The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937: The Documented Record

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937: The Documented Record

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Harry J. Anslinger's Position Before 1933

Harry J. Anslinger was appointed the first Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. (McWilliams, *The Protectors*, University of Delaware Press, 1990)

Prior to the repeal of Prohibition, Anslinger stated on the record that cannabis did not harm people and that "there is no more absurd fallacy" than the idea that it made people violent. (CBS News | Atlas Obscura)

In a report to the Treasury Department dated November 25, 1932, Anslinger wrote that newspaper coverage of cannabis "tends to magnify the extent of the evil and lends color to an inference that there is an alarming spread of the improper use of the drug, whereas the actual increase in such use may not have been inordinately large." (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026, p.1010)

In a confidential report to Assistant Treasury Secretary Stephen Gibbons in January 1936, Anslinger stated that "under the taxing power and regulation on interstate commerce it would be almost hopeless to expect any kind of adequate control over a wild-growing plant through the same tax and revenue system used to police manufactured drugs like heroin and morphine." (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026, p.1010)

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The Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Political Context

Alcohol Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933, when Acting Secretary of State William Phillips certified that the Twenty-First Amendment had been adopted by the requisite number of state conventions. (Congress.gov - US Constitution Annotated, citing *Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution*, 48 Stat. 1749 (1933))

Senior police officials from states where marijuana use was perceived to be a problem lobbied their state governors to advocate for federal marijuana prohibition. Anslinger stated in a 1970 interview that "the pressure for a federal anti-marihuana law was political." (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026, p.1011)

Treasury Department officials modeled the Marihuana Tax Act on the National Firearms Act of 1934, which used prohibitive taxes to reduce the illicit trade in machine guns. The mechanism was chosen to minimize the risk of constitutional challenge. (Bonnie & Whitebread, *The Marihuana Conviction*, 1974)

Hall and Yeates, drawing on nearly 1,000 archival documents from the US National Archives and Records Administration obtained through Freedom of Information requests, found that the Federal Bureau of Narcotics budget did not increase after the MTA passed. The number of FBN agents increased from 200 in 1930 to just under 400 in 1962, the year Anslinger retired. The FBN's largest budget increase came in the 1950s in response to increased opiate use, not cannabis enforcement. (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026, p.1011)

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The Scientists

Anslinger contacted 30 leading scientists and asked whether cannabis was dangerous and whether it should be banned. Twenty-nine responded that it was not dangerous. Anslinger presented the position of the one scientist who agreed with him to Congress and to the press. (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026, p.1011)

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Cannabis in the United States Pharmacopeia: 1850-1942

Cannabis was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia beginning in 1851 under the name Extractum Cannabis - Extract of Hemp - and remained listed until 1942. (NIH/PMC | Cannabis Science and Technology)

During this period, major pharmaceutical manufacturers including Parke-Davis, Eli Lilly, Squibb, and Burroughs Wellcome - a predecessor to GlaxoSmithKline - manufactured cannabis-based medicines sold through pharmacies across the country. The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act required manufacturers to label products if they contained cannabis indica, confirming its status as a mainstream pharmaceutical ingredient. (Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection)

The US Food and Drug Administration's own public documentation lists cannabis as a treatment recognized in the USP for conditions including neuralgia, tetanus, typhus, cholera, rabies, dysentery, alcoholism, opiate addiction, anthrax, leprosy, incontinence, gout, convulsive disorders, tonsillitis, insanity, excessive menstrual bleeding, and uterine bleeding, among others. (FDA)

A 1900 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 35, page 457, described cannabis as "one of the most valuable and satisfactory drugs in the neuroses accompanying pregnancy" and noted dysmenorrhea as "one of the principal indications for its use." (Antique Cannabis Book - Chapter 11, citing JAMA 1900 V.35 p.457)

The Antique Cannabis Book, a documented catalogue of pre-1937 pharmaceutical products, records more than 600 named cannabis medicines from US manufacturers. The same source estimates that cannabis constituted between 3 and 6 percent of all medicines sold in America during this period. (Antique Cannabis Book | Antique Cannabis Book - Chapter 15)

