By January 1937 Anslinger’s campaign against marijuana had reached its high point. That was when the U.S. Treasury Department held meetings on the issue of marijuana. There, Anslinger boasted of its evils. He did so using false information about crimes, and used no scientific evidence, but did use falsified medical terminology about the dangers of marijuana. In other words, he committed perjury.
There were reasons Anslinger didn’t make clear why he was focusing on marijuana. He had more than just the alcohol industry on his side.
“If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marihuana he would drop dead of fright.”
– Harry Anslinger, speaking to the Women’s National Exposition of Arts and Industries in New York City
The Hearst “yellow journalism” newspaper report of this went on to say:
“This is not an overstatement.
Users of the marihuana weed are committing a large percentage of the atrocious crimes blotting the daily picture of American life.
It is reducing thousands of boys to criminal insanity.”
Anslinger exposed his prejudices through the ridiculous comments, distortions, and lies he used to argue for making marijuana illegal. The criminal perpetrators he wrote about were often African, Mexican, or immigrants who weren’t homogenized Caucasians. When Caucasians were mentioned they tended to be the innocent ones who were susceptible to corruption, or those who had been corrupted and went on to a life of bad judgment and/or criminal behavior. Anslinger’s words sketched darker-skinned people as inherently bad. He was known to refer to Blacks as ginger-colored niggers, even going so far as to use the term in a government-issued pamphlet, which created an uproar that threatened his career. That experience apparently got him to use slightly more acceptable wording, but with the same outrageous reasoning.
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes White women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and many others… The primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”
– Harry Anslinger, testifying before U.S. Senate, 1937
Anslinger had no idea how many people used cannabis. There was, and there still is, no way of knowing. His claim that “most” were of darker skin and/or entertainers was total nonsense. His wording displayed his prejudice. It also shows the spin he was trying to put on the issue, to freak out the homogenized Caucasian populace in a way that would get them to act accordingly.
“Girls began to pull off their clothes. Men weaved naked over them; soon the entire room was one of the wildest sexuality. Ordinary intercourse and several forms of perversion were going on at once, girl to girl, man to man, woman to woman.”
– Anonymous 1937 news article about marijuana users, which is attributed to Harry Anslinger and his campaign to vilify marijuana at any cost
“When officers arrived, at the home they found the youth staggering about in a human slaughterhouse. With an axe he had killed his father, mother, two brothers, and a sister. He seemed to be in a daze. He had no recollection of having committed the multiple crime. The officers knew him ordinarily as a sane, rather quiet young man; now he was pitifully crazed. They sought the reason. The boy said he had been in the habit of smoking something which youthful friends called ‘muggle’ a childish name for marihuana.”
– Harry Anslinger article in American Magazine, July 1937
A person’s own psychological profile can often be displayed when he or she makes degrading comments about people based on assumed sexual relations. Perhaps Anslinger’s constant focus on sexual acts revealed more of what was going on in his thought patterns. Maybe he had some interesting experiences in his life that made him write the sorts of things that he wrote. Or maybe it was only taken from his imagination and desires. Oh, but why? Self-hate? Guilt? Shame?
Hearst’s phony and freakishly weird news stories were used by Anslinger to get Congress to criminalize marijuana and the hemp industry. There was no scientific evidence presented. The law was created based on outlandish lies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law on August 2, 1937. It placed an extraordinary tax on industrial hemp as well as medicinal cannabis, and classified cannabis as a narcotic.
That is the short story. But let’s explore how it happened.
Keep reading.