Legal
history of cannabis in the United States – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prohibitions of cannabis
arose in many states from 1906 and onward. By the mid-1930s, cannabis was regulated
in every state by laws instituted through The
Uniform State Narcotic Act.^[1]

In the 1970s, many places
in the United States started to decriminalize
cannabis. Most places that have decriminalized cannabis have one or more
of civil
fines, drug education, drug treatment in place of incarceration,
criminal
charges for possession of small amounts of cannabis, or have made various cannabis
offenses the lowest priority for law
enforcement. In the 1990s many places began to legalize medical
cannabis, which conflicts with federal laws, as cannabis is a Schedule I
drug according to the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970, which classified cannabis as having high potential
for abuse, no medical use, and not safe to use under medical supervision. Multiple
efforts to reschedule
cannabis have failed and the United
States Supreme Court has ruled in United
States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Coop and Gonzales
v. Raich that the federal government has a right to regulate and criminalize
cannabis, even for medical purposes.

Pre-criminalization
(1600s–1800s)

Hemp
(Cannabis sativa) was first brought to North America by the Puritans.

In the 17th century hemp
was encouraged by the government in the production of rope, sails, and clothing;
however, hemp use declined in the late eighteenth century. In the late nineteenth
century, cannabis became a common ingredient in medicine and was openly sold
at pharmacies.^[2]

U.S. founding fathers who
cultivated cannabis

George Washington	Major General George Washington, U.S. Revolutionary War hero and first president of the United States, shown here on a U.S. dollar treasury note, cultivated Indian Hemp (Cannabis sativa indica, i.e. medical cannabis, which could also be used for fiber, although not as well as regular hemp) on his farm.[3] “Make the most you can of the Indian hemp seed. Sow it everywhere.” — George Washington, in a letter to his farm manager[4]
Thomas Jefferson	Thomas Jefferson, the co-author of the American Declaration of Independence was the third president of the United States. He cultivated cannabis.[3]
Benjamin Franklin	Benjamin Franklin, shown here on a U.S. $100 bill, started the first American paper mill, which made paper exclusively from cannabis.[5]

Criminalization
(1900s)

The first significant instance
of cannabis regulation appeared in District
of Columbia in 1906.^[6]
Regulations of marijuana (the phrase Indian Hemp is sometimes used) followed
in Massachusetts in 1911; Maine, California, Texas, Wyoming and Indiana in 1913;
New York City in 1914; Utah and Vermont in 1915; Colorado and Nevada in 1917.
These laws were passed not due to any widespread use or concern about cannabis,
but as regulatory initiatives to discourage future use.^[7][8]

Indian
hemp regulation (1925)

In 1925 United
States supported regulation of Indian hemp, also known as hashish,
in the International
Opium Convention.^[9]
The convention banned exportation of Indian hemp and the preparations
derived therefrom to countries that had prohibited its use, and required importing
countries to issue certificates approving the importation and stating that the
shipment was required “exclusively for medical or scientific purposes”. The
convention did not ban trade with fibers and other similar products from European
hemp, high growing varieties of hemp from Europe traditionally grown in
the United States for production of fibers with low content of (THC)

Uniform
State Narcotic Act (1925–1932)

The Uniform State Narcotic
Act, first tentative draft in 1925 and fifth final version in 1932, was
a result of work by the National
Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. It was argued that the
traffic in narcotic drugs should have the same safeguards and the same regulation
in all of the states. The committee took into consideration the fact that the
federal government had already passed The Harrison
Act in 1914 and The Federal Import and Export Act in 1922. Many persons
assumed that the Harrison Act was all that was necessary. The Harrison Act,
however, was a revenue-producing act, and while it provided penalties for violation,
it did not give the states themselves authority to exercise police power in
regard to seizure of drugs used in illicit trade, or in regard to punishment
of those responsible therefor. The act was recommended to the states for that
purpose.^[10]
As a result of the Uniform State Narcotic Act the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics encouraged state governments to adopt it. By the middle
of 1930s all member states had some regulation of cannabis.^[11][12][13]

Federal
Bureau of Narcotics (1930)

The use of cannabis and
other drugs came under increasing scrutiny after the formation of the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) in 1930,^[14]
headed by Harry
J. Anslinger as part of the government’s broader push to outlaw all drugs.

