CJ 4530 Conspiracies, Coverups, and Crimes

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War on DrugsConspiracies???

• CJ 4530 Conspiracies, Coverups, and Crimes
• Dr. Matthew Robinson
• Appalachian State University

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War on Drugs

• Every drug war seems focused ONLY on some
  peoples drugs
• Alcohol (1880s / early 1900s) Womans Christian
  Temperance Union (WCTU) concerned with alcohol
  use by non-Christian immigrants
• Opium (late 1800s / early 1900s) focused on
  Chinese laborers who represented unwanted labor
  competition
• Marijuana (1930s) grounded in racism against
  Mexican immigrants (drug-crazed criminals)
  taking jobs away from Americans
• Crack (1980s) focused mostly on urban
  minorities, especially African Americans

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How drugs became illegal in USExample 1

• 1914 Harrison Narcotics Control Act
• Required registration with Treasury Department
  for importing, manufacturing, selling, dispensing
  cocaine / opiates with prohibitive tax
• Allowed physicians to prescribe and dispense for
  legitimate medical purposes in course of
  professional practice (but not to maintain
  addict)

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How drugs became illegal in USExample 1

• Interpreted as prohibitory by Treasury
  Departments Narcotics Division.
• 1919 Treasury begins arresting doctors for
  opiate prescriptions for addicts
• Led to three US Supreme Court cases
• Doctors would no longer serve addicts
• Created black market still with us today!

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How drugs became illegal in USExample 2

• 1930 Bureau of Narcotics formed (Treasury Dept.)
• Harry Anslinger, director
• Close links to William Randolph Hearst (newspaper
  giant / timber guy), E.I. DuPont (paper giant),
  and Andrew Mellon (Sec. of Treasury and owner of
  Mellon Bank)
• Launched campaign against the killer weed and
  assassin of youth marijuana

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How drugs became illegal in USExample 2

• "Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics,
  jazz musicians, and entertainers. Their satanic
  music is driven by marijuana, and marijuana
  smoking by white women makes them want to seek
  sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and
  others. It is a drug that causes insanity,
  criminality, and death -- the most
  violence-causing drug in the history of
  mankind." 

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Marijuana!!!
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Marijuana!!!
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Marijuana
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Marijuana!!!
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How drugs became illegal in USExample 2

• 1937 Marijuana Tax Act
• Required tax stamp to sell (1)
• Required laborious procedures to prescribe
• Very tough sentences (life for selling to
  minor)
• Bureau also wrote sample bill banning pot
  (adopted by 40 states)
• Partly inspired by racist sentiment

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It continues today
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It continues today
(New Jersey State Police Superintendent)
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It continues today

• Facts (African Americans and drug offenses)
• 7 of drug users (2001)
• 32.5 of arrests (2002)
• 53 of convicted felons in state courts (2000)
• 57 of prison inmates (2001)