gh his efforts, an optional restriction of the traffic in Indian Hemp was urged on the states and state after state complied. By 1937 forty-six of the forty-eight states as well as the District of Columbia had laws against marijuana. Under most of these state laws marijuana was subject to the same vigorous penalties applicable to morphine, heroin and cocaine and was often and erroneously designated as a narcotic. Many false and exaggerated stories about marijuana were used to achieve Anslinger’s goal e.g. blanket statements that marijuana “addicts” went crazy, or that several mass murders and numerous rapes were directly attributable to the effects of smoking marijuana cigarettes. Indeed only one physician was called to testify at the 1937 Congressional hearings of the proposed federal anti-marijuana law, he was a member of the American Medical Association and he opposed the bill Brecher, Edward M. and the Editors of Consumer Reports Licit and Illicit Drugs 1st ed. Mount Vernon, New York: Consumers Union, 1972.The proposed federal anti-marijuana law was also considered by the American Medical Association at the June 1937 Convention of the American Medical Association in Atlantic City. The “report of the AMA Committee on Legislative Activities” at that convention noted: There is positively no evidence to indicate the abuse of cannabis as a medicinal agent or to show that its medicinal use is leading to the development of cannabis addiction. Cannabis at the present time is slightly used for medicinal purposes but would seem worthwhile to maintain its status as a medicinal agent for such purposes as it now has. There is a possibility that a restudy of the drug by modern means may show other advantages to be derived from its medicinal use.“The Report of the AMA Committee on Legislative Activities” at the 1937 Convention of The American Medical Association.We are feeling the effects of this has...
