Historical Research on Drug Policy

1930

= Recommended Reading

• New! The Reefer Madness Collection - Hundreds of examples of hilarious Reefer Madness from history.
• New! - Medical Marijuana Throughout History - Pictures of more than 100 medicines that once contained cannabis extracts
•   Federal Court Decisions - 1930-1939
• Repeal Would Not Give Two Million Idle Men Employment - Pamphlet against repealing alcohol Prohibition, circa 1930
•   The Wickersham Commission Report on Alcohol Prohibition - The Federal Government's own study of alcohol prohibition.
• Prohibition Repeal Posters 
  Prohibition Failed!
  Their Security Demands You Vote Repeal
  For Your Children's Sake
• Cannabis Fluid Extract - From the Parke, Davis & Company 1929-1930 physicians' catalog.
• Lay Drug Addiction to Bad Association, The New York Times January 6, 1930
• Lays Drug Addiction to Maladjustments, The New York Times April 12, 1930, Dr. Lambert Tells Physicians It Is Not Due to Disease but to Emotional Instability.
• Narcotics Bureau is Urged by Tuttle - NY Times, March 9, 1930
• Anslinger Heads Narcotic Bureau - NY Times, September 24, 1930
• Hemp Fiber Losing Ground, Despite Its Valuable Qualities, Source: 1931 USDA Yearbook of Agriculture 
• Prohibition, a poem by Franklin P. Adams, 1931
• Hobson Tells of New Menace. New York Times, March 5, 1931
• Calls Cures Futile for Narcotic Users, The New York Times July 22, 1931, Addicts Not Desperadoes But Trifling Lawbreakers, He Says in Report Urging Confinement for Life in Institution.
• Government Will Ask States To Ban Growing of Marijuana. New York Times, September 16, 1931
• Says Our Dry Law Aids Narcotic Evil, Berlin Toxicologist, in Book, Holds Prohibition Cannot Be Justified by Science. Finds Alcohol Beneficial,  Prof. Lewin Denies Its Normal Use Diminishes Intellectual Vigor or Clearness of Judgment. New York Times December 23, 1931
• The VCL: Architects of Repeal by Richard M. Evans, Attorney at Law. This is a good discussion of the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers which provided the legal framework for the repeal of alcohol Prohibition.
•   Repealing National Prohibition by David Kyvig (book) - The story of how anti-prohibition activists engineered the repeal of alcohol prohibition against the odds.
• The 21st Amendment to the US Constitution, which repealed alcohol prohibition.
• Homicide Rates 1910 - 1944 -- A chart of the homicide rates, before, during, and after alcohol Prohibition.
• Cornell Reports Cure of Morphine Addict, The New York Times January 16, 1932, Sodium Rhodanate Said to "Wash" Brain and Nervous System in Six Days.
• Cuba Growing Marihuana Police Find Narcotic Plots Hidden in Sugar-Cane Fields. Special Correspondence, The New York Times. December 4, 1932
• End of Illicit Drug Traffic Now in Sight - Literary Digest, July 29, 1933; page 19
• The story of Jake Licata   - Research on one of the most famous cases of Reefer Madness
• Dope Ring Specialized in Mexican Marijuana   - Special Correspondence The New York Times, December 3, 1933
• The British Pharmaceutical Codex, 1934 - relating to cannabis
• On the Narcotic Trail - Louis Ruppel, May, 1934

• This is an article by the Deputy Commissioner for the Bureau of Narcotics. It is interesting primarily because the statements about marijuana are clearly contradictory with the testimony that was presented at the Marihuana Tax Act hearings just three years later.

