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Marijuana and Methamphetamine, HOOKED: ILLEGAL DRUGS ep.1 — Transcript

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0:00from Every Mountain and Valley the world
0:03over are flowers and plants of simple
0:06beauty some hold a natural wonder
0:09chemicals that soothe pain and Inspire
0:13Euphoria at times they've been hailed as
0:15a gift of heaven but in the last century
0:19they've been condemned as a scourge of
0:21man once marijuana cocaine opium ecstasy
0:27LSD even heroin were perfect ly legal
0:31today they compel a War on Drugs did
0:35these plants and drugs change or did
0:39we drugs are menacing our society it's
0:43like a 5H hour orgasm wisely can produce
0:47the greatest ecstasy that man's
0:51nose marijuana has been an Enemy of the
0:54State since the first federal law was
0:56enacted against it in 1937
1:00since that time 20 million Americans
1:03have been arrested convicted and
1:05incarcerated for using the most popular
1:08drug in the
1:09[Music]
1:15world your honor in this case the state
1:18waves trial of the defendant Ralph Wy it
1:21is convinced that he is Hocus incurably
1:23insane a condition caused by the drug
1:25marijuana to which he was
1:27addicted the law is only one deterrent
1:30and not that effective the government
1:32relied on something else education
1:36films this harmless looking cigarette is
1:38cloaked in many innocent disguises but
1:41light the match inhale the smoke and it
1:45becomes an invitation to your own murder
1:48they had to now control something that
1:49was growing all over the United States
1:51as a weed so they relied mostly on Words
1:55uh because they didn't have many other
1:57resources to uh to devote to it I think
2:00a lot of people have seen Reaper
2:04madens that's better that's more like it
2:07I know you like that really you will
2:09just take
2:10a though marijuana is now a household
2:13name there was a time when it was an
2:15obscure drug used only by the fringes of
2:18society that some argue is the reason
2:21why it was
2:23criminalized drugs are illegal because
2:25they do cause problems the ones that are
2:27illicit drugs health problems
2:30um uh crime related problems violence
2:33related problems but it's also true that
2:35none of the drugs currently uh illegal
2:38became illegal before they were most
2:40closely associated with uh what we're
2:42commonly regarded as deviant groups one
2:44of the girls was telling me about a new
2:46cigarette that peps you up oh you mean
2:49Reapers yes that's the name of them
2:51would you like to try one sure why not
2:54I'm supposed to be on the loose okay
2:59[Music]
3:01marijuana's trip from a weed to
3:03America's Archen enemy in a $400 billion
3:07drug war begins with its
3:10[Music]
3:15chemistry smoking pot draws the active
3:18ingredient Delta 9 Tetra hydr canaban or
3:21THC into the lungs and onto the brain
3:25there it suppresses the neurons causing
3:27a distortion of perception in time
3:30a lack of coordination and sometimes
3:32uncontrollable
3:36[Music]
3:47[Applause]
3:49[Music]
3:54hilarity within 4 seconds of the first
3:56drag muscles relax eyes readen puls rate
4:00quickens Euphoria heightened sensitivity
4:03or paranoid feelings arise in the user
4:06an experience that dates back to the
4:08dawn of time Herodotus records some of
4:12the earliest uses of cannabis by the
4:14scans and what they did was they would
4:17build a big bonfire in the middle of the
4:19camp and they would Heap a bunch of
4:22marijuana on top of it and then they
4:24would throw a tent over it and they
4:25would all go under the tent and breathe
4:27the smoke
4:29and that way they consumed it next to
4:32Opium marijuana is one of the planet's
4:35oldest medicines ancient Chinese
4:37herbalists applied it to stomach pain
4:39menstrual cramps malaria and
4:43consumption according to Indian
4:45mythology Shiva the Hindu goddess of
4:47creation and destruction endowed man
4:50with the plant for a joyful Pastime an
4:53apt Legacy for the drug of the
4:54generation that preached free love
4:56challenged Authority and was out to
4:59change the world
5:00[Music]
5:04cannabis grows anywhere but the Arctic
5:06Circle the earliest record of its use
5:09begins in ancient China and India from
5:11the East cannabis migrated to the rest
5:14of the
5:15world Arab traders brought it from the
5:17Ganges Valley to North Africa and
5:23Spain from Spain The Conquistadors
5:26carried it to the Americas it was a
5:28prized source of fiber for rope and
5:31canvas essential ingredients for ships
5:34in fact the word canvas comes from the
5:37Latin
5:39cannabis but it was another conqueror
5:42who introduced the plant to
5:45Europe 1804 Napoleon bonapart triumphs
