For over 50 years marjiuana has been a fast food staple for the USA media.
During the “Summer of Love” in 1967, where folk singer Scott McKenzie liltingly sang “if you are going to San Francisco, you better wear some flowers in your hair...and meet some gentle people there,” marijuana made the national scene in a big way.
A few years later, the crazed Charles Manson ”hippie” family and their proclivity for weed and other drugs became the stuff of infamous legend, as did the Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont, CA Speedway where four persons died in the mayhem. Then came comedians Cheech and Chong who solidified the stoner stereotype in the minds of millions and generated all kinds of similar stories and ridicule of cannabis users over the years. Finally, President Ronld Reagan, his successors, and their enablers in the media set the anti-cannabis stage for many years to come.
Flash forward to the present and we have lurid tales about some far right crazies in Michigan who smoked weed and planned to kidnap the Governor.
In the Whitmer kidnap case, every mainstream media outlet placed special focus on the marijuana angle. Defendants Barry Croft, Brandon Caserta, Adam Fox, Daniel Harris and FBI informant Steve Roberson regularly hung out with ample supplies of weed, beer and angry rhetoric. According to media reports, they talked about flying Whitmer like a kite over Lake Michigan, diverting rivers into underground caverns to grow food and how the pyramids in Egypt created a magnetic flow that allows space aliens to enter the atmosphere at three times the speed of light without crashing into the earth. The idea of surrounding the Governor’s vacation home at night and barking like dogs to lure her out and into their hands was given serious consideration.
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| The Whitmer kidnap plot suspects |
Blanchard. Blanchard used the pot defense strategy. In other words, these unsavory looking characters were not responsible for their actions because they were too stoned. He called it “stoned crazy talk.”
In a social media posting, Michigan NORML leader Rick Thompson attacked Blanchard for “perverting the effects of cannabis” to ameliorate his clients behavior.
However, this kind of media coverage is likely to continue in the USA; at least for some people.
Looking at the big picture, I was a freshman in high school during the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco circa 1967. I did not make it to the Bay, but the event was electric even for those who did not attend. Media from all over the world descended on the city to cover this exotic new “counter culture” phenomena. There were “love-ins,” free food, free medical care, folk singers, rock bands, dancing in the streets and lots of acid and weed openly consumed for the TV cameras.
While some moralists condemned the San Francisco summer party, the rest of the nation, especially younger folks, (myself included) were transfixed, and eager to get in on the action.
Unfortunately these halcyon counterculture days ended as far as the mainstream media was concerned in1969, with two tragic events.
Rioting at a free rock concert at the Altamont Speedway in Tracy, California attended by over 300,000 people, resulted in 4 deaths and lots of mayhem. The Rolling Stones were the featured act, and the Hells Angels were hired to provide security. One of the dead,18-year-old Merideth Hunter, was stabbed to death by a Hells Angel. This was a major news event.
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| Charles Manson |
In that same year, the Charles Manson family came out of the woodwork and murdered 9 people in a crazed, drug fueled spree. Their vagabond lifestyle, which featured sex, drugs and rock and roll in the worst sense of the word, made headlines for months. Books were written, movies produced and lurid follow-up stories appeared for many years after.
Pundits at the time declared 1969 to be the “end of the 60’s” as the world previously knew it.
Marijuana and hippie culture was no longer viewed by the media and many in the general public as something benign. Gentle hippies with flowers in their hair, were replaced by potentially dangerous social deviants.
Then along came comedians Cheech and Chong. These guys were great entertainers and their movies were widely viewed. Unfortunately, these films further entrenched the view of cannabis use as wacked out “stoner” behavior. Very few parents wanted their kids to grow up and be like Cheech and Chong.
When Ronald Reagan succeeded Jimmy Carter as president, the gloves came off. A full blown war on drugs was launched, and that included weed. Reagan was much more effective than Richard Nixon. Employee drug testing was instituted. Penalties were ratcheted up and the mainstream media went along for the ride. It was almost impossible to find anything good about cannabis in the mainstream media anymore. President George HW Bush continued the Reagan policies as did Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Under Barack Obama, things got a bit better for medical cannabis users. Trump and Biden maintained the status quo on a Federal level and so did congress.
No matter. Times have been changing for the better for weed in the last few years, but some things are still the same in the media.
Having the privilege of experiencing life on many different levels, from deep in the impoverished third world and national Rainbow Gatherings, to membership in the venerable Detroit Athletic Club (DAC) a couple of things come to mind. Especially about my time as a member of the DAC.
Specifically, the DAC was founded by the Detroit social elite and a rising new breed of automobile entrepreneurs in 1887. It is still an invitation-only private club, consisting of big business and social leaders in southeast Michigan. If just one board member does not like a nominee, membership is denied. For instance, multimillionaire personal injury attorney Geoffrey Fieger was rejected for membership some years ago, for having a “bad attitude” toward the system.
Funny thing, but in my 19 years of membership in the DAC, I found there were a number of members who smoked weed, but did not want it legalized. I was the subject of good-natured ribbing by some of my club buddies back then about my crusade to legalize herb. However, I was considered OK-- a member in good standing, albeit a bit eccentric.
Bottom line, various club members in those days, believed only cannabis users like themselves were responsible enough to imbibe in the substance.
