US Federal government pre WOD stance on marihuana

[Antigen]

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.
                                                                               
--Julius Caesar

[Deborah]

Given that Cannibus grew better in the south, is it possible that making it illegal was one of many efforts to further devestate the southern economy, like the freeing of slaves? Not that freeing the slaves was a bad thing, it just wasn't done for the reasons people are led to believe.

[Antigen]

Well, it wasn't a major crop in the states of the Confederacy. And it wasn't outlawed untill a good 70 years after the Civil War. The major production areas for domestic Cannabis were in what is now Texas, NM, Arizona and it was done by Mexicans.

For insight into who wanted MJ illegal and why they wanted it, check out

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937
The history of how the Marihuana Tax Act came to be the law of the land.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hem ... taxact.htm

and chapter 5 of Jack Herer's The Emperor Wears No Clothes
http://www.onlinepot.org/grow/jack5.htm

Clancy's Law: The perceived role of governments is to deploy ever increasing resources to the attainment of  ever diminishing end results.
--Home Page