SECOND MARIJUANA PAPER:
NAMING NAMES:
Was it a conspiracy? Was a viable industry ruined because it threatened public health, or because a few large businesses would profit from banning it? Hemp was outlawed in 1937 just as new technology that processed it faster, producing higher-quality fiber with less cost and environmental damage than wood-based pulp, was invented. Hemp would have undercut competing products overnight. Popular Mechanics predicted that it would become America’s first “billion-dollar crop. …10,000 acres devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average [forest] pulp land.”
William Randolph Hearst had a vested interest in protecting the pulp industry. He owned enormous timber acreage and hemp could put his paper-manufacturing division out of business and ruin his land value. He slanted the news to protect his investments. He led a yellow journalism campaign to outlaw hemp. As example, a car accident in which marijuana was found dominated the headlines for weeks, while alcohol-related accidents (outnumbering marijuana over 1,000 to one) made the back pages. Hearst popularized the word “marijuana” to introduce fear of the unknown to create a useable hysteria. (more…)
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