The Union: The Business Behind Getting High

( host )

Marijuana History 101.

Or should I say extremely brief

Marijuana History 101 ?

It's big, complicated,

and we'll only be able to

scratch the surface,

so let's get started.

The first thing

that strikes one as odd

when looking at the history

of marijuana,

which is also

known as cannabis,

is how very much legal

it once was.

In fact, it wasn't only legal,

it just happened to be one of

the largest agricultural crops

in the world,

including the United States.

You see, cannabis can also be

hemp-- and just what is hemp ?

Well, it's by and large

the most robust, durable,

natural soft fiber on the face

of this planet.

Up until 1883,

and for

thousands of years before,

cannabis hemp was the largest

agricultural crop in the world.

It had thousands of uses

and products.

The majority of

fabric, lighting oil,

medicines, paper and fiber

came from hemp.

The first marijuana law

to exist in the United States

was a law ordering farmers

to grow hemp.

Benjamin Franklin

used it to start

one of America's

first paper mills.

The first two copies of

the Declaration of Independence

were written on cannabis

hemp paper.

Up until the 1800s,

most of the textiles

in the United States were

made with hemp.

last half of the 19th century

was made from cannabis.

Even Queen Victoria used

the resin extracts from cannabis

to alleviate her

menstrual cramps.

But the funny thing about

industrial hemp

was you couldn't

get high from it,

yet it was lumped in

with the following,

which also made little sense--

"Reefer Madness."

In the early 20th century,

yellow journalism had surfaced.

Articles depicted blacks and

Mexicans as frenzied beasts

who would smoke marijuana,

play devil's music,

and heap disrespect and

viciousness on the readership,

a majority of which happened

to be white.

Some offenses included

looking at a white woman twice,

laughing at a white person,

or even stepping on

white men's shadows,

and this ended up leading to a

law in the form of a tax stamp,

a tax stamp that would not only

include marijuana,

but also hemp

and cannabis medicines.

It speculated that hemp's

potential

for an abundance

of new products

was going to be in direct

competition with other sources.

And this,

added to the Reefer Madness,

led to the eventual downfall of

all forms of cannabis.

"Popular Mechanics" magazine had

actually prepared an article

entitled

"New Billion-Dollar Crop."

Hemp was touted as being

able to produce

more than 5,000 textile products

from its threadlike fiber

and more than 25,000

products from its cellulose,

ranging from dynamite

to cellophane.

Its superiority as a source for

paper was also becoming known,

especially with the development

of hemp-processing equipment.

Now, the new Marijuana Tax Act

was all fine and dandy,

except for one thing.

If you wanted to grow hemp,

you needed to buy a stamp,

but they weren't giving

any out--

to anybody.

And so, in effect, all forms of

cannabis became illegal.

Things pretty much stayed

that way until World War II,

when the government decided

that hemp,

once again, was a good thing,

and produced a video,

"Hemp for Victory."

But by the time the war was

over, hemp again became bad,

and in 1948,

when the Marijuana Law

once again came into question,

Congress recognized that

marijuana was made illegal

for the wrong reason.

It didn't make people

violent at all.

It made them pacifists.

The Communists would use it to

weaken America's will to fight.

Congress now voted to keep

marijuana illegal

for the exact opposite reason

they had outlawed it

in the first place.

And all through the years,

report after report,

commissioned by everybody,

from the mayor of New York

to the president

of the United States,

has come back with the view

that marijuana

should have no criminal

penalty attached to it.

Yet marijuana remains

as illegal today

as it did

nearly 70 years ago.

Marijuana.

It's become big business,

a multibillion-dollar

business

both in Canada

and the United States,

but why has it become

such a big business ?

Here in British Columbia alone,

it's speculated that

the illegal BC marijuana trade

brings in upwards of

$7 billion annually,

and up to 85% of that product

heads south

to the United States.

Having become an international

issue, when do the lines blur ?

How does a massive underground

market like this survive

while remaining illegal ?

Why is marijuana illegal

in the first place ?

And if Prohibition

is meant to protect us,

I guess the most obvious

question is,

does the Prohibition work ?

( man )

If Prohibition worked, okay ?

If you could just wave

a magic wand and say,

"This is gone away,"

I'd be all over it, you know ?

But the fact of the matter is

that Prohibition

has never worked.

( man )

You know,

we've been here before.

You remember the first

Prohibition, right ?

Which was ?

( host )

Prohibition of alcohol.

No, no, I'm talking about

thefirstProhibition.

"Thou shalt not partake

of the fruit of the tree

of knowledge."

And who was the big cop ?

And how many people

did He have to watch ?

Two.

What are the goals

of this Prohibition ?

( man )

I assume the goals

of Prohibition

are to reduce the amount

of drugs available

and to reduce

the demand for those drugs.

In both instances, cannabis

Prohibition's an utter failure.

Has the Prohibition stopped

people from using marijuana ?

( man )

You get a phone call,

and it says,

"I'm from

the federal government.

"I wanna know whether

you've been using cocaine

or marijuana recently."

Presumably, you might be

getting a little bit

of an underestimate.

In 1937, there were estimated

to be 55,000 marijuana users,

and now there are estimated

to be more than 50 million

of them.

That's a 100,000% increase.

Seems to be quite

a few of them.

Yes, I'm afraid there are.

Whether the drug is

criminalized or decriminalized

does not affect the rates of

smoking of cannabis,

either of uptake

or of discontinuation.

( host )

So what are the dangers

of using marijuana ?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It gives you, like,

a rapid heartbeat.

( woman )

Smoker's cough.

I'm sure it has some effect on

your brain function, memory.

I don't know,

is there something unhealthy

about moving slowly ?

It's just not good for you.

You're not fully conscientious

of what you're doing.

Thickens some membranes

in your brain or something.

Well, it's been science--

I guess it's--

I'm being told it's been

scientifically proven

that marijuana

kills your brain cells.

Ahh, that's one I remember--

marijuana kills brain cells.

I thought the same thing.

You know, I didn't start smoking

pot until about five years ago.

I thought pot

made you stupid.

I bought into it just as

much as anybody did.

I realized when I was like

I was like, "You got to be

f***ing kidding me."

Ronald Reagan announces the most

reliable scientific sources say

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