On Friday, November 9, 1934, the Providence Police Department made what may have been their first arrests for illegal possession of cannabis. Unsurprisingly, for a state that currently arrests Black people at three times the rate of white people, the first three people arrested for cannabis possession in Rhode Island were three Black men; Charles Wilson, William Thomas, and John Lopez.1
According to the Providence Journal, sometime in the fall of 1934, a “flood of Marijuana … one of the most dangerous habit-forming drugs” spread into the city, “Complaints were received that the habit of smoking ‘reefers’ had grown to alarming proportions among the Negroes.” The newspaper added reports from New York City, which noted that “it is increasing in popularity, especially among the members of Negro orchestras to whom it imparts a frenzy which enables them to produce ‘hot’ music.”
Seeking to locate the source in the city, the Providence Police Department began an investigation which eventually led them to city property on the border of Cranston known as Field’s Point. It was here that the State Narcotics Inspector and two Detectives discovered “several acres of the weed growing wild.”
Beginning their investigation weeks earlier, the Providence Police Department first raided a lodging house at 392 South Main Street – at the time a regular lodging space for traveling people of color.2 There they found “huge quantities of the weed … spread out to dry” and “a small coffee mill, in which the dried leaves were ground before being rolled into cigarettes.” The police subsequently arrested four Black men who they believed had been “gathering the weed, drying it and selling the dried leaves for $12 a pound, or 25 cents a cigarette, known as a ‘reefer’.”
Following some questioning, one of the men “confessed that the source of supply was right in the city.” He then led the police to Field’s Point where the men found “several acres of land thickly covered with the big bushes, mostly on city land.” The Journal also noted that “some of it had overgrown to private property in the neighborhood, the owners of which were not aware of the nature of the weed.” Field’s Point, today, is adjacent to Johnson & Wales University’s Harborside campus.3
The Providence Police Department’s investigation also revealed that these men had been distributing or planned to distribute widely, “with markets in New York and cities throughout New England,” adding that two packages were seized that were “ready for shipment to New York.” According to the Providence Journal, Field’s Point was “covered with [the] famous Mexican drug plant, Marijuana,” and a “lucrative business was being developed … 15 or 20 men, Black and white, have been at work gathering the drug for the past two weeks.”4
Two weeks after they were arrested, the “three transient Negroes”– “Charles Wilson, 30,” “William Thomas, 22,” and “John M. Lopez, 37” were all charged with “illegal possession of narcotics.”4 On Monday, November 12, all three men “were each adjudged probably guilty and bound over to the grand jury in $1,000 bail.”5 Over a month later, on December 20, the Providence Journal wrote that these men “pleaded nolo and were given deferred sentences on the condition they leave the State and never come back.”6
1Rhode Island ACLU, “Black People in Ocean State 3.3 Times More Likely to Be Arrested for Pot Possession than Whites”, RIACLU.org
2This address is now the condominium complex known as “The Plantations.”
3“Police uncover ‘dope farm’ on municipal land,” Providence Journal, Saturday, November 10, 1934
4“Three are charged with having drugs,” Providence Journal, Sunday, November 11, 1934
5“Three Negroes are held for possessing hashish,” Providence Journal, Tuesday, November 13, 1934
6“4 ordered from state,” Providence Journal, December 20, 1934
