and
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Stephen B. Gibbons (1938) Restrictions on
cannabis (
cannabis sativa, often called "Indian Hemp" in documents before the 1940s) as a drug started in local laws in
New York in 1860. That was followed by local laws in many other states, and by state laws in the 1910s and 1920s.| The federal
Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 regulated the labeling of
patent medicines that contained "cannabis indica". In 1925, in the
Second International Opium Convention, the
United States supported regulation of "Indian hemp" in its use as a drug. Recommendations from the International Opium Convention inspired the work with the
Uniform State Narcotic Act between 1925 and 1932. Anslinger had not been active in that process until approximately 1930. Anslinger collected stories of cannabis causing crime and violence, and ignored evidence that allowed for other interpretations. Doctor Walter Bromberg pointed out that substance abuse and crime are heavily confounded and that none of a group of 2,216 criminal convictions he had examined was clearly connected to cannabis's influence. He also ignored a discussion forwarded to him by the
American Medical Association, in which 29 of 30 pharmacists and drug industry representatives objected to his proposals to ban cannabis. One such statement claimed that the proposal was "Absolute rot. It is not necessary. I have never known of its misuse.". However, only the single dissenter (who noted he had once encountered a doctor who had been addicted to cannabis) was preserved in Bureau files. As head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Anslinger sought, and ultimately received, an increase of reports about smoking of cannabis in 1936 that continued to spread at an accelerated pace in 1937. Before that, the smoking of cannabis had been relatively slight and confined to the Southwest, particularly along the Mexican border.
Promotion of cannabis as public harm The Bureau first prepared a legislative plan to seek a new law from Congress that would place cannabis and its distribution directly under federal control. Second, Anslinger ran a campaign against cannabis on radio and at major forums. His views were zealous and ideological: By using the
mass media with support from publisher
William Randolph Hearst, Anslinger propelled the anti-cannabis sentiment from state level to a national movement. He used what he called his "Gore Files" - a collection of quotes from police reports - to graphically depict offenses caused by drug users. His most infamous story in
The American Magazine concerned
Victor Licata, who killed his family: Researchers have since proved that Anslinger wrongly attributed many of the "Gore Files" stories to cannabis usage.
Racial prejudice In the 1930s, Anslinger's anti-cannabis articles often contained racist themes, for example: "Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with (white) female students, smoking [marijuana] and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result: pregnancy." and "Two Negroes took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days under the influence of hemp. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from
syphilis." Though these stories were often true (whatever the role of cannabis in them), Anslinger's basic attitude was shown in remarks not related to any particular story, such as: "Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."
Billie Holiday There is no record of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics under Anslinger ever targeting
Billie Holiday in response to her 1939 song "
Strange Fruit," despite what discredited reporter
Johann Hari claimed in his 2015 book,
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. Anslinger assigned an agent to "Holiday not for her politics, but as a “role model” drug case. [The] strategy was to pursue “high profile” users so as to discourage their fans from copying them." Anslinger's efforts were part of the government's broader push to alert the public about the danger of recreational drugs. The
La Guardia Committee, promoted by New York Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia, conducted the first in-depth study of the effects of smoking cannabis, which was published in 1944. It contradicted claims made by the
U.S. Treasury Department that smoking cannabis resulted in insanity, and determined that "the practice of smoking marihuana does not lead to
addiction in the medical sense of the word." Anslinger condemned the report as unscientific. ==Later years==