Faces of Cannabis History: 3 Legendary Voices of Reason

I’ll be honest: history classes were never really my jam. I was more drawn
to English, journalism and social sciences in college — and yet I always
knew somehow I would eventually develop a deep passion for history.

And sure enough, it happened — starting with sprawling Ken Burns
documentaries, moving forward with smart history podcasts and hitting me
over the head more recently via Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical theater
masterpiece “Hamilton.”

While I spent my 20s in rock clubs and my 30s studying drug policy, I find
myself in my 40s going back to explore the historical roots of these
subjects and others. And like countless others before me, I’m learning how
thrilling it can be to understand history and how impossible it is to fully
comprehend the present or forecast the future without knowing what came
before.

Cannabis history is a fascinating one, from ancient Chinese relics to the
Anslingers and DeAngelos of the world. But many modern cannabis consumers
are hardly aware of this rich history, and so here’s a lively lesson on
three figures in cannabis history you may not know.
[image: cannabis history raymond p shafer]PHOTO Ronald Dale Carr *Raymond
P. Shafer*

Raymond P. Shafer was the 39th Governor of Pennsylvania, from 1967 to 1971.
Before this son of a reverend became a national GOP leader, he was an Eagle
Scout, high school valedictorian, Yale Law grad, naval intelligence
officer, World War II veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

After Shafer’s gubernatorial term, President Richard Nixon appointed Shafer
as chairman of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (later
dubbed the Shafer Commission). And just think of the timing: Nixon was
approaching peak anti-marijuana hysteria, having just signed the Controlled
Substances Act, which “temporarily” categorized cannabis as Schedule I in
anticipation of the Shafer Commission’s report.

But when Shafer presented the report — *Marihuana, a Signal of
Misunderstanding *— to Congress in March 1972, the thoughtfully researched
report written by politicos, physicians, psychiatrists, pharmacologists,
educators and researchers actually recommended descheduling and
decriminalizing cannabis.

This was monumental, and champions of drug policy reform cheered the
report’s reasoned, common-sense recommendations. Nixon and important
congressional subcommittees, however, ignored the report and moved forward
with a War on Drugs that targeted people of color and ruined untold lives.
[image: cannabis history margaret mead]PHOTO Library of Congress *Margaret
Mead*

Margaret Mead was an author and cultural anthropologist known for her
groundbreaking research (and resulting papers and books) on the role of sex
in primitive cultures, as well as the debate surrounding race and
intelligence.

Before becoming an internationally renowned academic, Mead was the daughter
of a sociologist and a University of Pennsylvania professor, recipient of a
masters and doctorate from Columbia University, assistant curator at the
American Museum of Natural History in New York City and president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1969, Mead testified to Congress that marijuana should be legalized,
saying: “Marihuana is not harmful unless it is taken in enormous and
excessive amounts. I believe that we are damaging this country, damaging
our law, our whole law enforcement situation, damaging the trust between
the older people and younger people by its prohibition, and this is far
more serious than any damage that might be done to a few over-users,
because you can get damage from any kind of overuse.”

Speaking truth to power, in 1969 no less. Impressive.
[image: cannabis history dennis peron]PHOTO Gracie Malley for Cannabis Now *Dennis
Peron*

Dennis Peron was an entrepreneur and activist best known for radically
changing medical marijuana laws in California and beyond.

Before Peron made drug policy history, he was raised in Long Island, New
York, served in the Air Force in Vietnam and supported gay activist Harvey
Milk in Peron’s newly adopted home of San Francisco.

Peron’s cannabis history is long, from his San Francisco Cannabis Buyers
Club — the first dispensary in the U.S. — days to unsuccessful,
legalization-centric bids for California Governor and U.S. President. But
Peron, known as “the father of medical cannabis,” is best-known for
organizing 1991’s Proposition P in San Francisco and helping to write
1996’s Proposition 215 statewide in California, the latter of which allowed
the cultivation, possession and use of medical marijuana in the state — the
first time such laws had been successfully passed in the modern world.

*TELL US,* who are your cannabis heroes?

*Originally published in the print edition of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE*

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