Marijuana

Paper Summary:

The author of this paper feels that the U.S. illegal-drugs policy towards marijuana is a dismal re-run of its attempt to prohibit the sale of alcohol. The paper explains that marijuana is mistakenly classified as a Schedule One narcotic, which includes heroin and cocaine. The author believes that by using the U.S. Code as a guideline, marijuana would be more appropriately characterized as a Schedule III narcotic.

From the Paper:

"Attempts to stop marijuana use in the United States were initiated in the 1930's. The first "drug czar" in the United States, Harry Anslinger, was appointed by Andrew Mellon, his wife's uncle. Mellon, the Treasury Secretary, was financing DuPont, the country's largest producer of textiles. Sales of hemp threatened that firm's efforts to build a market for synthetic fibers. Enlisting the help of news moguls such as William Randolph Hearst, a slur campaign was successful in passing a marijuana stamp act into law. Like the machine gun stamp law, it was said that one must purchase a stamp in order to buy or sell marijuana although no stamps were issued. This notion of pretending to tax the sale of marijuana was not abandoned until the Dangerous Substances Act of 1969. The current method of codification, known as narcotics scheduling, was introduced the following year."

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