The history of cannabis in the United States after Ludlow was at first happy. Consumption of cannabis is not stigmatized and not popularized. This situation lasted until the beginning of the 1930s, until the time when the campaign of Special Inspector of the USA on drugs Harry J. Enslinger did not give rise to general hysteria. Enslinger, apparently, largely acted by the will of the American chemical and petrochemical concerns interested in eliminating the competition of cannabis from the areas of production of lubricants, food, plastics and fibers.

Enslinger and the yellow press presented hemp as a “deadly potion”. William Randolph Hearst also popularized the term “marijuana” with a clear intention to associate it with the unreliable black part of the population. Nevertheless, it was extremely difficult for science to give an exact formulation of what its objections against the habit of cannabis are. The system of state financing of research actually certified one thing: “Caesar will hear only what is pleasing to Caesar.”

Despite all the pressure, hemp consumption has increased, so today hemp may well be the first most common agricultural product. America. This is one of the most enduring aspects of the great paradigm shift, which I call the “revival of the Archaic” here. It shows that the innate desire to restore psychological balance, which embodies the partnership society, is not easily restrained if it finds the right path. As for hemp, all that makes it hostile to the values ​​of modern bourgeois, just inspires love for the revival of the Archaic. It weakens the effect of the ego, has a mitigating effect on the need to compete, raises doubts about authority, and strengthens the understanding that social values ​​have only relative significance.

No remedy can compete with cannabis in its ability to satisfy the innate thirst for the dissolution of boundaries characteristic of the Archaic, and nevertheless leave intact the structures of ordinary society. If all alcoholics became users of marijuana, all “crack” consumers switched to marijuana, and all smokers smoked only hemp, then the social consequences of the “drug problem” would look completely different. But we, as a society, are not ready to discuss the possibility of directing our inclinations and using our mind to choose which plants to take as allies. In time, and perhaps out of desperation, it will come.