UMass Conference: The History of Marijuana Legalization

Records from the Prohibition era in the US are now of great interest to the public as a result of the ever growing marijuana legalization movement and the “Anti-Prohibition Movement” has gained a new found respect.

The Library System at the University of Massachusetts was able to obtain over 40 years of files from the NORML DC office that contained such items as letters from Drug War Victims and other records from the Cannabis Reform Commission so that they can compile all the information into a single history of when marijuana first became illegal up to its (hopeful) full on legalization.

UMass hopes to build on its reputation of social movement studies with their newly acquired Drug Policy Archives. Through these archives, they are hoping to be able to put together a well-documented collection of the history of the marijuana movement over the last half century. The University of California at Berkeley is currently in a similar process of obtaining archives from the California NORML chapter.

The first ever conference in regards to the legalization history of marijuana will be held this September at UMass-Amherst, and many prominent figures are expected to attend.