5:49in Egypt during the conquest his army is
5:52introduced to an intoxicant unseen in
5:55Europe unlike in France where
5:57intoxicants are drunk this one one is
6:03smoked the soldiers fancy cannabis over
6:06Brandy because it doesn't cause
6:07hangovers and carry it back to France as
6:10a spoil of
6:12[Music]
6:13war in Paris it finds favor with the
6:16Bohemian set with artists authors
6:19students and prostitutes the poet bodair
6:23writes under its spell one must be
6:26forever drunken if you would not feel
6:29the hor horrible burden of time that
6:31bruises your shoulders and bends you to
6:33the Earth you must be drunken without
6:35cease with wine with poetry with what
6:38you please be drunken Without
6:41End from Paris it travels to London as a
6:45smoking substance and an extract in
6:47medicine ladies of high society eat
6:50hashish Confections to lower fevers ease
6:53stomach pains or any ache at all even a
6:56queen finds a use for the drug
7:01Queen Victoria used it for menstrual
7:02cramps um it was used for insomnia for
7:06especially for tuberculosis patients who
7:09had lost their
7:10appetites um it was also used
7:13recreationally the Drug's next stop is
7:15New York where cannabis and hashish
7:17become one of the many ingredients in
7:19America's unregulated patent medicine
7:22industry the writer Fritz Hugh Ludo uses
7:25it as a recreational intoxicant after
7:28first taking it for a to toach with
7:30continued use lllo becomes addicted he
7:33writes about his experience in Diary of
7:36a hashish eer in
7:401857 when I shut my eyes I dwelt in a
7:43delicious land of dreams on the wings of
7:46his speechless music I floated through
7:48the air and in the cloud valleys played
7:51hide and seek with
7:53meteors sometimes these accounts
7:55magnified and glamorized the drug
7:58experience and encourage many people to
8:00follow suit interestingly enough Fitz hu
8:04Ludo became one of the most Ardent and
8:07earliest supporters of drug regulation
8:10through law in the 19th century writing
8:14quite a few stories for Harpers and for
8:16various popular magazines on on drug
8:19addiction in the United States trying to
8:21bring awareness to
8:26it congratulations now you'll
8:30[Music]
8:36living my head is so light it feels like
8:38it's
8:39floating that's because your troubles
8:41are all gone try another
8:44Po in the 19th century marijuana was far
8:47from the recreational drug of a future
8:49time by and large its only use comes
8:52from patent medicines Americans know
8:55little of smoking it as an intoxicant
8:57accustom widespread in the east that is
9:00until Abdul Hamid II Sultan of turkey
9:03makes a very special birthday gift to
9:05the American
9:07people the History Channel now returns
9:09to hook illegal drugs and how they got
9:12that way
9:141876 a World's Exposition is held in
9:17Philadelphia to celebrate the 100th
9:20anniversary of the Declaration of
9:22Independence on display are the wonders
9:24of the modern world among them the
9:26telephone and the personal printing
9:28press otherwise known as the
9:31typewriter the Industrial Age has
9:35arrived at the Turkish Pavilion the
9:37sultan Abdul Hamid II makes a gift of a
9:40rare and exotic treat the crowd is
9:42introduced to smoking marijuana in what
9:45may have been the first pop party in the
9:47United States and perhaps the biggest
9:49until Woodstock 93 years later the
9:52Sultan's gift ignites a wave of Yankee
9:54Ingenuity seeing dollar signs in another
9:57idle pleasure entrepreneurs open Turkish
10:00smoking parlors in the
10:02north sometimes people would go to these
10:04places in great secrecy sort of as a
10:07lark and they'd be society matrons as
10:10well as prominent businessmen and they
10:13would either smoke hashish or eat Hashi
10:16LED Confections at a time when the
10:19temperance movement is trying to ban
10:21alcohol and close saloons smoking parlor
10:25could have been the alternative way to
10:27get high but the Parlor closed
10:29liquor not cannabis continues to be the
10:32country's drug of choice until a
10:35constitutional amendment bans booze and
10:38America rediscovers
10:42marijuana New Orleans
10:451920 America's second largest port is
10:48America's number one Party
10:52City in this brawling place where blacks
10:56French Cajun Spanish American Europeans
10:58and ch Chinese live work and play a new
11:02music emerges out of the constant clash
11:05and commotion of culture the music is
11:15jazz marijuana and Jazz Go Together Like
11:18A Melody and lyrics where Jazz goes
11:20reefers follow but there's another
11:23reason for its widespread use in 1920 it
11:26is the only legal drug in town even here
11:29where everything the flesh desires can
11:30be had prohibition keeps the flow of
11:33liquor out of sight the choice of a new
