The History of Cannabis in the US: The Cannabis Renaissance

This is part 3 of a 5-part series on the history of cannabis in the U.S.

The 20th century was a turbulent time for cannabis. The start of the century saw the plant transformed and stigmatized from a common medicinal remedy into a source of crime and corruption.

Barely 30 years after it was first outlawed (by California, of all places), the counterculture movement planted the first seeds for cannabis acceptance and eventual re-legalization. However, conservative America resisted the changes, so social and legal norms fluctuated wildly throughout the period. 

The Rise of Counterculture

The aftermath of World War 2 saw an unprecedented boom in America. As the old European empires fell, the United States rose to become the preeminent global power, along with the Soviet Union. The post-war period saw economic prosperity, the creation of the interstate highway system and car culture, and the “baby boomers.”

For the next decade and a half, America was content to coast along on its newfound wealth and role as a superpower, even as it engaged in the Korean War and the fight against communism.

However, as the 1960s rolled around, a new kind of anti-establishment phenomenon was gaining momentum. The civil rights movement pushed back against racial segregation, while women’s rights campaigns and the sexual revolution forced a rethink of the traditional housewife’s role in society.

Meanwhile, in northern California, a different movement emerged. A group of Bohemian authors, poets, and artists would meet in San Francisco for lit readings and poetry sessions of what was then considered as scandalous publications, such as Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959). These avant-garde sessions were usually accompanied by psychedelic drugs, giving rise to the Beat Generation, also known as Beatniks. 

The War That Revived Cannabis

By the mid-1960s, the United States was deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War. What was supposed to be an advisory role had turned into a full-fledged commitment to defend democracy in Asia as GIs were drafted to fight in Vietnam. But unlike the Korean War, America was faced with an unpopular war for the first time ever. While soldiers fought communist guerrillas in the jungles of Southeast Asia, back home, ordinary citizens were fighting with the establishment and calling for an end to US involvement. 

One such protest against the war was the Human Be-In event held at Golden Gate Park. Part of San Francisco’s Summer of Love, the sit-in espoused radical leftist beliefs, communal living, and the acceptance of psychedelic drugs to achieve higher consciousness – one of those drugs being cannabis. 

As members of the Beat Generation attended the event, there was a marked difference between the Beatniks in their dark colors and low profile and other attendees who wore loud colors, grew long hair, and had boisterous attitudes.  From this latter group were born the hippies, who quickly became a cultural phenomenon and introduced the word “psychedelic” into the American lexicon.

Despite being a spontaneous movement, the hippie culture quickly coalesced around common beliefs: free, communal living, opposition to war, aversion to authority, and of course, recreational drugs. In fact, within the hippies themselves, a subculture emerged, defined by their choice of drug. The “heads” were those who sought spiritual connections through LSD (which was legal during the period), while “freaks” were those who injected methedrine to achieve the same purpose. 

But both groups were just as likely to use cannabis. Since the hippie belief emphasized nature and natural living, cannabis was considered an organic, all-natural stimulant from Mother Nature’s bounty.

The Cannabis Pilgrimage

As cannabis was outlawed in both the US and the UK, the hippie love for pot actually sparked a pilgrimage for sources of the plant in faraway Asia. Known as the Hippie Trail in the UK and the Hashish Trail in America, it was a rite of passage for beatniks and hippies. From their comfortable perches in the West, participants would embark on an epic trail to get blazed in the Far East. 

The typical starting point was Istanbul in Turkey. From there, hippies would fly, hitch, or hike their way across the various steppes of the Central Asian landmass. Hippies from London, Paris, Amsterdam, or West Berlin had it relatively easy, as they could simply travel overland to Turkey. American hippies first had to raise enough cash to fly to Europe, usually taking Icelandic Air to Luxembourg.

From Istanbul, the pot pilgrims could take two routes. The first led to the decadent streets of Iran and on to the ganja markets in India or Nepal.

The other route meandered through Syria, Jordan, and Iran before ending in the hashish fields of Pakistan. Some ended up staying in Peshawar and Lahore. Others found home in the tourist paradise of Goa or the holy city of Varanasi. Still, others traveled even further afield, catching a boat to Sri Lanka or soldiering on to Thailand. 

The Hippie Trail can be considered a snapshot of the politics of the era. It was a time when Iran was a progressive country and a friend of the West before the Islamic Revolution made outside travel impossible. Afghanistan, one of the routes on the trail, was still open and free before the Soviet invasion and the rule of the Taliban, which persists to this day. 

While their mother countries oppressed cannabis, the hippies found solace and comfort in the progressive countries of the East, and the Hippie Trail symbolized an era of openness and carefree travel in many regions that is no longer possible today.

Despite waning in the 1970s, remnants of the trail can still be found today. High up in the frozen reaches of Nepal, Kathmandu still has a neighborhood called Freak Street, named after the thousands of hippies who flocked to the government-run hashish shops. The influx of hippies dried up after the US government strong-armed Nepal into deporting suspected hippies and imposing strict dress codes on the physical appearances of tourists.

A Brief Spark

The introduction of psychedelic drugs into mainstream culture also had an influential impact on the legislative halls of power.

Before the hippie movement and the popularization of cannabis, cannabis was illegal nationwide. The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act effectively made cannabis illegal at the federal level. A brief lull in World War 2 saw the temporary lifting of the Act to encourage hemp production as part of the Hemp for Victory initiative when cannabis cultivation was desperately needed to provide much-needed hemp for the US Navy. The Act was immediately reinstated after the war’s end.

In 1956, Congress passed the Narcotics Control Act. The new law levied a heavy penalty for first-time offenders. A first-offense cannabis possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years, on top of a fine of up to $20,000.

By the 1960s, the counterculture movement resulted in a more lenient outlook on cannabis. In 1962, the US Supreme Court declared a California statute that made addiction a criminal offense to be unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. 

During this time, the long-time director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, reached the mandatory age of retirement. The reins passed to his deputy, Henry L. Giordano, who issued a statement saying, “The Bureau of Narcotics subscribes completely to the view that the Federal Government does not consider drug addiction a crime.”

In the same period, seminal reports commissioned by President John F. Kennedy and later Lyndon B. Johnson found that cannabis use did not induce violence or lead to the use of heavier drugs. In fact, JFK was reported to smoke cannabis cigarettes in the White House. In one such session, the President allegedly shared three joints with Mary Pinchot Meyer, a Kennedy mistress and the ex-wife of an Assistant Deputy Director in the CIA. When offered a fourth joint, JFK supposedly begged off in case “the Russians did something now.”

Pot in the Disco Era

The 1970s were the era of the big hair, bell-bottom pants, and wider acceptance of cannabis.

In October 1970, Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. The landmark legislation repealed most of the mandatory penalties for drug-related offenses. More importantly, it classed marijuana separately from other narcotics, and federal sentences for possession of small amounts were repealed.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon appointed the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. More popularly known as the Shafer Commission, it was convened to look into the societal and criminal effects of cannabis. 

On March 22, 1972, the commission delivered its report, "Marihuana, a Signal of Misunderstanding." According to the commission, while public perception viewed cannabis users as dangerous, they actually found users to be the opposite: “The weight of the evidence is that marihuana does not cause violent or aggressive behavior; if anything marihuana serves to inhibit the expression of such behavior.”

The report found cannabis to be similar to alcohol and concluded that it did not carry widespread danger to American society. Accordingly, the commission issued the following recommendations:

• Decriminalize the personal use of cannabis.
• Adopt social measures other than criminalization to discourage its use.

The report favored ending cannabis prohibition and adopting other methods to discourage use.

Both the earlier LaGuardia Committee report from 1944 and the 1972 Shafer Commission came to the same conclusion. As the committee’s Chairman and namesake, Raymond Shafer, noted, “Both sets of findings are strikingly similar in the three areas that have historically created public apprehension about marihuana use, namely that marihuana, in itself, is physically addictive, produces insanity, and leads to crime. Both reports dispelled such allegations and myths."

And yet, the Nixon administration chose not to implement the commission’s recommendations.

Despite this setback, the disco decade saw legislative acceptance of cannabis at the state level. 

In 1972, the first state to ban cannabis also became the first to try legalizing it by ballot measure. Proposition 19, also known as the California Marijuana Initiative, sought to legalize the personal use, possession, and cultivation of cannabis. The measure was overwhelmingly defeated, with 67% voting against it. Nonetheless, cannabis reformers were encouraged by the mere fact that the initiative got as far as the ballot.

The next year, Oregon became the first US state to decriminalize cannabis, slashing the penalty for possession of up to one ounce to a $100 fine. Within two years, Alaska, Maine, Colorado, California, and Ohio voted to decriminalize cannabis. Minnesota followed in 1976, along with Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, and Nebraska in subsequent years. 

In 1978, New Mexico became the first state to pass a law recognizing the medical value of cannabis through the Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act. That same year, San Francisco residents approved Proposition W, a non-binding measure directing city law enforcement to "cease the arrest and prosecution of individuals involved in the cultivation, transfer, or possession of marijuana." Unfortunately, the city’s mayor, George Moscone, was assassinated shortly after, and his successor opted to disregard the proposition.

Carter Speaks Out for Cannabis

By the mid-70s, the Republican grip on the White House was broken by Jimmy Carter. A noted supporter of cannabis reform, Carter stated that he was in favor of decriminalization of cannabis at the federal level during his campaign.

The new president stayed true to his word. Six months into his administration, America’s chief executive was already advocating for replacing imprisonment with civil fines and removing federal penalties for possession of one ounce or less. In a 1977 address to Congress, Carter declared that "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

Unfortunately, Carter’s efforts were torpedoed by a scandal involving his own drug czar. Shortly after taking office, he appointed British physician (and pro-decriminalization advocate) Peter Bourne to chair the newly formed Office of Drug Abuse Policy. Within a year, Bourne was alleged to have used cannabis and cocaine during the annual NORML convention. After investigative journalists dug up the story, Bourne was forced to resign.

Carter’s other drug advisor was Robert Du Pont, a Nixon-era holdover but who was also in favor of decriminalization. In 1977, a grassroots parent organization met with Du Pont and convinced him that cannabis had a detrimental effect on young students as well as their families. The meeting left an impression on DuPont, and he subsequently scaled back his support for the decriminalization of cannabis.

The Cold War Against Cannabis

One of Carter's foes was the former actor and California governor Ronald Reagan. During his syndicated weekly radio show, Reagan regularly called for stricter anti-cannabis policies and denounced Carter for being soft on cannabis. In 1981, Reagan replaced Carter in the White House.

As a staunch conservative, Reagan rolled back many of Carter’s initiatives. In 1986, his administration saw the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which raised federal penalties for cannabis possession and dealing. The new law based the penalties on the amount of the drug involved. Under the act, possession of 100 cannabis plants had the same penalty as possession of 100 grams of heroin.

A later amendment established the "three strikes" policy. This levied life sentences for repeat drug offenders and imposed the death penalty for "drug kingpins."

After two terms in the White House, Reagan was succeeded by fellow Republican George Bush, who declared a new War on Drugs. Under the Bush administration, the Solomon–Lautenberg amendment was passed, which provided federal highway funding to states while encouraging them to revoke driver’s licenses for non-driving offenses, including the possession and use of cannabis.

Shortly after, many states passed a "smoke a joint, lose your license" law, under which any drug offense is punished with a mandatory six-month driver's license suspension.

Alaska and the Cannabis Conundrum

As we have seen, there were huge changes to cannabis policies during the era. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the state of Alaska.

In 1975, a local attorney by the name of Irwin Ravin deliberately got arrested in Anchorage for refusing to sign a traffic ticket while in possession of cannabis. Ravin was actually advocating for privacy rather than cannabis reform: “Marijuana has never been an issue for me. The fight was always for privacy; our state has traditionally been the home of people who prize their individuality and who have chosen to achieve a measure of control over their own lifestyles.”

Shortly after, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ravin. Ravin v. State established that the Alaska Constitution's right to privacy protects an adult's personal use and possession of a small amount of cannabis. The landmark ruling made Alaska the only state to protect a constitutional privacy right that extends to cannabis use and possession.

Just before the ruling, Alaska voted to decriminalize cannabis, becoming the second US state to do so. The law reduced the penalty for possessing cannabis to a $100 fine. It passed without the governor’s signature.

After the Ravin ruling in 1982, the Alaskan legislature decriminalized possession of up to four ounces of cannabis in the home or one ounce outside the home. 

However, less than a decade later, the state flip-flopped on its decision. During the Bush era and the new War on Drugs, Alaska passed Measure 2 in 1990. The new law recriminalized cannabis, narrowly passing with just 54.3% of the vote. It reinstated a criminal penalty of up to 90 days in jail while increasing the fine of up to $1,000 for mere possession.

The latter part of the 20th century saw sweeping, even contradictory, changes to cannabis on the social and century-legislative level. From being a killer weed with roots in racism, the rise of counterculture and civil reform led to a brief spark in cannabis acceptance before being dimmed once again by the conservative right. 

It would take another decade before the legal and public perception of cannabis would bloom once again.

The information in this article and any included images or charts are for educational purposes only. This information is neither a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional legal advice or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about laws, regulations, or your health, you should always consult with an attorney, physician or other licensed professional.