TL;DR ? Simple Version !
A media mongul lost land in Mexico round 1917 that was for his timbermills and a fear of cheap alternative hemp paper led to the 1937 Tax Act
If you’ve ever wondered why a plant used for thousands of years suddenly became “The Devil’s Weed,” look no further than the 1910s and a man named William Randolph Hearst.
1. The Grudge: Pancho Villa vs. The 800,000 Acres
In 1917, Pancho Villa wasn’t just a revolutionary; he was Hearst’s worst nightmare. Villa’s army reclaimed massive tracts of land, including a staggering 800,000 acres of timberland in Mexico owned by Hearst.
Hearst—the ultimate “spoiled rich kid” with a media empire—couldn’t fight Villa with a rifle, so he used the inkwell. He needed a way to demonize the Mexican Revolution and protect his remaining American assets.
2. The Rebrand: From “Cannabis” to “Marijuana”
Up until this point, Americans knew the plant as Cannabis (found in pharmacies) or Hemp (the backbone of the textile industry). To create fear, Hearst used Yellow Journalism to push a “foreign” threat. He swapped the scientific name for the Spanish slang “Marijuana” to make it sound “un-American.”
3. The Headlines of Hate
Hearst’s papers began running sensationalized, often completely fabricated stories. While exact historical archives vary, the sentiment in his publications like the New York Journal echoed these themes:
“Washe-out ‘Marijuana’ fiends of the Mexican Army lose all sense of restraint, committing atrocities against the civilized world!”
“The marijuana-smoking ‘Locoweed’ addicts are a menace to the industrial progress of the American worker!”
Hearst had linked the plant to “insanity” and violent crime, specifically targeting Mexican immigrants to fuel a moral panic.
4. The Industrial Hit Job
The real motive? The bottom line. Hearst had invested most of his fortune in wood-pulp paper mills. At the same time, new technology (like the decorticator) was making hemp paper cheaper and more durable than wood paper. If hemp took off, Hearst’s timber empire would collapse.
He found a perfect ally in Harry Anslinger, the head of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Together, they pushed the narrative that led to the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.
5. The Ultimate “Gotcha”: The Tax Trap
The 1937 Act was a bureaucratic masterpiece of corruption. To grow hemp legally, you had to pay a tax and get a stamp from the Treasury. However:
- To get the stamp, you had to have the hemp.
- If you had the hemp without the stamp, you were a criminal.
- The office to pay the tax was often monitored by the precursor to the DEA.
It was a legal “Catch-22” designed to ensure no one could ever grow it legally again.
So now that you know does Trump really seem like that bad of a guy 
is worse and not even close. Hearst may have been a SOB, but he pales compared to Mango Mussolini.
