A bit fanatical with malicious and racist tendencies, Anslinger, a determined young man, propelled his political career with his Anti-Marijuana Campaign. Without getting too entangled in how he rose to prominence, Anslinger began his government career through the Prohibition Unit Department of Treasury, enforcing the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 (Libby 2004). However, he quickly found that opium and coca were small markets, and he needed revenue. He garnered public and politicians ' support with a successful mix of fear tactics and misinformation through mass media. With help from William Randolph Hearst, who controlled a journalism empire unheard of at the time (Solomon 2020), Anslinger's successful fearmongering campaign moved marijuana criminalization from the state level to a national movement. In 1937 The Marihuana Tax Act (MTA) was passed. This act highly regulated and taxed the importation, cultivation, possession, and/or distribution of marijuana (Department of Homeland Security 2019).
Correlation is not Causation
In 1933, a twenty-one-year-old Victor Licata murdered his family with an ax inside their home. Licata's claim was that his family was trying to tear his limbs off and replace them with wooden ones. Doctors diagnosed Licata with dementia praecox, now referred to as schizophrenia, and the most reasonable explanation for his actions. Years later, Anslinger fixated on information that Licata had been smoking “marijuana cigarettes” for six months before murdering his family (Tarricone 2020). This example, with various other false stories, was the fundamental science Anslinger clung to throughout his campaign.
Before the enactment of MTA, the interference, misrepresentation, and manipulation of science were clear. Anslinger enlisted 30 doctors and scientists from the American Medical Association to determine whether marijuana was the cause of murder in the Licata case. Only one of the 30 alleged the connection between murder and marijuana use (Tarricone 2020). He had enough fuel to further spew more propaganda on the findings of this one lone doctor, even in films with his "Marijuana, Assassin of Youth" and "Reefer Madness" (DEA Museum 2021). However, it was not without pushback from the medical and scientific community, who called out his absurd claims. A brave Doctor, Walter Bromberg, pointed out that none from a study of 2,216 criminal convictions he had examined connected marijuana as an influence on criminal behavior.
Politics interfering with science?
Anslinger served 30 years as head of the Bureau of Narcotics (DEA Museum 2021). Moreover, the social construct of marijuana as one of the most dangerous drugs was realized in 1970. Officially a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning a substance with no redeeming medical value and a high potential for abuse.
Pre-Anslinger, marijuana's social and legal status was considered valuable to industrial and medical communities (Ransom 1999). The Customs Agency Service compiled a Narcotics Manual that reported: "Marihuana may be cultivated or grown wild in almost any locality." (Department of Homeland Security 2019). Before Anslinger's Marihuana Tax Act, most Americans seemed unaware of pot's presence, let alone its exploitation as a drug (Department of Homeland Security 2019).
In principle, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 stopped only the use of the plant as a recreational drug, but in practice, the impacts were much more. Emerging therapeutic uses of pot in the early 20th century being explored virtually disappeared. Furthermore, the decades lost from potential scientific research and medical testing (Holified 2013). Economic loss from growing American industries in commercial applications of hemp fiber, seeds, and oil also suffered. Our generation will never know the impact that an environmentally friendly renewable resource like marijuana would have achieved on society.
Reference
DEA Museum. 2021. “Narcotics Enforcement in the 1930s.” Accessed April 12, 2022. https://museum.dea.gov/exhibits/online-exhibits/anslinger/narcotics-enforcement-1930s.
Department of Homeland Security. 2019. "Did You Know.....Marijuana Was Once a Legal Cross-Border Import?" Accessed April 12, 2022. https://www.cbp.gov/about/history/did-you-know/marijuana
Holifield, Michael C. 2013. "Blowing smoke: Harry J. Anslinger and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937." Ph.D. diss., Arkansas State University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Libby, Ronald T. 2004. "The DEA’s War on Doctors: A Surrogate for the War on Drugs." University of North Florida. https://www.aapsonline.org/painman/paindocs2/libbystatement.pdf
ProCon. 2016. "Peer-Reviewed Studies on Medical Marijuana." Accessed April 12, 2022. https://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/peer-reviewed-studies-on-medical-marijuana/.
Ransom, Jessie. 2004. "Anslingerian" Politics: The History of Anti-Marijuana Sentiment in Federal Law and How Harry Anslinger's Anti-Marijuana Politics Continue to Prevent the FDA and other Medical Experts from Studying Marijuana's Medical Utility." Digital Access to Scholarship to Harvard. https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/8965561.
Solomon, Robert. 2020. "Racism and Its Effect on Cannabis Research.", Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research 5, no. 1 (Winter): 2–5. https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2019.0063.
Tarricone, Jackson. 2020. "Harry J. Anslinger and the Origins of the War on Drugs." Boston Political Review (United States), Sep 4, 2020. https://www.bostonpoliticalreview.org/post/harry-j-anslinger-and-the-origins-of-the-war-on-drugs.