The first state marijuana prohibition law was passed in California in 1913.
The law received no public notice in the press. It was passed as an obscure
technical amendment by the State Board of Pharmacy, which was then leading one
of the nation's earliest and most aggressive anti-narcotics campaigns. Prior to
the passage of the law, there was no indication that cannabis was a problem in
California. The
Origins of Cannabis Prohibition in California from California
NORML
Utah, 1914
Utah outlawed marijuana in 1914. A number of Mormons moved to Mexico when
polygamy was outlawed in Utah in 1910. When they returned to Utah, marijuana was
one of the things they brought back with them. Marijuana was outlawed with a
number of other common vices as part of Mormon religious prohibitions enacted
into law.
Other state laws 1915-37
Marijuana was outlawed in 30 states by 1930. There were two primary reasons
for the laws.
In the southwestern states, marijuana was outlawed because of racial
prejudice against the Mexicans who used it. As one Texas legislator said,
"All Mexicans are crazy and this stuff (marijuana) is what makes them
crazy."
In the other states, it was outlawed because of fears that heroin addiction
would lead to the use of marijuana - exactly the opposite of the modern
"gateway" myth.
The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937
Marijuana was outlawed at the national level in the US by the Marihuana Tax
Act of 1937. (Note that the US Government has traditionally used the spelling
"marihuana".) There were a number of reasons given for its passage in
the congressional testimony. The quotes included:
Two weeks ago a sex-mad degenerate, named Lee Fernandez, brutally attacked
a young Alamosa girl. He was convicted of assault with intent to rape and
sentenced to 10 to 14 years in the state penitentiary. Police officers here
know definitely that Fernandez was under the influence of marihuana. But
this case is one in hundreds of murders, rapes, petty crimes, insanity that
has occurred in southern Colorado in recent years.
I wish I could show you what a small marihuana cigaret can do to one of
our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents. That's why our problem is so
great; the greatest percentage of our population is composed of
Spanish-speaking persons, most of who are low mentally, because of social
and racial conditions.
Did you read of the Drain murder case in Pueblo recently? Marihuana is
believed to have been used by one of the bloody murderers.
. . .a boy and a girl . . . lost their senses so completely after smoking
marihuana that they eloped and were married.
It is commonly used as an aphrodisiac, and its continued use leads to
impotency.
Practically every article written on the effects of the marihuana weed
will tell of deeds committed without the knowledge of the culprit, while he
was under the influence of this drug. . . . "A man under the
influence of marihuana actually decapitated his best friend; and then,
coming out of the effects of the drug, was as horrified as anyone over what
he had done" (9). Then we have the case of a young boy in Florida. The
story runs as follows: "A young boy who had become addicted to smoking
marihuana cigarettes, in a fit of frenzy because, as he stated while still
under the marihuana influence, a number of people were trying to cut off his
arms and legs, seized an axe and killed his father, mother, two brothers and
a sister, wiping out the entire family except himself." (10)