GetWiki

{{Short description|1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1892–1975)}}

factoids

| birth_place = Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S.mf=y11189220}}| death_place = Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S.| constituency = Democratic Party (United States)>Democratic| spouse = Martha Kind Denniston| profession = | religion = | signature = Signature de Harry J. Anslinger.jpg}}Harry Jacob Anslinger (May 20, 1892 – November 14, 1975) was an American government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the presidencies of Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. He was a supporter of Prohibition, and of the criminalization of all drugs, and spearheaded anti-drug policy campaigns.{{sfn|McWilliams|1990|loc=8. Coda, 1962-1965|p=187}}Anslinger has been characterized as an early proponent of the war on drugs, as he zealously advocated for and pursued harsh drug penalties, in particular regarding cannabis.BOOK, 30 September 2016, University of Chicago Press, Google Books, Alexandra, Chasin, Assassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger’s War on Drugs, Alexandra Chasin, 9780226276977, 10.7208/chicago/9780226277028.001.0001, 2016011027, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 10 September 2021,books.google.com/books?id=imUpDQAAQBAJ, As a propagandist for the war on drugs, he focused on demonizing racial and immigrant groups. He targeted jazz musicians, including singer Billie Holiday.Anslinger held office as commissioner for an unprecedented 32 years, until 1962. He then held office for two years as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Narcotics Commission. The responsibilities once held by Anslinger are now largely under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy and the agency he ran was a predecessor of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Early life

Anslinger was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1892. His father, of Swiss German origin, was Robert J. Anslinger, a barber by trade, who was born in Bern, Switzerland. His mother, Rosa Christiana Fladt, was born in the Grand Duchy of Baden (today a part of Germany).JOURNAL, John C., McWilliams, 20092328, 2006267556, Historical Society of Pennsylvania (University of Pennsylvania Press), Philadelphia,journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/download/44423/44144, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 0031-4587, CXIII, 2, 1 April 1989, Unsung Partner Against Crime: Harry J. Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcoticsy 1930-1962, 207–236, Pennsylvania State University, 10 September 2021, Daniel P., Barr, Susan, Branson, Peter, Conn, WEB, A Medium Corporation, Laura, Smith, How a racist hate-monger masterminded America’s War on Drugs, 27 February 2018, 10 September 2021,www.timeline.com/harry-anslinger-racist-war-on-drugs-prison-industrial-complex-fb5cbc281189, Timeline, Jim, Giles, Anslinger’s zeal for law and order manifested early, The family emigrated to the United States in 1881. Robert Anslinger worked in New York for two years, then moved to Altoona, a town founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1892, the year Harry was born, Robert Anslinger went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad, seeking more stable employment.Harry Anslinger followed his father in going to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad. After completing the eighth grade, he began to work with his father at the railroad, while starting with his freshman year. Aged 14, he continued to attend morning sessions in the local high school, working afternoons and evenings for the railroad. Failing to receive a high school diploma, in 1909, Harry enrolled at Altoona Business College at the age of 17, and for the next two years received additional tutoring. In 1912, he was granted a furlough permitting him to enroll at Pennsylvania State College, where he studied in a two-year associate degree program in business and engineering, while working during weekends and vacation periods.

