.21804@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
Date: Mon, 3 May 1993 20:34:58 GMT

                                Reefer Racism

                        Cinco de Mayo and The War on Drugs

                          by Pastor Jaymes Douglass Fyr

	Happy birthday, Mexico.  Birthplace of many millions of Americans. 
Birthplace of ancient cultures.  Birthplace of great music and food. 
Birthplace of
                            MARIJUANA!!??

	The history books tell us that one reason for the prohibition of
marijuana was that "under its baseful influence reckless men become
bloodthirsty, terribly daring and dangerous to an uncontrollable degree."
We are told that in 1910 a public official wrote that "marijuana was the
most frightening and vicious drug ever to hit New Orleans."

	What was the real reason marijuana was prohibited?

                             RACISM!

	Good old red, white and blue American racism!

	The Mexican revolution broke out in 1910 and the unrest spread
over the U.S. border in 1916 when Pancho Villa and his pot smoking
followers (some of them) invaded Columbus, New Mexico.  Crowds of poverty
stricken, uneducated Mexican peasants were migrating northward.  Jim Crow
America sensed another "yellow peril." Just as with the Chinese and opium,
American public opinion was manipulated to believe that Mexican immigrants
would bring in their devil drug, "marijuana," to seduce and corrupt the
divine American way. 

                                  MARIJUANA?
                                 WHAT'S THAT??

	In reality cannabis had already been in the country for centuries,
but it was known as "hemp."  "Marijuana" was its Mexican name.  Nobody knew
what it was, but everyone knew that Mexicans smoked it and it made them
grow crazy.  So the government began to ban it.  That was in the 1930's. 

                                     THE REST
                                     YOU KNOW.

	Today we are becoming aware that merely smoking "marijuana" does
not drive you crazy and that smoking its leaves and flowers is only one
use out of thousands for cannabis/hemp.  Let's put aside the semantics and
racial perjuratives.  Yeah, we all know the stereotypes:  shiftless
Mexicans smoking marijuana and ravishing American women; drunken Indians
on their impoverished reservations;  devious Chinese and Laotians,
scheming to hook American youth on opium and heroin. And lately homicidal
blacks pushing cocaine and crack.  Racial prejudice always can use some
kind of exotic chemical boogie man nobody ever heard of to fan its fires. 

                                WHAT ABOUT
                                 ALCOHOL?

	The average American parent will casually offer their adult child
a beer.  That's our cultural drug.  But 100 years ago Americans wore hemp
fiber clothing, read from hemp paper and used cannabis ingredients in
their patent medicines.  What's changed?  Something called "marijuana" -
pass a law against it and the problem - as well as its scruffy users -
will go away.  Will we ever learn? 

	On Cinco de Mayo we celebrate the birth of the United States of
Mexico and wish her a long life and good health.  The USA should keep its
imperialistic mitts to itself and if the people of Mexico wish to smoke
"marijuana" or anything else, that's their business.  The USA has no
right to interfere in Mexico's sovereignty!

	The USA is a democracy and we will eventually repeal the
prohibition of cannabis/hemp.  On Cinco de Mayo we just want to point out
how racism branded three species of plants - and a nation full of people -
to be evil. 

                	Thank you Mexico - for giving us

                               "Marijuana!"

National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
1636 'R' St. NW #3
Washington DC 20009

Western Washington University NORML
Viking Union Rm. 202, Box E-9
Bellingham, WA  98225

Washington Citizens
for Drug Policy Reform (WCDPR)
P.O. Box 1614
Renton, WA  98057

Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP)
5632 Van Nuys Blvd.
Van Nuys, CA 91401

Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp (BACH)
P.O. Box 71093
Los Angeles, CA  90071-0093

The Church of Hemp
P.O. Box 1511
Bellingham, WA  98227-1511
=============================================================================

Thanks Pastor!  Share this widely!

Wayne

"Look in the blind spot in the culture--the place where the culture isn't
  looking, because it dare not--because if it were to look there, it's
    previous values would dissolve.           --Terrence McKenna

   Western Washington U, Viking Union, Box E-9, Bellingham, WA  98225
              (206) 650-3460    norml@henson.cc.wwu.edu
    Kevin Keyes, Coordinator    Robert Halvorson, Co-Cooridinator