NY Times Peddled Reefer Madness in the Past

The New York Times recently put out an editorial rallying against marijuana prohibition. Since then, the NY Times has been issuing a collection of essays, in installments, covering various aspects of this topic. A recent title read, “The Federal Marijuana Ban is Rooted in Myth and Xenophobia.” Go ahead and Google “marijuana racial profiling” and you will see that the essay’s title is pretty dead on.

However, while the Times is doing some good work in rationally addressing the veil of bullshit and mystique that has clouded marijuana’s history in America, they conveniently overlooked the portions of their own history where they helped to fan the prohibition flames. Granted, there is quite a temporal distance between the board of editors today and from decades gone by, but I think it’s worth paying attention to. Maybe there will be a day when the Washington Times and/or Fox News will also come out as supporters of a plant they have spent much time vilifying.

As Forbes puts it:

“In their gratitude for the belated support of a venerable journalistic institution, anti-prohibitionists should not overlook the extent to which the Times has aided and abetted the war on marijuana over the years. That shameful history provides a window on the origins of this bizarre crusade and a lesson in the hazards of failing to question authority. In an essay published by the Times on Tuesday, part of a series fleshing out the case for legalization, editorial writer Brent Staples exposes the ugly roots of marijuana prohibition: The federal law that makes possession of marijuana a crime has its origins in legislation that was passed in an atmosphere of hysteria during the 1930s and that was firmly rooted in prejudices against Mexican immigrants and African-Americans, who were associated with marijuana use at the time. This racially freighted history lives on in current federal policy, which is so driven by myth and propaganda that it is almost impervious to reason. Unfortunately, [the piece] overlooks the role the Times itself played in building that atmosphere of hysteria and disseminating the propaganda that supposedly justified the ban on marijuana. He mentions “sensationalistic newspaper articles” that tied marijuana to “murder and mayhem” and “depicted pushers hovering by the schoolhouse door turning children into ‘addicts.’” He does not mention that such stories appeared in The New York Times.”

For instance, the Times published this little gem in 1925:

“27-year-old Mexican named Escrado Valle, “crazed from smoking marihuana,” “ran amuck today in a local hospital and killed six persons before he could be subdued.” The Times, “later that year… announced that the Mexican government had banned marijuana “To Stamp Out Drug Plant Which Crazes Its Addicts.” In 1927, the Times picked up on the theme of marijuana-crazed Mexicans again, reporting that “a widow and her four children have been driven insane by eating the Marihuana plant.” The paper cited “doctors” who “say that there is no hope of saving the children’s lives and that the mother will be insane for the rest of her life.” Yet according to the story, the family accidentally ate fresh cannabis plants, which are not psychoactive.”

So, New York Times, while I appreciate what you’re trying to do (even though coming out in support at this point is more or less being on the bandwagon), at least have the decency to acknowledge your own role in perpetrating this prohibition lunacy in the first place.