International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 135

International Journal on Criminology
It might also be noted that in newsreels of the time, cannabis is called “Mexican
marijuana” or “Mexican opium.” The plant was therefore given a nationality:
that of a poorer, defeated neighboring country that had had half of its territory
stolen from it. This was a still recent historical act that the United States was responsible
for, and one that might give rise to uncomfortable demands, and so the
U.S. government did its utmost to make sure that it was totally forgotten about
and refuted. This campaign was a resounding success; all the states committed to
Anslinger’s political initiative. 32
Under the effect of this massive propaganda exercise, panicked voters “demanded”
firm action from the federal government; society had become ready to
let its laws harden and its individual freedoms be limited. These were the circumstances
under which the Marijuana Tax Act was signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
on June 14, 1937: without any real scientific justification, without public debate,
and without political objections. This act prohibited cannabis possession—unless a
new tax specifically for cannabis possession was paid to the Treasury Department.
But in practice, this tax was impossible to pay, because no level of government
handled collection of it. The result was that those in possession of any quantity of
cannabis were breaking the law: from one day to the next, a new class of criminals
was born. 33 From then on, the Treasury Department had full control over cannabis
(which at the time came almost exclusively from Mexico, passing freely across the
border as an ordinary agricultural product) and over its users.
In August 1937, Samuel R. Caldwell, a 58-year-old unemployed man, became
the first person to be convicted under the Marijuana Tax Act. According to
the most widespread account, in his apartment, the police found 1.5 kg of cannabis
that he was going to sell. Unable to prove that the new tax on the possession
of cannabis had been paid to the Treasury Department, he was sentenced to four
years of hard labor. 34 It is not known whether Caldwell asked to pay the tax. This
incident took place in Denver, Colorado, the state that became world famous in
2014 for taxing cannabis, thereby legalizing recreational use of it, something that
immediately and significantly improved its finances. 35
On September 13, 1938, Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York, called
on “some impartial body such as The New York Academy of Medicine [to] make
a survey of existing knowledge on this subject and carry out any observations
required to determine the pertinent facts regarding this form of drug addiction
and the necessity for its control.” 36 This would be the first time that experiments
32 Grass, directed by Ron Mann, Canada, 1999, documentary film.
33 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/opinion/high-time-federal-marijuana-ban-is-rooted-inmyth.html.
34 https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/marijuana-prohibition-ends_n_4549403?guccounter=1.
35 https://www.forbes.com/sites/monazhang/2018/03/13/legal-marijuana-is-a-boon-to-theeconomy-finds-study/#4f14b8a1ee9d.
36 https://www.daggacouple.co.za/wp-content/uploads/1944/04/La-Guardia-report-1944.pdf.
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