[Wolfie]

The first marijuana law was passed in 1937. Interestingly, the Gov't still respected the Cosntitution enough to ban it in the form of a tax law (thus, it was known as the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act). Harry J. Ainslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics boys were really in a quandary over how to get this accomplished without raising the dreaded "P" word (Prohibition, which, when repealed, coincidentally put ol' Harry out of a job), but were ecstatic to find precedence for passing a law requiring a Tax Stamp for an item, and then refusing to issue the Stamps, thereby de facto outlawing said item. The model which they were so happy to discover was the Machine Gun Tax Stamp from a few years earlier.

[ken5050]

When did Coca Cola take the "coke" out of Coke?

[E Rocc]

The first marijuana law was passed in 1937. Interestingly, the Gov't still respected the Cosntitution enough to ban it in the form of a tax law (thus, it was known as the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act). Harry J. Ainslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics boys were really in a quandary over how to get this accomplished without raising the dreaded "P" word (Prohibition, which, when repealed, coincidentally put ol' Harry out of a job), but were ecstatic to find precedence for passing a law requiring a Tax Stamp for an item, and then refusing to issue the Stamps, thereby de facto outlawing said item. The model which they were so happy to discover was the Machine Gun Tax Stamp from a few years earlier.

Both of these laws were, as mentioned, passed to give the Prohibition bureaucracy something to do. "Unintended Consequences" has an excellent review of the (non)constitutionality of the 1934 Gun Control Act.

-Eric

[justlurking]

The model which they were so happy to discover was the Machine Gun Tax Stamp from a few years earlier.

Actually, the prototype for the National Firearms Act in 1934 (for a variety of firearms and firearm accessories) was the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914.

If you read the Congressional record of committee hearings on NFA '34, you will find exactly this: the Attorney General assuring that it would be constitutional because the Harrison Narcotic Act had already survived scrutiny by the Supreme Court.

[aristeides]

Actually, the first federal antidrug legislation, the Harrison Act (of 1913?), was also in form a tax act, and was upheld by the Supreme Court as a tax act, even though the feds have never made any attempt to collect the tax, and I believe I have read that, when once somebody tried to pay the tax, he found that the feds had provided no mechanism by which he could.