Mimsy Review: Cannabis Britannica
“Despite Warnock’s frank admissions that he had very little idea of what was going on upon his arrival in Egypt and indeed had no reliable means of remedying this situation beyond hazarding a few guesses of his own and trying to interpret the lunatic translations of his delusional clerk, it seems that he was happy to jump to conclusions about the cause of illness among a large proportion of his patients…”
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Subtitled “Empire, Trade, and Prohibition”, this is an in-depth history of how prohibition came about in Britain, and ends up describing how marijuana prohibition came to the forefront of international attempts to ban opium.
| Recommendation | Special Interests• |
|---|---|
| Author | James H. Mills |
| Year | 2003 |
| Length | 239 pages |
| Book Rating | 7 |
James H. Mills has written a fascinating book about the origins of marijuana prohibition in the United Kingdom. What began as a taxable cash cow ended up an easy scapegoat for empire politics and law enforcement laziness.
Some things never change, and the scapegoating of marijuana in India mirrors that by Harry Anslinger later in the thirties, and by DEA lobbyists today. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission’s review of crime and insanity caused by marijuana initially showed that almost all of India’s crime and insanity were marijuana-derived. This came from reports by law enforcement that,
…when challenged, went entirely without any supporting evidence. H. C. Williams, the magistrate of Darbhanga in Bengal, was called in front of the IHDC to flesh out his claim that cases of homicidal frenzy as a result of cannabis use were ‘innumerable’. he was forced into a confession: ‘my remark about cases of homicidal frenzy being innumerable is merely based on newspapers’. Similarly, the Inspector-General of Police in the Central Provinces declared in his written statement that ‘running “amok” is, I should say, always the result of excessive indulgence’. However, when hauled in front of the Commission and questioned on this declaration he had to concede that ‘I have never had experience of such a case. I only state what I have heard.’
In the final chapters, Mills outlines an international play by former colonies—mainly Egypt—to embarrass their former masters by showing them as unwilling to address drug issues. What was meant to be a conference on opium prohibition ended up with a sub-conference on marijuana after an impassioned plea by Egypt.
This is a fascinating story; if you’re interested in the history of empire in the UK, or in the history of prohibition, it’s well worth reading.
If you enjoyed Cannabis Britannica…
For more about prohibition, you might also be interested in Another victim of prohibition, Bad laws cause crime, Bet you can’t order just one!, Cops Say Legalize Drugs: Ask Me Why, Drug cops on tape, Drug war undermining Afghan, Iraqi peace, Fuck everything except marijuana, Georgia drug war unfairly targets Indian immigrants, Has welfare failed us?, Medical marijuana returns to Congress, Misplaced compassion: more deaths, less dignity, Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide, Prisoner of the war on drugs, Project Safe Neighborhoods, Put safety first: end prohibition, Raising Peter McWilliams, Silencing opposition in the war on drugs, Support the Dope, Supreme Court rules against patients and states, The Price of Prohibition, Bush: We should live by our principles, Learning from alcohol prohibition, Throwing Gas on the Fire, Tianamen Square and the Drug War, We’re all drug lords now, Will prohibition destroy the Iraq turnaround?, U.S. homicide rate compared to gun control measures, Progressives ruin a different kind of race in New Jersey, The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition, Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do, and The Great Gatsby.
- Cannabis Britannica•: James H. Mills
- “Cannabis Britannica explores the historical origins of the UK’s legislation and regulations on cannabis preparations. From the earliest publications on cannabis in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the substance and its various preparations have been the subject of myths and misunderstandings.”