11:35intoxicant becomes the perfectly legal
11:37weed shipped in from the Caribbean
11:40Mexico and South America and sold like
11:43cigarettes in jazz clubs markets and
11:45pharmacies it is cheap and
11:49popular but even in Paradise there's
11:52trouble new orans is in the midst of a
11:54crime wave murder dominates the
11:56headlines and attracts William Randolph
11:58hurst's attention eager for a
12:00sensational story to
12:03sell New Orleans was a sort of a source
12:06the beginning of uh concern about
12:08marijuana they saw it as linked to Crime
12:11violent crime or even um predatory crime
12:16also sometimes it seemed to be related
12:18to murders uh to rape and so on Hurst
12:22coins the phrase marijuana Menace and
12:25prints lurid tales about the Drug's
12:27capacity to cause rape murder and Mayhem
12:31just as reports of cocaine crazed
12:32Negroes a decade ago had stirred
12:34lawmakers to ban cocaine headlines and
12:37stories of the marijuana Menace were
12:39affecting cannabis the same way Society
12:42worries about its members who are not in
12:44control of their mind so in order to
12:46prevent chaos in society limit the use
12:48of the product or the thing that's
12:50inducing those kinds of
12:53effects State lawmakers were quick to
12:55ban a drug that they identified with
12:57black violence
13:00in
13:011924 Louisiana joins 14 other states
13:05banning the distribution of marijuana
13:07for non-medical purposes and it gets
13:09back to the scapegoat so you can
13:11scapegoat different racial groups you
13:12can scap scapegoat the uh lower classes
13:15um you can use the drug to do the
13:16scapegoating for you you can attack them
13:20because they're using the
13:21drug slowly and surely it will be banned
13:24across the country state by state for
13:27one reason or another in the southwest
13:30the reason for a ban on pot was
13:31economics and Prejudice they were
13:34worried about all these Mexicans down on
13:35the Texas border who were uh it was the
13:39depths of the
13:40depression and these Mexicans had been
13:44uh a very useful labor force uh in the
13:4720s when we needed them but now it's the
13:49depression you got all these Gringos in
13:51the bread line you sure as hell don't
13:53need all these Mexicans so how could we
13:55stigmatize them and get rid of this
13:57cheap labor force and get them out of
13:58here
14:00according to the San Antonio Gazette
14:02quote the men who smoke this herb become
14:05excited to such an extent that they go
14:07through periods of near frenzy and worse
14:10it is always aggressive as the crimes
14:12which have been committed in Garrison's
14:14armories barracks and the humble suburbs
14:17of
14:19Mexico in 1931 Mexican repatriation
14:23becomes law Mexicans who don't go
14:25quietly are subject to varying forms and
14:28degrees of harassment many are charged
14:31with vagrancy others are arrested for
14:34violation of New State marijuana laws
14:37laws that are often an excuse to drive
14:39Mexicans out of the country so in Texas
14:42for example if you got caught with one
14:43joint you could get sent to you could
14:45get sent to jail for life in fact there
14:48were um uh campaigns in some of the
14:50states for the death penalty and there
14:52are cases of um people serving many many
14:56many years decades in um in jails for
15:02possession except for a handful of
15:04states in the southwest marijuana is
15:06still legal in the United States but
15:09that will change soon after Harry J
15:10anslinger the nation's top drug
15:12enforcement agent takes office at the
15:15Federal Bureau of narcotics but first
15:18anslinger must convince Congress to do
15:20something it has never done before
15:22Outlaw a weed his chief tactic is to
15:25convince Congress and the public that a
15:28weed is the cause of sex and murder a
15:31message that scares an already fearful
15:33Depression era America I had to kill
15:37before they killed me I had to kill him
15:40can't you understand I had to kill him
15:43they kill me unless I kill
15:46them the History Channel now returns to
15:49hook illegal drugs and how they got that
15:51way
15:58[Music]
16:001930 the gay of marijuana collides with
16:03a nation in despair across the United
16:06States the Great Depression has brought
16:08joblessness breadlines and above all
16:10fear to
16:18America let me assert my firm belief
16:23that the only thing we have to fear is
16:27fear itself
16:30but the nation's fear is not just
16:32economic there are fears of crime and
16:36gangsters unions and
16:40Communists immigrants and even
16:45alcohol since 1920 alcohol has been
16:48banned by a constitutional
16:52amendment but after 14 years the law is
16:55repealed the government now focuses on