Rise to prominence

Anslinger gained notoriety early in his career. At the age of 23 (in 1915), while working as an investigator for the Pennsylvania Railroad,BOOK, Rowe, Thomas C., Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs: Money Down a Rat Hole, 2006, Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY, 978-0-7890-2808-2,books.google.com/books?id=v1tz6nP6fdwC&q=Harry%20J.%20Anslinger&pg=PA50, 50, he performed a detailed investigation that found the $50,000 claim of a widower in a railroad accident to be fraudulent. He saved the company the payout and was promoted to captain of railroad police.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}From 1917 to 1928, Anslinger worked for various military and police organizations on stopping international drug trafficking. His duties took him all over the world, from Germany to Venezuela to Japan. He is widely credited with shaping not only America’s domestic and international drug policies but influencing drug policies of other nations, particularly those that had not debated the issues internally.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}By 1929, Anslinger returned from his international tour to work as an assistant commissioner in the United States’ Treasury Department’s Bureau of Prohibition. At that time, corruption and scandal gripped prohibition and narcotics agencies.{{sfn|Albarelli|2009|pp=216-222, 237-241, 279, 379-381, 435}}BOOK, Valentine, Douglas, 1949-,www.worldcat.org/oclc/316057965, The strength of the pack : the personalities, politics and espionage intrigues that shaped the DEA, 2009, Trine Day, 978-0-9799886-5-3, 1st, Walterville, OR, 16–18, 346–350, 316057965, The ensuing shake-ups and re-organizations set the stage for Anslinger, perceived as an honest and incorruptible figure, to advance not only in rank but in political stature.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}In 1930, at age 38, Anslinger was appointed the founding commissioner of the Treasury’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics.BOOK, Filan, Kenaz, The Power of the Poppy: Harnessing Nature’s Most Dangerous Plant Ally, 23 February 2011, Park Street Press, Rochester, Vt., 978-1-59477-399-0,books.google.com/books?id=vDL9JQr_cCMC&q=Harry%20J.%20Anslinger&pg=PA64, 64, The illegal trade in alcohol (then still under Prohibition) and illicit drugs was targeted by the Treasury, not primarily as social evils that fell under other government purview, but as losses of untaxed revenue. Appointed by department Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, who was his wife’s uncle, Anslinger was given a budget of $100,000 and wide scope.BOOK, 1st, CHAPTER 28. Guardians of the law, Opium: Reality’s Dark Dream, Google Books,books.google.com/books?id=HTkTjeoz55MC, 248–252, Thomas, Dormandy, 9780300175325, Yale University Press,books.google.com/books?id=HTkTjeoz55MC&pg=248, 15 May 2012, 11 September 2021, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America, j.ctt1np7pj,

Campaign against cannabis (1930–1937)

File:Closer U.S.-Canada Marihuana (Marijuana) control discussed. Washington, D.C., March 24. Closer cooperation in the control of the use of marihuana weed is expected to be the outcome of a LCCN2016873283.jpg|thumb|Anslinger (center) discussing cannabis control with Canadian narcotics chief Charles Henry Ludovic Sharman and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Stephen B. Gibbons (1938)]]Restrictions on cannabis (cannabis sativa, often called “Indian Hemp” in documents before the 1940s) as a drug started in local laws in New York in 1860.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} That was followed by local laws in many other states, and by state laws in the 1910s and 1920s.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}NEWS, Senate., The New York Times, February 15, 1860, New York City,www.nytimes.com/1860/02/16/news/senate-88150825.html, The federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 regulated the labeling of patent medicines that contained “cannabis indica”. In 1925, in the International Opium Convention, the United States supported regulation of “Indian hemp” in its use as a drug.WEB,www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1920/willoughby.htm, W.W., Willoughby, Opium as an International Problem, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1925, February 26, 2012, Recommendations from the International Opium Convention inspired the work with the Uniform State Narcotic Act between 1925 and 1932.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}Anslinger had not been active in that process until approximately 1930.WEB,www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/anslng1.htm, The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937: Statement of Harry J. Anslinger, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, February 26, 2012, WEB,www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t10a.htm, The Marihuana Tax Act, Additional Statement Of H. J. Anslinger, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, February 26, 2012, Anslinger collected stories of cannabis causing crime and violence, and ignored evidence that allowed for other interpretations. Doctor Walter Bromberg pointed out that substance abuse and crime are heavily confounded and that none of a group of 2,216 criminal convictions he had examined was clearly connected to cannabis’s influence.pg44-46 of Sloman, Reefer Madness He also ignored a discussion forwarded to him by the American Medical Association, in which 29 of 30 pharmacists and drug industry representatives objected to his proposals to ban cannabis. One such statement claimed that the proposal was “Absolute rot. It is not necessary. I have never known of its misuse.”. However, only the single dissenter (who noted he had once encountered a doctor who had been addicted to cannabis) was preserved in Bureau files.pg38-41 of Sloman, Reefer MadnessAs head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Anslinger sought, and ultimately received, an increase of reports about smoking of cannabis in 1936 that continued to spread at an accelerated pace in 1937. Before that, the smoking of cannabis had been relatively slight and confined to the Southwest, particularly along the Mexican border.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Promotion of cannabis as public harm

