The Nation Makers, by Howard Pyle, c. 1902
First shot’s in America’s war on Cannabis
That single moment, however dilute, that wars are started…
That moment was when the United States declared cannabis as a “Poison”, April 16, 1860…
The New York herald, April 17, 1860
It was in New York 1860, following a string of suicides and murders where poison was said to be the culprit… Senator Francis M. Rotch introduces a bill into the New York State Senate labeled as a ‘Poison bill’.
This Poison bill was to regulate the sale of “Poisons”. Earlier bills had been introduced in the U.S but this was the first to include a list of “poisons”.
On this list of poisons, “Canabis Indica”… Making this America’s first regulation of the use of cannabis under law…
The New York herald., February 16, 1860
Under New York’s 1860 Poison bill,…
“no person shall sell or give any poison or poisonous substance, without recording in a book to be kept for that purpose, the name of the person receiving said poison, his or her residence (together with the name and residence of some person as witness to such sale), excepting upon the written order or prescription of some regularly authorized practicing physician, whose name and residence shall be attached to such order.”
Adding that the containing vessel be labeled with the name and address of said person and brightly red labeled “Poison”…
The daily dispatch, April 20, 1860
Only 2 years later in 1862 under pressure from the American Pharmaceutical Association, the list of “poisons” in the 1860 poison bill was removed from the law. Objections Argued that the list of poisons are too objectionable under the law.
Unable to unravel history, the first shots had been fired… America’s War on Drugs had begun…
Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists Cannabis bottle showing the poison label
Concord Hymn
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson