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 [...]
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 [...]