“When the present administration
took office ten countries had ratified the Geneva Narcotic Limitation Convention.
The United States was one of these ten…. It was my privilege, as President,
to proclaim, on that day, that this treaty had become effective throughout
the jurisdiction of the United States….On Jan. 1, 1933, only nine nations
had registered their ratification of the limitation treaty. On Jan. 1, 1935,
only nine States had adopted the uniform State statute. As 1933 witnessed
ratification of the treaty by thirty-one additional nations, so may 1935 witness
the adoption of the uniform drug act by at least thirty-one more states, thereby
placing interstate accord abreast of international accord, to the honor of
the legislative bodies of our States and for the promotion of the welfare
of our people and the peoples of other lands.” (Franklin
D. Roosevelt, March 1935 in a radio message read by United
States Attorney General, Homer
Stille Cummings )^[15]

Anslinger claimed cannabis
caused people to commit violent crimes, act irrational, and act overly sexual.
The FBN produced propaganda films promoting Anslinger’s views and Anslinger
often commented to the press regarding his views on cannabis.

The
1936 Geneva Trafficking Convention

In 1936, the Convention
for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Dangerous Drugs (1936 Trafficking
Convention) was concluded in Geneva. The U.S., led by Anslinger, had attempted
to include in the treaty the criminalization of all activities – cultivation,
production, manufacture and distribution – related to the use of opium, coca
(and its derivatives) and cannabis for non-medical and non-scientific purposes.
Many countries opposed this and the focus remained on illicit trafficking. Article
2 of the Convention called upon signatory countries to use their national criminal
law systems to “severely” punish, “particularly by imprisonment or other penalties
of deprivation of liberty,” acts directly related to drug trafficking.

The U.S. refused to sign
the final version because it considered the Convention too weak, especially
in relation to extradition, extraterritoriality and the confiscation of trafficking
profits. ^[16]

Marijuana
Tax Act (1937)

The Marihuana
Tax Act of 1937 made possession or transfer of cannabis illegal throughout
the United
States under federal
law, excluding medical and industrial uses, in which an expensive excise
tax was required. Annual fees for the tax were $24 ($337 adjusted for inflation)
for importers, manufacturers, and cultivators of cannabis, $1 annually ($14
adjusted for inflation) for medical and research purposes, and $3 annually ($42
adjusted for inflation) for industrial uses. Detailed cannabis sale logs were
required to keep record of cannabis sales. Selling cannabis to any person who
has previously paid the tax is $1 per ounce or fraction thereof; however, it
is $100 ($1,406 adjusted for inflation) per ounce or fraction thereof to sell
any person who has not registered and paid the special tax.^[17]

The American
Medical Association (AMA) opposed the act because the tax was imposed on
physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and medical
cannabis cultivation/manufacturing;
instead of enacting the Marihuana Tax Act, the AMA proposed cannabis be added
to the Harrison
Narcotics Tax Act.^[18]

New York Mayor Fiorello
LaGuardia who was a strong opponent of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act started
the LaGuardia
Commission that in 1944 contradicted the earlier reports of addiction, madness,
and overt sexuality.^[2]

In 1969, the case of Leary
v. United States found the Marihuana Tax Act to be unconstitutional since
it violated the Fifth
Amendment.^[19]
In response, Congress
repealed the Marihuana Tax Act and passed the Controlled
Substances Act as Title II of the Comprehensive
Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1973, which repealed the Marihuana
Tax Act.^[20]

DuPont,
William Randolph Hearst, and hemp

The decision of the United
States Congress to pass the Marihuana
Tax Act of 1937 was based on hearings,^[21]
reports^[22]
and in part on testimony derived from articles in newspapers owned by William
Randolph Hearst, who had significant financial interests in the timber
industry, which manufactured his newsprint.^[23]

