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Brendan Teufel

Dr. John Minbiole

2 November 2018

CAS-137 Section 005

Mary Jane: The Devil’s Lettuce to America’s Pastime

Why is it that Americans are always protesting? Every time you turn on the news or

open a newspaper there is another rally or protest going on somewhere in America to object

some situation. While some citizens are actually aiming to change public policy and protest,

what they think, is an unwarranted government action, other people just do not like to be

controlled. Americans from all walks of life resist actions from the government for their own

reasons, including simply fighting against authority. Citizens from the United States are very

passionate about questioning authority which comes from a long history of that nature.

It comes to no surprise where this rising-up-against-the-system mindset in Americans

comes from when you look at the history of the country. The United States was created on

citizens rising up against the leaders of their society. The changing public policies in the United

States, as well as the commonplace beliefs in society, shift with the struggles between those

resisting authority or existing norms and those trying to keep a “civil society”. One of such

struggles in American history has been the implementation of public policy to control the use of

drugs. This struggle has seen a big back and forth in history. For example, President Richard

Nixon tightened the laws on substances in the 1970s with his war on drugs, while today,

marijuana is legal to use recreationally in nine American states and medically in 31 (Governing).

This press to change legalization came from a shift in the way people look at marijuana and how

American citizens led public protests and political movements for change. This shift towards a
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more relaxed look at marijuana use came as a rebellious statement during the counterculture era

in the United States during the 1960s to 1970s, because of a loss of respect for authority and the

reserved morals of families following World War II, and has continued to evolve as a movement

supported by scientific research, the public eye, and legislation.

The use of drugs in America did not become a more controversial issue until more recent

history. Before the 1900s, the illegal drug marijuana did not technically exist. Americans had

been smoking what we call marijuana today, but they did not look at it in the same light. People

actually had the main component of marijuana, THC, in a lot of medicines and did not think

anything of it. The reason marijuana became an illegal drug was because of the immigration of

people from Mexico in the early 1900s. The immigrants would sometimes smoke what they

called “marihuana” once they got to the United States. The federal government made laws

against the plant, calling it marijuana, for excuses to arrest and deport the Mexican immigrants,

because of the massive number of Mexican people that were immigrating to the United States

during that time. This was similar to years earlier when the federal government made laws

against opium to restrict immigrants from Asia.

Viewpoints on marijuana usage continued to tighten up as years progressed. On top of

that, reserved family morals following World War II continued to drive people away from the

drug. After the end of World War II up until the 1960s, American citizens, specifically American

families, had much more reserved attitudes. After the war had ended and soldiers returned home,

couples started to have many more children. There was an increased amount of people, because

of the heightened birth rates, and an increased amount of jobs. Americans were very focused on

their jobs and livelihoods, as well as maintaining security and family. “Parents did everything

they could to make life good for their children. The number of boys playing on Little League
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baseball teams increased from less than one million to almost six million between nineteen fifty

and nineteen sixty”(Jarmul). Families were hoping to create long and happy lives, and drug use

was not something that had a part in that.

While the family component after World War II was a big push against drugs, an even

bigger source of antagonism towards them came from elsewhere. The United States government

made statements and produced content to dissuade Americans from doing drugs. “The Federal

Bureau of Narcotics also used propaganda as a preventative measure. They created myths and

horror stories about drugs. Marijuana was blamed for bizarre cases of insanity, murder, and sex

crimes” (Stanford). Different figures and departments of the United States government were very

public about the criticism of drugs and those that use them, even making the most ridiculous, far-

fetched, and flat-out untrue statements about their effects on people.

Young people in America began to lose their faith in the previous generation. Many

people disagreed with the values of their parents’ generation as well as decisions they had made

in the past. For example, the youth finally started to change the racist views passed on from their

parents. Racism had been inherited from generation to generation and was starting to be seen as a

completely outdated mindset. Youth in America began to turn the tides on the inherent racism

that had plagued America for centuries and now saw these old-fashioned values in their parents

for exactly what they were: out of date and in need of change. This was not the only big factor in

the young generation’s newfound distrust in their parent’s generation; young Americans were

extremely unhappy with how their parents had handled the Vietnam war. They thought their

parents were trigger-happy to support the country to jump into problems and conflicts in foreign

countries that were not really their business. American youth became unsatisfied and untrusting
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in the older generations’ abilities to make political beneficial decisions for the country as a

whole.

While the new younger Americans’ trust in their parents’ generations was fleeting at a

rapid rate, their trust in the American government was also losing heavy ground. Their view of

the horrendous choice of the United States to get involved in Vietnam not only led them to lose

their trust in their parents and their parents’ generation, but the entire government as a whole.

The same poor qualities that young Americans saw in their parents, they also saw in the federal

government: trigger-happy, outdated morals, and poor decision-makers. “The share saying they

could trust the federal government to do the right thing nearly always or most of the time reached

an all time high in 1964. Within a decade – a period that included the Vietnam War, civil unrest

and the Watergate scandal – trust had fallen by more than half, to 36%” (Pew Research Center).

American youth also lost trust in the American government to look after their health and

personal choices, because of the over-the-top and untrue campaigns by the federal government

against drugs. All of these factors put together led young people in America into the

counterculture movement of the 1960s.

