Did you know that America’s founding fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, grew hemp? Yet today, as legalization spreads across various states, cannabis remains federally illegal in the United States. So, how did a plant that was once a staple of American agriculture and medicine become heavily criminalized?

The short answer is prejudice. The long answer involves xenophobia, sensationalist media, and bureaucratic maneuvering. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the history of cannabis prohibition, outlining the key figures who orchestrated it and their true motivations.

The Early Days: From Medicine to the “Marijuana Menace”

Until the early 20th century, marijuana was largely unregulated in the U.S. and was used in a variety of ways. It was a common ingredient in mainstream medicines used to treat ailments ranging from asthma and epilepsy to cholera and opiate addiction.

The cultural tide began to shift around the time of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. A large number of Mexican immigrants moved to the United States, bringing with them the tradition of smoking “marihuana” for recreational use and relaxation. Hysterical claims about the drug quickly began to circulate, and the fear and prejudice directed at these Spanish-speaking newcomers became intrinsically linked to the plant itself.

The Key Players in Prohibition

1. Harry J. Anslinger: The Bureaucrat

Harry J. Anslinger served as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), an agency established in 1930. Initially, Anslinger seemed unaware of marijuana’s purported dangers and didn’t care much about the drug. However, he soon turned the fight against marijuana into an all-out war.

Why the sudden change of heart? Some believe his motivations were less about public safety and more about justifying the existence of his newly created department to build a bureaucratic empire. Anslinger launched a highly publicized campaign that relied heavily on racism. He claimed that the majority of pot smokers were minorities, such as African Americans, and baselessly asserted that the drug induced violence or insanity in these groups. He also intentionally popularized the term “marijuana”—the Spanish Mexican word for cannabis—to emphasize the drug’s foreignness and tap into the racial prejudice of the American public.

2. William Randolph Hearst: The Media Mogul

Anslinger didn’t act alone; he had the powerful backing of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Hearst’s vast media empire utilized “yellow journalism” to publish sensationalized and distorted stories about marijuana to manipulate public opinion. For instance, a 1927 headline blared, “Mexican Family Go Insane” after consuming the plant.

Hearst reportedly had self-serving financial interests in making marijuana illegal. Together, Anslinger and Hearst relied on these exaggerated claims of murder and mayhem—which Anslinger compiled into his infamous “Gore File”—rather than any actual evidence of a crisis. Their combined efforts culminated in the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which effectively criminalized the drug nationwide and wiped out the industrial hemp industry in the process.

3. Richard Nixon: The Modern Architect

While the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1969, the prohibition train didn’t stop. The administration of President Richard Nixon encouraged Congress to create a new drug classification system. This resulted in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which cemented federal drug policy and classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug, placing it alongside heroin and LSD. This classification legally asserted that marijuana had a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.

Furthermore, Nixon actively resisted reform. In 1972, the bipartisan Shafer Commission—which Nixon himself had appointed—determined that the personal use of marijuana should be decriminalized. Nixon outright rejected this recommendation. The following year, he further solidified federal anti-drug efforts by creating the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The Legacy of Prohibition

Ultimately, the federal prohibition of marijuana did not occur because the drug posed a true, scientifically proven threat to society. Instead, it was driven by money, xenophobia, racism, and political agendas.

Today, as we witness a wave of state-level decriminalization and medical legalization, we are still untangling the complex web of laws woven by figures like Anslinger, Hearst, and Nixon nearly a century ago.