[infiniteawesome]

thanks, here's another part of it. almost done with the history aspect (ending about the late nineties). Here we go up to the beginning of the seventies, ufortunately I will have to cut the what is cannabis part and put it into a seperate packet for individual reading (in process of making that). But hey, as long as it's presented in some way I'll be happy.

Here we go:

With the prohibition of cannabis on the rise and the prohibition of alcohol still in effect, organized crime was at an all time high. Not only at a speakeasy could one obtain alcohol, but the Jazz players there made cannabis available as well. By the time that the Volstead Act was repealed in 1933, cannabis use had spread to some of the upper and middle white class who had visited the speakeasies. Brewers and distillers, coming back into the fray of American business, were concerned that the easily grown cannabis would put a dent in its profits due to this unprecedented popularity. Meanwhile, Anslinger was facing the threat of losing his position in the FBN because of President Roosevelt’s New Deal calling into question favoritism within the government. Anslinger was saved, however, by his support base within the media, and remained with his job position in tact. He continued to demonize marijuana with more fervor than before.
Anslinger began to use scaremonger tactics, attributing violent crimes to marijuana use, though no scientific connection was ever made to back up his argument. Interestingly enough, Anslinger would appear upon the controversial scene of hemp production as well. In 1919, a George W. Schlichten patented the most efficient form of hemp production called the decorticator, which worked efficiently at the industrial level. The decorticator, was soon realized to be a threat to the lumber and paper industry, as it could easily out-produce them with renewable, fast growing hemp. The environmental implications of this are only now becoming apparent as the lumber industry continues to eat away at our forests.

Between 1935 and 1937, William Randolph Hearst and Lammont Du Pont (head of the multinational pharmaceutical and petrochemical conglomerate) persistently lobbied Herman Oliphant, chief counsel to the US Treasury Department regarding the limitation and elimination of cannabis, in possible hopes of eliminating the hemp industry in the process.

In 1937, Anslinger was called in by the US Treasury department to confer on the possibility of drafting a bill against marijuana. Anslinger used every form of lie and story he could against cannabis, and in the end, was able to convince them to support the Marijuana Tax Act, which put a punitive transfer tax on marijuana. Only a few individuals spoke out against Anslinger at the conference of 1937, one of which was Ralph Loziers of the National Oil Seed Institute, claiming that the properties of the hemp seed were too valuable as a food source to eliminate. Only one person, however, was in full opposition to the Marijuana Tax Act. This man was Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical Association (AMA) who claimed that the meeting was biased and that, while marijuana use was a possible problem, was not as serious a threat as Anslinger claimed. When Congress met to confer on passing the bill, a Texan Democrat asked what the AMA official had to say in concerns to it. A Democrat who was obviously against the bill, lied, saying: "Their doctor Wentworth came down here. They support this bill one hundred per cent." President Roosevelt signed the Marijuana Tax Act on October 1<SUP>st</SUP>, 1937.

Unfortunately, the Marijuana Tax Act did little to suppress the small groups of immigrants and poor laborers from consuming cannabis. Even with the increase in the FBN’s budget, Anslinger’s agents were still too few in number to control cannabis when their attention was more focused on the control of opium and cocaine. Instead, the act decimated the Hemp industry and prevented Schlichten’s decorticator from reaching mass production.

Hemp made a short revival in American industry when the Philippines came under Axis control during World War II, eliminating a portion of America’s fiber source. A "Grow Hemp for Victory" campaign began, encouraging farmers to grow industrial hemp. Farmer’s and their sons were exempt from military service if hemp was one of their major crops. Germany also employed similar propaganda strategies in regards to hemp when their supplies from Russia ceased. Hilariously enough, a short film entitled "Hemp for Victory" was produced during this time by the United States Agricultural Department, in which one can enjoy a happy tune praising hemp’s many industrial aspects and uses. This campaign, of course, ended once World War II was over.

There were those who questioned Anslinger’s tactics in concerns to marijuana. Fiorello ‘Frank’ Laguardia, the mayor of the city of New York, became determined to discover the reality of marijuana’s effects in 1938. With the full co-operation of the New York City Police Department (NYCPD), Laguardia conducted a series of scientific and sociological tests to surmise the health and sociological effects of marijuana, which proved it to be harmless and relatively safe.