Cannabis activist Jack
Herer has researched DuPont
and in his 1985 book The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Herer concluded DuPont
played a large role in the criminalization
of cannabis. In 1938, DuPont patented
the processes for creating plastics from coal and oil and a new process for
creating paper from wood pulp. If hemp had been largely exploited, Herer believes
it would have likely been used to make paper and plastic (nylon),
and may have hurt DuPont’s profits. Andrew
Mellon of the Mellon
Bank was DuPont’s chief financial backer and was also the Secretary
of the Treasury under the Hoover
administration. Mellon appointed Harry
J. Anslinger, who later became his nephew-in-law, as the head of the Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) and the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), where Anslinger stayed until 1962.^[24]

In 1916, United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief scientists Jason L. Merrill
and Lyster H. Dewe created paper made from hemp pulp, which they concluded was
“favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood in USDA Bulletin No.
404.”^[25]
In his book Herer summarized the findings of Bulletin No. 404:^[26]

USDA Bulletin No. 404,
reported that one acre
of hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would produce as much pulp
for paper as 4.1 acres (17,000 m²) of trees being cut
down over the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/4 to 1/7
as much polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like
lignin
that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda
ash. The problem of dioxin
contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process, which
does not need to use chlorine
bleach (as the wood pulp paper making process requires) but instead safely
substitutes hydrogen
peroxide in the bleaching process. … If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper
process were legal today, it would soon replace about 70% of all wood pulp
paper, including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes and paper bags.

Hemp
was a relatively easy target because factories already had made large investments
in equipment to handle cotton, wool, and linen,
but there were relatively small investments in hemp production. Big technological
improvements in the wood
pulp industry were invented in the 1930s; for example the recovery
boiler allowed kraft mills to recycle almost all of their pulping chemicals,
and other improvements came later. There was also a misconception hemp had an
intoxicating effect because it has the same active substance, THC,
which is in potent cannabis strains; however, hemp only has minimal amount of
THC when compared to recreational cannabis strains.

An alternative explanation
for Anslinger’s
opinion’s about hemp is that he believed that a tax on cannabis could be easier
to supervise if it included hemp and that he had reports from experiments with
mechanical harvesting of hemp reporting that the machines was no success and
reports about cannabis farms.^[27]

“The existence of the
old 1934-1935 crop of harvested hemp on the fields of southern Minnesota is
a menace to society in that it is being used by traffickers in marihuana as
a source of supply.”^[28]

“they were able to cut
only a part of the Tribune Farm crop by machine, two thirds of it they did
by hand with a sharp hand cuttertuff”.^[29]

An argument for the alternative
theory is that hemp was not an alternative as material in the new commercial
products from DuPont using oil or coal as raw material, the nylon-bristled toothbrush
(1938) followed more famously by women’s “nylons”
stockings (1940). Nylon was intended to be a synthetic replacement for silk
not hemp.

Mandatory
sentencing (1952, 1956)

Mandatory
sentencing and increased punishment were enacted when the United
States Congress passed the Boggs Act of 1952 and the Narcotics
Control Act of 1956. The acts made a first time cannabis possession offense
a minimum of two to ten years with a fine up to $20,000; however, in 1970, the
United States Congress repealed mandatory penalties for cannabis offenses.^[2]

This section requires expansion.

Reorganization
(1968, 1973)

In 1968, the United States
Department
of the Treasury subsidiary Bureau
of Narcotics and the United
States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare subsidiary Bureau
of Drug Abuse Control merged to create the Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs as a United
States Department of Justice subsidiary.