• Would 'Destroy' Woman Held a Narcotic Addict - NY Times, Sept. 9, 1934 -- In this article, a veterinarian recommends killing addicts, the same way one would kill a sick animal.
• Use of Marijuana Spreading in West -   Poisonous Weed Is Being Sold Quite Freely in Pool Halls and beer Gardens. Children Said to Buy It.  Narcotic Bureau Officials Say Law Gives No Authority to Stop Traffic. Special Correspondence to The New York Times, September 16, 1934
• West Indians Riot After Colon Killing -   200 Attack Home of Chief of Police, Believing He Shot One of Their Companions Special Cable to The New York Times. October 6, 1934
• Morganthau Favors Tapping of Wires In Treasury Agents' War on Narcotics - NY Times, October 16, 1934
• Narcotic Garden Found in Brooklyn - Thriving Crop of Loco Weed in Secret Lot Discovered After Raid Near Bridge.  -Two Men Held After Soldiers on Governors Island Reveal the Source of Their Supply,  New York Times, October 18, 1934
• Narcotic Bonfire Routs Officials -   Blast Sends Men to Cover as One Touches a Match to Gasoline-Soaked Weeds. - Camera Men Flustered -  Only Two Record Scene Staged for Their Benefit by Hickey, Geoghan and 2 Others. New York Times, October 19, 1934
• Brooklyn and Baghdad New York Times, October 20, 1934
• Orders for Narcotic Traced to CCC Camp - Dix Soldier Sought Marajuana From Two Men in Brooklyn, Arraignment Reveals. New York Times, October 30, 1934
• Rhode Island to End Weed as Drug Source - State Plans Drive to Eradicate Marijuana Plant After Wide Traffic in Hashish,. New York Times, January 20, 1935
• Seized for Selling Opiates to Troops - Two Accused of Peddling 700 Loco Weed Cigarettes Daily on Governors Island.  Officers Called Police When Soldiers Showed Lethargy Induced by Marihuana. New York Times, January 23, 1935
• Roosevelt Asks Narcotic War Aid - New York Times March 22, 1935
• Beware! - Marijuana Poster from the 1930s
• New Mexico Moves to Ban Marijuana - State Finds Many Children Are Addicted to Weed -- Narcotics Law Passed. Special Correspondence, The New York Times, April 14, 1935
• Illicit Trafficking in Narcotics Brisk, New York Times May 26, 1935, Geneva Committee Reports No Diminution in Trade in 1934 Despite Efforts.
• Narcotic Farm for 1,400 Opened - NY Times, May 26, 1935
• China Reports 263 Were Executed in 1934 To Enforce Her Drastic Anti-Opium Law - NY Times, June 2, 1935
• Marijuana Patch at Jail -   Narcotic Weeds Discovered on Welfare Island -- Burned at Once. New York Times, July 17, 1935
• Quotas Letter to the editor, New York Times September 15, 1935
• Marihuana Menaces Youth -- Scientific American, March, 1936
• Rising Tide of Narcotics Over World - Smugglers Baffle Officials After Curb Placed by Geneva - The Literary Digest - May,16, 1936, page 32
• Police Study Marijuana To Kill Growing Crops New York Times, July 24, 1936
• Seize Marihuana Crops - Police Uproot Narcotic Plants in Four Brooklyn Lots. New York Times. July 28, 1936
• Police Burn Ten Tons of Marijuana   - $3,000,000 Bonfire Destroys Marijuana Police Burn Narcotic Weed and Fifty Bagatelle Machines in Brooklyn Vacant Lot. New York Times, August 14, 1936
• Opens Drive to End Narcotic Running, New York Times August 14, 1936:  Morgenthau Shifts 570 men to Customs Agency, Setting up Four New Districts. Smuggling is Extensive; Principal Problem on Pacific Coast-- Attack on 'Rum Row' Is to Be Duplicated;
• 5 Acres of Marijuana Uprooted by Police; Barren Island Goats Were Thriving on It -  New York Times, August 19, 1936
• Marihuana Farm Found in Maryland -   Federal Raiders Say Leaves on Its Two Acres Would Retail at $1,000,000. - Arrest of Two Mexicans Leads to Discovery Among Tomatoes, Corn and Pumpkins.  New York Times, October 4. 1936
• Police Ruse Traps 10 in Marijuana Raid -  Password to Apartment Learned by Detectives in Hiding -- They Find Narcotic Cigarettes. New York Times, October 28, 1936
• Campaign Battles Marihuana Weed - Mrs. William Dick Sporborg to Seek Aid of State Head of Schools in Drive. Program of Crime Prevention Adopts Anti-Narcotic Work as Pivotal Point. New York Times January 3, 1937
• World Group to Push Fight On Marijuana - Illicit Drug to be Chief Target of Week's Narcotic Fight Opening Today New York Times, February 21, 1937
• Two Colleges Deny Marijuana Invasion -   Cornell Official Calls McNaboe Statement 'Pipe Dream' -- West Point Hunt Futile New York Times, March 22, 1937
• War on Marihuana Urged On Parents -   Federal Expert Calls on P.T.A. Congress to Act Against Newest Narcotic 2,000 Attend Sessions -  Dr. Studebaker at Richmond Meeting Says Child Should Be Taught to Think Special to The New York Times - May 4, 1937
• The Marihuana Tax Act and Related Papers

• The full text of the congressional hearings for the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, as well as the full text of the conferences held before and after the passage of the law, and closely related materials.

• Marijuana is outlawed - Chapter 56 of the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs
• A Brief History of Federal Firearms Enforcement, Frederick S. Calhoun. Ph.D.. Historian, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

• This is included because the early legal reasoning for the narcotics laws was similar to that used for firearms laws. In the Congressional hearings for the Marihuana Tax Act, the assertion is made that the Marihuana Tax Act was constitutional because its provisions were similar to the National Firearms Act of 1933, which required Federal licensing for automatic weapons.

• New Billion-Dollar Crop - Hemp- Popular Mechanics, February, 1938
• Marijuana - Assassin of Youth The Reader’s Digest ­ February 1938
• Opium Experts Split Over Care of Addicts - NY Times June 6, 1939
• Tax Convictions Set High Record - The New York Times July 16, 1939 - Treasury Lists Racketeers and Politicians Punished in Fiscal 1939 for Evasion - Narcotic arrests Up to 754 in This Area-- 700 Illicit Stills Spotted by Airplanes
• 'Frozen Sleep' Aids Narcotic Addicts, The New York Times November 4, 1939
•  Winona (MN) Republican Herald, Dec 31, 1937 Two Hemp Processing Companies Chempco has 40 on Payroll; 12 At Cannabis, Inc. Good Future Development Bringing Increase in Jobs Seen. Profitable Cash Crop for Winona Area Farmers to Result. Winona Republican Herald, Dec 31, 1937
• Graphic Image of The New Billion Dollar Crop article (about 500K)
• Marihuana - Weed With Roots In Hell (Poster)
• Assassin of Youth (Marijuana poster)