Anslinger, enraged at the findings of these studies, was unsuccessful in his attempt to censor the publication in American Journal of Psychiatry entitled "The Psychiatric Aspects of Marihuana Intoxication" in 1942. The publication had disproved many of Anslinger’s statements regarding Marijuana.

<DIR><DIR>"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."-Martin Booth (Cannabis: A History) an excerpt taken from the above-said publication.

</DIR></DIR>The newly constituted United Nation’s narcotics division, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, concluded, based on Laguardia’s findings, that no further investigation need be made into cannabis. This was much to Anslinger’s discontent, as the publication made him look foolish. Anslinger decided to focus his attention on cannabis and it’s association with modern musicians, whom he believed to be one of the major reasons for marijuana’s popularity.

</DIR></DIR>By the time World War II ended, however, Anslinger had done little to justify his budget, so he created more lies regarding marijuana. In 1949, Anslinger promoted the FBN budget in the presence of the US Congress Ways and Means Appropriation Committee. He stated that cannabis use had become more expansive due to the popularity of Jazz and their marijuana using musicians, of whom he referred to, saying: "and I am not speaking about the good musicians, but the jazz type." This did little to increase Anslinger’s popularity in the music industry. Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa were two of the most well known individuals tried and convicted for marijuana possession during Anslinger’s investigative campaign into the Jazz subculture. Despite the busting of these two stars, however, Anslinger’s tactics generally turned up very little actual arrests, as the act of dealing and purchasing drugs is a victimless crime and hard to trace.

Anslinger also employed a new lie that has manifested itself in today’s anti-drug campaigns. Due to the test results of Laguardia’s research, Anslinger decided to defend his position on marijuana by publishing his views on it in the context of heroin, a new form of opium that is still the most addictive substance known to man. Anslinger claimed that users of cannabis would all eventually try heroin and become addicted to this far more dangerous drug. This argument would eventually evolve into what is known today as the "Gateway Theory" which claims that the use of weak drugs such as cannabis leads to the use of stronger, harder drugs, such as cocaine or heroin. There is no scientific data that supports such a relationship.

Anslinger also made it a point to associate drugs with organized crime, which at the time was also associated with Communism. This scare tactic was very effective as after Anslinger made this connection, the conversation of drug use and addiction was considered taboo, and very little scientific research was done to question Anslinger’s comments. Professor Alfred Lindesmith, a sociologist working at the University of Indiana, however, pushed for more humane treatment of drug addicts, whom he claimed were more psychologically troubled individuals than criminals. His voice, unfortunately, was silenced as Anslinger made many attempts to find or invent a reason to arrest Lindesmith. While Lindesmith was never arrested, he found it hard to rally his friends to his cause probably due to threats made to them by the FBN.

By the mid fifties, Anslinger’s tactics had still only turned up small results in relation to marijuana trafficking, and his concerns turned to a new generation of music: rock n’ roll. As rock n’ roll spread to America’s youth culture, so did marijuana. Meanwhile, speed, a chemically synthesized amphetamine, was becoming popular amongst rock n’ roll’s musicians, and took up the interest of the FBN.

Despite the appearance of new and more dangerous drugs, Anslinger still used marijuana as a proponent for the continuation of funding for the FBN. In 1954, Anslinger forced the UN into an agreement that cannabis had no medicinal value using the threat that if reluctance was shown in regards to the agreement, that the USA would veto any forthcoming decisions. This propelled Anslinger’s further proposal for international prohibition of cannabis, which would be realized in 1967 at the UN Single Convention, five years after Anslinger’s retirement from the FBN.

At this point in time, drug use, marijuana aside, had become prevalent in America. While marijuana had been popular during the thirties and more prevalent during the forties, the sixties and seventies brought around its widespread use by most of mainstream America. Life magazine even published an article claiming that nearly twelve million Americans had smoked pot in 1969. The popularization of marijuana has a great deal to do with the history of American sociology. As the youth of the fifties grew up and began to question the reasoning behind America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, questions about various governmentally infringed injustices, marijuana policies included in the debate, began to arise. Vietnam also played a part in the spread of marijuana use, as it was used by most of the soldiers present in Vietnam to calm their nerves and further accept the horrific situations that they were forced to deal with. In addition, said soldiers who were discharged or had completed their service, brought back marijuana and cannabis seeds with which to start a source of income upon their return to U.S. soil. No longer was the FBN arresting Mexican Migrant workers or African American Jazz musicians, or even Rock n’ Roll stars, they were arresting otherwise law-abiding young white Americans.