Since the first federal law against it in 1937, 20 million Americans have been arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for using one of the most popular drugs in the world. Before marijuana was illegal, it was never labeled as an activity of deviant groups.
Next to opium, marijuana is one of the planet's oldest medicines. Ancient Chinese herbalists applied it to stomach pain, menstrual cramps, and malaria. Some believed it was given by the Gods as a gift for a joyful pastime. The earliest record of its use begins in ancient China. From there, it migrated to the rest of the world. When introduced to Spain, it was carried to the Americas, where it was a prized source for fiber in rope and canvas, essential ingredients for ships. In fact, the word canvas comes from the Latin “Cannabis."
In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte introduced the plant to Europe, and his soldiers fancied the intoxicant over brandy because it didn’t cause hangovers. After, they carried it back to France as a spoil of war. From Paris, it travels to London as a smoking substance and an extract in medicine. It was used for insomnia and tuberculosis patients who had lost their appetites. Women in high society would eat hashish confections to lower fevers, ease stomach pain, or any ache at all. Queen Victoria herself used it for menstrual cramps.
When it comes to America, it is immediately introduced into the unregulated medicine market. Before 1876, marijuana was primarily used in medication and Americans knew very little about smoking it recreationally. When introduced by the sultan of Turkey as a gift of a rare and exotic treat at a celebration for the 100th anniversary of the declaration of independence, it was smoked at possibly the first and biggest pot party until Woodstock, 93 years later. After this introduction, it brings Turkish smoking parlors to the north.
Though alcohol was America's drug of choice, during prohibition, America rediscovered marijuana. During the 1920s in New Orleans, jazz became outstanding and popular; marijuana and jazz go together like a melody and lyrics. Also, it is the only legal drug in town. It was sold as cigarettes in jazz clubs, markets, and pharmacies. It becomes cheap and popular. However, New Orleans is in the midst of a crime wave where murder dominates the headlines. William Randolph Hurst Egger, for a sensational story to sell, starts lurid tales linking marijuana to crime, violent crime, murders, and rape. Just as stories of cocaine crazed negro violence stirred lawmakers to ban cocaine a decade earlier, headlines and stories about cannabis were affecting marijuana the same way. Of course, state lawmakers were quick to ban a drug that they identified with black violence. This was used as a “scapegoat." To “scape goat" different racial groups and lower classes and attack them cause their using the drug.
Slowly and surely, it was banned across the states for one reason or another. In the southwest, the reason for a ban on pot was economics and prejudice. There, they were worried about Mexicans down on the Texas border who were a useful labor force in the depths of the depression in the 20’s when America needed them. But that time had past and there was no need for their services. So, to stigmatize and get rid of them, stories and headlines of violent Mexican marijuana intoxication were introduced. In 1931, Mexican repatriation became law, and those who did not go quietly were subject to varying forms of harassment. Many are charged with vagrancy, and others are charged with new state marijuana laws, laws that are often an excuse to drive them out of the country. For example, in Texas, if you were caught with one joint, you could get sent to jail for life. In fact, there were campaigns in some states for the death penalty. There are documented cases of individuals spending decades in jail for possession.
Except for a handful of states in the southwest, marijuana is still legal in America until Harry J. Anslinger (known to many as “The Father of the Drug War") takes office at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. However, Anslinger must convince the government to do something it has never done and outlaw a weed. His main tactic is to convince America that a weed is the cause of sex and murder, a message that scares an already frightened post-depression era. Anslinger had no previous experience with drugs, but he was a bureaucrat concerned with protecting his agency and keeping his budget going. The bureau was concerned with fighting heroin and cocaine, but with Anslinger’s arrival, marijuana became the new drug problem born from the trouble in the southwest with Mexican migrant workers. However, Anslinger wanted the individual states to control their own law on marijuana and not the federal government. But there was continued pressure by Washington to do something about the Mexican immigrants. Texas, California, Colorado, and Arizona insisted it was the federal government's job to do something. But Anslinger did not want to base his career on combating a weed. He wants to avoid a law that will be difficult to enforce. But he could not stop the push of the states of the southwest for a federal law against marijuana.
The issues were less about the dangers of the drug and more about politics. Marijuana was entangled in immigration problems. Even when interviewing Anslinger himself, he said that we were not having any problem with it, but the pressure came from the southwest and the west, where the Mexican immigrants were looked at as an unnecessary, dangerous, and surplus population. There was a tremendous push to put the Mexican immigrants back into Mexico, and marijuana got mixed up in that because there was no question that they grew and smoked marijuana.
In the end, the southwest prevailed. Anslinger must use the power of the federal government to control marijuana. Being the bureaucrat that he was, he changed his position and became the leading warrior against marijuana. His chief weapons were movies that express exaggerated dangers of the drug. While the propaganda war against marijuana is underway, Anslinger works on drafting a law. Like all federal drug prohibition in the early 20th century, the Constitution stands in the way. He finds a way around this in a new law passed to ban machine guns. A law was passed called “The National Firearms Act," which said you cannot give, borrow, or transfer a machine gun to anyone without a machine gun transfer stamp. The beauty was that the government would not make any machine gun transfer stamps. It was just a way to stop machine guns from being distributed. This is the model Anslinger used to ban marijuana. Anyone involved in the use, distribution, sale, or transfer will be required to get from the government a marijuana stamp.
