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<title>How Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana Became Illegal</title>
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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoTitle>Why Congress Outlawed the Hemp Plant</p>
<p class=MsoTitle><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>On a hot Friday afternoon on </span><st1:date
Year="1937" Day="2" Month="8"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>August
2, 1937</span></st1:date><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>,
at </span><st1:time Minute="45" Hour="17"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>5:45 PM</span></st1:time><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>, Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, introduced a bill called
The Marijuana Tax Act. The bill ordered American farmers to obtain a </span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>license</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'> from the Treasury Department to grow hemp and made it a
Federal crime for Americans to possess, give away or sell it without paying a
1% tax. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>����� </span>The
cannabis/hemp plant came in two versions. The first version was industrial
hemp, a plant with a long history of commercial use, and a very low THC
content. The second version was marijuana, the same plant with a much higher
THC content. THC is the psychoactive chemical found in the blossoms and upper
leaves and used throughout history as an intoxicant and a remedy for treating a
number of health problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Drug Commissioner </span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Harry J. Anslinger</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>, head of the FBN (Federal Bureau of Narcotics) first
introduced the bill into committee hearings for review. The hearings, which
should have gone on for days, lasted </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>two
hours. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Anslinger told the committee, </span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in
its users, insanity, criminality, and death."</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'> Anslinger chose the Mexican word
"</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>marihuana</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>," because the committee did
not know that marihuana was the same plant grown in this country for more than
three centuries and prescribed by doctors in a form called </span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>cannabis extract</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The first testimony came from a
pharmacologist who had injected </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>himself</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'> and </span><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>300 dogs </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>with
what he called the "active ingredient" in marihuana. Two of the 300
dogs died when he injected this crude substance into their brains. The
testimony raised eyebrows because the true active ingredient,
tetrahydrocannabinol, had not yet undergo extraction and would not do so until
years later, in </span><st1:City><st1:place><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>Holland</span></st1:place></st1:City><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>After the pharmacologist completed
his expert testimony, Dr. William C. Woodward, a lawyer and chief counsel for
the American Medical Association testified <span class=GramE>that<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>� </span><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>"</b></span></span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>The American Medical Association knows of no evidence
that marijuana is a dangerous drug."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>This statement prompted one of the
committee members to remark, "Doctor, if you can't say something good
about what we are trying to do, why don't you go home?"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Another member added, "Doctor,
if you haven't got something better to say than that, we are sick of hearing
you."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>These words reveal a pre-existing
hostility between the AMA and </span><st1:place><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>Roosevelt</span></st1:place><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>'s New Deal Democrats who dominated the committee. From
1932 through 1937, the AMA had opposed every piece of legislation proposed by
the New Dealers, a conflict that left little friendship between the two groups.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The bill to ban the cannabis plant
from American soil passed easily in the committee and moved on to the House of
Representatives (Congress). It landed on the Speakers Platform before a limited
number of Congressional Representatives that listened in the stifling heat to
Sam Rayburn read the proposal and call for a debate. The debate that followed
consisted of a single man, a Republican from </span><st1:place><st1:PlaceName><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>New York</span></st1:PlaceName><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span><st1:PlaceType><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>State</span></st1:PlaceType></st1:place><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>, who stood and asked what the bill
was about.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Speaker Rayburn replied,</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> "I don't know. It has something to do with
something called marihuana. I think it's a narcotic of some kind."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The same man asked if the AMA
supported the bill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>In response to the question, a
member of the committee that had criticized Dr.Woodward and sent the bill to
Congress leaped to his feet and shouted, </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Their
Doctor Wentworth came down here. They supported this bill 100 percent!"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>This spurious statement ended further
questions, and the vote began. There was no recorded vote on the bill; instead,
legislators walked past this point or that point on the floor to indicate a yes
or no vote. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Based on Anslinger's deliberate
lies and the false statement from the hostile committee member, Congress passed
the bill with </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>no debate.</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'> The bill was on the floor for a
remarkable </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>92 seconds </span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>before it became Federal Law. This
new prohibition happened just four years after Congress repealed alcohol
prohibition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The new law required a $1.00 tax be
paid by anyone possessing or growing cannabis and came under the jurisdiction
of the Treasury Department. Failure to pay the tax <span
class=apple-style-span><span style='color:black'>could result in a fine of up
to $2000 and five years' imprisonment.</span></span></span> <span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>When farmers who wished to continue
growing hemp approached the Treasury Dept for a license they quickly discovered
the Treasury Department </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>would not issue a
license</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>. The new tax
law had effectively outlawed hemp<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>The FBN under Commissioner
Anslinger and later its predecessor, the DEA, received the authority from
Congress to arrest over</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> ninety million</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'> Americans over the next seventy
years because they grew or possessed the cannabis plant without a license. </span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Twenty million</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'> went to prison.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>In 1972, a paranoid Richard Nixon
dismissed his own panel of experts, the Shafer Commission, (which recommended
immediate decriminalization of marijuana) and declared war on pot smokers. He
convinced Congress to authorize the building of the largest prison system in
the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�</span>Today the hemp plant remains at the top of the
DEA�s list of dangerous addictive drugs, next to heroin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>For more information or to help
change the law, visit </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>www.leap.com</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'> (Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Source: "History of the Non-Medical Use of
Drugs in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�������������
</span>Schaffer Library www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/white1.htm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>James Wiley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><st1:Street><st1:address><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>48 Woodland Ave</span></st1:address></st1:Street><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><st1:place><st1:City><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>San Anselmo</span></st1:City><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>, </span><st1:State><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>CA</span></st1:State><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'> </span><st1:PostalCode><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>94960</span></st1:PostalCode></st1:place><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>415-453-8715<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>Updated May 2011<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>�</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle align=left style='text-align:left;text-indent:.25in'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoTitle><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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