Michael Carey

Marijuana Madness!

 

For the third and final assignment my group and I have decided on a drug museum for our pitch. The museum called “Narco Museum” will have multiple exhibits and we all decided on creating our own exhibit. We obviously have not made the exhibits ourselves but we have all thoroughly thought about what we would like our exhibits to be like and we will explain this to the class and the people who we are pitching too. For my exhibit, I won’t have anything physical to share but instead just a vision and idea on what I want to construct for my exhibit.

    At first I wasn’t really sure what I wanted my exhibit to be about. I knew it had to have to do with substances as this was my groups focus for the entire semester. The substance that I focused on more so than any other this semester was marijuana. I argued it’s morality and spoke a lot about its history in the country over the years so I think it’s only right that i dedicate my exhibit to marijuana. Marijuana, or hemp has been in the Americas since before democracy and it has a past that I feel is worth looking at. A lot of people do not know about the sinister past the drug has in the country, not for its own effects but to exploit others.

    First of all the entire room will smell like marijuana. To open the door the door knob will be in the shape of a bowl that people smoke out of. I also want to have nostalgic propaganda for and against the drug draped everywhere around the room. The room wont be huge but big enough for a group of fifteen at a time. I don’t want the exhibit to have an opinion on the drug I just want it to be the theme of the exhibit. The viewer of the exhibit can make up their mind on the drug after seeing the facts on the drug. Other than the smell I don’t wish to include any other gimmicks inside the exhibit. If they don’t like the smell then they can wear masks that the exhibit will provide. I also want to include a timeline of the history of marijuana in the United States of America. The timeline will span from before the United States was the United States to present day. The timeline will include landmarks in the history of pot in America. One example of the timeline is in 1619 the Virginia Assembly passed legislation REQUIRING every farmer to grow hemp, which I found very funny. The room itself will have to be closed from the rest of the museum because of the smell. While I want to have nostalgia be a big part with the timeline of marijuana and the old propaganda I also want it to include present day stuff as well. I want it to a map of the United States today and which states it is legal for recreational, medical, both, and neither. A museum is supposed to be informative and I want mine to be very informative on the topic at hand.

 

I didn’t decide to make this exhibit because I want people to think oh marijuana is cool or because I think that myself. When deciding on this for my exhibit I mostly wanted to show the history of the drug and showing how different people have felt about the drug in different time periods in the United States. The drug shows the sad past of the country, the true reason for it being outlawed is due to racism. The drug was linked with crime wrongly because it was used by Mexican immigrants and other minorities , who people at the time period (1930s) feared. It was used as a scapegoat to try and further racism in the country thus leading to the outlaw of the harmless drug. Propaganda at the time painted the drug as a dangerous tool that minorities used to make them commit crimes. Harry Anslinger, director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962 believed marijuana influenced darker people to commit violent crimes. Even after in 1944 the New York Academy of Medicine issued an extensive researched report declaring the drug was harmless and did not lead to violence or to other drug use the laws became stricter against marijuana. I feel this isn’t known by most people regardless if you smoke weed everyday or have never touched the substance.  The history of the drug is very interesting and while researching it I learned a lot and with my exhibit I hope more people can learn too.