Cannabis was removed from the United States Pharmacopeia in 1942. This removal was not based on new evidence demonstrating the drug was ineffective or dangerous, but on regulatory and legal consequences of the Marihuana Tax Act. (NIH/PMC | Cannabis Science and Technology)

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The Congressional Hearings: House of Representatives, April-May 1937

The Marihuana Tax Act was introduced to Congress on April 1, 1937. The House Committee on Ways and Means held hearings on April 27, 28, 29, 30 and May 4, 1937. (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026)

The American Medical Association opposed the bill. Its legislative counsel Dr. William C. Woodward appeared at the House hearing and objected to the bill's provisions restricting medical use of cannabis. He stated there was no evidence that the medicinal use of cannabis had caused or was causing addiction, and that "the obvious purpose and effect of this bill is to impose so many restrictions on their medicinal use as to prevent such use altogether." (Senate Hearing Transcript, July 12, 1937, pp.33-34)

Dr. Woodward was subjected to hostile questioning by the committee. When the bill came before the full House floor, Congressman Fred Vinson stated that the American Medical Association supported the bill. Dr. Woodward had in fact strenuously dissented. (Bonnie & Whitebread, *The Marihuana Conviction*, 1974)

On the House floor, four representatives asked questions about the bill's provisions. In response, a committee member recounted Anslinger's crime stories as established fact. The bill passed without a roll call vote. (Bonnie & Whitebread, *The Marihuana Conviction*, 1974)

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The Senate Subcommittee Hearing: July 12, 1937

The Senate Finance Committee Subcommittee on H.R. 6906 convened on Monday, July 12, 1937. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m. in the Senate Finance Committee room, Senate Office Building, Senator Prentiss M. Brown presiding. Present were Senators Brown, Herring, and Davis. (Senate Hearing Transcript, p.5)

The witnesses who testified were Clinton M. Hester, Assistant General Counsel of the Treasury Department, and H.J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics, Bureau of Narcotics of the Treasury Department. (Senate Hearing Transcript, p.5)

The private interests who appeared were representatives of small hemp fiber companies: Matt Rens representing Rens Hemp Co. of Brandon, Wisconsin; M.G. Moksnes representing the Amhempco Corporation of Danville, Illinois; Royal C. Johnson representing Chempsco Inc. of Winona, Minnesota and Hemp Chemical Corporation of Mankato, Minnesota; and O.C. Olman representing Juneau Fibre Co. of Juneau, Wisconsin. These representatives expressed concern about the registration fee and tax burden on small hemp fiber producers. (Senate Hearing Transcript, pp.21-32)

The American Medical Association submitted a letter from Dr. William C. Woodward dated July 10, 1937, protesting the bill's restrictions on the medicinal use of cannabis. The letter was read into the record. (Senate Hearing Transcript, pp.33-34)

The subcommittee adjourned at 11:35 a.m. (Senate Hearing Transcript, final page)

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The Evidence Presented to the Senate Subcommittee

The following testimony and evidence were submitted to the Senate subcommittee as the basis for federal cannabis prohibition. The text below is taken directly from the hearing transcript. All page references are to the printed Government Printing Office transcript, July 12, 1937. (Primary source - US Senate Finance Committee)

Anslinger read into the record a letter from an attorney in Houston, Texas, dated July 7, 1937, concerning a client "20 years of age" who "murdered in a brutal way a man who had befriended him" and who "had been smoking marihuana for several years." (Transcript p.11)

Anslinger read into the record a letter from the Interstate Commission on Crime dated March 18, 1937, from a prosecutor describing "a murder case for several days, of a particularly brutal character in which one colored young man killed another, literally smashing his face and head to a pulp." The letter stated: "One of the defenses was that the defendant's intellect was so prostrated from his smoking marihuana cigarettes that he did not know what he was doing." (Transcript p.11)

Anslinger submitted a photograph of the murder victim to the subcommittee. Senator Brown stated: "That is terrible." (Transcript p.11)

