Harry J. Anslinger

Harry Jacob Anslinger (born May 20, 1892 in Altoona , Pennsylvania , † November 14, 1975 in Hollidaysburg , Pennsylvania) was an American diplomat of German - Swiss origin. From 1930 he was chairman of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) and one of the driving proponents of cannabis - Prohibition . He also rejected the use of opium and hemp for medicinal purposes and, as a member of the United Nations Drugs Commission , campaigned for a worldwide ban on cannabis cultivation in the 1960s.

Role in drug policy

Harry J. Anslinger was a staunch opponent of drugs , especially heroin and cannabis. According to the company, this is due to a decisive encounter with a morphine addict and a pharmacist in 1904.

Before he became head of the then relatively insignificant Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930 , which was founded by his uncle-in-law Andrew W. Mellon , he worked as a railway detective until 1917. He then worked for the military secret service in Belgium for a year . He worked at the Embassy in The Hague until 1920 , after which he served as Vice Consul in Hamburg until 1923 . From 1924 to 1928 he worked as Vice Consul in the Bahamas .

Anslinger tried from the start of his tenure to maneuver drugs such as cannabis and opium into the area of ​​responsibility of his authority. However, initial attempts failed due to a lack of support from the American Medical Association . Anslinger now began to conduct publicity campaigns against the drugs he had rejected. However, he not only argued here with health aspects, but also incorporated prejudices. Blacks, Mexicans and other minorities, to whom the majority of the consumption was ascribed, were accused of rape white women while intoxicated. This was followed by a veritable deluge of newspaper articles (especially the Hearst press ) and public statements throughout the 1930s.

In 1936 the well-known anti-drug film Reefer Madness was made , which was released in cinemas in 1937 accompanied by appropriate posters. In it, high school students go mad after using cannabis, cause traffic accidents or commit suicide. In 1937, Anslinger summarized his collective views on marijuana in an article for American Magazine (title: Marihuana - Assassin of Youth ). In August of the same year, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to come into effect two months later in October.

Last years

In November 1942 Anslinger finally enforced the ban on pharmaceutical cannabis products. Synthetic THC was not affected by the ban. Paradoxically, Anslinger was in the same year as a member of a secret committee on behalf of the OSS in search of a truth drug and in experiments with various drugs on partly unsuspecting subjects. The public only found out about this 40 years later, seven years after Anslinger's death.

When he was appointed to the UN Drugs Commission in 1947, the worldwide ban on cannabis cultivation was enforced, which was finally enshrined in the 1961 standard agreement on narcotics . This international treaty is still valid and prohibits various drugs. In 1970 Anslinger withdrew from the public.

literature

• Johann Hari : Drugs - The Story of a Long War . S. Fischer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-10-002442-8
• The rediscovery of the useful plant hemp . Nachtschatten-Verlag, Solothurn 2008, ISBN 978-3-03788-181-1

Web links

• Harry J. Anslinger . In: Erowid . (English)
• Pennsylvania State University Guide to the HJ Anslinger Papers, 1835-1970 (PDF file; 38 kB)
• The Online Reefer Madness Propaganda Teaching Museum
• Special exhibition in the Hemp Museum : The Hemp Conspiracy Conspiracies , associated source collection

Footnotes

1. ↑ Reefer Madness Teaching Museum: Harry Anslinger's Personal Gore Files # 1 of 2, Newspaper Reports On The Reefer Madness Lies That He Used ( Memento from November 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Reefer Madness Teaching Museum: Gore Files # 2 ( Memento from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )