The idea of legalizing marijuana appears to be gaining steam. Poll analyst Nate Silver noted that in several recent major polls, over forty percent of Americans think that marijuana should be legalized. In Massachusetts, voters recently passed a sweeping decriminalization of marijuana. And in cash-strapped California, a bill has been introduced to legalize marijuana so that it can be used as a source of tax revenue.
Harry Anslinger
Now, marijuana legalization is probably still a decade or two off, at least. Still, these rumblings about legalization no doubt have poor old Harry Anslinger spinning in his grave.
Harry who? You ask.
Harry Anslinger. The original drug warrior. The man behind “reefer madness” and a key figure in the “war on drugs” in the 1930s.
In 1930, several federal laws controlling the sale and use of narcotics had already been demonstrable failures. Drug use was up, prices were up, and new criminal gangs sprung up to support the drug trade. In response to this, rather than re-consider the bad laws, the Treasury Department instead founded the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Harry Anslinger was the man put in charge as commissioner of the FBN–a position that he held with all the zeal and fanaticism of a medieval crusader.
– Harry Anslinger, 1937
When Harry Anslinger became the Commissioner of the FBN, marijuana wasn’t even called marijuana. It was referred to as hemp or cannabis, and smoking the extract of cannabis was something that people’s grandmothers did. It wasn’t a big deal. Not a big deal, that is, until Anslinger got his hands on it–with a little assist from William Randolph Hearst.
Anslinger borrowed the term “marijuana” for cannabis from Mexico because he wanted to give cannabis an association with Mexicans, thus using racial prejudice to cause public opinion to support laws against it. Working hand-in-hand with William Randolph Hearst, Anslinger helped to create the propaganda machine that turned the tide of American opinion in favor of the drug war by feeding on racial prejudice and stereotypes. A few choice headlines of that era include:
MARIJUANA MAKES FIENDS OF BOYS IN 30 DAYSHOTEL CLERK IDENTIFIES MARIJUANA SMOKER AS “WILD GUNMAN” ARRESTED FOR SHOOTINGS
NEW DOPE LURE, MARIJUANA, HAS MANY VICTIMS
(source: Peter McWilliams’ excellent Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do)
By 1937, Anslinger was testifying in front of Congress to pass the Marijuana Tax Act in the hopes of essentially taxing marijuana out of business (as had previously been accomplished with opium). Settling in to testify, Anslinger relied on a number of sources, including himself, his employees, and articles in the Hearst newspapers which had been written by Harry Anslinger.
In those Congressional hearings, somebody thought it might be worth asking doctors about the health risks of marijuana. The American Medical Association at the time was absolutely opposed to making marijuana illegal, because it posed little risk and also because it was a valuable component in many medicines of the time. Consequently, the AMA opposed the ban, and testified as such during the Committee hearings.
Naturally, the AMA doctor was dismissed. And when the bill went to the floor, the Committee claimed that the AMA supported the act. In retaliation for the AMA’s opposition, Harry Anslinger began aggressively prosecuting doctors for drug charges, until the AMA finally relented in 1939, which stopped the seemingly endless flow of prosecutions.
In 1944, the New York Academy of Medicine released a study demonstrating that marijuana did not cause violence and had positive medical benefits, contradicting Anslinger’s propaganda. As a result, the FBN banned all marijuana research in the United States.
As head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger continued his insane crusade against marijuana until 1962, when he was fired by John F. Kennedy. But at that point, the damage was done, and the Federal government was firmly committed to a war on drugs. This is a war on drugs that has created untold misery for millions of Americans for the past 80 years. The results, as Radley Balko points out, have been devastating:
One in 100 Americans today is behind bars. That number by far and away leads the world, and is at its highest point in American history. About 350,000 of the approximately 3 million Americans behind bars are there for nonviolent drug crimes (trafficking or possession). It would be impossible to approximate, but countless others are undoubtedly in for violent or property crimes that are by-products of drug prohibition. The drug war has turned entire neighborhoods into, well, war zones. If the temptation of the drug trade can be too much for some police officers, you can imagine the allure for a young urban kid wasting away in an awful public school with few other prospects.
In large part, we owe the suffering inflicting on American lives and liberties to the one man who was able to channel the various pro-prohibition forces back in the 30s to a point of real political power. That man was Harry Anslinger.
I saw a History Channel special on this guy. He was an unmitigated ass. He’s one of the people who I would consider shooting if I could go back in time.
Why are people so stubbornly successful at doing evil, and so fleeting at doing good?
One question that I have wondered for a long time, and I’ll give a cookie to anyone who can answer it for me.
With any other banned ‘natural’ substance, such as beer (under the 18th), cocaine, or any opiates, the only thing that has been banned is the end product or ‘drug’. Barley and hops weren’t determined to be illegal to grow. Seeds from poppies are still a favourite on muffins and bagles. Marijuana has the distinction of being the only banned plant. The whole plant is banned, from root, to stalk, and not just the leaves that are smoked.
