380
submitted 2 months ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to c/til@lemmy.world

Throughout the 19th century, news reports and medical journal articles almost always use the plant's formal name, cannabis. Numerous accounts say that "marijuana" came into popular usage in the U.S. in the early 20th century because anti-cannabis factions wanted to underscore the drug's "Mexican-ness." It was meant to play off of anti-immigrant sentiments.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] roofuskit@lemmy.world 106 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

In the United States drug prohibition is historically ALWAYS about racism. The exception being weed which was about racism and anti-war protestors.

[-] CaliforniaSober@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 months ago

With cannabis it’s always been a tool to break up ethnic communities. Grass was an excuse, strength and community was the target.

[-] CeruleanRuin 22 points 2 months ago

But of course the anti-war protests were also inextricably tied up with civil rights protests happening at the same time.

[-] bamfic@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

It was banned in the usa in the 1930s, long before hippies or vietnam

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

idk about that, powder cocaine is illegal too and it's mostly just for rich white people.

Exceptions make the rules, though.

[-] Lowpast@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

When cocaine usage first exploded, it was almost entirely in "laborers, youths, black people, and the urban underworld". Most of the early history of its usage is associated with non-whites and lower class peoples. Making it illegal worked for a long time until the cocaine boom happened and then it became popular with disco and rock, but again, still mostly used by non-whites. It wasn't until crack became a thing that the racial divide became more clear - rich whites got the clean cocaine, everyone else got addicted to crack.

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300255874/html

The switch to being heavily used by the rich white class is a "relatively" recent development.

this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
380 points (96.1% liked)

Today I Learned

17860 readers
28 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS