In 1518 CE Mexico, Cortés introduces hemp farming during his violent colonial campaign. In secret, locals begin cultivating the plant for consumption. It eventually makes its way to the United States through the immigrant labor force, where it's shared with black laborers. It doesn't take American lawmakers long to decry cannabis as the vice of "inferior races." To strengthen their anti-drug campaigns, legislators spread vicious lies about the dangers of cannabis. As a result, the plant is given a schedule I classification, alongside heroin.
Author Box Brown delves deep into this complex and troubling history and offers a rich, entertaining, and thoroughly researched graphic essay on the racist legacy of cannabis legislation in America.