The Bureau first prepared a legislative plan to seek a new law from Congress that would place cannabis and its distribution directly under federal control. Second, Anslinger ran a campaign against cannabis on radio and at major forums.BOOK,www.hempology.org/ALL%20HISTORY%20ARTICLES.HTML/1961%3B%20ANSLINGER%20MURDERERS.html, Harry J., Anslinger, Will, Oursler, The Murderers, the story of the narcotic gangs, 541–554, 1961, February 26, 2012, BOOK, Pharmaceutical Products Press (The Harworth Press, Inc.), Binghamton, New York (state), New York, United States of America, 10 September 2021, Chapter 3. Under the Influence: Harry Anslinger’s Role in Shaping America’s Drug Policy [3.1 The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 (MTA)], 52706570, Rebecca, Carroll, Jonathon, Erlen, Joseph F., Spillane, 3 June 2004, Google Books,books.google.com/books?id=Pwi2eoxVmvwC, Federal Drug Control: The Evolution of Policy and Practice, 9780789018922,books.google.com/books?id=Pwi2eoxVmvwC&pg=PA70, 1st, His view was clear, ideological and judgmental:{{blockquote|By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms. ... Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him. ...WEB,proxy.baremetal.com/www.drugsense.org/ds/reefermadnessrevisited_sample.pdf, Reefer Madness: Revisited, Doug Snead, February 12, 2016, dead,proxy.baremetal.com/www.drugsense.org/ds/reefermadnessrevisited_sample.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20160305055934proxy.baremetal.com/www.drugsense.org/ds/reefermadnessrevisited_sample.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20160305055934proxy.baremetal.com/www.drugsense.org/ds/reefermadnessrevisited_sample.pdf, March 5, 2016, }}By using the mass media as his forum, and receiving much support from yellow journalism publisher William Randolph Hearst, Anslinger propelled the anti-cannabis sentiment from state level to a national movement. He used what he called his “Gore Files” - a collection of quotes from police reports - to graphically depict offenses caused by drug users. They were written in the terse and concise language of a police report. His most infamous story in The American Magazine concerned Victor Licata, who killed his family:{{blockquote|An entire family was murdered by a youthful addict in Florida. When officers arrived at the home, they found the youth staggering about in a human slaughterhouse. With an axe he had killed his father, mother, two brothers, and a sister. He seemed to be in a daze ... He had no recollection of having committed the multiple crimes. The officers knew him ordinarily as a sane, rather quiet young man; now he was pitifully crazed. They sought the reason. The boy said that he had been in the habit of smoking something which youthful friends called “muggles,” a childish name for marijuana.WEB,www.unclemikesresearch.com/victor-licata/, Victor Licata, Uncle Mike’s Library, February 26, 2012,www.unclemikesresearch.com/victor-licata/," title="web.archive.org/web/20090906005331www.unclemikesresearch.com/victor-licata/,">web.archive.org/web/20090906005331www.unclemikesresearch.com/victor-licata/, September 6, 2009, dead, }}This story was referenced in the 1937 anti-weed film Reefer Madness. It is one of 200 violent crimes which were documented in Anslinger’s “Gore Files” series. It has since been discovered that Licata murdered his family due to severe mental illness, which had been diagnosed early in his youth, and not because of cannabis use.WEB, Thursday Review, LLC./Five C Media, Thursday Review, Jacksonville, Florida, United States of America, Earl H., Perkins, Michael, Bush, Krista, Tani, Victor Licata’s Strange Legacy,www.thursdayreview.com/VictorLicataPot.html, Earl H., Perkins, 14 February 2016,www.thursdayreview.com/VictorLicataPot.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20160214015036www.thursdayreview.com/VictorLicataPot.html,">web.archive.org/web/20160214015036www.thursdayreview.com/VictorLicataPot.html, 10 September 2021, Researchers have now proved that Anslinger wrongly attributed 198 of the “Gore Files” stories to cannabis usage, and the remaining “two cases could not be disproved because no records existed concerning the crimes.” During the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act hearings, Anslinger rehashed the 1933 Licata killings while giving testimony to Congress.WEB,www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1930/licata/index.html, Research for Victor Licata, www.druglibrary.org, February 12, 2016,

Contemporary racial prejudice

In the 1930s, Anslinger’s anti-cannabis articles often contained racist themes, to the point that contemporary conservative politicians at one point called for Anslinger to resign based solely on his open racist remarks:{{blockquote|Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with (white) female students, smoking [marijuana] and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result: pregnancy.BOOK, Internet Archive, Barbara M., Bachman, Mike, Gray, 1st, Drug Crazy: How we got into this mess and how we can get out, Random House, Random House, Inc., New York City, New York (state), New York, United States of America, 260105794, 97035130,www.archive.org/details/drugcrazyhowwego00gray, 9780679435334, 1998, BOOK, Mayfield Publishing Company, Palo Alto, California, United States of America, Franklin C., Graham, Claire Hunt, Comiskey, Pat, Herbst, Jan, deProsse, Gary, Head, Cathy, Willkie, James A., Inciardi, The War on Drugs: Heroin, Cocaine, Crime, and Public Policy, 86061126, Internet Archive,www.archive.org/details/warondrugsheroin0000inci, 1986, 1st, Cynthia, Bassett, 0-87484-743-5, }}{{blockquote|Two Negroes took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days under the influence of hemp. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis.}}Though these stories were often true (whatever the role of cannabis in them), Anslinger’s basic attitude was shown in remarks not related to any particular story, such as:{{blockquote|Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.BOOK, 4. Profiles Harry J. Anslinger (1892-1975),books.google.com/books?id=77P5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA183, Contemporary world issues, Santa Barbara, California, California, United States of America, 2016042067, David E., Newton, 978-1-4408-5051-6, 2nd, ABC-CLIO, 16 January 2017, Google Books,books.google.com/books?id=77P5DQAAQBAJ, Marijuana: A Reference Handbook, 2013, 965153723, 183, }}According to Johann Hari, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics under Anslinger targeted Billie Holiday in response to her 1939 song “Strange Fruit,” which criticized racist lynchings. Hari wrote that Anslinger assigned an agent to track her after she refused to stop speaking out about racism.EPISODE, Rund, Abdelfatah, Ramtin, Arablouei, Throughline, NPR, Strange Fruit, National Public Radio, National Public Radio (NPR), 22 August 2019,www.npr.org/transcripts/752909807,edge2.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/npr/throughline/2019/08/20190823_throughline_final_mix_lw_082319_corrected-d167827e-b9cf-4c90-a738-b080134fe332.mp3/20190823_throughline_final_mix_lw_082319_corrected-d167827e-b9cf-4c90-a738-b080134fe332.mp3_845e214f74b7330fa7a752e0496cc280_30233124.mp3, Julie, Caine, Laine, Kaplan-Levenson, Washington, D.C., United States of America, National Public Radio, Inc., Strange Fruit, Kelly, McBride, John, Lansing, John, McGinn, MP3, 10 September 2021, Johann Hari (guest), Farah Jasmine Griffin (guest), {{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} According to Hari, Anslinger used the war on drugs as a pretext for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics who had little to do following the end of prohibition. Hari states that Anslinger hated addicts, Latinos, and African Americans and that Anslinger was “so racist that he was regarded as a crazy racist in the 1920s.