In 1973, President Richard
Nixon’s “Reorganization Plan Number Two” proposed the creation of a single
federal agency to enforce federal drug laws and Congress
accepted the proposal, as there was concern regarding the growing availability
of drugs.^[30]
As a result, on July 1, 1973, the Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) and the Office of Drug Abuse Law
Enforcement (ODALE) merged together to create the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA).^[2]

On December 1, 1975 the
Supreme Court ruled that it was “not cruel or unusual for Ohio to sentence someone
to 20 years for having or selling cannabis.”^[31]

Mandatory
sentencing and three-strikes (1984, 1986)

During the Reagan
Administration the Sentencing Reform Act provisions of the Comprehensive
Crime Control Act of 1984 created the Sentencing Commission, which established
mandatory sentencing guidelines.^[32]
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 reinstated mandatory prison sentences, including
large scale cannabis distribution.^[33]
Later an amendment created a three-strikes
law, which created mandatory life sentences for repeat drug offenders and
allowed the death
penalty to be used against “drug kingpins.”^[2]

United
States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative (2001)

In 1996, California
voters passed Proposition
215, which legalized medical
cannabis. The Oakland
Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, an organization overseen by the city of Oakland,
was created to “provide seriously ill patients with a safe and reliable source
of medical cannabis information and patient support” in accordance with Proposition
215.

In January 1998, the U.S.
Government sued Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative for violating federal
laws created as a result of Controlled
Substances Act of 1970. On May 14, 2001, the United
States Supreme Court ruled in United
States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Coop that federal anti-drug laws
do not permit an exception for medical
cannabis and rejected the common-law medical necessity defense to crimes
enacted under the Controlled Substances Act because Congress
concluded cannabis has “no currently accepted medical use” when the act was
passed in 1970.

Gonzales
v. Raich (2005)

Gonzales
v. Raich ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Commerce
Clause of the United
States Constitution allowed the federal government to ban the use of cannabis,
including medical use. The court found the federal law valid, although the cannabis
in question had been grown and consumed within a single state, and had never
entered interstate commerce. Congress may ban the use of cannabis even where
states approve its use for medicinal purposes.

This section requires expansion.

Attempts
to Decriminalization (1970s–2000s)

[edit]
Medical use

In 1978, Robert Randall
sued the federal government for arresting him for using cannabis to treat his
glaucoma.
The judge ruled Randall needed cannabis for medical purposes and required the
Food
and Drug Administration set up a program to grow cannabis on a farm at the
University
of Mississippi and to distribute 300 cannabis cigarettes a month to Randall.
In 1992, George
H. W. Bush discontinued the program after Randall tried to make AIDS
patients eligible for the program. At the time, thirteen people were already
enrolled and were allowed to continue receiving cannabis cigarettes; today the
government still ships cannabis cigarettes to seven persons. Irvin Rosenfeld,
who became eligible to receive cannabis from the program in 1982 to treat rare
bone tumors, urged the George
W. Bush administration to reopen the program; however, he was unsuccessful.^[34]

In 1996, California passed
the Compassionate
Use Act, which decriminalized medical
cannabis by enacting laws that allow regulated cannabis consumption, possession,
cultivation, and distribution for medicinal use; since then twelve states have
enacted similar laws.^[35]
As a result of the court rulings of United
States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative and Gonzales
v. Raich, and the classification of cannabis as a Schedule
I drug, the Federal government does not permit cannabis to be used medically;
the DEA
has taken an active stance against medical cannabis and often raids cannabis
dispensaries.^[36]

In 1972, 1995, and 2002,
petitions for cannabis
rescheduling in the United States were filed to remove cannabis from the
“Schedule I” category of tightly-restricted drugs that have no medical use,
as the Controlled
Substance Act allows the executive branch to decriminalize medical and recreational
use of cannabis without any action by Congress depending on the findings of
the Secretary of the United
States Department of Health and Human Services on certain scientific and
medical issues specified by the Act.^[37]

Restrictions
on medical use by state

Alaska

One ounce usable.^[38]
Alaska is the only state where possession of up to one ounce is legal.^[39]

