Beware The Devil’s Lettuce!
Do you ever wonder how we decide which drugs are "bad" and which ones are good?
Why heroin, MDMA, and (decliningly) cannabis are demonised, but we have a mocking word for people who don’t drink – “Wowser”? It’s not because of logic, public health, or any honest concern for your wellbeing. It’s politics, fear, and good old-fashioned racism dressed up as moral panic.
Early 20th-century U.S. crackdowns on opium, cannabis, and cocaine set the global tone, with Australia falling into line through international treaties like the 1912 Hague Opium Convention and later UN agreements. American-style fear campaigns, especially around cannabis — “The devil’s lettuce" — were swallowed wholesale by Australian politicians looking for new ways to police immigrants and marginalised communities.
Early 20th-century American propaganda - pure racist, religious, fear-porn slang used to terrify suburban parents.
The Victorian government states that “Alcohol is an intrinsic part of Australian culture and it plays a central role in most people’s social lives," yet alcohol-related illnesses like heart disease, liver disease, and cirrhosis killed 1,742 Australians in 2022 — 225 more deaths than all accidental overdoses for opioids, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, cannabinoids, and cocaine combined. Incidentally, there were 361 alcohol overdose deaths in Australia in 2022, four times the number of cocaine overdose deaths.
A 2012 study published in The Lancet ranked alcohol the most dangerous of 20 drugs in terms of harms to users and others — beating heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and even tobacco. LSD and MDMA ranked among the least harmful, yet getting caught with less than 2 grams of MDMA in Queensland can land you a 15-year sentence.
Drug Harms in The UK - Nutt et al, the Lancet
Now, before I go on — this isn’t an anti-booze rant. I love a drink. And it’s not about pretending other drugs are harmless — they’re not. What this is, is a rant about how certain drugs have been demonised to fit a political narrative, not any kind of science-based reasoning.
The real danger, as those in charge saw it, wasn’t the drugs — it was who was using them. Opium was the enemy because Chinese immigrants were using it. Cannabis didn’t become 'the devil’s lettuce' because it was ruining lives — it was because black jazz musicians were playing music white kids liked, and politicians feared white girls getting it on with black guys.
In the late 1800s, South Australia introduced the first drug ban anywhere in the world — banning non-medical opioid use, but only for Aboriginal people. It wasn’t about health. It was about control. About policing race, class, and culture.
Australia didn’t come up with its drug laws by accident — we basically copied America's homework, scribbled some extra racism in the margins, and handed it in like it was our own idea. By the time Nixon launched his fucking disastrous War on Drugs — a war more against the people who used drugs — Australia was already marching to the same tune, criminalising everything that didn’t fit the white picket fence fantasy. We weren’t just influenced by America — we practically asked if we could lick the boots that kicked off the whole disaster.
So next time you hear some hack politician frothing about the "war on drugs" or "protecting our kids," remember: this whole mess isn’t built on reason. It’s built on a racist, fearful, moralistic house of cards. And the people hurt the most are the ones already marginalised. The science has been screaming at us for decades. It’s the politics that refuses to listen.