“EPISODE, Audie, Cornish, All Things Considered, Looking Back At Jazz Singer Billie Holiday’s Influence On American Music, Thursday, August 22, 2019 network=National Public Radio >date=22 August 2019 collaboration=Rund Abdelfatah (guest), Ramtin Arablouei (guest) editor1-first=Ciera editor2-first=Courtney editor3-first=Melissa editor4-first=Sam editor5-first=Lauren editor6-first=Christopher editor7-first=Bridget editor8-first=Miguel editor9-first=Jonaki editor10-first=Casey editor11-first=Cara editor12-first=Natalie access-date=10 September 2021 Lewis Porter noting that “there was no federal objection to the song “Strange Fruit,” nor was there any campaign to suppress it” and Holiday was instead pursued by Bureau of Narcotics mainly for her history of drug use. Porter writes that Johann Hari’s 2015 book, (Chasing the Scream>Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs), is where the allegation that Holiday was targeted for singing “Strange Fruit” originated and that this claim didn’t appear anywhere else before that.PORTER>FIRST=LEWISURL=HTTPS://JAZZTIMES.COM/FEATURES/PROFILES/THE-UNITED-STATES-VS-BILLIE-HOLIDAY-VS-THE-TRUTH/WEBSITE=JAZZTIMES, en-US, In his 1964 book, The Protectors, Anslinger included a chapter called “Jazz and Junk Don’t Mix”, about black jazz musicians Billie Holiday, who had been handcuffed on her death bed due to suspicion of drug use and possession,WEB, 10 September 2021, Politico, Politico Magazine, Johann, Hari, 17 January 2015,www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/drug-war-the-hunting-of-billie-holiday-114298, The Hunting of Billie Holiday: How Lady Day was in the middle of a Federal Bureau of Narcotics fight for survival, Politico LLC Axel Springer SE, History Dept., Robert L., Allbritton, Matthew, Kaminski, Robert Allbritton, Matthew Kaminski, Carrie Budoff, Brown, Carrie Budoff Brown, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America, and Charlie Parker, who both died after years of illegal heroin and alcohol abuse:{{blockquote|Jazz entertainers are neither fish nor fowl. They do not get the million-dollar protection Hollywood and Broadway can afford for their stars who have become addicted – and there are many more than will ever be revealed. Perhaps this is because jazz, once considered a decadent kind of music, has only token respectability. Jazz grew up next door to crime, so to speak. Clubs of dubious reputation were, for a long time, the only places where it could be heard. But the times bring changes, and as Billie Holiday was a victim of time and change, so too was Charlie Parker, a man whose music, like Billie’s, is still widely imitated. Most musicians credit Parker among others as spearheading what is called modern jazz.BOOK, Harry Jacob, Anslinger, The protectors: the heroic story of the narcotics agents, citizens, and officials in their unending, unsuing battles against organized crime in America and abroad, 1964, Farrar, Straus, New York, 64016944,books.google.com/books?id=P0JAAAAAIAAJ&q=%22hollywood+and+broadway%22, 157, December 20, 2015, }}Anslinger hoped to orchestrate a nationwide dragnet of jazz musicians and kept a file called “Marijuana and Musicians.“WEB,www.villagevoice.com/2003/05/06/pot-porn-and-strawberries, Jessica, Winter, 6 May 2003, 10 September 2021, Pot, Porn, and Strawberries, R.C., Baker, Irvine, California, Irvine, California, United States of America, 15 September 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180915193825/https://www.villagevoice.com/2003/05/06/pot-porn-and-strawberries, Village Voice,

