Samuel Caldwell Case Summary

On October 2nd, 1937, Samuel Caldwell was arrested in Kansas for selling two marijuana cigarettes to a regular man named Moses Baca. Caldwell was an unemployed man, due to the Great Depression, and selling marijuana was a way for him to make a few bucks. Caldwell was the first person arrested in the United States for selling marijuana. In fact, when his arrest took place the day after marijuana was criminalized, Caldwell most likely had no idea that what he was doing was even illegal. However, none of this mattered to the judge who sentenced him to four years of hard labor and a Kansas penitentiary, saying, “I consider marijuana the worst of all narcotics, far worse than the use of morphine or cocaine. Under its influence, men become beasts.

During the prohibition era, smugglers known as Rum Runners would bring alcohol illegally into the states through the Caribbean in order to supply speakeasies. His first official order of business was to work with the British government in order to strengthen and enforce prohibition legislation in the Atlantic, and even rally for stronger anti-smuggling laws in places such as Scotia and Cuba. The department of treasury recognized Anslinger's hard work during prohibition, and in 1929, he was promoted to Assistant Commissioner of the Prohibition Department. In this new-found role, Anslinger was responsible for leading the Federal Narcotics Control Board, which propelled his professional journey in post-Prohibition America. This is the first step that allowed Anslinger to continue his unyielding and tenacious stance on drug policy. After consuming many intricate and detailed accounts of Henry Anslinger and his life, it has become clear that even he himself knew his actions were objectively wrong. Anslinger's appointment as commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930 marked the beginning of his influence on drug policy. Anslinger's approach to this new title, however, was not based on scientific

Jazz in its human form is the exact opposite of Harry Anslinger. Free flowing, relaxing yet upbeat, and worst of all for Harry, it was comprised of European, Caribbean and African influences. In 1941, 4 years after cannabis had been criminalized, the plant was finally removed from the United States pharmacopeia and national formulary where it had previously been listed as a treatment for more than 100 medical issues. During this time, Anslinger was specifically targeting jazz musicians because of their notorious usage of the plant. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics kept a file called “marijuana and musicians” which contained all the data gathered by the FBN agents regarding well known jazz artists including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and dozens of other musicians. All this comes from Anslinger's personal persecution against black culture. It seems clear as day, with added insight from author Johann Hari in his book Chasing The Scream, that Anslinger targeted specific aspects of black culture to associate them with evil tendencies. One quote from Anslinger provided by Hari about jazz nastily explains how jazz sounds “like the jungles in the dead of the night”, and that the lives of jazzmen “reek of