Thread by @remygryph, Before u go around criticizing ppl who use weed, MEDICINAL OR RECREATIONAL, [...]

Before u go around criticizing ppl who use weed, MEDICINAL OR RECREATIONAL, you need to realize that the reason there's such a stigma against a plant like this is literally because Nixon wanted to target Black people and the anti-war left (Vietnam, that time around) in the 60s

Not only that, but the very reason it is called "marijuana" and not the scientific term "Cannabis" is because in the 30s, it was used to stigmatize minorities, specifically Mexicans.

Good article here: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana

The Mysterious History Of 'Marijuana'

The drug has been intertwined with race and ethnicity since well before the word "marijuana" was coined. Turns out there's an awful lot we don't know about the recent history of the cannabis plant.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana

And it wasn't just anti-Mexican sentiment, either. Here's it being tied to anti-Hindu sentiment back in the 1910s in California:

This plant has been in use since 2500 BC: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/oldest-evidence-marijuana-use-discovered-2500-year-old-cemetery-peaks-western-china

Oldest evidence of marijuana use discovered in 2500-year-old cemetery in peaks of western China

THC levels in braziers show mourners along the ancient Silk Road inhaled

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/oldest-evidence-marijuana-use-discovered-2500-year-old-cemetery-peaks-western-china

One of Nixon's top aides ADMITTED that the war on drugs, specifically cocaine and marijuana was invented to target vulnerable populations. A direct quote:

"You understand what I'm saying? We couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting -

"-the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities"

"We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news"

"DID WE KNOW WE WERE LYING ABOUT THE DRUGS? OF COURSE WE DID."

-John Erlichmann

citation: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html

Report: Nixon's war on drugs targeted black people

One of Richard Nixon's top advisers and a key figure in the Watergate scandal said the war on drugs was created as a political tool to fight blacks and hippies, according to a 22-year-old interview...

https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html

So before you go around acting all high and mighty that you ~can't be assed to touch the Devil's Lettuce~

consider instead: shutting the fuck up

Yes this is obviously a gross oversimplification of the history of cannabis but if you feel the need to come into my mentions JUST to mansplain the fact that I didn't get every single detail into a tweet thread....that's a block, pal. no time for you in 2020

"b-but nixon was president from 69-74 not the 60s bloo bloo"

shut

the

fuck

up

anyway i have nothing of my own to promote. more reading on cannabis history:

The complicated history of cannabis in the US: https://www.history.com/news/marijuana-criminalization-reefer-madness-history-flashback

support #BlackLivesMatter

, protests are still ongoing: http://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

Ways To Help

Ways To Help

https://www.history.com/news/marijuana-criminalization-reefer-madness-history-flashback

More cannabis history! I had heard about this but forgot to include it originally, so here: https://twitter.com/phloxyfoxy/status/1285610426294730753

https://twitter.com/phloxyfoxy/status/1285610426294730753

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