Campaign assessment

Some critics of Anslinger claim his campaign against cannabis had a hidden agenda rooted in commercial interests not societal welfare.BOOK, Herrer, Jack, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, 1985, Ah Ha Publishing, Quick American Archives, 11th, USA, 0-9524560-0-1, 4 & 5, 330,www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-four/, 2014-01-09,www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-four/," title="web.archive.org/web/20140104094032www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-four/,">web.archive.org/web/20140104094032www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-four/, 2014-01-04, dead, One example of this is that the E. I. DuPont De Nemours and Company industrial firm, petrochemical interests and William Randolph Hearst conspired together to create the highly sensational anti-cannabis campaign so as to eliminate hemp as an industrial competitor to synthetic materials. However, the DuPont Company and industrial historians have dismissed any link between development of nylon and changes in the laws relating to hemp (cannabis); pointing out nylon was a huge success from the start.MAGAZINE, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Chemical Heritage Foundation (Science History Institute), Chemical Heritage Magazine, 26, 3, Audra J., Wolfe, Nylon: A Revolution in Textiles, 2 October 2008, 10 September 2021,www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/nylon-a-revolution-in-textiles, Elisabeth Berry, Drago, Clay, Cansler, Mia, Jackson, Michal, Meyer, 21 March 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180321130329/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/nylon-a-revolution-in-textiles, REPORT, Fiber production in the Western hemisphere, Lyster H., Dewey, Washington, D.C., United States Department of Agriculture, 518, 1 August 1943, Internet Archive, agr43000170, Hemp [Short or bast fibers], 68,www.archive.org/stream/fiberproductioni518dewe#page/68/mode/2up,www.archive.org/stream/fiberproductioni518dewe, Division of Fiber Plant Investigations of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering (Agricultural Research Administration), 10 September 2021, It was not until 1934, and his fourth year in office, that Anslinger considered cannabis to be a serious threat to American society (Wallace Carothers first synthesized nylon on February 28, 1935). This was part of a worldwide trend, unrelated to racial or industrial issues in America; The League of Nations had already implemented restrictions on cannabis in the beginning of the 1930s, and many states in the U.S. had started restricting it in the years before Anslinger was appointed. In 1935, both President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his attorney general publicly supported the campaign.LETTER, Franklin D., Roosevelt, Letter to the World Narcotic Defense Association, Richmond P. Hobson, Admiral Richmond P. Hobson, Washington, D.C., United States of America, The American Presidency Project (University of California, Santa Barbara),www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/letter-the-world-narcotic-defense-association, 21 March 1935, Gerhard, Peters, John T., Woolley, 10 September 2021, World Narcotic Defense Association, Anslinger’s efforts were part of the government’s broader push to alarm the public about the danger of recreational drugs and to outlaw them. He did this with reference to his own agenda.NEWS, Roosevelt asks narcotic war aid; states are urged to adopt uniform laws, modeled on Harrison Act, 22 March 1935, 7,www.nytimes.com/1935/03/22/archives/roosevelt-asks-narcotic-war-aid-states-are-urged-to-adopt-uniform.html, The New York Times, Adolph, Ochs, Adolph Ochs, Sulzberger Sr., Punch Sulzberger, 10 September 2021, LI, 59, 11 September 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210911012655/https://www.nytimes.com/1935/03/22/archives/roosevelt-asks-narcotic-war-aid-states-are-urged-to-adopt-uniform.html, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, bot: unknown, The La Guardia Committee, promoted in 1939 by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was the first in-depth study into the effects of smoking cannabis. It systematically contradicted claims made by the U.S. Treasury Department that smoking cannabis resulted in insanity, and determined that “the practice of smoking marihuana does not lead to addiction in the medical sense of the word.“REPORT, Fiorello, La Guardia, E.H.L., Corwin, Dudley D., Shoenfeld, 11 September 2021, Fiorello, La Guardia, Peter, Webster, The La Guardia Committee Report - The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York: Sociological, Medical, Psychological and Pharmacological Studies, New York Academy of Sciences/New York Academy of Medicine, La Guardia Committee, Mayor’s Committee on Marihuana, 1944, New York City, Schaffer Drug Library,www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/Library/studies/lag/lagmenu.htm, Released in 1944, the report infuriated Anslinger, who condemned it as unscientific.HARRY J. ANSLINGER: The Murderers THE STORY OF THE NARCOTIC GANGS, 1962LETTER, Harry J., Anslinger, Memorandum for the Advisory Committee, Morris Ploscowe, Washington, D.C., United States of America, 24 February 1958, 11 September 2021, Bureau of Narcotics, United States Treasury Department, Schaffer Drug Library,www.druglibrary.org/special/king/caba/resume_of_correspondence.htm,

