Race, Marijuana, and Legalization: From Historical Legacies to the Contemporary Case of Colorado Público

Abstract

The narrative goes that the reason marijuana is criminalized in a majority of the United States, is because it is a harmful drug and our lawmakers were trying to protect us. While this used to be an accepted fact, as studies come out about the positive and non-harmful effects of marijuana it is important to really look into what led to marijuana criminalization in the 1930s. In this paper I am arguing that marijuana was criminalized through racist and xenophobic rhetoric that swayed the public and lawmakers to support criminalizing marijuana. I am then looking to 2012 to understand how in a time when marijuana is starting to be legalized, the campaigns who work to legalize them include or avoid the narrative frame of the original criminalization of marijuana. After understanding the frame of the pro-legalization campaign of marijuana in Colorado I will look to see if and how this narrative has social justice implications in terms of the criminal justice system and the legal marijuana industry. My findings are that through the whitewashing of the campaign to legalize marijuana, the campaign to legalize marijuana not only left, but created space for certain injustices that arose from criminalization to continue in the sphere of legalization.

Table of Contents

Author’s Note …………………………………………… 1

Introduction ...…………………………………………… 2

Chapter 1: Social Movement Framing ……….  4

Chapter 2: Harry Anslinger’s Campaign to Criminalize Marijuana ..…… 7

            Alcohol Prohibition and Race in the United States ..……………….. 8

            Harry Anslinger’s Marijuana Criminalization Campaign ..………… 10

            Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 ..…………………………………………………… 16

Chapter 3: Amendment 64 and the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol … 18

            What is Amendment 64? …………………………………………………………. 19

            Key People and Arguments ……………………………………………………… 21

Analysis of the Advertisements ……………………………………………. 22

Overall Campaign Analysis …….……………………………………………… 32

Chapter 4: Social Justice Implications ..………………………………………………. 36

            Criminal Justice …………………………………………………….…………………. 36

Potrepreneurs ..………………………………………………….…………………. 46

Conclusion ..……………………………………………………………………………………..… 53

Figures & Notes …………..……………………………………………………………………… 56

Bibliography ..……………………………………………………………………………………… 57

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies American Studies Mass Communications
Palabra Clave	social movement framing race marijuana criminalization political campaigns marijuana legalization
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Wakefield, Peter, Emory University
Committee Members	Timothy, Dowd, Emory University Keyes, Corey, Emory University

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