Federal Bureau of Narcotics

A chemist from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, who was in Bolivia to observe clandestine cocaine operations, related the following step-by-step procedure for manufacturing cocaine. The method can be conveniently divided into three major steps (1) extraction of cocaine from the leaf and chemical conversion to the sulfate (2) treatment of cocaine sulfate with potassium permanganate and conversion to the free base (aka paste) and (3) conversion of the paste or free base to cocaine hydrochloride. In general, steps (1) and (2) are carried out in sulfate labs while step (3) is performed in crystal labs. 

President Herbert Hoover creates the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed by former Prohibition agent Harry Anslinger. Anslinger focuses much of his efforts on combating the growing popularity of marijuana among Mexican immigrants and jazz aficionados. 

Federal Bureau of Narcotics, forerunner of the modern Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), begins a campaign that portrayed marijuana as a drug that led users to drug addiction, violence, and insanity. The government produced films such as Marihuana (1935), Reefer Madness (1936), and Assassin of Youth (1937). 

In 1930, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was formed. By 1931, at least 29 states had prohibited use of marijuana for nonmedical... 

Establishment of Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now known as Drug Enforcement Administration) (1930)... 

In 1937, readers of American Magazine were aroused by yet another hysteria-rousing version, this time written by the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger ... 

On August 12, 1930, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was created as an independent unit in the Treasury Department and Harry J. Anslinger was appointed the bureau s first commissioner of narcotics by President Hoover. 

Articles were prepared in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, at the request of a number of organizations dealing with this general subject [uniform state drag laws] for publication by such organizations in magazines and newspapers. An intelligent and sympathetic public interest, helpful to the administration of the narcotic laws has been aroused and maintained. 

A number of minor transient effects were observed such as euphoria, anxiety, relaxation, nervousness, hunger, thirst, disorientation, loss of motor coordination, impaired learning and memory, and in some instances, mild psychotic reactions consisting of "mental confusion and excitement of a delirious nature with periods of laughter and of anxiety. " Contrary to the position of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics the committee found that... 

In essence, the findings of the committee were totally in opposition to the statements issued by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and newspaper reports from around the country. 

Up until recently, these two tests, in conjunction with botanical examination of plant samples, were the methods relied upon by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in identifying marihuana. 

In 1968, the first "double-blind" study (in which neither the researcher nor the subject knows if marihuana or some inert placebo is being tested at the time) was reported by a group of Harvard scientists. Although the study was sanctioned by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the scientists noted that "we do not consider it appropriate to describe here the opposition we encountered from governmental agents and agencies and from university bureaucracies."... 

In 1930 the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was established and its crusading Commissioner, Harry J. Anslinger, began an extensive nation-wide anti-marijuana campaign laced with horror stories of rape and murder perpetrated while under the influence of the diabolic weed. By 1937 every state, either by adoption of the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act of 1932 or by separate legislation, had prohibited marijuana use. In late 1937, Federal controls were added by enactment of the Marihuana Tax Act. 

Only a few people testified during that brief 1937 hearing. The first speaker was Harry Anslinger, the newly named commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger gave a very short testimony based on hearsay and unproven reports, which he summed up with the words, Marihuana is an addictive drug, which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death. ... 

Soon after the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act, Commissioner Anslinger appointed James C. Munch, the researcher who had injected marijuana into dog brains, to be the Federal Bureau of Narcotics expert on marijuana. He held that position unril 1962. 

Meanwhile, Anslinger was beginning to develop doubts that marijuana was the culprit in the murder cases, and he was bothered by the successful marijuana insanity defenses. He wrote to Munch and told him that if he did not stop testifying for the defense, he would be fired as the official marijuana expert of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The pharmacologist stopped testifying, and since there were no other marijuana experts around at the time, the insanity by marijuana defenses ended. By then, though, marijuana had become known as a drug that turned people into insane killers. 

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