Cannabis’ Influence on Pop Culture; Part 1

When you imagine someone who uses cannabis, stereotypes are likely the first thing that comes to mind. It is easy to imagine a tie-dye wearing college student whose messy hair always smells like pot. Perhaps a free-love hippie raging against “the man” also comes to mind. Many cannabis lovers fit this bill, but these stereotypes alienate many modern cannabis users. Cannabis users might be high-performing CEOs embracing holistic medicines or blue-collar workers looking for relief after a long day. Hell, even my Grandma uses CBD oil to soothe her arthritis. Few people who use cannabis neatly fit into these stereotypes that continue to permeate our culture. However, cannabis’ influence on pop culture may soon change these stereotypes for the better.

From the introduction of cannabis to modern culture, to the Counterculture of the 60s, and especially now, cannabis’ influence on pop culture is ubiquitous. Fields embedded in pop culture like music, art, and movies simmer with cannabis influence. You may not know that many watershed moments in pop culture history arose from cannabis in one way or another. Also, just as cannabis shaped the past, its influence continues to grow in the modern day. You likely already know some of these moments, but if you read on, you will discover some of your favorite artists flourished due to a little green plant.

In this multi-part series, we will discuss the history of cannabis’ influence on American pop culture. In part one, we will address the beginnings of cannabis culture in the United States from the early 20^th century to the 1960s. Make sure to read the other parts of this series to learn the full scope of cannabis’ influence on pop culture.

The Origins of American Cannabis

In recent history, many stereotypes surrounding cannabis users had negative connotations. Outdated and bigoted ideas about “lazy stoners” still exist. Thankfully, with the legalization of marijuana in many states, many people no longer demonize cannabis users. However, it is still essential to learn how and where these negative stereotypes arose, and the answer may surprise you.

Cannabis sailed over to the Americas with the colonizers who settled in Jamestown. As early as 1611, there was a record of cannabis cultivation in the United States. However, these colonizers used cannabis for domestic purposes. The main uses were sails for ships, thread for clothing, and strong fibers for rope. Today, we call these cannabis plants “hemp” since they are non-psychoactive. It would take longer for psychoactive cannabis to arrive in the United States.

There are records of cannabis-infused medicines and drinks in America as early as the 1850s. Despite this, cannabis would gain infamy with the arrival of smokable cannabis. Mexico had a thriving cannabis culture in the 19^th century, and many Mexican immigrants carried this culture to the United States. Unfortunately, Americans deified these immigrants.

These Mexican immigrants arrived at the start of the Great Depression. The economic turmoil created the need for a scapegoat, and immigrant workers took the blame. The media used racist labels for the Mexican immigrant workers, calling them “lazy.” Another easy target was many of these immigrants’ favorite pastime, smoking marijuana. Rising public resentment of Mexican immigrants, driven by racist journalists and politicians, carried over to marijuana. In 1937, the United States outlawed marijuana mainly due to this racial prejudice. So, the “lazy stoner” stereotype began by stereotyping Mexican immigrants as “lazy.” From the early 20^th century, cannabis began the long road to reclaim its reputation.

Cannabis’ influence On 60s Counterculture

Although cannabis culture existed during the 40s and 50s, it shot into public consciousness in the 1960s. Counterculture and cannabis became synonymous. Once again, free-love hippies who happened to enjoy marijuana were targeted by pro-war media members and politicians. Despite the targeting, cannabis began to influence culture in undeniably positive ways, mainly through art.

One of the best-known stories of cannabis’ influence on pop culture comes from the Beatles. Their music is still so popular today that Paul McCartney still sells out stadiums. The Beatles were not always pot users, and their music began an undeniable shift due to pot use.

Although the Beatles are a British band, they were introduced to cannabis by an American musician, Bob Dylan. During a gig in New York in 1963, Dylan gave the Beatles a marijuana joint. Ringo got his hands on the joint first and smoked the whole thing. He was unfamiliar with “passing the joint” and was dazed and confused for the rest of the evening. The Beatles fell in love with cannabis, which marked a shift in their music. They stopped making cutesy love songs and started crafting psychedelic romps. In three short years, the Beatles transitioned from “Love Me Do” to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Their cannabis use marks a clear break in their discography.

Without cannabis, pop culture would remember the Beatles as a ditzy pop band, not the musical goliaths they are today. Although the Beatles are famous for their cannabis use, other artists changed their art due to cannabis.

Cannabis’ Influence on Painting and Writing

Cannabis influenced many famous artworks in the 1960s. None are more famous than Andy Warhol. Warhol’s “pop art” basically was pop culture in the 1960s. His creative post-modern approach to art may lie in creative cannabis. Warhol famously said, “I smoke pot because I want to go to heaven before I die.” Undoubtedly the spiritual influence of cannabis spilled into his artwork. Without the creative bump from cannabis, Campbell’s soup cans would only sit on store shelves and not in art museums.

The written word also owes a lot to cannabis. Alan Ginsberg, the counterculture author of Howl, discussed cannabis use at length. In a famous essay, Ginsberg said eloquently, “The paradoxical key to this bizarre impasse of awareness is precisely that the marijuana consciousness is one that, ever so gently, shifts the center of attention from habitual shallow, purely verbal guidelines and repetitive secondhand ideological interpretations of experience to more direct, slower, absorbing, occasionally microscopically minute engagement with sensing phenomena.”

Ginsberg’s words may be difficult to decipher (like much of his work), but a clear theme shines through the syllables. Cannabis changes the way one interprets the world, and what is art other than the interpretation of our surroundings? The strikingly original art of the 60s owes quite a lot to cannabis, which helped these artists creatively reinterpret the world they inhabited. Their enduring art owes its genesis to sitting back and lighting up a joint.

Read part two here.