The First Stoned

Marijuana prohibition was wrong from the beginning.

by Chris Goldstein

Denver police and the FBImove in to make a drug sting at a nondescript hotel called the Lexington.They quickly arrest two men, seizing two marijuana joints. The date was Oct. 2, 1937, and the arrests implemented a law that had taken effect that very same day: the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act.

Samuel R. Caldwell and Moses Baca thus became the first of millions of Americans arrested and imprisoned because of marijuana prohibition. Caldwell was sentenced to four years of hard labor in Leavenworth penitentiary; Baca received 18 months. Both men served every last day.

The Marijuana Tax Stamp Act was passed by Congress after just 90 minutes of floor debate, despite vehement opposition from the American Medical Association. Championed by the country's first drug czar, Harry Anslinger, the law and its proponents' characterizations of marijuana smokers were starkly racist. (Propaganda linked marijuana smoking to black jazz musicians and Mexican immigrants.) Meanwhile, the "tax stamps" themselves were never for sale; the federal legislation was fully understood to be used as a prohibition, not a regulation.

Fast forward several decades; the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act has been ruled unconstitutional. But in 1972, President Nixon callously ignored a recommendation from his handpicked presidential commission that marijuana be decriminalized; instead, he allowed marijuana's inclusion into Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. That updated prohibition ushered in the modern era of skyrocketing arrests and incarcerations.

In 2006, almost 830,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana violations. This represents 44 percent of all U.S. drug arrests. It's more than those arrested for all violent crimes combined.

In Philadelphia alone, more than 7,000 are arrested each year, mostly for simple possession. It takes about three hours to process each arrest, thereby taking police officers off the street for about 21,000 hours annually. That's like having 400 cops working full time every year just busting pot smokers.

While the government propaganda has changed little, marijuana science and culture have deeply evolved. Tens of millions of Americans smoke it; 94 million of us, about a third of the population has admitted trying it, according to the Monitoring the Future National Household Survey. Marijuana is now broadly recognized as America's largest and most profitable agricultural product; and more exceptionally well-cultivated, high-quality marijuana is being grown than ever before.Most important is the exhaustive scientific and medical research that has shown marijuana's surprising properties. A lethal overdose is impossible (a rare property for anything considered a drug). Individual chemical components unique to the plant, called cannabinoids, have anti-cancer properties and offer a glimmering hope for Alzheimer's disease and other serious brain disorders.Caldwell and Baca's arrests remain a profoundly important turning point for American democracy. Since then, world wars have been waged, civil rights and greater women's equality gained, labor has dramatically changed and more modern, defining issues have been addressed — such as a woman's right to choose and the empowerment of the LGBT community. Yet the broad governmental oppression of the freedom to choose a recreational intoxicant, or choose a natural medicine, has not just remained in place; it has been pursued with confusing vigor.

Thus Caldwell and Baca can be considered patriots not because of their particular life deeds, but because, like the Japanese-Americans put into concentration camps during World War II or African-American citizens who for centuries endured the basest forms of oppression, they had to sacrifice their lives and personal freedoms to a criminal government policy. Still, marijuana prohibition will end. When this policy changes and freedom is upheld, the millions arrested, starting with Caldwell and Baca — should never be forgotten.

Chris Goldstein is a radio host and podcaster who lives in Burlington County, N.J. His Web site is www.normlaudiostash.com.