Ronald Reagan entered the presidential office in 1981. In response to the economic, political and cultural difficulties that went on during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Reagan, an actor-turned-politician, entered the Oval Office. A cultural shift was happening in America following the rise of the hippie movement in the 1970s and Ronald Reagan pushed back against it. Reagan brought hope to disaffected liberals across America, emphasizing a tough-on-crime stance-- just as the crime rate was also beginning to rise. Conservatism was embraced, once again. As Reagan doubled down on Nixon’s War On Drugs, he also cut funding for Great Society programs meant to benefit disenfranchised groups, and more ambitiously, eradicate poverty and racial inequity. And this remains one of the most impactful moves in Reagan’s career. To this day, we’ve seen how his effort to combat drug use in general led to increased incarceration rates of Black and Brown people. Blacks and Latin communities were targets in the eyes of mainstream America who had already associated the “evils” of society with marginalized communities. The stigma from the War on Drugs still lingers today, and it’s not limited to crack, cocaine, or heroin -- it’s reflected in day-to-day life for many such as NYC's controversial stop-and-frisk practice.
A portrait of President Ronald Reagan in 1985 - Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In 1973, the same year DJ Kool Herc hosted hip-hop’s first block party, President Nixon launched the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) replacing the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants became the norm as Nixon attempted to combat the rise of crime and heroin. But even something like cannabis possession was being harshly penalized. A simple possession charge, under Nixon’s newly devised plan, could land someone in jail for 2-10 years. During this time, cannabis was categorized as a Schedule I drug, thus rubbing shoulders with cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs. Even with several states, most recently Virginia, legalizing cannabis, it is still considered a drug with no medical benefit to it, per the federal government’s classification.
A Schedule I drug is classified as a substance with little-to-no medicinal value-- despite the fact that cannabis has proven to have medical value and aids in treatment of many conditions from physical body pains to mental health problems such as PTSD, depression and anxiety.
America soon declared the use of illicit substances as public enemy number one, although the undertones would suggest otherwise.
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news,” revealed John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s top aide on domestic affairs.
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A 2018 report from American Progress discovered that by 2015, drug possession arrests went up three times as much than the rate in 1980, averaging 1.3M arrests per year. This is six times as high as the average rate of drug trafficking arrests. When you focus on the numbers, the racial disparity in the war on drugs policy becomes clear. Roughly 80 percent of those incarcerated on federal drug convictions are Black or Latino. This study also points out the inequity when it comes to sentencing. The average sentencing for a non-violent drug offense among Black Americans is nearly the same amount as a white defendant would get for a violent crime. On an economic standpoint, the same study reveals that an estimated $1 trillion was spent on the war on drugs.
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Snoop Dogg arrested on charges of suspicion of marijuana possession, circa 1995 - Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Drugs that were defined as Schedule I with no medicinal value were, at one point, used for medicinal purposes in other countries and introduced to the U.S. by American doctors. Cannabis had already been introduced to America by the time the 20th Century rolled around, while opiates were being frequently prescribed throughout the 1800s. Cocaine was introduced to the States by American doctors who learned from the European explorers, who saw how Indiginous communities in South America used it. It was considered a quick pick-me-up for workers, but it’s association with the Black community in the South marked a shift in narrative. The New York Times published an article headlined “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are A New Southern Menace” on Feb. 8th. 1914, which helped sparked this myth surrounding cocaine and Black Americans in the South. This particular article written by Edward Huntington Williams, M.D. described the “effects'' that cocaine had on Black Americans. “[The Negro fiend] imagines that he hears people taunting and abusing him, and this often incites homicidal attacks upon innocent and unsuspecting victims,” the article reads. It sounds absurd, but these headlines weren’t uncommon. Williams added that cocaine essentially gave Black men Superman-like abilities such as “a resistance to the ‘knock down’ effects of fatal wounds. Bullets fired into vital parts that would drop a sane man in his tracks, fail to check the ‘fiend.’” Spurred by these types of reports, in 1914 a new law emerged, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, that regulated and taxed all coca products.
The prohibition of cannabis followed a similar path as cocaine and heroin and it’s mostly due to Harry J. Anslinger, the man who vehemently campaigned to criminalize cannabis. Anslinger is to blame for the high levels of incarceration surrounding cannabis-related offenses, even today. He helped create the narrative that cannabis was a drug used by Black musicians to lure White women. Just as cocaine was used to paint Black men as a threat to white women in the South, the perception of weed was that it made people of color violent and sexually aggressive towards white women after consumption.
There’s a history of Black musicians becoming public targets in the eyes of the government. In the last 30 years since the War On Drugs began, hip-hop artists have become the newest target. This unjust tradition has been passed down through generations, dating back to jazz music. In fact, if you look at some of the earliest references of cannabis in music, they come from jazz artists. Jazz music was bringing the world together ahead of Anslinger’s induction as the head of the Bureau Of Narcotics. As more reports emerged of Black and Latin communities consuming cannabis in areas like El Paso, TX and New Orleans, as well as the migrations of African-Americans into Northern states, xenophobia became stronger and stronger. African-Americans, Mexicans and jazz culture as a whole became the main targets, because, while segregation was still the norm in the South, jazz music was beginning to break down these racial barriers. Men and women, both Black and White, occupied jazz clubs in harmony, where they would enjoy music, dance, and partake in the consumption of cannabis. Much like cocaine, the use of cannabis in these jazz clubs struck a chord among middle Americans and politicians alike. A growing fear that Black men would use this “mysterious” plant to seduce and “prey” on white teenagers ran rampant due to propaganda, such as Reefer Madness. The 1936 film meant to warn people about the effects of cannabis spewed nonsensical dangers of the plant.
A "Reefer Madness" poster, 1936 - Hulton Archive/Getty Images
“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind. Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, results from marijuana usage,” Anslinger said.
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Jazz musicians became the cultural targets of this xenophobia on a wider scale as many of them also became vocal advocates for cannabis. Louis Armstrong, for instance, can be regarded as one of the pioneers of cannabis culture in music. Outside of Culver City, CA’s Cotton Club in 1930, Louis Armstrong was arrested after police spotted him smoking a joint during breaks before a set, making him the first celebrity to ever get arrested for the use of cannabis. Armstrong was sentenced to six months in prison and forced to pay a $1000 fine, but even after his release, he demanded that he have a permit to smoke cannabis anywhere he went. Armstrong was far from the last to get arrested, though. Anslinger directed authorities to keep a close eye on acts like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway -- credited for being the first to reference cannabis in music on “Reefer Man” -- Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and more based on the belief they were converting young White kids into budsmokers.
The Cotton Club in Harlem, 1925 - Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The rebellious nature of the youth prevailed, with cannabis becoming far more popular in the decades to come, largely due to jazz. One major player in the scene was Mezz Mezzrow, a Jewish Harlem jazz musician hailing from Chicago who became the number one cannabis supplier to jazz musicians-- he was known to have that jive-- better known in 2020 as the “loud pack.”The Mighty Mezz was the name of the strain that all the jazz musicians were smoking at the time, named after the man himself.
He immersed himself in Black culture, inspired by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, even considering himself black. “In his belief that through his immersion in African American musical culture and his participation in the life of the black community in Harlem, he had definitively ‘crossed the line’ that divided white and black identities,” according to Gayle Ward, author of Crossing the Line: Racial Passing in Twentieth- Century U.S. Literature and Culture. Eventually, he ended up in jail for selling cannabis. Apparently, he was so convinced that he was Black, he demanded that the warden place him in the section for Black inmates because he feared being attacked by White inmates. Mezz Mezzrow’s arrest and stature in cannabis and jazz culture planted a bigger cultural seed than anyone could imagine, inspiring the generations to come.
Cannabis culture would not have been able to thrive without the help of great musicians like Mezz. Hip-hop, similar to Jazz, found certain artists leading the charge in normalizing marijuana use and advocating for it, perhaps beginning with Cypress Hill in the ‘90s. In the past decade, Wiz Khalifa has emerged as the new-age poster child for legalization.
“I think for every generation you have your trailblazers and your people who kinda set the standard for what pot is for people that age,” Wiz Khalifa told us. Wiz set a standard for the generation of smokers that followed. Kush & Orange Juice marked a shift in hip-hop and cannabis culture as a whole, as well as fusing the two tighter together than ever before.
“For me, it was like Snoop, Cypress Hill, Method Man and Redman. Even seeing people like Cam’ron smoke weed and rap about it, it just inspired me to be my own,” Wiz said. Along with Curren$y, the two intertwined their love for music and cannabis to become one of the most notable stoner duos in the last decade. “Me and Curren$y linked up just by being homies and being into the same things,” he added. “I think our genuine love for art and music as well as pot, it kinda just tied everything together and made it kinda clear that that was the norm. I mean it still is, it’s just creative people love to smoke, get together, and dress well.”
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A portrait of Jazz musician Mezz Mezrow, circa 1940 - William Gottlieb/Redferns/Getty Images
The idea of having a personal strain, pioneered by Mezz’s The Mighty Mezz, set the precedent for artists like Wiz Khalifa to follow. And again, in the same way Jazz musicians came up with slang words to refer to cannabis, so too has the hip-hop community. In the mid-aughts, it was damn-near impossible to hear a rapper who doesn’t talk about smoking “Kush” or “Purpp.” Groups like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Cypress Hill as well as artists like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Devin The Dude, and countless others had popularized terms like Indo and Hydro, referencing the method used to grow the plants. Strains and nicknames that came from the streets would eventually make their way into every smoker’s vernacular. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic introduced the world to a common term for cannabis sativa in the West Coast. Nearly a decade and a half later, Cam’ron would title his magnum opus, Purple Haze, because, admittedly that’s what was fueling those studio sessions.
Mario Guzman, better known as Mr. Sherbinski is the man behind a few popular strains that are heavily referenced throughout rap music. His proprietary genetics have created sought-after strains like Sunset Sherbet and Gelato.
“I got into the game by growing really good flowers and being known by developing Sunset Sherbert and the Gelato strains in San Francisco in the early days of legalization,” he told us over the phone. Guzman was working as a real estate broker until the market was beginning to “take a turn for the worst in California.” A friend told him to start growing cannabis as a way to supplement the loss of income, and that marked the beginning of his journey into the cannabis industry. “Starting a little hobby, I quickly realized that I had a greenthumb. And I developed this connection with the cannabis plant,” he added.
Just as he forayed into the cannabis industry, the Bay Area was witnessing the birth of the Hyphy movement and the demand for quality cannabis was high.
“By putting them into the right influencers’ hands-- local rappers in San Francisco and people that we knew that just wanted the flower, to help when they're in the studio or for them to ‘catch a vibe.’ That was sort of the beginning and how I transitioned from, getting that flower to the rapper’s hands, but also into the guys that would sell on the streets, which would make it popular,” he said.
“When there's good flower, we say it takes them to a place where we believe all creative energy comes from. If it’s not good flower, you don’t get to that point. You’re not able to tap into that energy so that’s what we’ve become known for. That’s why artists fuck with us, that’s why they want our flower because if they have it, they’re able to reach this place where you can tap in creatively,” Guzman explained of the SHERBINSKIS brand.
But it’s the streets, ultimately, that dictate what’s cool and what isn’t. Maybe that’s why rappers-- despite spearheading legalization through normalization-- are often being used by Big Weed companies to target the urban community and beyond. “That's the unique connection-- with making [any strain] popular with the people that are rapping about it, and [then] how that affects the young people that are listening to this music, and also affects the product that they buy. I think that also speaks to a lot of these corporate companies that look to the hip hop culture, [to] the urban communities, [to] Black and Latino culture that [really] influences what people are going to buy.”
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Drug culture of the 80s was defined by cocaine, while the inner-cities were riddled with the effects of the crack epidemic. Reagan took away social programs, like Medicaid, food stamps, social security and federal education programs, that would’ve helped vulnerable communities deal with the epidemic while the Wolf Of Wall Street could rail lines of cocaine all day. Crack was harshly penalized in comparison to powdered cocaine. Given the crack epidemic disproportionately affected Black communities, the late 80s found many rappers, such as Ice-T on “You Played Yourself” (1989), pushing an anti-drug message, to prevent the youth from getting trapped as either a user or a dealer. Only a few years before dropping Th
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