In 1934, Harry Anslinger, the nation’s first drug czar, led a campaign to outlaw marijuana. Previously, it had been used for a variety of medicinal purposes and was subject to local ordinances. Anslinger mounted a public relations campaign to achieve his goal of criminalizing the drug. Some suggested the campaign had racial overtones, especially Mexican Americans who were often portrayed as menaces to society when indulging in marijuana. Others suggested the campaign was bankrolled and publicized by William Randolph Hearst to eliminate hemp as an industrial competitor to his considerable timber/paper holdings. The movie “Reefer Madness” symbolized the campaign of fear and distortion.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs. He commissioned former Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond Shafer, a fellow Republican, to do a comprehensive study of marijuana and make recommendations for the pending Controlled Substances Act. Shafer did as he was instructed; he thoroughly researched the subject, talked with experts, reviewed the history of marijuana laws and the scientific research and recommended decriminalization of marijuana. The report dispelled much of the hysteria surrounding the drug and recommended a more nuanced non-criminal discouragement policy. Nixon immediately chastised Shafer, torpedoed his pending federal judgeship and made marijuana penalties the toughest of all illegal drugs. The Nixon tapes showed that his reasoning was based on the prejudices of that time, citing the support and use of marijuana by Jews, homosexuals, communists and radicals as the reason for rejecting the commission finding and making marijuana a schedule I drug, illegal under any circumstance and proscribing penalties far harsher then traditionally harsher drugs such as cocaine and morphine.
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