The Gilded Age Start to Marijuana Criminalization

A real conspiracy between government, media, and wealthy business owners.

• This was submitted as my research paper for a college history class, and is now published here, unedited and not peer-reviewed.

Over the past few years, debates about various criminalized drugs have come to the forefront. Numerous states are legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, marijuana. Some Americans still argue that drugs such as marijuana are dangerous, cause violence, and lead to the usage of worse drugs. Others argue that the government has no right to interfere with what citizens consume. To better comprehend the issues regarding this topic, it’s important to understand the history of this drug and how it became illegal in the first place.

Marijuana and hemp are both a cannabis flower, however what differs them is the THC content; the chemical responsible for “highs”. For the purposes of this research paper, Hemp is defined as cannabis that contains 0.3 percent or less THC content by dry weight. Hemp is typically used for paper, clothing, textiles, animal feed, plastic, and food products such as hemp milk. Marijuana, also known as marihuana or weed, is defined as cannabis that contains more than 0.3 percent of THC content by dry weight. Marijuana can be used medically or recreationally through smoking, edibles, and other consumption methods.

Prior to the 1930’s, it was commonplace to grow cannabis on family farms. Historians generally agree that cannabis was the world's largest agricultural crop until the late 1800's. This is because hemp was used in the majority of the world's fibers, fabrics, lighting oil, incense, and medicines, along with being used for buildings. Until 1883, 80-90% of all paper worldwide was made from hemp. Hemp seed was regularly used in soups by most people worldwide until the 20th century. A tincture of cannabis was similarly used and commonplace in the way aspirin is today. The USP, an annually published medicine book, indicated that cannabis could be used for treating fatigue, coughing, rheumatism, asthma, delirium tremens, migraine headaches, and reducing menstruation symptoms. Not only was it commonplace to grow on family farms, but in 1619, Jamestown legally ordered ALL farmers to grow Cannabis. In fact between 1763 and 1767 in Virginia you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage. Similar laws were enacted in Massachusetts (1631), Connecticut (1632), and the Chesapeake Colonies. England rewarded foreigners who grew cannabis with full British citizenship, while those who refused to grow hemp were often fined. The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 contained Turkish Smoking Parlors for people to get high. Americans could even pay their taxes with cannabis for more than 200 years. Our founding fathers, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were widely known for growing hemp on their farms. “Old Glory” was made from cannabis fibers. So why was cannabis, something rooted so much into American life and history, banned?

An old image of Cough Syrup containing Cannabis.

Both cotton and hemp were labor-intensive products. Hemp, however, is softer and warmer, and has 3x the tensile strength of cotton. In 1793, the cotton gin was created, and in the 1820’s a European loom and gin was created, both of which had lessened the use and creation of hemp. However, in 1917, G.W. Schlichten created a cannabis gin, and by 1930 the equipment was incredible. Popular Mechanics called hemp "The New Billion Dollar Crop”; Hemp was about to have a huge comeback. Unfortunately for hemp, Tabloid Journalist William Randolph Hearst had invested in and owned acres of land he was going to use to make and sell wood-pulp paper. Fiber from hemp was faster and cheaper to produce along with providing high quality compared to Hearst’s timber for making paper. Hearst’s paper mills required chemicals, the majority of which were supplied by William Dupont. Dupont was also about to go into the market with a new type of fiber, nylon, and did not want to compete with cheap hemp fibers. Hearst was so threatened by hemp, in fact, that he produced contrived stories in his newspapers, telling tales of the dangers of cannabis. Stories like little Johnny who smoked a reefer then murdered his family with an ax, or how drug-crazed Black people would rape white woman, tore through American news and conversation. A 1928 Hearst Newspaper claimed “marijuana was known in India as the ‘murder drug,’ it was common for a man to ‘catch up a knife and run through the streets, hacking and killing every one he [encountered].’” Annie Laurie’s column for Hearst Newspaper stated “three-fourths of the crimes of violence in this country today are committed by dope slaves—that is a matter of cold record.” This anti-Cannabis smear campaign is referred to as “Reefer Madness”. How, though, did he convince the nation that something so commonly used throughout history was now suddenly dangerous? It’s simple, he used the name “Marihuana” and “Marijuana” instead. Marijuana, or marihuana as it was alternatively spelled during that period, was an obscure slang term mostly used by Mexicans at the time.

Posters implying women’s vulnerability and willingness to perform sexual acts for Marijuana.

It wasn’t just Hearst’s newspapers that caused the era of fear that would rip through American society and laws. Other publications such as the 1913 Salt Lake Tribune posted sensationalized headlines such as “Evil Mexican Plants that Drive You Insane’ with alarming claims such as “marijuana make(s) the smoker wilder than a wild beast”. A film called “Tell Your Children”, later known as “Reefer Madness”, was released in 1936, which used America’s children as a propaganda tool to suggest marijuana would lead them to rape, murder, insanity, and suicide. It wasn’t the only scare film on cannabis released however: She Shoulda Said No! (also known as The Devil’s Weed, 1949), The Assassin of Youth (also known as The Marijuana Menace, 1937), Marihuana (1936). Newsweek released a headline in 1937 announcing "A California man DECAPITATED HIS BEST FRIEND while under the violent spell of the smoke!" In 1938 Scientific American stated "Marijuana is ‘a more dangerous drug than heroin or cocaine . . . ’ The drug is adhering to its old word traditions of MURDER, ASSAULT, RAPE, PHYSICAL DEMORALIZATION, and MENTAL BREAKDOWN!". A 1951 video “Drug Addiction” displays young men who have smoked cannabis drinking soda with glass in it, and cutting their mouths while laughing maniacally.

