Targeted Marijuana Law Enforcement in Los Angeles, 1914-1950

Marijuana was illegal to possess or sell in California for 103 years. The state first banned it 1913, grouping with opiates and cocaine on a list of prohibited vice drugs adopted six years earlier, meaning that subject the same penalties as these other, far more dangerous, until 1961. Initially framed “Mexican” drug, marijuana prohibition enforcement began periphery Los Angeles older Latino neighborhoods well agricultural outposts where immigrants lived, worked, gardened. Later this policing turned toward city center, targeting segregated section Central Avenue its jazz musicians multiracial nightlife, actors nearby Hollywood. By 1950, Angeles-area police were arresting people possession sale than heroin, other opiates, combined. Mexican, Mexican American, Black citizens targets sharp disproportion their presence there.