History in the U.S.
For years, I've heard various stories about marijuana. All proclaimed it was legal until the 1930's. The most recent saying that when prohibition ended, it was the liquor industry that was responsible for marijuana laws, feeling it to be a threat to future profits.
So I decided to investigate for myself. What follows is a summary.
So I decided to investigate for myself. What follows is a summary.
Actually, many individual states already had “poison” laws that included marijuana, the first being New York in 1860. This was an attempt to reign in the patent medicine peddlers, whose concoctions sickened and even killed people. Doctors and pharmacies could still prescribe, and it could be cultivated for medical purposes and experimentation with out penalty.
The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 required labeling of patent medicines that contained opiates, cocaine, alcohol, cannabis and other intoxicants: to prevent the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated, misbranded, poisonous, or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors.
in 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt called for an international conference, the International Opium Commission, which was held in Shanghai in February 1909. A second conference was held at The Hague in May 1911, and out of it came the first international drug control treaty, the International Opium Convention of 1912.
The Smoking Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 banned the importation, possession, and use of "smoking opium." The act became the first federal law to ban the use of non-medical substances; however, the act did not regulate opium-based medications
As of 1911, an estimated one U.S. citizen in 400 (0.25%) was addicted to some form of opium. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women.
In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was passed, for the regulation of opium and coca leaves. It was the first measure to control narcotics trafficking.
The Narcotic Drug Import and Export Act was enacted in 1922 to assure proper control of importation, sale, possession, production, and consumption of narcotics.
The Heroin Act was passed in 1924. The act prohibited the manufacture, importation, and possession of heroin, including the medicinal use of the drug.
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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (established 1886 as part of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue), decided they needed a uniform law in order to help keep control over illegal activity.
The result was the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act, a revenue-producing statute developed in 1934. While the Harrison Act provided penalties for violations, it did not give authority to the states to exercise police power regarding either seizure of drugs used in illicit trade or punishment of those responsible. As previously noted, each state had it's own separate laws in regard to enforcement and penalties. The purpose of the act was to make the law uniform in various states with respect to controlling the sale and use of narcotic drugs.
It was campaigned and lobbied for passage by Harry Anslinger, assistant prohibition commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition. who in 1930 was appointed as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. An effective ally in his campaign was the Hearst newspaper media chain, DuPont Family, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon.
Initially, only nine states adopted the uniform state statute. President Roosevelt supported adoption of the Act in many more states in a message on Columbia radio network in March 1935. Anslinger launched a nationwide media campaign declaring that marijuana causes temporary insanity. The advertisements featured young people smoking marijuana and then behaving recklessly, committing crimes, killing themselves and others, or dying from marijuana use. The propaganda campaign was a success and all states signed on.
The first draft (1925) included the following definitions:
The second draft (1928) was also recommitted for study. A third draft was presented in 1929, a revised version of this in 1930. This revised version removed cannabis from the definition of "habit forming drugs" and included only a supplemental provision. It were also recommitted.
After receiving suggestions from Commissioner Anslinger, the committee presented a fourth tentative draft 1931. The marijuana provision was identical to the 1930 version.
The final draft was adopted in 1932. Although the marijuana provisions remained supplemental to the main body of the act, any state wishing to regulate sale and possession of marijuana was instructed to simply add cannabis to the definition of "narcotic drugs."
No scientific study of marijuana of any kind was undertaken.
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The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, is responsible for much of the complaint about "governmental mis/disinformation, ineptness and sheer ignorance" in the current debate about legalization.
Most of that can be traced to Harry Anslinger (1892-1975), who was appointed as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. A zealot who lobbied congress for harsh penalties for drug usage, he criminalized cannabis by drafting what was to become known as the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.
Though there was an 1893 study in the country of India that spoke of marijuana’s medical benefits, and even though there were no U.S. studies of marijuana, Anslinger began a propaganda campaign to demonize the drug, all based on fabricated “facts.” He was joined in this campaign by Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family, for economic reasons.
Though hemp had been grown in America since colonial times, the nature of its fiber restricted its use to making rope, sails, etc. Because of an invention, hemp had become a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry.
Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the Du Pont family's new synthetic fiber, nylon, a fiber that was competing with hemp.
The American Medical Association opposed the act because the tax was imposed on physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and medical cannabis cultivation/manufacturing. The AMA also objected on the grounds that the hearings included incorrect, excessive or unfounded arguments.
In 1938 the Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, had the New York Academy of Medicine conduct a study of marijuana. The 1944 "LaGuardia Report" found that Anslinger’s claims about the dangers of marijuana to be "exaggerated or untrue".
Though the act was repealed in 1970, imarijuana is still considered a Schedule I drug by the DEA, and has “no accredited medical use.”