16:57narcotics under a new federal bureau the
17:00federal bureau narcotics was was
17:02unprecedented in that it was the sole uh
17:05autonomous uh Bureau charged with
17:07enforcing narcotics legislation uh in
17:111930 it is headed by a 38-year-old Harry
17:15J
17:16anslinger he had had no particular
17:19experience with
17:20drugs and but he came in and what he was
17:24was a
17:25complete bureaucrat uh that is he wanted
17:29to protect his
17:30agency uh he wanted to keep his budget
17:34going to anslinger there is nothing
17:37glamorous about fighting drugs but soon
17:39he sees that it is one of the most
17:41important issues of his time endorsed by
17:43some of the country's most powerful men
17:45like publisher William Randolph
17:48Hurst anslinger went to visit Hurst at
17:50San Simeon Castle I guess it was one
17:53time and Hurst told him that he
17:55personally wrote all of the anti-drug
17:58editorials and the Hurst newspapers and
18:01I think that uh anslinger himself felt
18:04that this was a uh kind of a disgusting
18:08subject like maybe um uh being
18:12Commissioner of garbage or something
18:13like this and he was just astounded that
18:15anyone would you know in who's reverly
18:18important would care about it the
18:20bureau's efforts have been aimed at
18:22fighting heroin in cocaine but with
18:24enens Slinger's arrival in 1930
18:26marijuana is the new drug problem born
18:28out of the trouble in the southwest with
18:30Mexican migrant
18:32workers ANS Slinger's first battle with
18:35marijuana is over who will police it
18:37there are no federal laws against the
18:39drug and he wants to keep it that way
18:41leaving the states to control it not the
18:43federal
18:44government he had tried to get the
18:46states to adopt a uniform narcotic law
18:49which would include cannabis and that
18:51would allow each state to decide how
18:53much of its resources it wanted to put
18:55out for the control of marijuana or
18:58cannabis and it wouldn't touch his
18:59budget or his
19:02agents that had some
19:04success uh but not complete there was
19:08continued pressure on the government in
19:10Washington to do something about these
19:12Mexican immigrants who smoked marijuana
19:14and went into town on the weekends and
19:16and created Havoc Texas California
19:19Arizona and Colorado insist it's the
19:22federal government's responsibility to
19:23do something but anslinger resists he
19:26has no interest in staking a career on
19:28combating a weed he has only a staff of
19:31300 and a $1.5 million budget to battle
19:34drugs the world over he wants to avoid a
19:37law that will be difficult to enforce
19:40and offers a different approach he
19:42wanted silence if you had to say
19:44something you made it sound as awful as
19:46possible and I say marijuana is a killer
19:49drug but by and large there was nothing
19:52they could do about it there was no real
19:55big action they didn't have the funding
19:56they didn't have the people and and um
19:59he I remember he said to me once I was
20:02driving around the upper pomac and I was
20:05crossing the bridge and I just parked on
20:07the bridge and I got out and I looked
20:08and there was marijuana plants as far as
20:11you could see and he said I said to
20:13myself and they want me to wipe this
20:16this out anslinger can do nothing to
20:18stop the push from states of the
20:20Southwest for a federal law against
20:21marijuana the issue is less about the
20:24dangers of the drugs and more about
20:25politics marijuana is entangled in
20:28immigration problems I remember when I
20:30interviewed Harry anslinger about it he
20:32said we weren't having any trouble with
20:34it uh you could get it in Harlem he said
20:36and it just it was not a problem and but
20:39the the pressure came from the southwest
20:42and the west where the Mexican
20:45immigrants were seen as a unnecessary
20:48and uh dangerous Surplus population and
20:52so there was a tremendous campaign to
20:53try to push the uh Mexican immigrants
20:56back into Mexico and marijuana got mixed
21:00up in in that because there was no
21:01question that they grew marijuana and
21:04smoked marijuana in the end the
21:07southwestern States Prevail upon
21:09anslinger to do something hesitant as he
21:12may have been the pressure is on for
21:14anslinger to use the power of the
21:16federal government to control
21:19marijuana ever the bureaucrat anslinger
21:22changes his position and becomes a
21:24leading Warrior against
21:26marijuana the treasury Department
21:28intends to pursue a Relentless Warfare
21:32against the Despicable dop pedling
21:34vulture who prays on the weakness of his
21:37fellow man his chief weapons are movies
21:40that Express exaggerated dangers of the
21:42drug the truth is that every Reaper is
