Gary Storck is a long-time Wisconsin cannabis activist, founder of cannabadger.com (where he shares news about cannabis in the state) and the former president of local chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). After decades of activism, he chose to share his expertise in a book, The Rise and Fall of Cannabis Prohibition in Wisconsin, which he says is “one part history book, one part memoir and one part encyclopedia.”
The title couldn’t be any more explicit. Using his unique position at the heart of the fight for cannabis reform in Wisconsin, as well as an impressive amount of research, Storck gives a detailed account of cannabis-related events, laws and news stories from 1934 to October 2019. It also includes letters Storck received from state representatives and data, such as the detailed results of the November 2018 advisory referendum in several Wisconsin counties and cities and the number of cannabis-related arrests in Wisconsin, provided by the Department of Justice.
In Wisconsin, everything started with the Uniform Narcotics Act which banned cannabis, Storck retells, signed into law by Gov. Philip La Follette in 1935. The act wrongly classed cannabis indica as a poison, along with arsenic and chloroform. Storck goes on to relate the story of one of the first cannabis-related arrests in the state. The young man, Herbert Campbell, was arrested during a secret night raid on his home in southern Wisconsin, and cannabis was found in his garden. Since Campbell was sentenced before the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 created federal shackles on cannabis production, he was given what the Wisconsin State Journal derided as a “light punishment” under state law: two months in jail and a $50 fine.
Storck’s work does a wonderful job of illustrating the media’s attitude and unashamed anti-cannabis propaganda campaigns at the time. Five articles were published by the Wisconsin State Journal about the Campbell case, claiming that “Campbell should have been given the full extent of the law as a sentence,” and going so far as to parrot the Federal Bureau of Narcotics’ drivel that marijuana triggered sex mania, insanity, suicidal tendencies and “weakening of the moral fiber.” The newspaper goes on to describe stereotypes about the alleged use of marijuana by “negroes” and “the Arabians,” feeding into the anti-immigrant frenzy that led to cannabis prohibition in the ’30s in the first place.
If you think it couldn’t get any worse than 1930s casual racism, you should see the records of marijuana arrests compiled here. “Total cannabis arrests surged 328% from 1986 to 2018, rising from 5,847 to 19,222,” Storck writes. The highest increase happened under Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, during whose tenure they “rose from 5,686 in 1987 to 17,706 in 2000, an increase of 311%.” Even more recent: “In just eight years in office, [Republican] Scott Walker presided over 143,428 total cannabis arrests; a very high number—just 5,000 less than Thompson’s entire 14 years in office.” According to Department of Justice figures, 2018 was the state’s worst year ever recorded, with more than 19,200 marijuana-related arrests for a total of nearly 500,000 arrests made in 32 years.
An Encyclopedic Approach
A large part of The Rise and Fall of Cannabis Prohibition in Wisconsin is dedicated to the rise of cannabis prohibition, but much of it happened before Storck was around, so it is told here through newspaper clippings and archived records. One can only imagine the thousands of newspapers Storck had to pore through in order to compile such a complete—and massive—list.
The more recent events, which he calls “the fall of cannabis prohibition,” are things that Storck personally witnessed (and often took part in). They are enriched with first-hand sources and his personal perspective, like when he describes that a pro-marijuana festival had “no sound system for live music or speeches” due to rain. These parts go in much greater detail about events and initiatives that wouldn’t have made the cut for the more historical part of the book; for instance, a minor protest in 2006 outside of the office of Republican Rep. Mark Green’s office.
Gary Storck also allows himself some creative freedom by talking in his own voice in the latter part of the book, offering his own opinion about the most recent developments in state politics relating to legalization efforts, showing a keen understanding of the forces at play.
The book is meant to be read like an encyclopedia, with a table of contents giving an extensive, year-by-year summary of events. It would be very challenging to read this like a regular book rather than a large information dump. While one could regret the lack of commentary, analysis and coherent narrative, The Rise and Fall of Cannabis Prohibition in Wisconsin truly shines as a handy reference for content creators, activists, teachers and anyone who would like to get a better understanding of the history of the War on Drugs. It makes you wish that our legislators would keep this book on their nightstand, especially as 2020 is bound to be a pivotal year for the future of cannabis reform in Wisconsin.
