Harry Anslinger, the first appointed Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics starting in 1931, led an ardent anti-marijuana campaign in the U.S. during the 1930s. In his July 1937 article, “Marijuana, Assassin of Youth,” Anslinger laid out numerous case claims of people who had smoked “the weed” and simultaneously lost control of their actions [...]
Today GQ reports: According to ongoing discussions with Obama aides and associates, if the president wins a second term, he plans to tackle another American war that has so far been successful only in perpetuating more misery: the four decades of The Drug War. To believe Obama on this issue is to ignore the blatant [...]
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both actively grew hemp throughout many years of agricultural endeavors at their treasured Virginia abodes, Mount Vernon and Monticello, respectively. There is little evidence to suggest that either man grew the marijuana strain of cannabis; they likely grew the strain of cannabis commonly referred to today as “industrial hemp,” which has [...]
Perhaps one of the greatest economic and societal damages to come about through cannabis prohibition is the inability for American entrepreneurs to utilize a highly efficient cultivar of Cannabis sativa, commonly known as “industrial hemp.” During Harry Anslinger’s anti-cannabis campaign in the 1930s, hemp was lumped in and defined under the general cannabis species in federal [...]
The history of the Drug War is a long, complex, and fascinating piece of U.S. policy that combines controversial ethical and legal arguments in its defense. Beginning with an anti-marijuana campaign in the 1930s, cumulating in the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973, and spreading its reach to more than 50 countries around [...]
My home state of California is taking charge this November 2010 election with The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, which would legalize the contained growth and use of marijuana. Essentially the measure would bring marijuana to the level of alcohol and cigarettes: restrictions on use but certainly not making criminals out of [...]
