Editing Marihuana Tax Act of 1937

{{Short description|American law placing a tax on cannabis}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle = Marijuana Tax Act of 1937
| othershorttitles = {{unbulleted list|1937 Marihuana Tax Act|The Taxation of Marijuana}}
| longtitle = An Act to impose an occupational excise tax upon certain dealers in marijuana, to impose a transfer tax upon certain dealings in marijuana, and to safeguard the revenue there from by registry and recording.
| colloquialacronym = MTA
| nickname = 
| enacted by = 75th
| effective date = October 1, 1937
| public law url = http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/hemp/taxact/mjtaxact.htm
| cite public law = 75-238
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|50|551}}
| acts amended = 
| acts repealed = 
| title amended = <!--US code titles changed-->
| sections created = <!--{{USC}} can be used-->
| sections amended = 
| leghisturl = 
| introducedin = House
| introducedbill = {{USbill|75|H.R.|6906}}
| introducedby = [[Robert L. Doughton]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]–[[North Carolina|NC]])
| introduceddate = May 11, 1937
| committees = [[United States House Committee on Ways and Means|House Ways and Means Committee]], [[United States Senate Committee on Finance|Senate Committee on Finance]]
| passedbody1 = 
| passeddate1 = 
| passedvote1 = 
| passedbody2 = 
| passedas2 = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->
| passeddate2 = 
| passedvote2 = 
| conferencedate = 
| passedbody3 = 
| passeddate3 = 
| passedvote3 = 
| agreedbody3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreeddate3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedvote3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedbody4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreeddate4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreedvote4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| passedbody4 = 
| passeddate4 = 
| passedvote4 = 
| signedpresident = [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]
| signeddate = August 2, 1937
| amendments = 
| SCOTUS cases = '''Struck down by U.S. Supreme Court''' in ''[[Leary v. United States]]'' on May 19, 1969
| unsignedpresident = 
| vetoedpresident = 
}}
{{US drug laws}}
The '''Marihuana Tax Act of 1937''', {{USStatute|75|238|50|551|1937|8|2}}, was a [[United States]] Act that placed a tax on the sale of [[Cannabis (drug)|cannabis]]. The H.R. 6385 act was drafted by [[Harry Anslinger]] and introduced by Rep. [[Robert L. Doughton]] of [[North Carolina]], on April 14, 1937. The [[Seventy-fifth United States Congress]] held hearings on April 27, 28, 29th, 30th, and May 4, 1937. Upon the congressional hearings confirmation, the H.R. 6385 act was redrafted as H.R. 6906 and introduced with House Report 792. The Act is referred to, using the modern  spelling, as the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. It was overturned in 1969 in ''[[Leary v. United States]]'', and was repealed by Congress the next year.<ref>For repeal, see section 1101(b)(3), Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Pub. L. No. 91-513, 84 Stat. 1236, 1292 (Oct. 27, 1970) (repealing the Marihuana Tax Act which had been codified in Subchapter A of Chapter 39 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954).</ref>

==Background==
Regulations and restrictions on the sale of [[Cannabis sativa]] as a drug began as early as 1906 (see [[Legal history of cannabis in the United States]]). The head of the [[Federal Bureau of Narcotics]] (FBN), [[Harry J. Anslinger]], alleged, in the 1930s, the FBN had an increase of reports of people using marijuana.<ref name="anslinger">[http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/murd3.htm Harry J. Anslinger, U. S. Commissioner of Narcotics and Will Oursler : The Murderers, the story of the narcotic gangs, Pages: 541-554, 1961]</ref> In 1935, he gained the support of president [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] lobbying states to adoption the model [[Uniform State Narcotic Act]] to regulate of cannabis.<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/History/e1930/rooseveltasks.htm ROOSEVELT ASKS NARCOTIC WAR AID, 1935]</ref> The Marihuana Tax Act, according to Clinton Hester, the then-Assistant General Counsel to the United States Treasury Department,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Statement of Clinton M. Hester, Assistant General Counsel, Treasury Dept. |url=https://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t2.htm |access-date=2024-04-02 |website=www.druglibrary.org}}</ref> was itself based on the [[National Firearms Act]] and the [[Harrison Narcotics Tax Act]]: 

{{Quote|text=''"The primary purpose of this legislation must be to raise revenue, because we are resorting to the taxing clause of the Constitution and the rule is that if on the face of the fill it appears to be a revenue bill, the courts will not inquire into any other motives that the Congress may have had in enacting this legislation.''

