"But by 1941 the link between marijuana and swing music, propagated by a lurid press, was strong enough to evoke a response from The Keynote, the monthly publication of the Detroit Federation of Musicians. In a front-page editorial in the January-February 1941 issue, the president and secretary treasurer of the union went on record with a promise to weed out any musicians found guilty of using the weed.

MARIJUANA ---- A SCOURGE
Marijuana-weed-grass---tea---reefers---call it anything you like---is classed by law and by effect in the same category as narcotics. For some reason or other-and no matter how it hurts, let's face it----the comparatively few musicians who are addicted to its use have gained for the entire music profession a reputation among law enforcement officers, and to some extent among the general public, that is most unsavory, and every day bring disgrace and worse to the good reputation of the great majority who do not use it. Marijuana causes far more than mere moral degeneration-it breaks down the mentality of its slaves. Some of the so-called "jazz hounds" who think that their talents show off the best when "high" should take a trip to Eloise Hospital and see the wrecked human beings there, jabbering idiots who likewise used to think it was fun to be taken out of the world of reality into a false sense of super-being. Now they can't think at all! The responsible heads of your organization are determined to do their utmost to stamp out this most vicious practice-Detroit Musicians are no worse than those of other cities, and the problem is one which must be faced by every local union and by our National organization. This condition is so serious that your Board of Directors has taken drastic action to curb it by adopting the following regulation: Any member found guilty of the use of Marijuana, or on proof that a member uses same, such member shall immediately be expelled from membership."