Soon, the next challenge is to persuade Congress that a weed is as harmful as a machine gun. In 1937, hearings began in Congress on the first federal law to control marijuana. Alslinger hopes to convince Congress that marijuana is dangerous and to enact a law like the one that banned machine guns. Although it was thought that Anslinger's opinion on marijuana was not as harsh as those about cocaine and heroin, no one would publicly know that because one of the strategies against marijuana was to describe it as so horrible and disgusting that no one would attempt to try it once. Anslinger tells Congress the drug makes the user insane or worse. He adds that it is a stepping stone, or gateway to heroin and cocaine. It is the assassin of youth. He asserts that school children are using marijuana, and that assertion provokes the only testimony against the law. Dr. William Woodward testifies that after all the complaints about marijuana’s danger to school children, there was no evidence to back it up. Congress disregards his testimony, cuts him down personally, and lies about his argument.
Across America, movies add to the propaganda bombarding the public. On Capitol Hill, Anslinger wins, and Congress passes the marijuana stamp act. It is the first federal law against Marijuana. The southwest gets what they wanted. President Roosevelt signed the bill on August 2nd 1937. Anslinger's most significant contributions to “fighting drugs" are that he, more than any other individual, “demonized" drugs (mainly marijuana) and was effective at spreading propaganda. The law states that anyone trying to buy, sell, or distribute marijuana must get a stamp and pay the tax, and the failure to do so is five years in jail or a $20,000 fine, or both. But like the machine gun law, the government does not make the stamps available. Also, in order to get the stamp, you had to have the marijuana on hand, but if you had the marijuana on hand already, you had already violated the law.
One year after the law, Anslinger runs into a powerful critic. The mayor of New York himself, Mayor Fiorello Laguardia. He commissions a group of medical professionals from the New York Academy of Medicine to study his city’s marijuana problem. After four years of study, they find: smoking marijuana does not lead to addiction; marijuana smoking is not widespread among school children; marijuana is not a determining factor in major crimes. The conclusion is that the publicity portraying the catastrophic effects of marijuana in New York City is unfounded. Still, New York must follow the law.
During WWII, marijuana arrests dropped. By the 1960’s, marijuana, which had once been kept behind closed doors, was openly used. It is the latest drug fad, the favorite of baby boomers, besides potentially harsh penalties. 33 years after the marijuana tax act, its constitutionality is questioned. Timothy Leary argued that the act was self-incrimination because you had to have the marijuana to get the stamp. The Supreme Court agreed with him and overturned the law. By 1970, recreational drug use was perceived as bad, and Congress didn’t consider the right to use drugs a right protected by the Constitution, and banned marijuana in “The Controlled Substances Act of 1970."
The Evolution of the Lie: From Reagan’s "War" to the Modern Monopoly
Let’s be real—the story didn’t end with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. That was just the prologue for the most expensive, destructive, and logically bankrupt era of American history. If you want to see where the system really went off the rails, you have to look at the 1980s.
The Reagan Era: Criminalizing the Patient
By the time Ronald Reagan took office, the "War on Drugs" wasn't just a catchy slogan; it was a full-scale assault on the American public. Reagan took Anslinger’s propaganda and weaponized it with modern policing. We saw the rise of mandatory minimum sentences and the catastrophic "Three Strikes" laws.
This wasn't about health. It was a failed economic policy masquerading as morality. We started throwing people in cages for decades over a plant that Queen Victoria used for cramps. Think about the irony: while Big Pharma was gearing up to market synthetic opioids, the government was busy turning cancer and AIDS patients into felons. If you were medicating for nausea or chronic pain, you weren't a "patient" in the eyes of the law—you were a "criminal."
The Trillion-Dollar Drain
The math on this is staggering. Since the 1970s, the U.S. has spent over $1 trillion on drug war enforcement. Where did that money go? It didn’t reduce use. It didn’t stop addiction. It went into:
Expanding the prison-industrial complex (which now holds roughly 20% of the world's prison population).
Militarizing local police departments.
Funding a court system that stays bloated on non-violent possession cases.
Statistically, the impact was—and is—blatantly lopsided. Despite similar usage rates across all demographics, Black Americans are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white Americans. This isn't a coincidence; it’s the modern version of the "scapegoating" tactics used in the 1920s to target Mexican immigrants and jazz culture.
The 21st Century Pivot: A Fickle Turn
Fast forward to today, and the hypocrisy has reached a fever pitch. In the 90s, medical marijuana gained a foothold because the science became impossible to ignore. Patients fighting the "wasting syndrome" of AIDS and the brutal side effects of chemotherapy forced the government’s hand.
By the turn of the century, we started seeing the first cracks in the federal dam. Denver legalized it, and currently, 24 states (plus D.C.) have legalized recreational use, while 38 states recognize its medical value.
The irony is thick enough to choke on: The federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance—officially claiming it has "no medicinal use"—while simultaneously holding patents on cannabinoids and allowing states to rake in billions in tax revenue from its sale.
Why JuanaWorld Matters Now
We are living in the "Great Transition," but don't let the shiny new dispensaries fool you. The same "wealthy elite" who funded the prohibition are now the ones buying up the licenses. It’s still capitalism's worst nightmare, so they’re trying to own the dream.
We’ve spent 90 years and a trillion dollars fighting a "weed" that has a lower toxicity profile than the aspirin in your medicine cabinet. The "War on Drugs" was never about the drug; it was an assault on civil liberties. And as we move into 2026, the goal of this blog remains the same: to cut through the noise and remind you that your right to grow a plant in your backyard is the ultimate litmus test for a free society.
Would you like me to dive deeper into the specific "Three Strikes" statistics, or should we look at how the current corporate "Green Rush" is repeating the same exclusionary patterns of the 1930s? Let me know in the comments!
Main Source: Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way – Marijuana. As presented by the History Channel.
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