California

8 ounces usable. A Physician’s
recommendation is required.^[38]
On November 5, 1996 56% of voters approved Proposition 215. The law removes
state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of cannabis
by patients who possess a “written or oral recommendation” from their physician
that he or she “would benefit from medical marijuana.” Patients diagnosed
with any illness where the medical use of cannabis has been “deemed appropriate
and has been recommended by a physician” are provided with legal protection
under this act. Conditions typically covered by the law include: arthritis;
cachexia; cancer; chronic pain; HIV or AIDS; epilepsy; migraine; and multiple
sclerosis. No regulations regarding the amount of cannabis patients may
possess and/or cultivate were provided by this act, though the California
Legislature adopted guidelines in 2003.^[40]
In practice, as certain doctors will prescribe cannabis for any condition,
the drug is essentially decriminalized for those who can afford to obtain
the paperwork.^[41]

Colorado

2 ounces usable. A Physician’s
recommendation is required.^[38]

Hawaii

3 ounces usable.^[38]

Maine

Amended to 2.5 ounces
usable. No state-run registry. A Physician’s recommendation is required.^[42]

Massachusetts

On November 4, 2008,
Massachusetts became the first state to decriminalize marijuana possession
passed by voter initiative.

Michigan

2.5 ounces usable. No
state-run registry.^[38]
On November 4, 2008, voters of Michigan
passed a ballot proposal which allows for patients with debilitating medical
conditions to use the drug and for registered individuals to grow the marijuana
in secured facilities. The measure also requires the state’s health department
to establish a registry of qualified patients and growers.^[43]

Montana

1 ounce usable.^[38]

Nevada

1 ounce usable. A Physician’s
recommendation is required.^[38]
On November 7, 2000 65% of voters approved Question 9. The law, which removes
state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of cannabis
by patients who have “written documentation” from a licensed physician, took
effect on October 1, 2001. Patients diagnosed with the following illnesses
can obtain a medical card: AIDS; cancer; glaucoma; and any medical condition
or treatment to a medical condition that produces cachexia, persistent muscle
spasms or seizures, severe nausea or pain. Other conditions are subject
to approval by the health division of the state Department of Human Resources.
Once a medical cannabis card is obtained patients may legally possess no more
than one ounce of usable cannabis, and may grow no more than seven cannabis
plants. The law establishes a state-run patient registry that issues identification
cards to qualifying patients. Patients who do not join the registry or possess
greater amounts of cannabis than allowed by law are subject to arrest on cannabis
charges.^[44]

New Mexico

6 ounces usable.^[38]
Governor Bill Richardson signed Senate Bill 523, “Lynn and Erin Compassionate
Use Act,” into law on April 2, 2007. The new law took effect on July 1, 2007.
The law mandates the state Department of Health by October 1, 2007, to promulgate
rules governing the use and distribution of medical cannabis to state-authorized
patients. These rules shall address the creation of state-licensed “cannabis
production facilities,” the development of a confidential patient registry
and a state-authorized cannabis distribution system, and “define the amount
of cannabis that is necessary to constitute an adequate supply” for qualified
patients.^[45]

Oregon

24 ounces usable.^[38]
On November 3, 1998 55% of voters approved Measure 67. The law, which took
effect on December 3, 1998, removes state-level criminal penalties on the
use, possession and cultivation of cannabis. Patients are required to possess
a signed recommendation from their physician stating that cannabis may help
alleviate his or her symptoms. Patients diagnosed with the following illnesses
are given legal protection under this act: cachexia; cancer; chronic pain;
epilepsy and other disorders characterized by seizures; glaucoma; HIV or AIDS;
multiple sclerosis and other disorders characterized by muscle spasticity;
and nausea. Other conditions are subject to approval by the Health Division
of the Oregon Department of Human Resources. Patients may legally possess
no more than three ounces of cannabis, and may grow no more than seven cannabis
plants. The law establishes a state-run patient registry that issues identification
cards to qualifying patients. Patients who do not join the registry or possess
greater amounts of cannabis than allowed by law may be subject to arrest on
cannabis charges.^[46]

Rhode Island

2.5 ounces usable.^[38]

Vermont

2 ounces usable.^[38]

