Cops about marijuana in York, Pa. in 1933: ‘Avoid its use as you would deadly poison’
A movement in York County, Pa., to legalize marijuana for medical and industrial purposes is growing. Here, a York Daily Record/Sunday News photograph from earlier this year shows Charles Homan, resident of Manheim Township in the county’s southwestern section, supporting the legalizing of marijuana for such use. Also of interest: Jackson Township again in the middle of things and Tobacco usage: Rooted in York County’s past and York County cigars: ‘They contained a vast amount of nicotine’.
The Mary Jane Fest in 2009 was an unusual event in York County.
A very unusual event.
The two-day festival at Elicker’s Grove in Jackson Township promoted medical and industrial uses of marijuana.
This serves as a reminder about a report in a York magazine in 1933 that came in the early stages of the use of marijuana in York County. Then as now, law enforcement officials were vocal against marijuana use… .
No one could have forseen then that a rally to legalize marijuana would occur in the heart of the county’s heaviest Pennsylvania Dutch region, which, according to the York Daily Record/Sunday News, will feature more than 20 musical acts and vendors.
The magazine reported on a York man’s testimony that he committed robbery to fund his craving for marijuana cigarettes.
I wrote in my “Never to be Forgotten“:
Law enforcement officials used such testimony to emphasize the dangers of this “insidious and habit-forming drug.” Police said smoking “muggles” or “reefers” is new to the state.
Legislators enact a law making use, possession or sale of marijuana a felony.
A law enforcement official writes in a York magazine that the first effects of marijuana include ecstasy, uncontrollable laughter, dreaminess and a “rapid flow of sexual ideas.”
As time goes on, the user suffers from delusions, amnesia and impairment of psychomotor activity with a tendency toward damage, violence and madness. “Marihuana breeds criminals,” he wrote. Avoid its use as you would deadly poison.”
The sponsor of this weekend’s event said marijuana use would be banned at the festival.
“It is not welcome,” Adam Jones told the newspaper (9/10/09). “I will kick you out.”
Edited, 9/15/12
