Mexico, 1519 CE. While waging his violent colonial campaign during the Spanish conquest, Cortes introduced hemp farming. In secret, locals began cultivating the plant for consumption. It eventually made its way to the US through the immigrant labor force where it was shared with black laborers. It didn't take long for American lawmakers to decry cannabis as the vice of "inferior races".

Enter an era of propaganda designed to feed a moral panic about a plant that has been used by humanity for thousands of years. Cannabis was given a Schedule 1 classification, which it shared with drugs like heroin. This opened the door for a so-called "war on drugs" that disproportionately targeted young black men, leaving hundreds thousands in prison, many for minor infractions. With its roots in "reefer madness" and misleading studies into the effects of cannabis, America's complicated and racialized relationship with the drug continues to this day. Author Box Brown delves deep into this troubling history and offers a rich, entertaining, and thoroughly researched graphic essay on the legacy of cannabis legislation in America.