Why was marijuana never really popular in old Cincinnati? From the city’s founding up into the 1930s, cannabis was entirely legal – but very few people seem to have indulged.

Before 1920, Cincinnatians had easy access to all sorts of drugs and narcotics. Opium and cocaine were sold over the counter, as were subsequently banned pharmaceuticals like chloroform, potassium bromide and chloral hydrate. Cannabis, an extract of marijuana, was found in most pharmacies as well, usually in an alcohol solution.

According to the Cincinnati Times [14 April 1873], almost everybody was on something back then:

“Out of every 1,000 men, 890 use alcoholic stimulants; 950 use tobacco; 260 use opium, hasheesh or morphine; 56 use either arsenic, chloroform or ether; 28 use aphrodisiacs; 230 use chloral hydrate. Out of every 1,000 women, 420 use alcoholic stimulants; 250 use either chloroform, ether or codeine; 20 use morphine; 25 use either arsenic, belladonna, or chloral hydrate; 350 use valerian.”

Despite its ready availability, you will find very few references concerning the use of marijuana for recreational purposes. One rare exception is a brief article in the Cincinnati Enquirer [9 January 1871] in which an anonymous author describes the effects of drinking half an ounce of “hasheesh” solution:

“Then commenced a sound of intense sighing that seemed to enter my head, and I felt it revolving faster and faster, until I feared it would break my shoulders. How dim and far away all noises sounded now! The voices in the room were but the faintest whispers. Now and then the seeming motion of [my] head would stop, and a delicious languor possess me.”

Usually, however, druggists prescribed cannabis only for headaches and mild anxiety. Around the time of the Civil War Cincinnati newspapers advertised “hasheesh candy” with claims that this confection cured all sorts of ailments, from mumps to influenza. An advertisement in the Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph [1 October 1864] promoted more entertaining effects:

“It adds beauty as well as years and produces the most mental cheerfulness. It imparts a vigor and strength to the mind and body truly marvelous. Joy and Beauty gladden the Heart.”

Despite all the delightful advertising, mentions of this pioneering edible disappear before 1870, replaced by promotions for cannabis syrups and solutions, often touting their effectiveness against consumption (tuberculosis) and asthma.

It appears that smoking marijuana was extremely rare, so unusual that the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune [5 October 1889] found it newsworthy when some Bostonians were discovered puffing away:

“Kiff smoking is a new vice which has appeared in Boston. Kiff, or, as it is pronounced, keefe, is a species of hemp which is grown in Morocco, or, rather, it grows there, for it is found wild in all parts of that country.”

It appears that some reluctance to indulge in the mystic herb may have been based on a belief that marijuana was poisonous. One doctor, J.B. Mattison, wrote a lengthy article for the Cincinnati Medical News [November 1891] advocating for more pharmaceutical uses for cannabis products:

“Indian hemp is not a poison. This statement is made, just here, because the writer thinks a fear of its toxic power is one reason why this drug is not more largely used. This mistaken idea lessens its value, because it is not pushed to the point of securing a full therapeutic effect. This is a fact … There is not on record any well-attested case of death from cannabis indica.”

Doctor Mattison especially promoted hemp preparations in treatment of insomnia, aches and pains, itching and anxiety.

It is not as though marijuana was unknown in these parts. Hemp was a major cash crop in Kentucky and tons of hemp fiber were transported to the rope factories of Cincinnati.

Marijuana finally caught the attention of Cincinnati during Prohibition. With alcohol illegal, Cincinnati turned to other forms of recreational chemistry. The Cincinnati Post [17 June 1921] reported on a new drink from Iowa called “Happy Wonder”:

“’Happy Wonder’ they declared, is made, as is hashish, from Indian hemp, altho instead of chewing or smoking the drug as the Indians do, Iowa farmers are imbibing it in liquid form. One drink of ‘Happy Wonder,’ it was alleged by the physicians, makes a farmer utterly scornful of cornfields for days and days.”

By 1931, Cincinnati declared marijuana illegal. Federal laws soon followed. The Cincinnati Enquirer [15 October 1931] captured the “Reefer Madness” attitude of the time:

“Vice Mayor John Druffel yesterday succeeded in putting the ‘kibosh’ on ‘marihuana,’ ‘cannabis indica,’ and ‘cannabis-sativa,’ which are technical names for a drug used in making ‘loco cigarettes.’ The ordinance, which was passed as an emergency measure, and hence becomes operative immediately, characterizes the weed used in the making of the cigarettes as a ‘habit-forming drug.’”

Even then, Cincinnati laws allowed druggists to keep marijuana in stock to compound medicines until federal laws clamped down on that practice.