Later years

Later in his career, Anslinger was scrutinized for insubordination for refusing to desist from an attempt to halt the ABA/AMA Joint Report on Narcotic Addiction, a publication edited by the sociology Professor Alfred R. Lindesmith of Indiana University.REPORT, Drug Addiction, Crime or Disease?: Interim and Final Reports of the Joint Committee of the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association on Narcotic Drugs., Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America, Rufus, King, Edward J., Dimock, Abe, Fortas, Robert H., Felix, Isaac, Starr, Joseph, Stelter, Alfred R., Lindesmith, Donald, Young, Leonard S., Cottrell Jr., Joint Committee of the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association on Narcotic Drugs, American Bar Association/American Medical Association, 1961, 11 September 2021,www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/dacd/Interim_Report.htm, Schaffer Drug Library, Among other works, Lindesmith wrote Opiate Addiction (1947), The Addict and the Law (1965), and a number of articles condemning the criminalization of addiction. Nearly everything Lindesmith did was critical of the War on Drugs, and he specifically condemned Anslinger’s role. The AMA/ABA controversy is sometimes credited with ending Anslinger’s position of Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.BOOK, 11 September 2021, From Criminalizing to Decriminalizing Marijuana: The Politics of Social Control, Nikolay, Anguelov, Michael P., McCarthy, Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland, 15 October 2018, Google Books,books.google.com/books?id=nFaIDwAAQBAJ, 9781498566230, 1. Criminalizing Marijuana: The Diffussion of Anti-Marijuana Laws from the Southern Border to the Federal Government, 1–28,books.google.com/books?id=nFaIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1, In his later years Anslinger also suffered a mental breakdown characterized by intense paranoia and irrational thoughts, such as believing that addiction was ‘contagious’ and addicts had to be ‘quarantined’ or talking about ‘secret plots’ throughout the world; he was eventually hospitalized because of this breakdown.BOOK, 1st, Chapter 3: The Barrel of Harry’s Gun, 42–47, (Chasing the Scream, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs), Johann, Hari, Johann Hari, 2015, Bloomsbury Publishing, 978-1-62040-890-2, 881418255, London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Nigel, Newton, Nigel Newton, Richard, Lambert, Richard Lambert, Anslinger was surprised to be re-appointed by President John F. Kennedy in February 1961. The new president had a tendency to invigorate the government with more youthful civil servants and, by 1962, Anslinger was 70 years old, the mandatory age for retirement in his position. In addition, during the previous year, he had witnessed his wife Martha’s slow and agonizing death due to heart failure, and had lost some of his drive and ambition. On his 70th birthday, May 20, 1962, Anslinger submitted his resignation to Kennedy. Because Kennedy did not have a successor in place, however, Anslinger stayed on in his $18,500 a year ($145,733 when adjusted for inflation in 2014 dollars) position until later that year.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/1962/07/06/archives/narcotics-commissioner-named.html, Narcotics Commissioner Named, July 6, 1962, The New York Times, March 25, 2020, Associated Press, en-US, 0362-4331, He was succeeded by Henry Giordano in August.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/1962/08/18/archives/dillon-swears-in-giordano-as-narcotics-bureau-head.html, Dillon Swears In Giordano As Narcotics Bureau Head, August 18, 1962, The New York Times, March 25, 2020, en-US, 0362-4331, Following that, he was the United States’ Representative to the United Nations Narcotics Commission for two years, after which he retired.BOOK, The First Crisis: Opioids, 1870s–1950s, 10.7208/9780226731919-002,www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7208/9780226731919-002/html, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 978-0-226-73188-9, 2020017334, David Lowell, Herzberg, White maket drugs: Big Pharma and the hidden history of addiction in America, 13–134, 2020, 31 January 2024, By 1973, Anslinger was completely blind, had a debilitatingly enlarged prostate gland, and suffered from angina. Ironically, when he died, Anslinger was being treated with regular doses of morphine, which had been prescribed for his angina.THESIS, Doctor of Philosophy, Joshua, Hanan, University of Denver, 24, Denver, Colorado, United States of America, Benjamin Steven, Boyce, Discourses of Deception: (Re)Examining America’s War on Drugs series=Electronic Theses and Dissertations format=PDF access-date=20 October 2022 chapter=Harry’s people [Chapter One], Additionally, Anslinger provided morphine to Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was addicted to both alcohol and morphine. When Anslinger tried to persuade McCarthy to quit morphine, McCarthy reminded him of the potential for a public scandal. Anslinger relented and steadily supplied McCarthy with morphine that was paid for by the Bureau and obtained from a local drugstore. This arrangement continued until McCarthy’s death in 1957.MAGAZINE, Ladies Home Journal, Downe Communications (Charter Company), 1 December 1978, 95, 0023-7124, Des Moines, Iowa, United States of America, Maxine, Chesire, Lenore, Hershey, 33261187, Maxine Cheshire, Drugs and Washington, D.C., 180–182, 12,www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1970/drugswashdc.htm, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, On November 14, 1975, at 1 p.m., Anslinger died of heart failure at the former Mercy Hospital (now known as Bon Secours Hospital Campus of the Altoona Regional Health System) in Altoona, Pennsylvania.NEWS, Albin, Krebs, The New York Times, 40, Harry J. Anslinger Dies at 83; Hard-Hitting Foe of Narcotics, 18 November 1975,www.nytimes.com/1975/11/18/archives/harry-j-anslinger-dies-at-83-hardhitting-foe-of-narcotics-us.html, Arthur Ochs, Sulzberger Sr., Punch Sulzberger, 10 September 2021, CXXIV, 236, Harry J. Anslinger, an implacable, hard-hitting foe of drug pushers and users during the 32 years he was the Treasury Department’s Commissioner of Narcotics, died Friday in Hollidaysburg, Pa. His age was 83., BOOK, Jonnes, Jill, Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams: A History of America’s Romance with Illegal Drugs, 1999, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md., 978-0-8018-6165-9,books.google.com/books?id=9bHqvfbV5C8C&q=November+14%2C+1975+anslinger&pg=PA297, 297, He was 83, and was buried at the Hollidaysburg Presbyterian Cemetery in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.He was survived by his son, Joseph Leet Anslinger, and a sister. According to John McWilliams’s 1990 book, The Protectors: Harry J. Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1930–1962), Anslinger’s daughter-in-law Bea at that time still lived in Anslinger’s home in Hollidaysburg.

