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When you base law upon lies...1938 to 1951The terrific reputation that marijuana got in the late 30s and early 40s stemmed from something Anslinger had said. Does everybody remember what Anslinger said about the drug? "Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."
Well, this time the magic word -- come on lawyers out there, where's the magic word? -- Insanity. Marihuana use, said the Government, would produce insanity.
And, sure enough, in the late 30s and early 40s, in five really flamboyant murder trials, the defendant's sole defense was that he — or, in the most famous of them, she — was not guilty by reason of insanity for having used marijuana prior to the commission of the crime.
All right, it's time to take you guys back to class here. If you are going to put on an insanity defense, what do you need? You need two things, don't you? Number one, you need an Expert Witness.
Where, oh where, in this story, are we going to find an expert witness? Here it comes -- sure enough -- the guy from Temple University -- the guy with the dogs. I promise you, you are not going to believe this.
In the most famous of these trials, what happened was two women jumped on a Newark, New Jersey bus and shot and killed and robbed the bus driver. They put on the marijuana insanity defense. The defense called the pharmacologist, and of course, you know how to do this now, you put the expert on, you say "Doctor, did you do all of this experimentation and so on?" You qualify your expert. "Did you write all about it?" "Yes, and I did the dogs" and now he is an expert. Now you ask him what? You ask the doctor "What have you done with the drug?" And he said, and I quote, "I've experimented with the dogs, I have written something about it and" — are you ready — "I have used the drug myself."
What do you ask him next? "Doctor, when you used the drug, what happened?"
With all the press present at this flamboyant murder trial in Newark New Jersey, in 1938, the pharmacologist said, and I quote, in response to the question "When you used the drug, what happened?", his exact response was: "After two puffs on a marijuana cigarette, I was turned into a bat.
He wasn't done yet. He testified that he flew around the room for fifteen minutes and then found himself at the bottom of a two-hundred-foot high ink well.

Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

Heed the Dormouse.

Outstanding post, and historical perspective. going to research this info. It is certainly cultural. Right up there with William Randolph Hearst damning HEMP in the same category as negro jazz players on marijuana. All because of his paper pulpwood pals monopoly vs. the much cheaper sourced hemp paper from canada and wester US growers. He got it banned. Hemp.