We vote today and there is a proposition in the ballot in California (Proposition19) which would legalize marijuana. If it passes, Californians older than 21 may possess up to an ounce of marijuana for personal consumption, use marijuana in a non-public place, grow marijuana at a private residence in a space of up to 25 square feet for personal use, and local government may authorize the retail sale of marijuana, and allow larger amounts of marijuana for personal possession and cultivation, or commercial cultivation, transportation and sale.
I bet a lot of people are thinking about moving in our state soon right now!
Proposition 19, would only legalize marijuana in California, but would make a clash with the federal government, which still does not allow anything of this sort. But that would be a first move and encourage other states to do the same.
Although I don’t smoke, I want this proposition to pass for several reasons. First, there is no convincing scientific evidence that marijuana causes psychological damage and if tobacco and alcohol (which cause much more harm) are legal, there is no reason for a law against marijuana. Then marijuana and music have a long history together, and despite decades and decades of demonizing marijuana, years and years of arrest of musicians, it has inspired almost all the music we listen to, most of the lyrics we sing.
Starting from the New Orleans Bordellos of 1900’s, where jazz and marijuana were intertwined, the drug was allowing jazz musicians to play all night long. It was the musician’s thing and soon it became associated with black crazy wild music in the racist mind of the 20’s people. Weed was banned in 1923 in New Orleans, and even Louis Armstrong got arrested in Los Angeles in 1931 for smoking a joint.
In the 60’s, Dylan sang ‘Everybody must get stoned’ in ‘Rainy Day Women’, then he met with the Beatles in New-York and turned them onto pot. Paul, John, George and Ringo made an habit of it, and Lennon got arrested for possession of cannabis in 1968, McCartney in Tokyo in 1980, and several other ones will follow.
Donovan was also fined for possession of marijuana in 1966, Keith Richards got a sentence of 12 months of jail time after he let Marianne Faithful get stoned in his house, and three months were given to Mick Jagger on another occasion.
In the late 60’s, San Francisco was the music scene, and with the hippies, pot smoking was done at large scale in festivals.
So black people started it and white people followed, just like many things in music. A lot of black musicians were still associated with weed smoking, like Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Little Stevie. The Rastafarians, the religious group from Jamaica who revered cannabis as the sacramental and healing herb, brought reggae culture with the Wailers, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh.
Marijuana has followed each musical step, but other drugs have also taken the scene, changing the music all the way.
However, marijuana is still there (Snoop Dogg?), strongly associated with music, as there is an endless list of songs, which have been written about marijuana, a huge number of musicians who have admitted smoking pot.
Reinforcing a law anti-marijuana harm people, especially because many people who get arrested don’t have McCartney or Jagger’s money. There was a recent article in the LA Times saying that white people between the ages of 18 and 25 use marijuana at a higher rate than their black peers, but that police arrest blacks for possession at four, five and even 13 times the rate of whites.
In 1967, The Times published an advertisement signed by many opponents to the law against marijuana and among them were the Beatles. The ad was brilliantly quoting Spinoza “All laws which can be violated without doing anyone any injury are laughed at’.
It says it all.