In the media

• Anslinger appears as himself in the 1948 adventure movie about breaking an international drug ring, To the Ends of the Earth.
• In 1973, Anslinger was portrayed by actor Edmond O’Brien in the film Lucky Luciano by Francesco Rosi, with Gian Maria Volonté.
• Anslinger’s role in the drug war is documented in the 2015 book Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari.
• Anslinger’s targeting of Billie Holiday and his role in the earliest days of the drug war are discussed in NPR’s podcast Throughline, in the episode “Strange Fruit”
• Garrett Hedlund portrays Anslinger in the 2021 docudrama The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Hulu.«Garrett Hedlund plays Harry J. Anslinger in Lee Daniels Billie Holiday Biopic» - October 19, 2020.
• Rainn Wilson portrays Anslinger in the 2021 podcast Toxicomanía: el experimento mexicano.

Publications

• The Traffic in Narcotics, with William Finley Tompkins. Funk & Wagnalls, 1953.

See also

• LaGuardia Commission
• Havana Conference
• Legal history of cannabis in the United States
• Legal issues of cannabis
• L. G. Nutt
• Prohibition of drugs
• War on Drugs
• The United States vs. Billie Holiday

References

{{Reflist|2}}

Further reading

• Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs ({{ISBN|978-1620408902}}), by Johann Hari, 2015
• Larry Sloman, (Reefer Madness (1979 book)|Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana in America) (Indianapolis: Bobbs–Merrill, 1979)
• The Traffic in Narcotics: An interview with the Hon. Harry J. Anslinger United States Commissioner of Narcotics, Jan. 1, 1954
• BOOK, 182733055, A terrible mistake: The murder of Frank Olson, and the CIA’s secret Cold War experiments, Walterville, Oregon, Walterville, Oregon, United States of America, H.P., Albarelli, 9780977795376, 2009,
• HARRY J. ANSLINGER, WILL OURSLER:THE STORY OF THE NARCOTIC GANGS, 1961
• Who Was Who in America with World Notables ({{ISBN|0-8379-0207-X}}), Vol VI 1974–1976, by Marquis Who’s Who, 1976
• BOOK,www.archive.org/details/protectorsharryj00mcwi, Internet Archive, The Protectors: Harry J. Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1930-1962, John C., McWilliams, 88040328, 18779194, 9780874133523, University of Delaware Press, 3rd, 1990, 1986,
• The Protectors: Harry J. Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1930–1962) ({{ISBN|0-87413-352-1}}), by John C. McWilliams, University of Delaware Press, 1990
• The War on Drugs II ({{ISBN|1-55934-016-9}}), J. A. Inciardi, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1992
• Cannabis: A History ({{ISBN|0-312-42494-9}}), Martin Booth, Picador USA, 2005

External links

• {{Find a Grave|6382604|Harry J. Anslinger}}
• cannabis.net/assassin-of-youth.html" title="web.archive.org/web/20040404113055cannabis.net/assassin-of-youth.html">Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics, “Marijuana: assassin of Youth”, The American Magazine, July 1937
• Statement by Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics, to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, 1937
• Guide to the H.J. Anslinger Papers, 1835–1970, Pennsylvania State University {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824230657www.libraries.psu.edu/dam/psul/up/digital/findingaids/1875.htm |date=2012-08-24 }}

{{Prohibition}}{{Authority control}}