Mexican Opium

Earlier this month, the New York Times ran an article about Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, detailing how a few liquor stores just outside of the Reservation, across the state border in Whiteclay, Nebraska, profit from rampant alcoholism on Pine Ridge. Alcohol is banned on Pine Ridge, and Whiteclay is the closest location where Reservation … Continue reading →

Weed. Grass. Ganga. Chronic. Buddha. Tea. Green. Dro. Pot. Kush. Indo. Hash. Mota. Broccoli. Cheeba. Kill. Coffee. Mary Jane. Sensimilla. 420. Purp. Jah. Grapes. Clinton’s Asthma. These are just a few of the many slang terms used for marijuana in America. Some of them are street names for particular strains, others are vernacular terms confined … Continue reading →

I had the pleasure of sitting down for a talk with UC Hastings Professor Reuel Schiller in his office last week. Schiller, who teaches legal history at Hastings, has a fantastic knowledge bank for the era when the first drug laws were coming in (i.e. post Civil War, pre-WWII). I thought that was reason enough … Continue reading →

On November 15, 1875, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a landmark ordinance banning opium dens in the City. Here’s the San Francisco Chronicle’s report of the event. The Chronicle article cites the threat of Chinese opium den operators snagging white people as the main motivation behind the ordinance. This is generally regarded as the … Continue reading →