The New York City Marijuana Massacre

Key Points Until the early 1950s, cannabis grew wild in New York City – primarily in Brooklyn 10 ft tall plants were a common sight in Williamsburg and other east New York neighborhoods New York Police did little to curb free-growing marijuana in the city, despite it being a banned substance since 1927 The city’s sanitation department established a rogue “White Wing Squad,” with the sole aim of eradicating cannabis from the streets The White Wing Squad destroyed an estimated 20 tons of marijuana in the summer of 1951 Bhutan, an isolated Central Asian country in the middle of the Himalayan mountains, is perhaps the richest