What is the exact law that made weed illegal?
Though not technically making it illegal, The Marijuana Tax Stamp Act of 1937 effectively out lawed it. Congress made a law saying you had to have this stamp to legally possess weed, but the treasury department never released any stamps. It was outlawed for 2 main reasons: Racism, & Public Paranoia. A man named Harry Anslinger fought tooth and nail for it’s illegality. He saw a trend: Mexicans were coming into the country and bringing marijuana with them. Though I don’t know what was going through his head, he hated weed for some reason (probably racism) and launched slanderous campaigns against it without any scientific research to back his claims. Many of the lies he claimed are seen in such 20’s films as High on the Ranch, and the famous Refer Madness, which openly portrayed stoners as monstrous criminals… the portrayal was similar to crack addicts. Anslinger pressured 5 seperate presidents, starting with (I believe) Truman, into implementing harder and harder penalties for those
