1942
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Though hemp was grown as a fiber by the earliest American colonists, and cannabis was used as an ingredient in medicines throughout the 19th century, recreational cannabis smoking first took on a negative connotation in the American cultural imagination when people began to associate it with Mexican immigrants arriving in the country after the revolution of 1910.
Many Mexican laborers smoked marijuana to unwind, as a cheaper alternative to alcohol during Prohibition. The drug became associated with immigrants, tied up in xenophobic fears and resentments during the Great Depression. Read more…
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