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The 1951 Boggs Act added a punitive component to this policy: now, penalties for possession or distribution included mandatory minimum sentences.
The Narcotics Control Act, which came five years after, toughened these guidelines.
The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 required labeling of patent medicines that contained opiates, cocaine, alcohol, cannabis and other intoxicants: to prevent the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated, misbranded, poisonous, or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors.
in 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt called for an international conference, the International Opium Commission, which was held in Shanghai in February 1909. A second conference was held at The Hague in May 1911, and out of it came the first international drug control treaty, the International Opium Convention of 1912.
The Smoking Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 banned the importation, possession, and use of "smoking opium." The act became the first federal law to ban the use of non-medical substances; however, the act did not regulate opium-based medications
As of 1911, an estimated one U.S. citizen in 400 (0.25%) was addicted to some form of opium. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women.
In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was passed, for the regulation of opium and coca leaves. It was the first measure to control narcotics trafficking.
The Narcotic Drug Import and Export Act was enacted in 1922 to assure proper control of importation, sale, possession, production, and consumption of narcotics.
The Heroin Act was passed in 1924. The act prohibited the manufacture, importation, and possession of heroin, including the medicinal use of the drug.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (established 1886 as part of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue), decided they needed a uniform law in order to help keep control over illegal activity.
The result was the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act, a revenue-producing statute developed in 1934. While the Harrison Act provided penalties for violations, it did not give authority to the states to exercise police power regarding either seizure of drugs used in illicit trade or punishment of those responsible. As previously noted, each state had it's own separate laws in regard to enforcement and penalties. The purpose of the act was to make the law uniform in various states with respect to controlling the sale and use of narcotic drugs.
It was campaigned and lobbied for passage by Harry Anslinger, assistant prohibition commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition. who in 1930 was appointed as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. An effective ally in his campaign was the Hearst newspaper media chain, DuPont Family, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon.
Initially, only nine states adopted the uniform state statute. President Roosevelt supported adoption of the Act in many more states in a message on Columbia radio network in March 1935. Anslinger launched a nationwide media campaign declaring that marijuana causes temporary insanity. The advertisements featured young people smoking marijuana and then behaving recklessly, committing crimes, killing themselves and others, or dying from marijuana use. The propaganda campaign was a success and all states signed on.
The first draft (1925) included the following definitions:
- "Cannabis indica" or "cannabis sativa" shall include any compound, manufacture, salt, derivative or preparation thereof and any synthetic substitute for any of them identical in chemical composition.
- "Habit forming drugs" shall mean coca leaves, opium, "cannabis indica" or "cannabis sativa".
The second draft (1928) was also recommitted for study. A third draft was presented in 1929, a revised version of this in 1930. This revised version removed cannabis from the definition of "habit forming drugs" and included only a supplemental provision. It were also recommitted.
After receiving suggestions from Commissioner Anslinger, the committee presented a fourth tentative draft 1931. The marijuana provision was identical to the 1930 version.
The final draft was adopted in 1932. Although the marijuana provisions remained supplemental to the main body of the act, any state wishing to regulate sale and possession of marijuana was instructed to simply add cannabis to the definition of "narcotic drugs."
No scientific study of marijuana of any kind was undertaken.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, is responsible for much of the complaint about "governmental mis/disinformation, ineptness and sheer ignorance" in the current debate about legalization.
Most of that can be traced to Harry Anslinger (1892-1975), who was appointed as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. A zealot who lobbied congress for harsh penalties for drug usage, he criminalized cannabis by drafting what was to become known as the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.
Though there was an 1893 study in the country of India that spoke of marijuana’s medical benefits, and even though there were no U.S. studies of marijuana, Anslinger began a propaganda campaign to demonize the drug, all based on fabricated “facts.” He was joined in this campaign by Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family, for economic reasons.
Though hemp had been grown in America since colonial times, the nature of its fiber restricted its use to making rope, sails, etc. Because of an invention, hemp had become a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry.
Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the Du Pont family's new synthetic fiber, nylon, a fiber that was competing with hemp.
The American Medical Association opposed the act because the tax was imposed on physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and medical cannabis cultivation/manufacturing. The AMA also objected on the grounds that the hearings included incorrect, excessive or unfounded arguments.
In 1938 the Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, had the New York Academy of Medicine conduct a study of marijuana. The 1944 "LaGuardia Report" found that Anslinger’s claims about the dangers of marijuana to be "exaggerated or untrue".
Though the act was repealed in 1970, imarijuana is still considered a Schedule I drug by the DEA, and has “no accredited medical use.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
The 1951 Boggs Act added a punitive component to this policy: now, penalties for possession or distribution included mandatory minimum sentences.
The Narcotics Control Act, which came five years after, toughened these guidelines.