Washington

24 ounces usable. No
state-run registry.^[38]
On November 3, 1998 59% of voters approved Measure 692. The law removes state-level
criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of cannabis. Valid
documentation from a physician affirming that the patient suffers from a medical
condition and that the “potential benefits of the medical use of cannabis
would likely outweigh the health risks” is required. Patients diagnosed with
the following illnesses are given legal protection under this act: cachexia;
cancer; HIV or AIDS; epilepsy; glaucoma; and multiple sclerosis. Other
conditions are subject to approval by the Washington Board of Health. Patients
may legally possess or grow no more than a 60-day supply of cannabis.^[47]

Some states include legal
use of simple and affirmative defense in the cases of non-complying patients.^[38]

Arizona and Maryland both
enacted laws that do not legalize medical marijuana, but are favorable to doctors
prescribing it and its use as defense in court, respectively.^[38]

The state laws, as mentioned
above, do not cancel federal laws that criminalize use of cannabis, so federal
prosecution is still possible.

Non-medical
use

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After the 1960s, a time
characterized by widespread use of cannabis
as a recreational drug,^[2]
a wave of legislation in America
sought to reduce the penalties for the simple possession of cannabis, making
it punishable by confiscation
and/or a fine
rather than imprisonment.
Some of the first examples of decriminalization in drug policy were found in
Alabama,
when state judges decided to no longer impose five year mandatory minimum sentences
for small possession (one cannabis cigarette); Missouri,
when their legislature reformed statutes that made second possession offenses
no longer punishable by life in prison; and in Georgia,
when that state revised second sale offenses

In 1970, the United
States Congress repealed mandatory penalties for cannabis offenses and The
Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act separated cannabis from
other illicit narcotics and removed mandatory sentences for possession of small
amounts of cannabis.^[2]

In 1972 President Richard
Nixon commissioned a comprehensive study from the National
Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. The Commission found that the constitutionality
of cannabis prohibition was suspect, and that the executive and legislative
branches had a responsibility to obey the Constitution, even in the absence
of a court ruling to do so. The Richard
Nixon administration did not implement the study’s recommendations.(View
Report)

In 1973 Oregon
decriminalized cannabis^[48]
and Colorado,
Alaska,
Ohio,
and California
followed suit in 1975. By 1978, Mississippi,
North
Carolina^[49],
New
York, and Nebraska
had some form of cannabis decriminalization.^{[citation
needed]} In 2001, Nevada
reduced cannabis possession from a felony
offense to a misdemeanor,
but only for adults age 21 and older, with other restrictions.^[50]

Starting in the 1970s, multiple
states, counties, and cities decriminalized
cannabis for non-medical
purposes. While many states, counties, and cities have partially decriminalized
cannabis, on November 3, 2004, Oakland
passed Proposition
Z, and became the first place to fully decriminalize cannabis to allow the
licensing, taxing, and regulation of cannabis sales if California
law is amended to allow so. (see Places
that have decriminalized cannabis in the United States for further information).

A recent vote of 54% to
46% in Denver has voted to legalize the possession of up to an ounce of cannabis,
although this does not overrule federal laws and one may still be arrested for
it, and it only applies to people age 21 and older.

Drug
courts

Drug
courts are fast growing in number. The first started in 1989; 2140 drug
courts were in operation May 2008, with another 284 being planned or developed.^[51]
They offer offenders charged with less-serious crimes of being under the influence,
possession of a controlled substance, or even drug-using offenders charged with
a non-drug related crime the option of entering the drug court system in lieu
of serving a jail sentence. Offenders will have to plead guilty to the charge,
agree to take part in treatment, regular drug screenings, and regular reporting
to the drug court judge for a minimum of one year. Should the offender fail
to comply with one or more of the requirements they may be removed from the
drug court and incarcerated at the judge’s discretion. If they complete the
drug court program the charges brought against them are dropped or reduced.

See
also

• Adult
  lifetime cannabis use by country
• Annual
  cannabis use by country
• Cannabis
  in the United States
• Cannabis
  reform at the international level
• Health
  issues and the effects of cannabis
• Illegal
  drug trade
• Legal
  and medical status of cannabis
• Legality
  of cannabis by country
• Single
  Convention on Narcotic Drugs

References