CANNABIS HISTORY
The Great 60s Marijuana Hoax
How the Beat Generation Fought the Machine
by Karla Deel , contributing writer
If you happen to enjoy reading books and are a lover of ganja , then you ’ ve likely already crossed paths with the outspoken poet-writer-extraordinaire Allen Ginsberg , best known for his poem-turned-cultural-anthem Howl and co-creating a counterculture known as the Beat Generation with his besties William S . Burroughs and Jack Kerouac . Ginsberg was an outspoken big thinker who , controversially , denounced consumerism , conformity , militarism , war , and materialism and who loved marijuana for its ability to promote a natural curiosity for exploring life .
“ Not only do I propose end of prohibition of marijuana but I propose a total dismantling of the whole cancerous bureaucracy that has perpetrated this historic screw-up on the United States .” ~ Allen Ginsberg
The somewhat controversial 1960s writer , author Allen Ginsberg in 1979 .
( Wikimedia public domain photo )
12 June 2022
Ginsberg became the voice of a generation decrying the corruption of media and government , which perpetuated a false narrative of marijuana . He said that all members of the U . S . Treasury Department ’ s Federal Bureau of Narcotics were lying evangelists . To Ginsberg , those who participated in and promoted a narrative that marijuana was a menace were schemers and large-scale liars concocting an ultimate hoax in society . He and his generation would not stand for that .
Imagine mainstream 1950s America : Placid , homely , white-washed , god-fearing . It was the Golden Age of American Capitalism when we doubled our gross national product through unprecedented economic growth backed by a strong middle class . Popular entertainment featured sparkling images of happy families like those in Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy .
But what was boiling under the squeakyclean surface of the 1950s was the fury of the Beat Generation . The Beats rejected the standard modus operandi adopted in mainstream America . In other words , they were on a quest to obtain a liberated way of living , achieved through deepening one ’ s spiritual , sexual , and psychedelic experiences . There was to be more to life than working , paying taxes , and dying .
Ginsberg opens Howl with his most famous line : “ I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness , starving hysterical naked … .”
He continues in Part 1 , which is actually one 2,107-word sentence , by describing his generation : “… who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana … who walked all night with their shoes full of blood on the snowbank docks waiting for a door in the East River to open to a room full of steam-heat and opium … who drove cross country seventy two hours to find out if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had a vision to find out Eternity … .”
In Footnote to Howl , Ginsberg made the revolutionary claims that : “ Everything is holy ! everybody ’ s holy ! everywhere is holy ! everyday is in eternity ! Everyman ’ s an angel ! The bum ’ s as holy as the seraphim ! the madman is holy as you my soul are holy ! … Holy the groaning saxophone ! Holy the bop apocalypse ! Holy the jazzbands marijuana hipsters peace peyote pipes & drums !”
Howl became a manifesto for a hungry youth and Ginsberg , a sacrificial lamb . His outspoken nature attracted the limelight of antimarijuana propagandists , landing him on the search list for airport security , where they ’ d take a magnifying lens to the dust and lint in the corners of his suit pockets , looking for evidence of use of the illegal plant . Striking