Cannabis prohibition and racism are deeply connected since the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Henry Anslinger, the architect of cannabis prohibition, was incredibly racist and used that position to demonize cannabis and make cannabis consumers out to be dangerous.
While overt racism has declined sharply in prohibitionist circles, remnants still surface from time to time. Some of the leading prohibitionists continue to make dog whistles and interact with known white supremacists.
The above screenshots show Alex Berenson interacting and wanting to work with a known Canadian white supremacist. Additionally, in his book, he makes dog whistle comments about the Black Lives Matter movement and how it makes policing “difficult”. By this, it can be implied that cops need to think about their actions before they shoot unarmed African-Americans in the back.
Other prohibitionists make statements that downplay the role cannabis played in non-European cultures and see it as an “invader” to Western-European culture.
While I have previously briefly mentioned cannabis’s influence in a previous post, the above posts completely dismiss the achievements and importance of Chinese, Egyptian, Indian, and Middle-Eastern cultures in the development of modern society. Those statements make it very clear their position of Western-European(white) centrism to the development modern society; which is the definition of the belief of white supremacy.
Whenever we encounter these disgusting views, they need to be immediately called out. Suggesting someone is less human due to the color of their skin or the place of their birth is a backwards view that needs to come to and end for us all to come together and make a better world for ourselves.