Prior to the federal criminalization of marijuana, 29 states had individually banned the drug, along with numerous countries due largely to US pressure and biased news stories. Utah had banned marijuana in October 1915. Utah’s decision came two months after the Morman church declared marijuana as a sin, allegedly because polygamists who left the Mormon Church for Mexico came back to The States with marijuana. However, the linking of the two events is speculation from “Charles Whitebread, professor of law at USC Law School in a paper for the Virginia Law Review, and a speech to the California Judges Association.” The Mexican Revolution of the early 1900’s had brought a new stream of Mexican immigrants to the US South, and “marihuana” was often apart of their social life and spiritual practices. Therefore, the first states to pass anti-cannabis laws were typically states on the Mexican border because they wanted to target and deport Mexican-Americans. Texas outlawed marijuana in 1919, where a Senator stated on the floor “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy”. While this criminalized cannabis in the entire state, some cities in Texas had already done so prior to this ban. The city of El Paso, Texas banned cannabis in 1915, after a Mexican, supposedly under the influence of marijuana, shot up the town and killed a police officer. California banned marijuana in 1913 with the guidance of Henry J Finger, a California Board of Pharmacy member. In 1911, Finger wrote a letter to an anti-cannabis Hamilton Wright stating:

“Within the last year we in California have been getting a large influx of Hindoos and they have in turn started quite a demand for cannabis indica; they are a very undesirable lot and the habit is growing in California very fast…the fear is now that they are initiating our whites into this habit”

The Hindu’s were East Indian immigrants who were often attacked by people who were anti-asian and anti-immigration. The 1913 Poison Act Amendments was the bill responsible for banning marijuana and hemp, passed by the California legislature under the advice and control of the California Board of Pharmacy. A 1929 Montana committee hearing on Marijuana resulted in the drug being banned statewide. During this hearing, Dr. Fred Ulsher said “When some beet field peon takes a few rares of this stuff, he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts to execute all his political enemies”.

Ogden Standard, September 1915, a month before Utah banned marijuana.

Harry Anslinger was directly connected to the alcohol prohibition campaign. In 1933, around the time that Dupont and Hearst were threatened by hemp, the alcohol ban was lifted, and Anslinger lost his job. It’s important to note that Dupont’s investments in the timber industry were backed by Mellon Bank. Andrew Mellon, owner of the bank, happened to be the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury at the time. Mellon’s niece was married to Anslinger, who was now out of a job. To keep his own family employed, Mellon created a new division of the federal government, the Bureau of Narcotics (Now known as the DEA), and made Harry Anslinger the new head of that program. Anslinger, now a government program head, took a page out of Hearst's newspapers, and referred to Hemp as “Marijuana”. In fact, Anslinger released a testimony in 1937, stating that most marijuana smokers are “Negroes, Hispanics, Fillipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes.”. Anslinger made numerous other racist statements regarding the drug such as “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” He falsely linked marijuana directly to violence, “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.” and “"Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind.” In 1948 he even claimed “Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”. With the combination of the government's DEA press release and newspapers like Hearst, deep fear ran through white American towns about marijuanas imaginary dangers.

Anslinger used this widespread fear to label marijuana as a narcotic with little pushback. He could pass a bill regarding marijuana without opposition as those who would have fought it were unaware it was cannabis. Instead they knew of marijuana as some dangerous drug that Mexicans smoked. Anslinger ordered the hemp prohibition in the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, claiming that his agents wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between hemp and marijuana, and that the farming of hemp made it too difficult to enforce the marijuana prohibition. The growing of hemp would eventually become legal again with the 2018 Farm Bill.

A poster implying that Cannabis is a gateway drug.

Without hearing any medical or otherwise scientific evidence on the subject of marijuana, the federal government banned marijuana citing news stories that Anslinger and cohort had planted. Anslinger had actively disregarded scientific facts and opinions during his term. Prior to his proposal of the marijuana ban, he asked the American Medical Association for help, where 29 of 30 representatives objected to the ban. Anslinger immediately disregarded the report and claimed it as unscientific. Similarly, New York Academy of Medicine and NYC Major released a study on the effects of marijuana contradicting Anslinger's claims which he called unscientific and threw away. Anslinger had presented “Gore Files” of 200 violent crimes to congress. Researchers have identified 198 of them as “falsely attributed to marijuana” and the other 2 as entirely fake stories. Ironically, prior to his Bureau of Narcotics position, Anslinger himself had directly stated that the idea that marijuana causes violence or insanity is an “absurd fallacy”.

1935 advertisement from the government

The effects of Anslinger and Hearst smear campaign on cannabis lingers today. Modern news stories of Mexican immigrants bringing and selling marijuana is a century-old scare tactic based in racism. Canada is also a primary source of marijuana imports in the United States. However, you don’t hear scary news stories of sexually violent Canadian immigrants crossing the border with Marijuana, and that’s because around 70% of Canadians are white. Additionally, unproven claims of violence and danger caused by the drug, along with Anslinger's gateway drug theory are still the focal point of modern marijuana debates. During conversations like these it’s important to remember the historical context of these arguments against cannabis. Instead of playing on emotional fears, politicians and voting citizens should look at the actual modern medical evidence provided on cannabis, which overwhelmingly provides health benefits with little harmful effects. Cannabis is not inherently riskier than our current legalized prescriptions drugs or alcohol, instead, it is often safer. Over 8 million people were arrested between 2001-2010 for marijuana, and 88% of those arrests were solely for possession, and often small amounts. Additionally, we know POC are 3.73x more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white people, still fueled by racism a decade later than Anslinger and Hearst’s campaign. This lingering criminalization and cultural fear of a safe drug has destroyed the lives of millions of Americans, often minorities, and causes the government to spend ≈ $3.6 billion annually policing marijuana.

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