From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the
United States, the
1937 Marihuana Tax Act, Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937), was one of the cornerstone bills that led to the criminalization of
cannabis. It was introduced to
U.S. Congress by
Harry Anslinger, then Commissioner of the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics.
The act did not itself criminalize the possession or usage of cannabis, but levied a tax equalling roughly one dollar on anyone who dealt commercially in marijuana. It did, however, include penalty provisions. Violations of proper procedure could result in a fine of up to $2000 and five years' imprisonment. The net effect was to make it too risky for anyone to deal in the substance.
The bill was passed on the grounds that cannabis caused "murder, insanity and death". Today, it is generally accepted that these reasons were fictitious; in 1951, Anslinger himself claimed that he had no evidence to support such a thesis. However, new reasons had emerged by then, which pushed through a bill that superseded the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.
In 1969 in
Leary v. United States, this act was found to be unconstitutional since it violated the
Fifth Amendment, since a person seeking the tax stamp would have to incriminate him/herself.
[1] In response the Congress passed the
Controlled Substances Act as Title II of the
Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970[2]. The 1937 Act was repealed by the 1970 Act.
Although modern America uses the spelling "marijuana", in keeping with the most common spelling, the correct spelling for the Marihuana Tax Act is "Marihuana". "Marihuana" was the spelling most commonly used in Federal Government documents at the time. In keeping with prior law, it is still spelled "Marihuana" in some congressional bills such as
HR 3037, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005.
