A Touch of (Reefer) Madness

From entheogenic to recreational use, marijuana has had a place in the hearts (and lungs and stomachs and eventually brains) of humankind since the first Neanderthal figured out how to roll a joint. In all seriousness, the drug has been used medicinally and spiritually since as early as 500 BCE in China and South Asia. The illegalization of marijuana is actually fairly recent in both the United States and the United Kingdom, having occurred in the 20th century along with a global wave of restrictions and criminalization on the cultivation, distribution and recreational use of marijuana. In some cases, countries made marijuana use illegal under the pressure of the US and UK, which calls into question the motivations behind legal restrictions on the drug (an issue which I do not necessarily have the word count to discuss in the wider global scope).

There are many arguments for, and against, the legalization of marijuana all around the world, but in this article I will focus on the discourse within the US, as it seems to be one of the countries at the forefront of the global wave of restrictions, especially considering their intervention in many of the cases of prohibition. This is also my area of expertise, silly American that I am.

As any Health class worth its salt will tell you, marijuana is the most commonly used drug in the US - probably even around the world. As the movie ‘Reefer Madness’ would tell you, use of this devil’s lettuce by teenagers results in sinful acts of sexual congress, driving under the influence, murder, intrigue, sexual assault, and framing someone for all these things. Apparently, legal drugs such as alcohol do not result in any of these acts. ‘But Krys!’: you cry: ‘You are oversimplifying the point! Surely you must know that people are also super freaked out by alcohol, legal or not legal!’ To that, I would say, sure.

People often are just as freaked out about alcohol as they are about marijuana - however, the concern and scrutiny among lay people rely heavily on the legal status of both of these drugs. For instance, an adult who is an alcoholic is scrutinized, but doesn’t incite the same horror as an underage drinker. On the other hand, an adult who smokes marijuana recreationally and a teenager who does the same incite about equal amounts of horror and scrutiny, with the added bonus of Harsh Legal Consequences.

Adults can lose jobs over drug tests, teenagers can lose opportunities and (in extreme cases) suffer legal actions and eve r-present stains on their criminal records for the possession and distribution of the drug. The invasiveness of drug tests and intervention of the law on a drug less harmful than both tobacco and alcohol is bad enough, but (especially in the United States) there is an added layer of systemic racism in the justice system.

Although predominantly white neighbourhoods and predominantly black neighbourhoods have the same level of marijuana distribution and use, black neighbourhoods are policed more heavily, and so the consequences of this legal status hit them the hardest. Drug-related convictions have been an important tool for the legal system to suck disadvantaged youths of colour in, and keep them stuck in a cycle where it is impossible to get a job or housing once they are released from prison. Of course, those stuck in this impossible situation will reoffend and get caught back up in the illegal distribution of marijuana, and likely get caught and sent back to prison.

So, going back to the point about ‘Reefer Madness’, I will say that legality has more to do with the paranoia surrounding marijuana than the actual effects and usage of the drug. I would be remiss not to give attention to the argument that weed makes the user “stupid, sluggish, lazy and unconcerned” (as Frank Ocean’s mother once told him, and then all of us when he released the voicemail in his track “Be Yourself”). I will double down on the fact that the solution to this particular problem does not lie within criminalizing marijuana, but upon clear messaging regarding the drug and effective harm reduction. Whether or not the drug is illegal, teenagers and adults alike are able to get their hands on marijuana and use it recreationally. If restrictions were an effective way to handle overuse of any drug, then underage drinking would not be a problem. If anything, these restrictions make it more difficult to seek help due to stigma and risk of legal repercussions.

What matters most in the question of legalization of marijuana, especially in the United States, is deconstructing an ideology which purposefully misunderstands the effects of marijuana usage for the sake of excusing racialized criminalization, and moreover deconstructing the system which is built upon this ideology. Even in states where marijuana has been legalized for recreational use or decriminalized, those who were convicted for the intention to distribute marijuana before it was legalized or decriminalized often are given the short end of the stick and still are stuck with the legal consequences. Legalization can’t just be focused on the future of marijuana usage, but on those who were shafted by the legal system along the way.

Krysta Siguenza-Limin