The counterculture movement was a movement during the 1960s in America where

young people rejected the traditional norms of their parents and their generations. Some of the

focuses of the youth during the movement were to move away from their parents’ mindsets and

ways of life, whether it being their inherent racism or traditional, outdated values. To do this,

young people began to initiate their era of massive defiance against older generations. Some of

the statements they made and acts they participated in were more political like the Civil Rights

Movement, which pushed for more equal rights for African Americans, or the push for an end to

United States military involvement in Southeast Asia. The main point was to go against old
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attitudes of their parents and the federal government and do anything they could go against their

will or law. More young people participated in activities they previously would never have

thought to try, because of the potential consequences from their parents or legal ramifications.

A big part of the counterculture movement was the widespread experimentation with

drugs by younger American. The counterculture movement was the single moment in United

States’ history that initiated a shift on the views on drugs, specifically marijuana, from being

completely opposed by the country to becoming increasingly supported today. Drugs became a

popular way to defy parents and parental figures in society and the usage of LSD and marijuana

by young Americans dramatically increased. The more the new generation used all these drugs,

the more they saw how their parents had lied about their effects or how unnecessarily extreme

the government propaganda was. This led to more distrust and defiance in their parents’

generation and government and, following that, more drug use. Marijuana became much more

common to be used by younger people, and commonplace beliefs on the drug began completely

changing in the minds of young Americans.

These changed commonplace beliefs, now instilled in a greater amount of young people,

led way to an American society with more relaxed views on marijuana. Once these new

commonplace beliefs were set in place in the minds of these young people, they could be

inherently adopted by their kids, as was the case with commonplace beliefs on slavery and

racism in the United States years ago. The new relaxed commonplace beliefs on marijuana

became passed down from generation to generation and have continued throughout America

today. On top of the inherent commonplace beliefs, marijuana continued to be viewed in a more

relaxed way for decades after the counterculture movement because of the increased research

into it as well as changing legislation.

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As marijuana use increased by citizens throughout America, research on the drug was

also increased. While marijuana users already found out first hand that the ridiculous effects that

the government and parents said the drug caused were overexaggerated, non-users of the drug

still needed more convincing to support it. As the years went on, more research went into the

drug. Research showed people in America that the drug was nowhere near as harmful as people

previously thought; marijuana users often bring up the fact that there have been plentiful direct

deaths from alcohol, but none from marijuana. Scientists have also discovered the healing effects

that THC, the main component in marijuana, has on the human body. This increased study in the

drug has continued to change the commonplace beliefs of more Americans to relax their views

on the drug and its use.

Research continued on the drug that showed the beneficial properties of it and how it was

not as bad as people in America had previously thought. This continued to change the

commonplace beliefs of marijuana towards a more relaxed tone and increased the support for the

drug. This increased positive attitude towards the drug opened up political movements in favor

of it. The more people that supported marijuana usage, whether it be medically or recreationally,

the more political movements and interest groups that rose out of it. Politicians have to make

decisions based on their constituents’ beliefs or opinions if they want to get reelected. Since

support of marijuana kept rising and advocates for it made their opinions about it very vocal,

legislation began changing that supported the legalization of marijuana. Today, marijuana is now

legal for medical use in 31 American states and recreational use in nine states. This is a big

contrast to the laws and legislation before in the 1960s and 1970s that aimed to crack down hard

on drug use, like the war on drugs by president Richard Nixon in the 1970s. These changing laws
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highlight how much support for the drug has dramatically increased from the 1940s, 1950s, and

previous, starting with the counterculture movement in the 1960s.

The public support of marijuana has seemed to skyrocket in recent years with an

increasing amount of states decriminalizing it for medical and recreational use. While this public

push for change to legislation may seem to just have taken root in the 20th and 21st centuries,

support for the relaxation of marijuana laws can be traced to much earlier in Americans history.

The counterculture movement was the specific point in American history where commonplace

viewpoints in America significantly changed and then, in years following, continued to garner

more support. Support for marijuana has increased over the years continuing through today

where states have actually made it legal to use. This continued support can be traced to stem

from the counterculture movement in the 1960s into the 1970s. This movement of simply

rebelling against societal norms changed an entire commonplace belief and state law over a small

portion of United States’ history. Marijuana continues to be increasingly supported today by

activist groups advocating for individual rights and continues to take over the United States as an

increasingly common activity. Resistance of authority has been a big part of American history

and continues to be a big aspect of changing legislature and traditional norms. This paradigm

shift of marijuana use in America’s recent history goes to show how a short movement of like-

minded people, regardless of age or walks of life, can set off a series of events that completely

changes not only societal norms but government law itself.

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Works Cited

Briscoe IV, Dolph. “The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics
by Bruce J. Schulman (2001).” Not Even Past, 10 May 2016, notevenpast.org/seventies-
great-shift-american-culture-society-and-politics-2001/.

Bruscino, Thomas A. “A Nation Forged in War : How World War II Taught Americans to Get
Along.” University of Tennessee Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=878328.

Davidson, Adam. “Learning from History in Changing Times: Taking Account of Evolving
Marijuana Laws in Federal Sentencing.” Proquest, 2018,
lawreview.uchicago.edu/publication/learning-history-changing-times-taking-account-
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Fingerhut, Hannah. “1. Trust in Government: 1958-2015.” Pew Research Center for the People
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Jarmul, David. “American History: Life in the US After World War Two.” Learning English,
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Martin, Scott C. “Marijuana in the United States: How Attitudes Have Changed.” Time, Time, 20
Apr. 2016, time.com/4298038/marijuana-history-in-america/.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division;
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Stanford. “The United States War on Drugs.” Web.Stanford.edu, Stanford University,

web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/paradox/htele.html.