''This bill is modeled on the Harrison Narcotics Act and the National Firearms Act. The Harrison Narcotics Act has been sustained by the Supreme Court, the first time by a 5-to-4 decision, and a second time by a 6-to-3 decision. The Supreme Court in March of this year [in Sonzinsky v. United States] sustained the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act, insofar as it related to the occupational tax."''}}

The total production of [[hemp]] fiber in the United States in 1933 decreased to around 500 tons per year. Cultivation of hemp began to increase in 1934 and 1935, but production remained low compared with other fibers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gametec.com/hemp/fiberwars/chp8fr.html |title=David P. West: Fiber Wars: The Extinction of Kentucky Hemp chapter 8 |access-date=2011-03-08 |archive-date=2011-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711071803/http://www.gametec.com/hemp/fiberwars/chp8fr.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/mhc3.htm STATEMENT OF DR. A. H. WRIGHT, 1938]</ref><ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/nugent1.htm  H.T. NUGENT: COMMERCIALIZED HEMP (1934-35 CROP) in the STATE OF MINNESOTA]</ref>

[[File:Hanfstengel.jpg|thumb|left|Hemp, [[bast fibre|bast]] with fibers. The stem, which can become [[hemp hurds]], in the middle.]]

Interested parties write that the aim of the Act was to reduce the hemp industry through excessive taxation<ref name="nafta-neocolonialism-129">{{cite book|last=French|first=Laurence|author2=Magdaleno Manzanárez|title=NAFTA & neocolonialism: comparative criminal, human & social justice|publisher=University Press of America|year=2004|pages=129|isbn=978-0-7618-2890-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ozF1Yg-c4MC&pg=PA129}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Understanding marijuana: a new look at the scientific evidence|author=Mitchell Earlywine|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-19-518295-8|page=24|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9wPbxMAG8cC&pg=PA24}}</ref><ref name="under-influence-55">{{cite book|last=Peet|first=Preston|title=Under the influence: the disinformation guide to drugs|publisher=The Disinformation Company|year=2004|pages=55|isbn=978-1-932857-00-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uC0_YznYjScC&pg=PA55}}</ref> largely as an effort of businessmen [[Andrew Mellon]], [[Randolph Hearst]], and the [[Du Pont family]].<ref name="nafta-neocolonialism-129" /><ref name="under-influence-55" /> The same parties argue that with the invention of the [[decorticator]], hemp was an economical replacement for [[paper pulp]] in the newspaper industry.<ref name="nafta-neocolonialism-129" /><ref>{{cite book|title=Bound in twine: the history and ecology of the henequen-wheat complex for Mexico and the American and Canadian Plains, 1880-1950|author=Sterling Evans|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-1-58544-596-7|page=27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wFkZgyuGFAC&pg=PA27}}</ref> Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst realized cheap, sustainable, and easily-grown hemp threatened his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, [[Secretary of the Treasury]] and the wealthiest man in the US, invested heavily in the Du Pont family's new synthetic fiber, [[nylon]], to compete with hemp.<ref name="nafta-neocolonialism-129" /> 1916, [[United States Department of Agriculture]] (USDA) chief scientists Jason L. Merrill and [[Lyster Hoxie Dewey|Lyster H. Dewey]] created a paper, USDA Bulletin No. 404 "Hemp Hurds as Paper-Making Material", in which they concluded this paper from the woody inner portion of the hemp stem broken into pieces, the 'hemp hurds', was "favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood".<ref>Lyster H. Dewey and Jason L. Merrill [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17855 ''Hemp Hurds as Paper-Making Material''] [[USDA]] Bulletin No. 404, Washington, D.C., October 14, 1916, p.25</ref> Dewey and Merrill believed hemp hurds were a sustainable source for paper production. The concentration of cellulose in hemp hurds is generally around 35%.<ref name="Werf">{{cite web|url=http://www.hempfood.com/iha/iha01213.html |title=Hayo M.G. van der Werf : Hemp facts and hemp fiction |publisher=Hempfood.com |access-date=2011-04-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711162333/http://www.hempfood.com/iha/iha01213.html |archive-date=2011-07-11}}</ref>  Manufacture of paper -- on equipment designed to use wood-pulp -- with hemp as a raw material shows hemp lacks the qualities needed to become a major competitor to the traditional paper industry. 2003, 95% of the hemp hurds in the [[European Union|EU]] were used for animal bedding, almost 5% were used as building material.<ref name="michael">{{cite journal |title=Michael Karus: European Hemp Industry 2002 Cultivation, Processing and Product Lines. Journal of Industrial Hemp Volume 9 Issue 2 2004, Taylor & Francis, London |publisher=Informaworld.com }}</ref> Spokespersons from DuPont and many fiber manufacturers dispute a link between their promotion of nylon over hemp. They explain that the purpose of developing nylon was to produce a fiber competitive with [[silk]] and [[rayon]].<ref>[http://www.caimateriali.org/index.php?id=32 Prof. L. Trossarelli: -the history of nylon, Prof. L. Trossarelli]</ref><ref name="Wolfe">{{cite journal|year=2008|title=Nylon: A Revolution in Textiles|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/nylon-a-revolution-in-textiles|journal=Chemical Heritage Magazine|volume=26|issue=3|last1=Wolfe|first1=Audra J.|access-date=20 March 2018}}</ref><ref>[https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/carotherspolymers/first-nylon-plant-historical-resource.pdf American Chemical Society: THE FIRST NYLON PLANT. 1995]</ref>

