Cultural Attitudes Regarding Social Policy - 1874 Words

Cultural attitudes regarding social policy often change with time. One of the best ways to analyze the changing culture of a society is by examining the progression of its laws. The laws governing marijuana have varied widely throughout the history of the United States. Tracking the path of laws regarding marijuana is a demonstrable example of social change; those laws having gone from one extreme to the other and back. There has been a fundamental change in cultural attitude regarding the legalization of marijuana. Examples of this shift can be seen by examining the history of marijuana before it was illegal, why the laws changed to make in illegal (even a felony), the change in attitude, the racial aspect, modern legislation,†¦show more content†¦Hemp was allowed to be exchanged as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland†(2) . Following the Mexican revolution of 1910, Mexican immigrants flocked to the U.S. and introduced the recreational use of cannabis by smoking its leafs. They called the substance marijuana. The fear and prejudice about the Mexican immigrants became associated with marijuana. Anti-marijuana campaigns were initiated in the 1920s for many reasons. Newspaper industry executive, William Randolph Hearst, felt threatened that the supply of hemp, which was a cheaper and stronger fiber than paper, would undercut paper prices. Hearst, in addition to being a newspaper executive, had financial holdings in timber, the main component of paper. He used negative propaganda published in his newspapers to create public fear. The claim that Mexicans were committing crimes and attributing it to their marijuana use was a result of the propaganda, shifting the cultural attitude against marijuana. By the 1930s. unemployment caused by the Great Depression, increased the outrage toward the Mexican immigrants, as they usurped ever shrinking number of American jobs. The fact that the Mexicants were associated with marijuana use resulted in a negative public impression. In 1936 the infamous anti-marijuana movie Reefer Madness was released. The film depicts a group of teenagers smoking marijuana and proceeding to do mischievous acts from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide,