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The first marijuana law found so far was a 1905 El Paso, Texas law. It, and most of the other laws in the southwest that followed, was motivated by racial prejudice against Mexican immigrants. These laws had nothing to do with the actual effects of the marijuana. In fact, cannabis in the form of hemp was a common crop in many of these states, and tinctures of cannabis were included in hundreds of common medicines. The purpose of the laws was to discriminate against Mexicans and other racial minorities. This same purpose is also found in the history of the laws against opiates and cocaine.

The first state law was a 1913 California law that received little notice. It was promoted by the pharmaceutical industry that saw marijuana as a competitor. That was followed by a 1914 Utah level that was simply a Mormon religious prohibition enacted into law. By 1930, about thirty states had passed laws against marijuana for one reason or another. In the southwest and south, it was primarily racial prejudice against Mexicans and other racial minorities. In the northern states it was primarily the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana -- exactly the opposite of the modern marijuana gateway myth.

As far as who was involved, two people get primary credit. One is Harry Anslinger, who actively promoted "Reefer Madness" because he knew the marijuana laws were unenforceable. Therefore, he reasoned that the only possible method was to scare people so badly that they would never touch it. His plan worked for a while.

The second person involved is Dr. James C. Munch of Temple University. There were only two doctors who testified for the congressional hearings. One was the representative of the American Medical Association. He said that there was no evidence that marijuana was a dangerous drug. The committee basically told him to shut up and leave.

Dr. Munch's sole claim to fame was that he had injected some extract of cannabis directly into the brains of 300 dogs, and two of them had died. When they asked him what he concluded from that, he said he didn't know. However, he was the only doctor in the US who agreed that marijuana should be illegal, so his testimony was accepted, and he later became the US Official Expert on Marihuana. While serving in that capacity, he also testified in court, under oath, that marijuana would make your fangs grow six inches long and drip with blood and, when he tried it, it turned him into a bat.

Anslinger served as director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930-1962. Dr. Munch served as US Official Expert on Marihuana from 1938-1962.

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14y ago
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9y ago

Marijuana became illegal in different times in different places, so there is no exact/specific time. The time it began in the United States was in 1906, and from there, kept getting worse. By the mid 1930s, it was completely illegal in all the states. It was made a Schedule I drug in the United States in 1972.

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11y ago

what the ignorant morons will tell you: marijuana was made illegal because its a dangerous, addictive drug that will kill you or lead to other drugs, it has no medicinal value at all.

heres how it really happened: cannabis has been traced back to about 10,000 years ago, as being used as a medicine and its hemp version to make raw materials. and for thousands of years, ( and still now) has never claimed a single death EVER. but in the 1930's, 3 main men, William Randolph Hearst, dupont, of dupont chemical company, and harry anslinger all wanted it illegal. why? well: Hearst owned vast acres of timberland forest. Since he owned a timber-logging company, he wanted hemp illegal because it would have not allowed him to continue business.Dupont, ran made a patent in around the same time for many different artificial chemicals and materials. the cannabis/hemp industry did not allow them to make much of a profit. and (forgot there name) had invested much money into duponts company. so, the 3 most likely met up and decided to prohibit cannabis and this man i cant remember the name of was related to anslinger, so he conviced anslinger to create the bereau of narcotics to prohibit marijuana.There methods? YELLOW JOURNALISM/Propaganda. they funded the making of a movie called REEFER MADNESS. it depicted cannabis crazed people raping, and brutally murdering people.In the movie, they used the word MARIHUANA a mexican slang word, which made it sound worse and also disguised the fact that it was cannabis that doctors were using as medicine for so long before. so this riled up society enough to want what ever this "marijuana" drug was, to be illegal. so since this quick whitewash of medicine was so effective, the congressional meeting that officials had in 1937, which anslinger explained to them why it should be illegal quote: "it makes negros rape white women" which was enough for the politicians to outlaw cannabis. so they enacted the 1937 marijuana tax stamp act. which made it illegal to grow, or possess marijuana unless you bought a tax stamp for it. (kind of like a license for medical use now but just to buy a stamp back then) however, anslinger used this loophole to make no one legally use or grow hemp/cannabis. He kept all the tax stamps locked up in federal government vaults, stores, post offices, banks, etc. couldn't sell them to anyone. so anyone who was caught, was indicted. then, in ww2 it was legalized for a brief period to support the war effort. but in the 60's and 70's hippies protested the Vietnam War. and they used marijuana openly at protests. so nixon, who had a personal hate for anyone that disagreed with him or his policys, passed the controlled substances act and declared "the war on drugs" (mainly targeting marijuana) simply to have an excuse to have protesters arrested and silenced. which leads up to now, where it has finally been proven scientifically to cure many diseases that pharma drugs can't. which is why it still remains illegal. the fortune 500 companies that control the world through money, want it outlawed because marijuana can replace almost every industry out there. logging industry, pharmaceutical industry,raw materials (steel, cotton, minerals, etc.) industry, oil/gas industry, all can be replaced by this plant, and create massive new tax revenue for the government. but it most likely will never happen on a federal level, because these fortune 500 lobby the politicians to vote to keep the prohibition going, by giving them hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions that fund them to stay elected in office.

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13y ago

Recreational use of Marijuana in the United States was made illegal in 1937 by the Marijuana Tax Act of that same year.

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14y ago

It's only legal in select states for medical purposes. Also in Alaska you can have up to an ounce in your place of residence and 24 plant under the Alaska Privacy Act.

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14y ago

In the 1970s, many places in the United States started to decriminalize cannabis.

In the 1990s many places began to legalize medical cannabis

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12y ago

It was first Illegalized in 1937 and I am not really sure why i was made illegal.

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11y ago

it was made illegal in the 1930's

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10y ago

1937

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Q: When did federal government make marijuana illegal?
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Why did the government make marijuana illegal?

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Why is marijuana illegal if it supposevly 'isn't that bad'?

There is not really a right answer, but it is my belief that since the government cant control it they dont want anyone to really have it. It is legal on a state level but not on a federal level and i dont think it ever will be legal on a federal level. Marijuana has been around since 2700 B.C. or something like that, but its only been recently that the government has made it illegal. It was back in the 1930's when they made it illegal. I hope that answered your question :)


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