21:45loaded with immorality and beastial
21:47perversions brutality murder sex crimes
21:50insanity or suicide while a propaganda
21:54war against marijuana is underway
21:56anslinger begins working to draft a law
21:58law but what kind of law like all
22:01federal drug Prohibition in the early
22:0320th century the Constitution stands in
22:05the way he finds a way around that in a
22:08new law passed to ban machine
22:12guns a law was passed called the
22:14National Firearms Act and which said
22:17that you could not give borrow transfer
22:20a machine gun to anyone without a
22:23machine gun transfer stamp and it turns
22:26out they aren't the government would not
22:29make any machine gun transfer stamps so
22:32this went up to the Supreme Court on the
22:34grounds that this couldn't be legitimate
22:36uh taxing measure because they weren't
22:39doing anything to get the taxes it was
22:41actually just a way to stop machine guns
22:43being distributed the Supreme Court
22:46ruled the National Firearms Act was
22:48legal and its use of stamps even though
22:50purposely not available was legitimate
22:53anslinger now has a model for a national
22:55ban against marijuana anslinger told me
22:59that the general councel of the Treasury
23:02Department came into his office holding
23:04this decision by the uh Supreme Court
23:08saying look we finally we have a way to
23:10go after marijuana an Slinger's idea to
23:13make marijuana illegal is simple anyone
23:16involved in its use distribution sale or
23:19transfer will be required to get from
23:21the government a marijuana tax stamp but
23:24the catch is the government will only
23:26make a token number of tax stamps
23:29available but can he convince Congress
23:31that a weed is as dangerous as a machine
23:36[Music]
23:40gun the next tragedy may be that of your
23:44daughter or your son or yours or
23:50yours or
23:54yours the History Channel now returns to
23:57hook illegal drugs and how they got that
24:00way on April 27th 1937 hearings begin
24:04before Congress on the first federal law
24:07to control
24:10marijuana anslinger hopes to convince
24:13Congress that marijuana is dangerous and
24:16that they will enact a law like the one
24:19that banned machine
24:21guns I think his attitude toward
24:24marijuana uh
24:26was that it was not as serious as
24:29cocaine and heroin but you wouldn't know
24:33that publicly because one of the
24:36strategies against marijuana was to
24:38describe it in so horrible and
24:40disgusting a way that no one would be
24:42tempted to try it once matter with you
24:45son anslinger tells Congress the drug
24:47makes the user insane or Worse nuts I
24:51didn't do it on purpose of course she
24:52did but rather than argue with them the
24:54mother Stoops to pick it up and when she
24:56does Elvin takes that heavy fying fans
24:58in the stove and kills his mother with
25:00it this is exactly what happened and how
25:03it happened in fact he said anslinger
25:05also tells Congress marijuana is the
25:07stepping stone or gateway to heroin and
25:11cocaine one more I'll be
25:15floating I want something stronger how
25:18much you
25:22got he adds that it is the Assassin of
25:25Youth
25:27[Music]
25:29one of the cases that he was was uh
25:31constantly presenting in these
25:33Congressional hearings was uh the case
25:35of Victor Lata who was a young boy in
25:37Florida who cut up his family with an
25:39axe and uh according to Harry anslinger
25:42he did this after smoking a marijuana
25:44joint he then went out and and chopped
25:46up his mother and father but what ansing
25:49omitted in his testimony as was uh
25:52published uh several days later in the
25:54Tampa newspaper that Lata uh was
25:56probably schizophrenic and there's very
25:58little probability that marijuana was
26:01the cause and effect of of the terrible
26:04crime he committed not a very nice thing
26:06to look at but this is marijuana and
26:10there's nothing beautiful about
26:13marijuana well the officer drew his gun
26:16reached for the closet door and pulled
26:18out
26:19[Applause]
26:21Victor anslinger tells Congress that
26:24school children are using marijuana that
26:26assertion results in the only testimony
26:29against the
26:30law Dr William Woodward of the American
26:33Medical Association testifies that for
26:36all the complaints about marijuana's
26:38danger to school children there was no
26:40evidence to back it up Congress
26:42disregards his
26:45testimony they just attacked him
26:47viciously they said how can you come
26:48down here trying to interrupt us when
26:50we're trying to do something good for
26:52the American people and so forth well it
26:53turns out their argument with him had
26:55nothing to do with marijuana they just
