International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 128

International Journal on Criminology • Volume 7, Number 1 • Winter 2019/2020
A Brief Genealogy of Cannabis
Policy in the United States
Eduardo Rodriguez*
CNAM EESD Paris
*To my friend Bernardo Ranferi Hernández Acevedo, 1 a former PRD deputy and a
candidate in Morena at the time of his murder. He was an exemplary social organizer
in the fight against corruption, injustice, and lawlessness over the decades, as well as
a former political refugee in France. He was savagely tortured and then beheaded
on October 14, 2017, with his wife, his mother-in-law, and a close collaborator.
Their charred bodies were found in the rubble of their burned-out car, fewer than
five hundred meters from a military facility that was probably complicit in a crime
organized at a high level, near Chilapa in Guerrero, one of the states that has been
most severely infected 2 by Mexico’s drug cartels. 3
Abstract
Hundreds of articles—or perhaps even thousands—have been published
on cannabis in the United States, across all types of media.
In this article, I have chosen to prioritize studying the official discourse
on drug policy of politicians who have occupied positions
of authority, influence, and decision making within the U.S. government.
As a criminologist, I will explore the elements of the state
process that criminalized the use of certain drugs, but above all the
use of cannabis, during the twentieth century.
Keywords: cannabis, USA, Mexico, government, drugs, DEA, FBI,
Nixon, genealogy
1 https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/17/assassination-in-guerrero-the-murder-of-ranferi-hernandez-acevedo/;
http://www.jornada.com.mx/2017/10/24/opinion/019a2pol; https://www.lajornadaguerrero.com.mx/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=516:ranferi-hernandez-%20
acevedo&Itemid=733; http://www.jornada.com.mx/2017/10/16/estados/032n1est etc.
2 See the surprisingly delighted comment after the video on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
alZq3iXWCk4.
3 [FOOTNOTE TEXT MISSING IN ORIGINAL VERSION]
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doi: 10.18278/ijc.7.1.9