History Highlight: Harry J. Anslinger Part 2- Making a Bureau and Reefer Madness

By the early 1930's Anslinger now had control over his own bureau dedicated to the enforcement of the Harrison Act. However, this law was restricting in his view and only tackled a fraction of the narcotic problem in America. To give his agency permanency and broader jurisdiction, Anslinger began a nationwide publicity campaign to get the public and Congress on his side. The first move he made was towards horse racing. In the world of horse racing, it was common and not unheard of to use performance enhancing drugs to win races. Anslinger brought the trend to national attention and called for regulation and enforcement. The agency to be charged with this task, his Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Congress agreed and gave him the power to send agents to race tracks across the country to test horses and arrest drug peddlers.

However, Ansligner was not content to keep the Bureau testing horses for the rest of its existence. By early 1932, he found a cause in the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act. It would strengthen the allegedly weak language of the Harrison Act of 1914 and ensure stiffer penalties and fees against violators. Anslinger, with the help of his friend Randolph Hearst and the Hearst publishing chain, publicly advocated and encouraged its passage across the United States. At the beginning, only 9 states would pass the act. Frustrated, Anslinger began an even stronger media campaign alleging the effects of these narcotics to cause "reefer madness" and "sex craze." This image of drug use would be propagated by many family and children interest groups and even be picked up by Hollywood in a series of low budget, exploitation films that capitalized on the scandalous image of a narcotic user and its alleged consequences.

These films, in addition to propaganda films produced by the U.S government, helped create an era of misinformation about narcotics in the United States. Rumors and myths replaced any actual facts regarding the actual affects about drugs. This is most seen in an incident between Anslinger and New York Mayor La Guardia. Published in 1944, the La Guardia Committee Report described the work of medical researchers into the effects of marijuana and other narcotics on humans and their recommendation for how the government should proceed in its regulation and classification. The report, the first of its kind in the United States, surprisingly found marijuana to be relatively harmless in reasonable doses and to have less damaging long lasting effects than alcohol and opiates. More importantly, it argued against the government narrative of marijuana being addictive and crime inducing. As expected, Anslinger's first response is immediate condemnation of the report as un-scientific and a fraud. He would then make it impossible for researchers to conduct any more inquiries into the side effects of marijuana, or other narcotics, without his permission. This requirement ensured that Anslinger would have control over what results were being found. With the La Guardia Report behind him, he would continue to move forward in pushing his agency's agenda and manipulating public fears to his advantage. However, with the tragic attack on Pearl Harbor, Anslinger found a new way to bring drug enforcement to the public eye.

To be continued!

History Highlight: Harry J Anslinger Part 1- The Prohibition Bureau

Clearly the person who shot this patrol car
 didn't see the sign . 

The War on Drugs is something most people grew up knowing of but never really understanding its meaning or consequences. It's history is generally less known by the public and most usually point to Nancy Regan's "Just Say No" campaign as the beginning of the government's anti-drug policy. The story began far early in 1914 with the passage of the Harrison Act. The law regulated and taxed the prescription, purchase, and distribution of narcotics, with an emphasis on opiates. In practice, this law would mostly affect doctors and their ability to prescribes patients opiate derived medicine for pain. This would be the first law in America to criminalize narcotic purchases. However, there was still no federal institution dedicated to persecuting narcotic use.

Prohibition agents in Jamaica inspecting confiscated goods. 

In 1918, America became a dry nation. Prohibition was the law of the land and the Prohibition Bureau was established to ensure Americans followed the law. As history would demonstrate, they did an excellent job. During its final years, a unit was added to the Prohibition Bureau that would be dedicated to narcotic law enforcement. However, its exsistance was threatened when the overturning of Prohibition made the Prohibition Bureau irrelevant. In this unit was a rising star in the federal government, a former State Department worker and Prohibition agent named Harry J. Anslinger.

Anslinger worked his way up through state and federal law enforcement agencies until he got to the Prohibition Bureau. There he transfered to Jamaica during the 1920's to stop Jamaican and American rum smuggler attempting to reach the United States. His tenure there would end and he would return to the United States where a lucky connection would bring him into the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, officially seperated from the Prohibition Bureau and founded in 1930. The Bureau's comissioner, the unfortunately named General Nutt, would be forced to step down with several months of his appointment due to some criminal activity his son had gotten involved in. Anslinger's connections and experience made him an ideal candidate was was placed as acting commissioner until he was promoted to full commissioner a month later.

With his experience in the Prohibition Bureau, Anslinger had seen the danger of having the public and the government turn against the mission of a bureau. The best way to protect any agency would be to expand its jurisdiction. To be continued!