26:57chopped him into pieces and verbally
27:00excoriated him in front of this
27:01Congressional hearing and then lied
27:03about what he said H follows the
27:06hearings adding extra newspaper runs to
27:08cover the news in Washington and
27:10headlining the evils of
27:13marijuana Across America independent
27:16movies add to the propaganda bombarding
27:18the public the most famous Reefer
27:21Madness warns of The Perils of smoking
27:23marijuana as stated by anslinger and
27:26Hurst take
27:30didn't come from the feder narcotics but
27:32ANS Slinger's Bureau did endorse it he
27:34did support it in fact in the opening
27:36scene when uh the high school principal
27:38is talking to an audience of parents he
27:40refers to the Bureau of Narcotics uh
27:43several times on Capitol Hill anslinger
27:46wins Congress passes the marijuana tax
27:49act the first federal law against the
27:51drug the Southwest gets the federal law
27:54they
27:56wanted after five days of hearings the
27:59marijuana tax law goes to Congress for a
28:02vote it's passed within weeks by roll
28:05call vote President Roosevelt signs the
28:07bill on August 2nd it takes effect
28:11October 1st perhaps one of an's most
28:13significant contributions to fighting
28:17drugs is that he more than any other
28:20individual demonized drugs I don't know
28:23that anslinger lied to Congress but he
28:27was an effective propagandist we might
28:29say the law requires that anyone wishing
28:32to buy sell distribute or transfer
28:34marijuana must pay a tax and have a
28:36stamp the penalty for failure to do so
28:39is 5 years in jail a $2,000 fine or both
28:42but like the machine gun law the
28:44government doesn't make the marijuana
28:46stamps available there was another
28:48problem too and that was that in order
28:50to get the license you had to have the
28:52marijuana in hand but if you had the
28:55marijuana in hand without the license
28:57you had already violated the law 2 days
29:00after the law goes into effect the first
29:02offender of the marijuana tax act Samuel
29:05calwell is arrested in Colorado 4 days
29:08later he is convicted and sentenced to 4
29:10years in jail and a $1,000 fine
29:14anslinger flies in from Washington to
29:16see Justice done so Begins the federal
29:19government's effort to punish marijuana
29:23users one year after its ban anslinger
29:26law runs into a powerful critic it was
29:28none other than the mayor of America's
29:30biggest Metropolitan city mayor felo
29:33LaGuardia of New York LaGuardia
29:36commissions a group of medical
29:37professionals from the New York Academy
29:39of Medicine to study his City's
29:41marijuana problem this Blue Ribbon panel
29:44visits schoolyards interviews principles
29:47even tests the effects of the drug on
29:49adults after four years of study the
29:51following conclusions are drawn smoking
29:54marijuana does not lead to addiction
29:56marijuana smoking is not WI WID spread
29:58among school children marijuana is not a
30:01determining factor in Major Crimes
30:03publicity concerning the catastrophic
30:05effects of marijuana use in New York
30:07City is unfounded ironically LaGuardia
30:11obtained the pot used in his study from
30:14anslinger and then when the lardi report
30:16came out anslinger felt betrayed that
30:20was the end of scientific research in
30:21marijuana as far as he was concerned no
30:24matter what the scientific basis for
30:26laguardia's study he is pressured to tow
30:28the party line in the Big Apple
30:31marijuana will remain an illegal
30:35drug through World War II marijuana
30:38arrests drop but ever wise to the power
30:41of the press anslinger begins targeting
30:43celebrities and musicians to grab
30:45headlines he arrests Jazz drummer Jean
30:48Kupa for possessing marijuana who spends
30:5187 days in
30:54jail actor Robert Mitchum is busted and
30:57his career is almost shattered after
30:59he's arrested at a pot
31:01[Music]
31:03party but there will be new drugs to
31:06combat one other legal for the time
31:09being is making history on the
31:11battlefields of World War
31:14II The History Channel now returns to
31:16hook illegal drugs and how they got that
31:23way of all the new technologies Germany
31:25uses in the Second World War one touches
31:29the common Soldier and the furer alike
31:32it is the synthetic chemical amphetamine
31:35more commonly known as speed the blitz
31:38cre could just as easily have been
31:40called speed C everybody was amazed uh
31:44how fast the German Panza troops rushed
31:47across Europe Westward towards the
31:50lowlands couldn't believe they could
31:52just keep going night and day and so
31:54forth and it was they to learn that they
31:56were dispensing uh large amounts of
31:59amphetamines to these
