{"id":739,"date":"2021-07-30T18:16:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T18:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/marijuana-and-the-mexican-revolution\/"},"modified":"2021-07-30T18:16:25","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T18:16:25","slug":"marijuana-and-the-mexican-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/marijuana-and-the-mexican-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana and the Mexican Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div property=\"content:encoded\">\n<p><em>This article is adapted from Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana \u2013 Medical, Recreational and Scientific by Martin A. Lee<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-autosize image-align-none\"><\/div>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p>High up in the rugged Sierra Madre mountains, 50 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and a three-day journey on muleback to the nearest Mexican village, a terraced crop of marijuana is ready for harvest. Standing more than ten feet tall in blazing sunlight, hundreds of cannabis plants resemble thin bamboo shoots with clusters of long, serrated, fingerlike leaves swaying in the breeze. The gangly plants exude a distinctive, musky aroma.<\/p>\n<p>Concentrated on the upper leaves and on the thick tangle of matted flower tops known as the <em>cola<\/em> (Spanish for \u201ctail\u201d), minuscule mushroom-shaped trichome glands ooze resin containing psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (<span class=\"caps\">THC<\/span>) and many other medicinal compounds. The resin \u2014 a kind of natural, frosty varnish \u2014 coats the leaves and acts both as a sunscreen and an insect repellant. Before harvesting, farmers test the resin content by squeezing the colas. If a sticky residue is left on their hands, they know the weed is good. Stripped and bundled, the cola-bearing branches are carried to a large shed and hung upside down on special drying racks for ten days. Then the marijuana is pressed into bricks and smuggled into the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Long before it became an economic necessity for local farmers, the pungent herb was widely employed as a folk remedy by <em>curanderas<\/em> in Mexico, where marijuana patches were sufficiently plentiful in the countryside to be mistaken for an indigenous plant. The Tepehuan Indians in the Mexican highlands occasionally used cannabis \u2014 which they called Rosa Maria (\u201cthe Sacred\u00a0Rose\u201d) \u2014 as a substitute for the peyote cactus in religious rituals. Indicative of its ability to stimulate collegiality and loquaciousness, Rosa Maria was known as the Herb That Makes One Speak.<\/p>\n<p>By the early nineteenth century, when Mexican peasants first began smoking it as a means of relaxation and inebriation, high-octane cannabis, a heliotropic (sunloving) plant, seemed to grow wild everywhere. It was the hangover-free high that drew most people to the plant in Mexico, especially the multitudes of poor campesinos who utilized cannabis as a social lubricant and an antidote to drudgery and fatigue. There was a common saying among lower-class Mexicans, \u201c<em>Esta ya le dio las tres<\/em>\u201d (\u201cYou take it three times\u201d), which referred to the exhilarating bounce from three puffs of marijuana.<\/p>\n<h2>The opium of the poor<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"pull-right\">\n<p>Its initial association with landless peasants, bandits, bootleggers, and poor prisoners made marijuana a convenient scapegoat for deep-rooted social inequities.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The fact that the use of cannabis, dubbed \u201cthe opium of the poor,\u201d was prevalent among underprivileged elements in Mexico (and in several other countries) may account for many of the persistent myths about the herb. Whereas the salt of the earth smoked cannabis as a palliative to help them cope with everyday tedium and despair, those of a more affluent standing tended to blame the problems of the less fortunate on the consumption of cannabis. Its initial association with the dregs of society \u2014 landless peasants, bandits, bootleggers, prisoners, and so on \u2014 made marijuana a convenient scapegoat for deep-rooted social inequities.<\/p>\n<p>The military was one segment of the Mexican population that readily accepted marijuana. Conscripts enjoyed smoking the weed, which, in most cases, was cheaper than alcohol and easier to obtain. During the Mexican Revolution (1910\u201320), the first great social revolution of the twentieth century, Pancho Villa\u2019s guerrilla army, composed largely of peons and Indians, smoked marijuana during long marches and afterward to a celebrate a successful campaign.\u00a0Known for their toughness, these marijuana-smoking peasants were valiant and tenacious fighters. Their stoned exploits in northern Mexico were immortalized in the well-known folk song \u201cLa Cucaracha\u201d with the chorus about a hapless foot soldier (\u201cthe cockroach\u201d) who can\u2019t function unless he\u2019s high on marijuana:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 40px;\"><em>La cucaracha, la cucaracha<br \/>Ya no puede caminar<br \/>Porque no tiene, porque no tiene<br \/>Marijuana que fumar<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 40px;\"><em>The cockroach, the cockroach<br \/>Is unable to walk<br \/>Because he doesn\u2019t have, because he doesn\u2019t have<br \/>Any marijuana to smoke<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRoach,\u201d modern-day slang for the butt of a marijuana cigarette, derives from this song, which inspired a dance and an Oscar-winning musical of the same name. Initially a battle hymn sung by Mexican rebels, \u201cLa Cucharacha\u201d became a popular cultural phenomenon throughout North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although many of his troops were stoners, it\u2019s not known to what extent General Pancho Villa, the Sierra-bred ruffian, smoked marijuana. Known for his martial prowess and his skills as a horseman, he was lionized as the gentleman bandit who rescued orphans and wowed the ladies while chasing Yankee capitalists out of the country. In an age of stark disparities between the wealthy few and the impoverished many, Pancho Villa was Mexico\u2019s answer to Robin Hood. His military feats became legendary through popular ballads called <em>corridos<\/em>, which chronicled significant events of the day \u2014 from gun battles and government betrayals to love affairs and bountiful marijuana harvests.