Anslinger testified: "In Florida some years ago we had the case of a 20-year-old boy who killed his brothers, a sister, and his parents while under the influence of marihuana." (Transcript p.12)

Anslinger testified: "Here is a case in Baltimore, where a young man committed rape while under the influence of marihuana. He was hanged for it." (Transcript p.12)

Anslinger testified that in some cases "one cigarette might develop a homicidal mania, probably to kill his brother." (Transcript p.14)

Anslinger testified that "all the experts agree that the continued use leads to insanity." (Transcript p.14)

Treasury Department lawyer Clinton Hester testified that under the influence of cannabis "the will is destroyed and all power of directing and controlling thought is lost." He testified that cannabis was "also being placed in the hands of high-school children in the form of marihuana cigarettes by unscrupulous peddlers. Its continued use results many times in impotency and insanity." (Transcript p.6)

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What Was Not Presented to the Senate Subcommittee

• No testimony from the American Medical Association was heard in person. Dr. Woodward's letter of opposition was read into the record. (Transcript p.33)
• No pharmacologists or physicians testified in support of the bill. (Transcript, full contents pp.1-34)
• No representatives of Parke-Davis, Eli Lilly, Squibb, or any pharmaceutical manufacturer that produced cannabis medicines appeared. (Transcript, full contents pp.1-34)
• No epidemiological evidence was presented. (Transcript, full contents pp.1-34)
• The 30 scientists Anslinger had consulted, 29 of whom had stated cannabis was not dangerous, were not referenced in the hearing. (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026, p.1011)
• The hearing record in its entirety covers 38 pages of printed testimony. (Senate Hearing Transcript)

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The Gore Files

Anslinger maintained what he called the "Gore Files" - a collection of newspaper clippings, letters from local officials, and anecdotal reports that he presented to Congress and the press as the evidentiary basis for the dangers of cannabis.

Researchers subsequently established that 198 of the 200 violent crime cases in the Gore Files could not be attributed to cannabis. The two remaining cases could not be disproved because no records existed concerning the crimes. (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026)

The Victor Licata case - the most prominent case Anslinger cited publicly, in which a young man killed his family - was subsequently found to involve severe documented mental illness with no verified evidence of cannabis use. (Hall & Yeates, *Addiction*, 2026)

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The Controlled Substances Act: 1970

Cannabis was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, defined as having no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. (DEA Drug Scheduling)

Cannabis remains Schedule I at the federal level as of the date of this publication. (DEA Drug Scheduling)

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Comparative Classification of Other Substances

Alcohol is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Group 1 carcinogen - the highest category of confirmed carcinogenicity, defined as substances for which there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans. (IARC - Alcohol and Cancer)

Tobacco causes approximately 480,000 deaths per year in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC - Cigarette Smoking)

There is no documented case of a fatal cannabis overdose in the recorded medical history of the substance. (Russo EB. History of Cannabis and Its Preparations in Saga, Science, and Sobriquet. *Chemistry & Biodiversity*. 2007;4(8):1614-1648.)

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Primary Sources Referenced in This Article

• US Senate Finance Committee Subcommittee on H.R. 6906 - Taxation of Marihuana, July 12, 1937
• Hall W, Yeates S. Correcting popular misconceptions about the origins of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. *Addiction*. 2026;121(4):1008-1018.
• Russo EB. History of Cannabis and Its Preparations in Saga, Science, and Sobriquet. *Chemistry & Biodiversity*. 2007;4(8):1614-1648.
• Bonnie RJ, Whitebread C. The Marihuana Conviction. University of Virginia Press; 1974.
• NIH/PMC - Medicinal Cannabis: History, Pharmacology, And Implications for the Acute Care Setting
• FDA public comment document on cannabis and the USP
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection
• Congress.gov - Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment, citing 48 Stat. 1749 (1933)
• Antique Cannabis Book - Pre-1937 Medical Cannabis Documentation
• DEA Drug Scheduling
• IARC - Alcohol and Cancer
• CDC - Cigarette Smoking

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*This post was produced using AI-assisted research and curated by HerbGreen. All sources are independently verifiable. Human reviewed before publication.*