The Racist Origins of The War on Drugs

This article was originally posted on The Green Fund — Australia’s preeminent source of cannabis information.

Recreational marijuana is now legal in 11 states, and medical marijuana is legal in 33. Denver has just passed a referendum to decriminalize magic mushrooms.

It seems the War on Drugs is finally coming to an end. And yet, there isn’t anarchy. There isn’t chaos. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Barclays pegs the global Cannabis industry at being worth $150 billion today, and predicts that it is set to almost double over the next decade.

In the US alone, Cannabis has created 211,000 full time jobs and has helped children deal with epilepsy, helped athletes deal with muscle pain, and even helped dogs with their anxiety. At this point, you’re probably thinking “hey, that doesn’t sound too bad!”

And you’d be right.

Which brings us to the question, why was there a war on drugs in the first place? Well, it’s complicated. It wasn’t so much a war on drugs as it was a war on some drugs, while others have been tacitly approved. Allthough Cannabis has been illegal since the war on drugs began, there has been 223.7 million retail opioid prescriptions filled annually over the past decade.