Regulations and restrictions on the sale of
Cannabis sativa as a drug began as early as 1906 (see
Legal history of cannabis in the United States). The head of the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN),
Harry J. Anslinger, alleged, in the 1930s, the FBN had an increase of reports of people using marijuana. In 1935, he gained the support of president
Franklin D. Roosevelt lobbying states to adoption the model
Uniform State Narcotic Act to regulate of cannabis. The Marihuana Tax Act, according to Clinton Hester, the then-Assistant General Counsel to the United States Treasury Department, was itself based on the
National Firearms Act and the
Harrison Narcotics Tax Act: The total production of
hemp fiber in the United States in 1933 decreased to around 500 tons per year. Cultivation of hemp began to increase in 1934 and 1935, but production remained low compared with other fibers. with fibers. The stem, which can become
hemp hurds, in the middle. Interested parties write that the aim of the Act was to reduce the hemp industry through excessive taxation largely as an effort of businessmen
Andrew Mellon,
William Randolph Hearst, and the
Du Pont family. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst realized cheap, sustainable, and easily-grown hemp threatened his extensive timber holdings. Mellon,
Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in the US, invested heavily in the Du Pont family's new synthetic fiber,
nylon, to compete with hemp. Dewey and Merrill believed hemp hurds were a sustainable source for paper production. The concentration of cellulose in hemp hurds is generally around 35%. Manufacture of paper -- on equipment designed to use wood-pulp -- with hemp as a raw material shows hemp lacks the qualities needed to become a major competitor to the traditional paper industry. 2003, 95% of the hemp hurds in the
EU were used for animal bedding, almost 5% were used as building material. Spokespersons from DuPont and many fiber manufacturers dispute a link between their promotion of nylon over hemp. They explain that the purpose of developing nylon was to produce a fiber competitive with
silk and
rayon. The
American Medical Association (AMA) opposed the taxation because the tax was imposed on physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and
medical cannabis cultivation/manufacturing. The AMA proposed cannabis instead be added to the
Harrison Narcotics Tax Act which would have been more efficient and created less burden on doctors. Dr.
William Creighton Woodward, legislative counsel for the AMA, testified on behalf of the AMA. He stated that the claims about marijuana addiction, violence, and overdosage were not supported, and that the law should not burden further investigation into medical use. and hearings. Anslinger also referred to the
Second International Opium Convention from 1928 included cannabis as a drug, not a medicine. All state legislatures approved laws against improper use of cannabis based on the model
Uniform State Narcotic Act. By 1951, however, spokespeople from Du Pont, Hearst and others came up with new improved rationalizations, and the
Boggs Act superseded the Marihuana Taxation Act of 1937. In August 1954, the
Internal Revenue Code of 1954 was enacted, and the Marihuana Taxation Act was included in Subchapter A of Chapter 39 of the 1954 Code. ==Operation of the act==