1936 – Bureau of Narcotics Urges Federal Action to Control Marijuana

“It is difficuly to know precisely the extent of marihuana use in the 1930s. The Narcotics Bureau itself never provided any official estimate. The Bureau spoke only of ‘widespread use…’

[Commissioner Harry] Anslinger maintained that all drug use was a plot of ‘civic corruption,’ a public enemy seeking to destroy the community…

During 1936 the Bureau headlined the marihuana danger in its report [“Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs,” 1936]. For the first time it urged federal controls and presented a description of the vice, describing dire mental and moral changes among users.”