"The resulting Marijuana Tax Act of 1937- yes, federal prohibition is really just seven decades old- had little to do with real science or medicine, and a lot to do with petty ethnic grudges, careerism in the Bureau of Narcotics, and disinformation and propaganda in the popular press, where yellow journalism still lived.
Hearings on this important matter took a grand total of two hours, very little of which had anything to do with the health effects of marijuana, the alleged reason behind the proposed prohibition. * [*I am indebted for much of this discussion to Charles Whitebread and Richard Bonnie, Marihuana Conviction: The Legal History of Drugs in the United States (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1974).
A grand total of two medical experts testified on the subject. One alleged expert was James Munch, a professor who claimed to have injected 300 dogs with the active ingredient in marijuana, and that two had died. When asked whether he had chosen dogs for the similarity of their reactions to those of human beings, he shrugged, “I wouldn’t know; I am not a dog psychologist.”
We can be fairly certain that this professor had not injected these dogs with the active ingredient in marijuana, since that ingredient was synthesized for the first time in a laboratory in Holland years later. But keep this gentleman in mind for a moment.
The other expert who testified was William Woodward, who represented the American Medical Association. He denounced the legislation as medically unsound and the product of ignorance and propaganda. “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug,” he said. To which one congressman replied, “Doctor, if you can’t anything good about what we are trying to do, why don’t you go home?”
We can be fairly certain that this professor had not injected these dogs with the active ingredient in marijuana, since that ingredient was synthesized for the first time in a laboratory in Holland years later. But keep this gentleman in mind for a moment.
The other expert who testified was William Woodward, who represented the American Medical Association. He denounced the legislation as medically unsound and the product of ignorance and propaganda. “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug,” he said. To which one congressman replied, “Doctor, if you can’t anything good about what we are trying to do, why don’t you go home?”
In Congress, the entire debate on national marijuana prohibition took about a minute and a half.
“Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?” asked a congressman from New York.
“I don’t know,” came the reply. “It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it’s a narcotic of some kind.”
Then a second question from the congressman: “Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?”
The AMA opposed the bill, as we’ve seen. But the Speaker replied, “Their Doctor Wentworth [sic] came down here. They support this bill 100 percent.”
And with that untruth ended the entire congressional debate on the prohibition policy.
[....]
You can guess what happened next. James Munch, the one person at the conference who agreed with Anslinger on marijuana, was named the Official Expert on marijuana at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. One person agrees with the government’s position and he is appointed the Official Expert. If that doesn’t sum up how the government operates, I don’t know what does.” -Pages 128 & 129 of The Revolution, A Manifesto
No comments:
Post a Comment