<\/p>\n<h2>Folk songs <span class=\"amp\">&amp;<\/span> folk heros<\/h2>\n<div class=\"image-autosize image-align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.projectcbd.org\/sites\/projectcbd\/files\/styles\/inline_article_image_large\/public\/pictures\/pancho-villa-sm.png?itok=WI3W6Mwi\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"1439853167\" onload=\"pagespeed.CriticalImages.checkImageForCriticality(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pancho Villa, 1908<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Narcocorridos<\/em>, a subgenre of folk songs devoted to marijuana smokers, smugglers, and drug-related bandidos, originated during this period. More than just a form of entertainment, these ballads were a key source of news and political commentary that resonated with Mexico\u2019s illiterate masses. Some <em>corridos<\/em> glorified Pancho Villa\u2019s predawn cross-border raid in 1916 against a <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> military garrison in New Mexico. Other songs lampooned General John Pershing, who sent an expeditionary force of 12,000 <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> troops into Mexico in fruitless pursuit of the wily guerrilla leader.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently some soldiers under Pershing\u2019s command could not resist the wiles of Mary Jane, the aromatic temptress. \u201cAfter the guard went down to Mexico and came back, I saw the first white people who smoked the plant,\u201d a Texas-based <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> Army physician told a federal fact-finding commission in the early 1920s. This practice found favor among <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> troops stationed on the border, including black cavalry units, who smoked marijuana cigarettes either straight or mixed with tobacco.<\/p>\n<p>In 1925, the <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> government convened a formal committee to investigate rumors that off-duty American soldiers based in the Panama Canal Zone were smoking \u201cgoof butts\u201d for kicks. It was the first official <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> inquiry into cannabis, and it concluded that marijuana was not addictive (in the sense in which the term is applied to alcohol, opium, or cocaine), nor did it have \u201cany appreciable deleterious influence on the individual using it.\u201d On the basis of this assessment, previous orders prohibiting possession of the weed by military personnel were revoked in 1926.<\/p>\n<h2>A web of social controls<\/h2>\n<p>The emergence of marijuana smoking in early twentieth-century America was catalyzed mainly by the tumultuous Mexican Revolution, which caused hundreds of thousands of brown-skinned migrants to flee to the <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> Southwest in search of safety and work. Smoking grass became commonplace among dispossessed Mexicans in border towns such as El Paso, Texas, which passed the first city ordinance banning the sale and possession of cannabis in 1914. Public officials and newspaper reports depicted marijuana, the Mexican loco weed, as a dangerous vice, an alien intrusion into American life.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pull-right\">\n<p>Enacted in a climate of fear and hostility toward Spanish-speaking immigrants, early marijuana legislation in the <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> was part of \u201ca web of social controls\u201d designed to police Mexicans.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Enacted in a climate of fear and hostility toward swarthy, Spanish-speaking foreigners, early marijuana legislation was a handy instrument to keep the newcomers in their place. Antidrug and vagrancy statutes, in addition to legally sanctioned segregation in housing, restaurants, and parks, comprised what one historian described as \u201ca web of social controls\u201d that were \u201cmobilized to police Mexicans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several western and southern states proceeded to outlaw the herb, with California taking the lead in 1915, a move that served as a pretext for harassing Mexicans, just as opium legislation in San Francisco forty years earlier was directed at another despised minority, the Chinese. (Concurrent with the ban on opium, there were laws against wearing queues (ponytails), the traditional Chinese hairstyle, in San Francisco.) In each case, the target of the prohibition was not the drug so much as those most associated with its use. Typically in the United States, drug statutes have been aimed \u2014 or selectively enforced \u2014 against a feared or disparaged group within society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] makes them crazy,\u201d said one Lone Star state senator. Marijuana was outlawed in Texas in 1919 amid a wave of labor unrest. There were more than three thousand strikes throughout the country that year. Ignoring the rights of free speech, assembly, and due process, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer launched his infamous raids against aliens, \u201creds,\u201d and union members in dozens of American cities. The first \u201cPalmer raids\u201d in November 1919 were timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution.<\/p>\n<p>The <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> Supreme Court would soon outlaw picketing, abolish the minimum wage for women, and overturn child labor laws, while federal agents roamed the land, breaking up public meetings, seizing political literature, and patrolling freight cars for migrants. Side by side\u00a0with \u201cBolshevik\u201d labor leaders, state penitentiaries held significant numbers of Mexican American men serving time for drug crimes, according to sociologist Curtis Marez, who notes that \u201carrests and convictions of \u2018Mexican\u2019 workers for marijuana possession were most concentrated during the years of, and in the areas with, the highest levels of labor organization and action.\u201d The incarceration of Mexican workers, whether for smoking or striking, made the workforce as a whole easier to manage.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>Excerpted from Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana \u2013 Medical, Recreational and Scientific by Project <span class=\"caps\">CBD<\/span> Director Martin A. Lee<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Copyright, Project <span class=\"caps\">CBD<\/span>. May not be reprinted without permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectcbd.org\/marijuana-and-mexican-revolution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is adapted from Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana \u2013 Medical, Recreational and Scientific by Martin A. Lee High up in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}