Colonialism, class and crime: the racist roots of cannabis prohibition
Cannabis Health News

Cannabis laws in the UK and US have a long, complex past. But no matter where you look, race is at the heart of the cannabis prohibition conversation.  The history of cannabis prohibition is a history of racism, classism and control. In the US, cannabis prohibitionist propaganda was used as a tool to criminalise Black communities and demonise Mexican immigrants throughout the 1900s (and, arguably, to this day).  In the UK, cannabis prohibition evolved slightly differently. As the power of the British Empire dwindled throughout the 19th century, a new set of beliefs instilled fear amongst the colonial elites: that cannabis causes madness — and hence, crime — and that the ‘ganja smoking’ labour classes of former colonies or the ‘cannabis peddling Negros’ of the 1950s would spread this madness and destroy polite society as we know it.  Cannabis in colonised India Whether for fibre, food, medicine, religious practice, or relaxation, cannabis has been part of human culture for more than 10,000 years. Cannabis cultivation likely originated in either central or Southeast Asia and its seeds spread across Eurasia through trade, migration and war. Cannabis could have been farmed in the UK as early as the Bronze age, and for centuries, Hemp was one of the Crown’s most important crops.  Cannabis prohibition in the UK, like in the US, was born out of false beliefs about its abilities to turn ‘normal’ people into depraved lunatics who were out to steal your wealth (and your women), and which associated it with the ‘others’ of society — essentially those who were on the outside of the white ruling class.  While medicinal cannabis was somewhat popular in Victorian times (with Queen Victoria herself suspected to use cannabis to treat menstrual cramps), its acceptance in high society began to wane in the late 19th…

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