32:04troops Hitler is injected as many as
32:07five times a day with methamphetamine a
32:10supercharged amphetamine Scholars claim
32:13Hitler's mad Rants and blunders were the
32:15result of his addiction to the drug it
32:18is also used in the Japanese war effort
32:21given to the Imperial ground forces and
32:24kamakazi Pilots the drug of the axis War
32:27Machine is a stimulant it affects the
32:30sympathetic nervous system to increase
32:32alertness and decrease fatigue
32:34amphetamine stimulate the adrenal gland
32:37to increase spontaneity initiative
32:39confidence and a sense of well-being
32:42amphetamines are commonly associated
32:44with appetite suppression but the drug
32:47was first introduced as a lung
32:49decongestant the benzidine inhaler
32:52nicknamed Benny in Germany in 1932 it
32:55would clear up your sinuses and and and
32:58and do a lot of other things it wasn't
33:00long before people discovered that if
33:02you break the inhaler and take the
33:05cotton swab the little cotton
33:07swab uh which holds all of the uh
33:11amphetamine some people just swallowed
33:13at whole other people dissolved it in
33:15coffee or what have you well I was just
33:17wondering about those bennes and things
33:18we've been fooling around with a Benny a
33:22Benny you mean a vadine tablet this
33:25method of ingestion is commonly called
33:28Popp and Benny's at the time no one knew
33:31how highly addictive and Powerful a
33:33stimulant amphetamines
33:36were it it was quite euphorigenic it uh
33:40gave people a sense of confidence uh
33:43life seemed brighter uh you didn't have
33:46to sleep as much you could overcome uh
33:50fatigue it made doing boring things uh
33:53more interesting and of course weight
33:56loss
33:57[Music]
34:011946 amphetamines find their way into
34:04post-war Society in Japan the market is
34:06flooded with vast amounts of the drug in
34:09America Housewives take speed to feel
34:11better amphetamines are to the 50s what
34:14opiates were in the past truck drivers
34:17take them to stay up for days like Dock
34:20Workers who once used cocaine to work
34:22through the night and artists and
34:24writers who used Lum a century ago now
34:27pop Benny for kicks and inspiration like
34:30author Jack kowak while popping benad
34:32dream he writes on the road in 20 days
34:35in
34:361955 meth's the All-American drug meth
34:40was invented for
34:41Americans it it it it really embodies
34:45all of the values that that we hold dear
34:49industriousness um hard work um uh um
34:55basically um enthusiasm for
34:58accomplishing tasks it was the most
35:01widely prescribed drug in America's
35:05history the appeal of amphetamines cuts
35:08across all walks of life one of the most
35:12famous users is the newly drafted Elvis
35:15Aaron Presley in October 1958 Presley
35:19begins a tour of Duty in West
35:22Germany as an army GI a sergeant
35:25introduces him to speed from this point
35:28on the king of rock and roll is hooked
35:31for the rest of his life drugs must be
35:35prescribed by a doctor and prepared by a
35:38licensed pharmacist and Physicians were
35:41the real pushers of this drug uh you're
35:45a little depressed here let me let me
35:47prescribe some form of amphetamine you
35:50want to lose weight here let me
35:52prescribe some
35:54amphetamine uh you say you don't have
35:56enough energy I mean the the reasons
35:59were Le Legion in
36:011946 a physician by the name of
36:05WRB uh published a paper in which he
36:08claimed there were 39 medical reasons
36:11for prescribing
36:13amphetamines and they were everything
36:15from hiccups to
36:18schizophrenia by the 1960s amphetamine
36:21use was a hidden epidemic on the other
36:24hand marijuana once kept behind closed
36:27doors is openly
36:34used unlike methamphetamine a legal drug
36:38marijuana has been outlawed by the
36:40marijuana Stamp Act of
36:421937 users face fines and jail sentences
36:46under federal law but it is the latest
36:49drug fad the favorite of baby boomers
36:52despite these potentially harsh
36:54penalties
36:59[Music]
37:12marijuana is kind of a of a hybrid it
37:15has some features that are that are like
37:17LSD it also doesn't produce physical
37:20dependence and it doesn't produce
37:21overdose deaths and and the fact that it
37:24doesn't do those two things makes it
37:26seem like it's not quote an addictive
37:28drug it has an appeal to people who are
37:32uh smart uh and who are interested in uh
37:35going beyond the conventional uh
37:39boundaries and of their behavior 33
37:42years after the marijuana tax act its
37:45constitutionality was questioned in the
37:47Supreme Court the man who led the charge
37:50to change the law was the man who told a
37:52generation to tune in turn on and drop
