Why is cannabis illegal in the united states?
It seems strange to me, there is not one recorded death from cannabis anywhere on earth, the first cannabis related law in the United States was in Jamestown in 1619 ordering farmers to grow it, you could even pay your taxes with it! George Washington grew the plant, and the declaration of independence was written on hemp paper. So after all that, there must be a logical reason why it was made illegal. Big C is actually the closest to the real answer. Marijuana was made illegal due to a single man, Harry J. Anslinger, who became director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. Remember that 1930 was in the middle of Prohibition, meaning that alcohol was illegal at the time and the puritanicals in power were against all mind altering substances. Also, the Bureau of Narcotics was part of the Treasury Department, which was also in charge of enforcing Prohibition (see Elliot Ness, for example). Anslinger was quite power hungry (also common in in the BOI and BOP during the 1930′s — see