Why is this?
Its because hemp is so much more durable and cheaper to produce than cotton if done on a mass scale that it would deal such a blow to cotton as to disrupt the textile market. That’s why you will never see the big cheeses at Fruit of the Loom advocate hemp clothing, and why the relatively small installment of hemp clothing available is so much more expensive than their inferior cotton counterparts.
I highly recommend The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana”, by Jack Herer. It includes his $100,000 Challenge:
“A $100,000* CHALLENGE TO THE WORLD TO PROVE Us WRONG:
If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the Greenhouse Effect and stop deforestation;
Then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world’s paper and textiles; meet all of the world’s transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil, and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time. ..
And that substance is - the same one that did it all before-
Cannabis Hemp…Marijuana!”
[...] apparent that Harry Anslinger has come back from the dead and is now doing stories for Fox News because this is nothing more than [...]
Based on information I have gathered about this “holocaust” that we call “the drug war”, this man, Harry Aslinger (I’m not even sure if I’d go so far as to call him a man) was comparable to another racist, named Hitler. That’s right I went there, they both fight for a cause that is self preserving, they both used racism to help their cause and they both gained many followers, who in turn, ruined the lives of many innocent people, based on lies and deceipts, stereotypes and cliches, fear, greed and prejudice. During the holocaust, people were incarcerated and even tortured for being jews. Today it’s almost the same thing, they are being incarcerated and even being withheld necessary medication for serious illnesses all because they are stoners. It’s racism against a very large race with much diversity. That is why I believe the “drug war” is a “war crime” in itself.
[...] for on this Anslinger cat. Nevermind, here’s you a link. Just in case you are too stoned to searchHarry Anslinger: The Original Drug Warrior | Heretical Ideas Magazine What a douchebag. Oh, and EVERYTHING is habit forming. I don’t smoke, or drink too tough. However, [...]
Just shoot him? If i could go back in time i would absolutly rape and torture his entire family before dousing them in gasoline and setting them on fire i hope hes burning in hell, im gonna find his grave and twist up a nice 8th blunt on smoke to my face as i piss on his headstone
http://Www.cafepress.com/harrywasaracist
Yes, his actions, fears, and his racism were the starting point of by far the LARGEST waste of the american taxpayers money….which still carries on to this very day!
It utterly disgusts me when I read what this one man and his actions/beliefs did to manipulate an entire country.
DeeJayDennis
One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, radicals, and non-whites under prosecution of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as lives are flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. When Eve ate the apple, she knew a good apple, and an evil prohibition. Canadian Marc Emery is being extradited to prison for selling seeds that American farmers use to reduce U. S. demand for Mexican pot.
The CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnates Al Capone, endangers homeland security, and throws good money after bad. Administration fiscal policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. Society rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment.
Nixon passed the CSA on the false assurance that the Schafer Commission would later justify criminalizing his enemies. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research, and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use, period. Drug juries exclude bleeding hearts.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. God’s children’s free exercise of religious liberty may include entheogen sacraments to mediate communion with their maker.
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law allows that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration.
Just puttinhg this out here, but does any one think that J.F.K firing Harry J Anslinger could have resulted in his assassination? J.F.K. was truly for the people, Harry J Anslinger was for large American industries that he had ties with ( mostly textiles, paper products and chemicles). The legalization of weed in the united states at that time would have caused an economic disaster for the larger industries after the years of propaganda. Yes, I know Im crazy, But like i said, just putting it out there. I cant wait to see the replys.
LoL ….I just found this.
Anslinger heads the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Drugs Convention, which issued the United Nations Single Convention Treaty on Narcotics. Intended to eradicate marijuana use within 25 years, the Single Convention Treaty removes the issue of legal classification of cannabis from citizens of the United States. Reversal of marijuana’s criminalization on a global level now requires agreement among all 108 signatory nations. According to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1920 ruling in Missouri vs. Holland, treaties with foreign nations take precedence over domestic legislation, never-mind that throughout history, treaties with the Native Americans were constantly made null and void to satisfy the whims of a growing nation of European Immigrants. 1962 - President John F. Kennedy forces Federal Bureau narcotics czar Harry Anslinger into retirement after Anslinger attempts to censor the work of Professor Alfred Lindsmith, author of The Addict and the Law. Some time after his assassination in 1963, associates of Kennedy claimed that the president used cannabis for back pain and planned to legalize marijuana during his second term. ARE WE, YET, GETTING ANY IDEA AS TO WHOM MIGHT BE BEHIND PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S ASSASSINATION?
As i am a full supporter in the hate and disregard for Harry Anslingers Complete existince in itself. I do also hold a great distaste for urban america for being innactive and just bending over and taking every inch, of bullshit information that the FBN fabricated during the 1930s and so on.
btw im only a senior at school haha. nice find tho tweed.