THE HISTORY OF CANNABIS IN CANADA
Page 30 - Media spreads panic over cannabis violence.
Even though cannabis was virtually never smoked in Canada at the time, Canadian media giants continued a relentless campaign against marihuana during the late 1930s, creating a national panic to build support for total prohibition.
Fear-mongering stories filled the newspapers, and American anti-cannabis exploitation films like “Assassin of Youth” and “Tell Your Children” (now known as “Reefer Madness”) were widely shown across Canada from 1939 until the 1950s, often sponsored by churches and youth groups.
“Murder, rape, hold-ups, suicide and insanity have been definitely traced to the smoking of the so-called ‘reefers’, sometimes as the result of smoking a single cigarette.” - “G-Men Seek Green Goddess for Every Horrible Crime,” The Winnipeg Tribune, Oct 2, 1937
“A case is mentioned of a boy in California, who after smoking three of these cigarettes, walked out and killed his best friend. A New York girl who died from the effects of smoking marijuana cigarettes told her mother that more than fifty of her schoolmates were addicted.” - The Lethbridge Herald, March 4, 1938
“Like ivy climbing up a wall, marihuana has spread northward from Mexico. A majority of the American states, many of them bordering Canada, are thoroughly infected. In the US Southwest, there are cities where 50 percent of crimes of violence are attributable to marihuana addicts.
“The records of the police, of hospitals and insane asylums leave little doubt about the viciousness of marihuana. Prolonged use frequently develops a delirious rage which sometimes leads to criminal assault and murder. Hence marihuana has been called ‘the killer drug’.” - Excerpts from “Traffic in Misery”, six-part front-page series, The Winnipeg Tribune, 1938
“The Minister of Health said that in the Orient, marijuana was known as ‘hashish’, and that the word ‘assassin’ was derived from it, because of the violence which it produced in its addicts.” - The Ottawa Journal, Feb 26, 1938
Parents were often warned that cannabis induced “laxity of morals in young women.” One story claimed that a bigamist had seduced his two wives by kissing them both after smearing his lips with hashish!
Newspapers of the day also blatantly re-wrote the history of prohibition, telling their readers that the anti-Chinese white labour riot that had rampaged through Vancouver’s Chinatown in 1907 was actually a group of crazed opium addicts. In 1938, the Winnipeg Tribune reported that Canada’s anti-opium laws were originally created because “opium riots broke out in British Columbia” where “addicts did damage to seven opium factories.”
FOOTNOTES
• Assassin of Youth
Advertisement: The Winnipeg Tribune, August 17, 1939
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3653910/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Assassin of Youth
Advertisement: The Ottawa Journal, April 17, 1940
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3653976/the_ottawa_journal/
• Assassin of Youth
Advertisement: The Lethbridge Herald, April 13, 1955
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5385966/the_lethbridge_herald/
• Assassin of Youth
Article: Businessmen to Show Drug Film, The Lethbridge Herald, April 15, 1955
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5385967/the_lethbridge_herald/
• Assassin of Youth
Advertisement: The Lethbridge Herald, April 16, 1955
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5385969/the_lethbridge_herald/
• Tell Your Children
Advertisement: The Winnipeg Tribune, June 5, 1940
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5385970/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Tell Your Children
Advertisement: The Winnipeg Tribune, April 6, 1940
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654028/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Tell Your Children
Advertisement: The Ottawa Journal, January 20, 1941
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654034/the_ottawa_journal/
• Tell Your Children
Advertisement: The Winnipeg Tribune, December 4, 1946
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5385973/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Tell Your Children
Advertisement: The Ottawa Journal, January 31, 1948
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654226/the_ottawa_journal/
• Winnipeg Tribune, Oct 2, 1937
Article: G-Men Seek Green Goddess For Every Horrible Crime, by H.R. Baukage, The Winnipeg Tribune, October 2, 1937
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654256/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Lethbridge Herald, March 4, 1938
Article: Weekly Review of Men and Matters, Parliament and Hashish, by W.A.R.G., The Lethbridge Herald, March 4, 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654277/the_lethbridge_herald/
• Traffic in Misery
Traffic in Misery, Winnipeg Tribune, September 10, 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654292/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Traffic in Misery
Article: A Stitch in Time, The Winnipeg Tribune, September 10, 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654306/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Traffic in Misery
Article: Traffic in Misery, The Winnipeg Tribune, September 14, 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654345/the_winnipeg_tribune/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3660919/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• cities where 50% of crimes
Article: Narcotic Traffic, Winnipeg Tribune, September 16, 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3660782/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• Ottawa Journal, 1938
Article: A Canadian Weed that is Highly Dangerous, The Ottawa Journal, February 26 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5385957/the_ottawa_journal/
• laxity in morals
Article: A Stitch in Time, The Winnipeg Tribune, September 10, 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654306/the_winnipeg_tribune/
• smearing his lips with hashish
Article: Weekly Review of Men and Matters, Parliament and Hashish, by W.A.R.G., The Lethbridge Herald, March 4, 1938
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654277/the_lethbridge_herald/
• caused by crazed opium addicts
Article: Canada Quick to Ban Smoking of 'Muggles', The Winnipeg Tribune, March 31 1938,
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3660854/the_winnipeg_tribune/