From the beginning not everyone was in agreement about what the federal government was doing to control marijuana, its Federal Bureau of Narcotics propaganda, nor the reasoning behind treating cannabis smokers as criminals.
In 1938, New York City’s mayor, Fiorello “Frank” La Guardia, cooperated with the New York City Police Department and the New York Academy of Medicine to conduct a study on marijuana. The mayor’s committee was chaired by Dr. George B. Wallace and included dozens of professionals in the fields of pharmacology, psychiatry, and sociology. Study headquarters were set up at Goldwater Memorial Hospital.
It wasn’t so much that marijuana was very prevalent in New York City; it wasn’t. But La Guardia felt that the government hadn’t told the truth about the substance, which they hadn’t. So the city government undertook this study to pursue the truth of the matter.
The immigrant community Anslinger’s propaganda often targeted in his vilification of marijuana use was relatively small in New York City. While growing, the city didn’t have quite the mix of people that it has today. Although there was a marijuana presence, it was commonly used in “tea houses” or “tea pads,” which were often the residence of someone who sold the stuff. Sometimes there was an admission fee to get into the casual party.
Marijuana was also used in some of the New York City nightclubs, including those in the growing jazz and blues communities in Harlem.
One young man who sold weed in Harlem was named Malcolm Little. In 1946 Little was arrested in Boston on charges of armed burglary. In prison he studied the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. He became Malcolm X, with the X standing for his lost African name.
Some of the people used for the La Guardia study were prisoners serving time at Riker’s Island. Some had even been convicted on marijuana charges. Taken to Goldwater Memorial Hospital, the prisoners got to smoke weed, eat, and listen to music, and were subjected to tests conducted by the medical staff.
The La Guardia study was published in 1944 and was titled The Marijuana Problem in the City of New York. The September 1942 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry published the first report of the study’s lead physicians, Dr. Samuel Allentuck and Dr. Karl Bowman. Titled The Psychiatric Aspects of Marihuana Intoxication, the report concluded that the facts about marijuana causing catastrophic effects had been greatly distorted by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The report concluded that marijuana was not addictive, did not lead to morphine, heroin, or cocaine addiction, and did not lead people to commit serious crimes. In his summary, the Committee Chairman, Dr. George B. Wallace, wrote that marijuana smokers were “of a friendly, sociable character. Aggressiveness and belligerency are not commonly seen… Marihuana does not change the basic personality structure of the individual. It lessens inhibitions and this brings out what is latent in his thoughts and emotions, but it does not evoke responses which would otherwise be totally alien to him.”
“I am glad that the sociological, psychological, and medical ills commonly attributed to marihuana have been found to be exaggerated insofar as the City of New York is concerned.
… From the study as a whole, it is concluded that marihuana is not a drug of addiction, comparable to morphine, and that if tolerance is acquired, this is of a very limited degree. Furthermore, those who have been smoking marihuana for a period of years showed no mental or physical deterioration which may be attributed to the drug.”
– Fiorello La Guardia, in the foreword to the study The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York, 1944
Anslinger was not happy with the report. He was also disappointed in 1946 when, after considering the La Guardia report, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations decided against more research into the dangers of marijuana.
Disregarding the La Guardia study, Anslinger continued on his quest to stop people from smoking marijuana. He also worked against allowing any more studies to be conducted that could be used to disprove his claims.
When sociologist Alfred Lindesmith of the University of Indiana spoke out in support of medical treatment for people with drug problems and opined that the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was spreading misinformation, Anslinger ridiculed him.
It didn’t please Anslinger that Lindesmith’s opinions were used in a 1948 documentary titled Drug Addict. The documentary was used to teach the Canadian police that drug addiction was a medical problem. Lindesmith’s phone was tapped and Anslinger sought to connect Lindesmith to Communist organizations. This worked to quell the plans other scientists may have had to conduct research on marijuana.
While opposed to a documentary presenting an opinion different from his own, and that discredited his propaganda, Anslinger worked with Hollywood studios to approve scripts so that Hollywood movies and TV shows presented information about drugs in alignment with Anslinger’s view.
Anslinger also kept working for those high-profile drug busts. He specifically wanted the publicity that would result from busting a famous musician, actor, or celebrity.
“Over 50 percent of those young addicts started on marihuana smoking. They started there and graduated to heroin; they took the needle when the thrill of marihuana was gone.”
– Harry Anslinger, testifying before U.S. Congress Ways and means Committee, 1951
Under pressure from Anslinger and others, the United Nations made the absurd agreement in 1954 that marijuana was of no medical use. On March 10, 1961, the United Nations ratified its Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and made the nonmedical use of marijuana illegal throughout the world within 25 years. However, it did not outlaw industrial hemp. The U.S. didn’t sign onto the convention because it disagreed with the delayed action of the law.
Even after Anslinger left his position as head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in July 1962 the Bureau continued to publish outlandish nonsense about marijuana.
“It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the smoking of marijuana is a dangerous first step on the road which usually leads to enslavement by heroin.”
– Federal Bureau of Narcotics antimarijuana pamphlet, 1965