37:56out Tim lry Timothy lirry the LSD Guru
38:02argued that in order to get the license
38:06one had to break the law in other words
38:08one had to have the marijuana before you
38:10got the license and therefore you were
38:12already in violation of the law and
38:14therefore getting the license was simply
38:17self-incrimination the Supreme Court
38:18agreed with him and overturned the law
38:21in the slam of a gavl the federal law
38:23that banned marijuana vanished until
38:261914 most people belied the Constitution
38:29upheld one's right to ingest any
38:31substance one wanted besides a drug that
38:34made you feel better was perceived as
38:36good but by 1970 recreational drug use
38:40was perceived as bad and Congress didn't
38:42consider the right to use drugs a right
38:45protected by the Constitution and banned
38:47marijuana in the controlled substance
38:49Act of
38:521970 a lot of people became concerned
38:56with drugs for the the first time in the
38:5860s because the young people were using
39:03them with
39:05such uh seeming uh freedom and uh and
39:11recklessness um they were particularly
39:14concerned about marijuana the new
39:17federal law is on firm constitutional
39:19ground unlike the self-incriminating tax
39:22of
39:231937 but still marijuana use does not
39:25end it just becomes illegal and finds a
39:29place in a subculture of its own that
39:31includes a comedy troop and a magazine
39:34unlike pot methamphetamine is not
39:37completely illegal it can still be
39:39prescribed by doctors but illegal
39:42non-medicinal use is at an all-time high
39:45it's estimated that by
39:471971 so many amphetamine pills were
39:50produced illicitly that there
39:53were if you gave them to every man woman
39:55and child in the country you would would
39:57give them 50 a piece methamphetamine is
40:01banned for non-medicinal use still it is
40:04manufactured illegally in all 50 states
40:07Missouri and Utah can claim the dubious
40:10prize as meth lab capitals of the US
40:13naively and innocently put on the market
40:16as the benzidine inhaler almost 70 years
40:18ago no one could predict amphetamines
40:22damage people who used a lot of
40:25amphetamines tended to be triger happy
40:28about violence first of all they were
40:31become a little paranoid and they
40:33misinterpret something and think that
40:36that person is out to do him harm and
40:38they uh you know give him a punch or or
40:41Worse amphetamines are also the
40:44preferred drug of the Sports World pro
40:46football horse racing and bicycle racing
40:49are breeding grounds for Speed abuse
40:51while racing the tour to France Tommy
40:53Simpson collapses and dies under the
40:55influence of methamphetamine speed kills
40:58by blowing your heart up uh it actually
41:01can blow your heart up I mean you the
41:04heart muscle you'll get it to rip a hole
41:05in itself you'll uh it the messages that
41:09are being sent by the brain
41:12are uh just completely out of whack
41:16recreational use of this addictive drug
41:18ruins thousands of lives despite its
41:20dangers its powers of addiction claim
41:23new addicts every
41:25day that first shot of speed was like
41:27having an orgasm I didn't have to have a
41:29man I didn't have to have anybody I just
41:32stood there and backed up and sat down
41:34on the couch and it was it was
41:36unbelievable and it was a rush a high
41:39that um I knew I had found what I was
41:42looking for my own
41:44life and I was off and
41:47running while amphetamines have long
41:49been prescribed by doctors medicinal
41:51marijuana has only gained Acceptance in
41:53the '90s
41:56today it is used by AIDS and cancer
41:59patients to stimulate appetite and
42:01reduce the nausea from chemotherapy it's
42:04also a treatment for glaucoma the
42:07attitude of the American public towards
42:09marijuana is most fickle once the
42:12federal government was opposed to a
42:14national marijuana law but enacted one
42:17anyway in
42:181937 only to see it overturned 30 Years
42:21Later by the Supreme Court in 1970 a new
42:25federal law banned marijuana again
42:28citing it was of no medicinal use but
42:31today marijuana is used legally for that
42:34very reason now at the turn of the 21st
42:38century 11 states have decriminalized
42:41possession of small amounts of marijuana
42:44judging the legal side effects to be
42:46more harmful than the drug
42:53[Music]
42:55itself next up
42:57Atlantis an all new season kicks off as
43:00we embark on our greatest Journey yet we
43:02have found the island of Atlantis the
43:04event that will change everything you
43:05thought about the lost city the season
43:07premiere of digging for the truth
43:09Mondays at 9: on the History Channel

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