The mythology of marijuana
Let’s get past the propaganda and allow doctors to prescribe marijuana, argues forensic pathologist CYRIL WECHT
Over the course of my 52-year professional career as a forensic pathologist and medicolegal consultant, I have been involved in numerous civil and criminal lawsuits dealing with various kinds of drugs — prescription, over-the-counter and illicit. Some of these cases have been quite significant, including a few that have been the subject of congressional hearings.
Product liability and medical malpractice lawsuits involving drugs frequently result in multimillion-dollar verdicts. In other instances, the determination of which drugs may have led to someone’s death may provide the evidentiary basis for charging the provider with homicide.
Occasionally, some questions and doubts remain among medical practitioners as to the effectiveness of a particular drug and when it should be prescribed. However, almost all drug-related issues of this sort eventually get resolved. Some dangerous drugs have been removed from the marketplace, while others have been modified. Many times, pharmaceutical companies have been obliged to issue more definitive warnings about potential adverse drug reactions. There have been few longlingering debates of a highly contentious, emotional nature.
There is one fascinating exception: marijuana.
Amazingly, the intellectual, medical, legal, societal and governmental debates about cannabis sativa continue with no definitive official resolution in sight.
What is the principal reason for the inability of our society to decide whether marijuana should become a legally prescribed drug?
The answer is Harry Anslinger.
Demonizing marijuana
Born in Altoona in 1892, Anslinger married a niece of Andrew W. Mellon, who, as secretary of the treasury, appointed Anslinger as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and started him off with a budget of $100,000 in 1930. Anslinger remained the head of the bureau for 32 years.
Harry Anslinger never became too concerned about heroin in those years because it was looked upon essentially as a problem limited to the AfricanAmerican community and worthless drug addicts. What turned him on was the increasing use of marijuana among Caucasian high school and college students.
Anslinger undertook a propaganda campaign against marijuana that was even more intensive than the one directed at alcohol during the years of Prohibition. This campaign was mimicked in later years by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (a heroin addict and close friend of Anslinger’s) vis-avis allegations of communism.
I recall the movie “Reefer Madness” that Anslinger was largely responsible for, an incredible example of government-orchestrated propaganda that has been viewed on college campuses since the 1960s as a delightful parody.
The mythology of marijuana orchestrated by the vicious bias and intense zealotry of Anslinger became deeply embedded in the minds of Americans, and it has remained essentially unchallenged by mainstream society for more than 70 years.