Statement by Chairman of the Cannabis Movement Mr. Andre de Caires:
As we see the world rising up against racism and police brutality, it is important to examine the history of one of the most racist laws ever created, that has caused so much death and destruction to black communities worldwide for over eight decades.
The law that made cannabis illegal was created by greedy white industrialists who wanted to eliminate all competition from cannabis hemp that negatively impact their businesses. It was not created by the medical community that thought that consuming cannabis was a health threat, in fact, at that time, the American Journal of Medicine described just over one hundred ailments that were treated with cannabis.
Randolph Hearst was the owner of several newspapers along the East Coast of the US, who owned thousands of acres of wood pulp lumber that he used for his newspapers. Hemp paper was in direct competition with his lumber. Du Point at that time was starting to create many products out of the budding petro chemical industry, products that could be made with hemp oil. They teamed up with the leading drug enforcement officer at the time, Harry Anslinger and together conceived the Marijuana Act of 1937.
Hearst would use his papers to spread lies and disinformation about the plant and its effects on the black and minority communities who were using the plant traditionally. This “yellow journalism” created fear among the white ruling class. His papers contained articles that would state that, “When a black man smokes marijuana, he would walk on a white man’s shadow”, “When a black man smokes marijuana, he will look at a white woman twice”, “When a black man smoke marijuana, he feels he is as good as a white person”. As a result, when the Bill was tabled in 1937, it was passed unanimously without debate in fifteen minutes.
Then in the seventies, President Richard Nixon created the War on Drugs. He had two enemies. The anti-Vietnam war left hippies, and the black community. The war on Drugs would break up these communities and label them criminal, arrest their leaders and quell any decent from them.
Even though the Black community only represents 13% of the overall US population, they represent over 50% of the prison population, with half being incarcerated for simple possession of cannabis.
Now let us focus on Saint Lucia. The Mount Jimmy massacre, Shakadan Daniel, Naza, and I could go on and on about how many others have faced the brutalization, unjust incarceration, the breakup of families and the murder of our own black people by their black brothers because of a law created by racist white people specifically designed to target black people. People die because they possess flowers? Complete insanity.
We at the Cannabis Movement encourage people to turn out in numbers on Friday the 19th at Constitution Park to register your displeasure with the brutality associated with enforcing a racist law and to ensure that our politicians LEGALIZE IT!