The [[American Medical Association]] (AMA) opposed the taxation because the tax was imposed on physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and [[medical cannabis]] [[Cannabis cultivation|cultivation]]/manufacturing. The AMA proposed cannabis instead be added to the [[Harrison Narcotics Tax Act]] which would have been more efficient and created less burden on doctors.<ref name="Woodward">{{cite web|url=http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/hemp/taxact/woodward.htm|title=Statement of Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Counsel, American Medical Association|access-date=2006-03-25}}</ref> Dr. [[William Creighton Woodward]], legislative counsel for the AMA, testified on behalf of the AMA.<ref name="ReferenceA">Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, 75c 2s. HR6906. Library of Congress transcript. July 12, 1937</ref> He stated that the claims about marijuana addiction, violence, and overdosage were not supported, and that the law should not burden further investigation into medical use.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

After hearings with lawyers from Du Pont Chemicals and the Hearst Newspapers Group, the taxation was passed on the grounds of 'differing' reports<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t10a.htm The Marijuana Tax Act, Reports]</ref> and hearings.<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/taxact.htm The Marijuana Tax Act]</ref> Anslinger also referred to the [[International Opium Convention]] from 1928 included cannabis as a drug not a medicine. All state legislatures approved laws against improper use of cannabis based on the model [[Uniform State Narcotic Act]]. By 1951, however, spokespeople from Du Pont, Hearst and others came up with new improved rationalizations, and the [[Boggs Act]] superseded the Marihuana Taxation Act of 1937.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} In August 1954, the [[Internal Revenue Code]] of 1954 was enacted, and the Marihuana Taxation Act was included in Subchapter A of Chapter 39 of the 1954 Code.

==Operation of the act==
[[File:Marihuana revenue stamp $1 1937 issue.jpg|thumb|right|230px|[[Overprint]] marijuana [[revenue stamp]]s from 1937]]
Shortly after the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act went into effect on October 1, 1937, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Denver City police arrested Moses Baca for possession and [[Samuel R. Caldwell|Samuel Caldwell]] for dealing. Baca and Caldwell's arrest made them the first marijuana convictions under U.S. federal law for not paying the marijuana tax.  Judge Foster Symes sentenced Baca to 18 months and Caldwell to four years in [[Leavenworth Penitentiary]] for violating the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.

After the Philippines fell to Japanese forces in 1942, the Department of Agriculture and the US Army urged farmers to grow fiber [[hemp]].  Tax stamps for cultivation of fiber hemp began to be issued to farmers. Without any change in the Marihuana Tax Act, {{convert|400,000|acre|km2}} were cultivated with hemp between 1942 and 1945. The last commercial hemp fields were planted in Wisconsin in 1957.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html |title=David P. West:Hemp and Marijuana:Myths & Realities |access-date=2010-12-07 |archive-date=2016-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120132152/http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1967, President Johnson's [[President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice|Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice]] opined, "The Act raises an insignificant amount of revenue and exposes an insignificant number of marijuana transactions to public view, since only a handful of people are registered under the Act. It has become, in effect, solely a criminal law, imposing sanctions upon persons who sell, acquire, or possess marijuana."<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.net/special/king/dhu/dhu12.htm Balancing the Grass Account<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

