The United States loves drugs. It is a simple fact, look around you. Alcohol, and Tobacco are the top used drugs  in the United States, but what about the other drugs? Drugs like LSD, Marjuana, and MDMA are still used but not as much. There is one huge major difference between these two groups of drugs, one group is legal while the other isn’t. How is it fair that LSD is illegal when it kills virtually no one when Tobacco kills around 480,000 people per year in the United States and is legal? In the United States, how did certain drugs become heavily criminalized?.
    Marjuana began being used as a medical herb in Asia around 500 B.C.In the 1910s, Many mexican immigrants began to flood into the country due to Mexican Revolution. Along with their rich culture, many mexicans brought Marjuana. Historian Isaac Campos, author of Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico’s War on Drugs says “When drugs are seen as foreign, they’re seen as more dangerous,”. This absurd fear of Mexicans and Marjuana scared many Americans, and Politicians and Lawmakers knew how to abuse that fear. In the 1930s, Marijuana propaganda began to pop up. Films such as “The Devil’s Weed” and “Reefer Madness' ' were being shown. These flims paint Marijuana that makes you murder, rape, and see hallucinations,  which couldn’t be futher from the truth. Furthermore, In 1937, U.S. Narcotics Commissioner Henry Anslinger testified before Congress in the hearings that would result in the introduction of federal restrictions on marijuana. He stated “I wish I could show you what a small marihuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents. That’s why our problem is so great; the greatest percentage of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of whom [sic] are low mentally, because of social and racial conditions.” Propaganda films and fear mongering from Politicians caused the American public to grow a hatred for Marjiuana. To make matters worse, American had no choice but to believe these films and Lawmakers.
    LSD use began in 1938 when Swedish chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally took some LSD and discovered it had “mind-altering” properties. Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, for which Hofmann was researching, brought LSD-25 to the attention of scientists and clinical research began in the United States in 1949. By 1956, not only hippies were experiencing the joys of LSD but also Dr. Sidney Cohen and his colleagues were using LSD in psychotherapy. Sadly, a failed experiment in 1962, caused them to cease experimentation. Unlike Marijuana, which had racial ties towards it’s criminalization. LSD’s downfall was failed expermination and hippies. Public perception of LSD was mainly through hippies. LSD became an “essential part of the counterculture” which was rampant in the 1960s. “In 1966, the New Jersey Narcotic Drug Study Commission publicly stated that LSD was “the greatest threat facing the country” and “more dangerous than the Vietnam War”.” “In 1967, Science Magazine even published the false claim that LSD damages chromosomes.” This media crusade against LSD caused the public misconception that it has currently. Similiarly to Marijuana, 









http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/how-did-marijuana-become-illegal-first-place
https://time.com/5572691/420-marijuana-mexican-immigration/
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm
http://pitjournal.unc.edu/content/lsd-and-hippies-focused-analysis-criminalization-and-persecution-sixties