In 1969 in ''[[Leary v. United States]]'', part of the Act was ruled to be unconstitutional as a violation of the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]], since a person seeking the tax stamp would have to incriminate him/herself.<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/e1960/learyvus.htm ''Timothy Leary v. United States'', 395 U.S. 6, 89 S. Ct. 1532 (1969)]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.boulderweekly.com/features/weed-between-the-lines/marihuana-tax-act-of-1937-rises-from-the-dead/|title=Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 rises from the dead - Boulder Weekly|last=Kriho|first=Laura|date=2013-10-31|language=en-US|access-date=2016-09-11}}</ref> In response the Congress passed the [[Controlled Substances Act]] as Title II of the [[Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970]],<ref>{{USStatute|91|513|84|1236|1970|10|27}}</ref> which repealed the 1937 Act.

==Etymology==
{{main|Marijuana (word)|l1=''Marijuana'' (word)}}

Although the spelling "marijuana" is common in current use, the spelling used in the Marihuana Taxation Act is "marihuana". "Marihuana" was the spelling used in Federal documents at the time.

In addition, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 legitimized the use of the term "marijuana" as a label for hemp and cannabis plants and products in the US and around the world. Prior to 1937, "marijuana" was slang; it was not included in any official dictionaries.<ref>Webster's New International Dictionary, p. 1318, G. & C. Merriam Company (1921).</ref> The word ''marijuana'' is probably of Mexican origin.  Mexico passed prohibition for export to the US in 1925 following the International Opium Convention.<ref>{{cite news|title=MEXICO BANS MARIHUANA.; To Stamp Out Drug Plant Which Crazes Its Addicts.|newspaper=New York Times|date=December 29, 1925|location=New York City|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/12/29/archives/mexico-bans-marihuana-to-stamp-out-drug-plant-which-crazes-its.html}}</ref>  In the years leading up to the taxation act, it was in common use in the United States, "smoked like tobacco", and called "ganjah", or "ganja".<ref>The American Agriculturist Family Cyclopaedia, 751 Broadway, New York, copyright:1888, by [[A. L. Burt]]</ref><ref>Webster's New International Dictionary, 1921, published by G.& C. Merriam Co., Springfield Massachusetts</ref>

==The La Guardia Committee Report==
The only authoritative voice that opposed [[Harry J. Anslinger|Anslinger]]'s campaign against cannabis was that of [[New York City|New York]] Mayor, [[Fiorello La Guardia]], who appointed in 1938 a commission of investigation, and in 1944 strongly objected to Anslinger's campaign with the [[La Guardia Committee]].<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/lag/lagmenu.htm The La Guardia Committee Report]</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Legal history of cannabis in the United States]]
*''[[Hemp for Victory]]'' (1942) a [[United States Department of Agriculture]] war-time film encouraging farmers to grow hemp suitable for [[U.S. Navy]] [[hawser]] requirements.
*''[[Reefer Madness]]'', propagandistic film of 1936.
*[[La Guardia Committee]], the first in depth study into the effects of smoking marijuana.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[https://www.jstor.org/stable/800089 The Puzzle of the Social Origins of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937] John F. Galliher, Allynn Walker Social Problems, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Feb., 1977), pp.&nbsp;367–376
*[http://www.marijuana-tax-stamps.com/samuel-caldwell.php Samuel R. Caldwell], First Person Jailed for the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.
*[https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/702692 William B. McAllister, "Harry Anslinger Saves the World: National Security Imperatives and the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act," The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 33, no. 1 (Spring 2019): 37-62.]

== External links ==
* [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/mjtaxact.htm Full Text of the Marihuana Tax Act as passed in 1937]
* [http://www.herbalsmokecafe.com/marijuana-tax-stamps.html Marijuana Tax Stamps: History of the Marihuana Tax Act with photos of government issued tax stamps]
* [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/taxact.htm Full transcripts of the congressional hearings for the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937]

{{cannabis}}
{{Cannabis in the United States}}
{{Hemp in the United States}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marihuana Tax Act Of 1937}}
[[Category:Marihuana Tax Act of 1937| ]]
[[Category:1937 in American law]]
[[Category:1937 in cannabis]]
[[Category:Cannabis law in the United States]]
[[Category:Cannabis law reform in the United States]]
[[Category:History of drug control in the United States]]
[[Category:United States federal controlled substances legislation]]
[[Category:United States federal taxation legislation]]
[[Category:Cannabis prohibition]]
[[Category:October 1937 in the United States]]