0:03 from Every Mountain and Valley the world
0:06 over are flowers and plants of simple
0:09 beauty some hold a natural wonder
0:13 chemicals that soothe pain and Inspire
0:15 Euphoria at times they've been hailed as
0:19 a gift of heaven but in the last century
0:21 they've been condemned as a scourge of
0:27 man once marijuana cocaine opium ecstasy
0:31 LSD even heroin were perfect ly legal
0:35 today they compel a War on Drugs did
0:39 these plants and drugs change or did
0:43 we drugs are menacing our society it's
0:47 like a 5H hour orgasm wisely can produce
0:54 nose marijuana has been an Enemy of the
0:56 State since the first federal law was
1:00 enacted against it in 1937
1:03 since that time 20 million Americans
1:05 have been arrested convicted and
1:08 incarcerated for using the most popular
1:09 drug in the [Music]
1:15 [Music]
1:18 world your honor in this case the state
1:21 waves trial of the defendant Ralph Wy it
1:23 is convinced that he is Hocus incurably
1:25 insane a condition caused by the drug
1:27 marijuana to which he was
1:30 addicted the law is only one deterrent
1:32 and not that effective the government
1:36 relied on something else education
1:38 films this harmless looking cigarette is
1:41 cloaked in many innocent disguises but
1:45 light the match inhale the smoke and it
1:48 becomes an invitation to your own murder
1:49 they had to now control something that
1:51 was growing all over the United States
1:55 as a weed so they relied mostly on Words
1:57 uh because they didn't have many other
2:00 resources to uh to devote to it I think
2:07 madens that's better that's more like it
2:09 I know you like that really you will
2:10 just take
2:13 a though marijuana is now a household
2:15 name there was a time when it was an
2:18 obscure drug used only by the fringes of
2:21 society that some argue is the reason
2:23 why it was
2:25 criminalized drugs are illegal because
2:27 they do cause problems the ones that are
2:30 illicit drugs health problems
2:33 um uh crime related problems violence
2:35 related problems but it's also true that
2:38 none of the drugs currently uh illegal
2:40 became illegal before they were most
2:42 closely associated with uh what we're
2:44 commonly regarded as deviant groups one
2:46 of the girls was telling me about a new
2:49 cigarette that peps you up oh you mean
2:51 Reapers yes that's the name of them
2:54 would you like to try one sure why not
3:01 [Music]
3:03 marijuana's trip from a weed to
3:07 America's Archen enemy in a $400 billion
3:10 drug war begins with its [Music]
3:18 chemistry smoking pot draws the active
3:21 ingredient Delta 9 Tetra hydr canaban or
3:25 THC into the lungs and onto the brain
3:27 there it suppresses the neurons causing
3:30 a distortion of perception in time
3:32 a lack of coordination and sometimes uncontrollable
3:47 [Music] [Applause]
3:49 [Applause] [Music]
3:54 [Music]
3:56 hilarity within 4 seconds of the first
4:00 drag muscles relax eyes readen puls rate
4:03 quickens Euphoria heightened sensitivity
4:06 or paranoid feelings arise in the user
4:08 an experience that dates back to the
4:12 dawn of time Herodotus records some of
4:14 the earliest uses of cannabis by the
4:17 scans and what they did was they would
4:19 build a big bonfire in the middle of the
4:22 camp and they would Heap a bunch of
4:24 marijuana on top of it and then they
4:25 would throw a tent over it and they
4:27 would all go under the tent and breathe
4:29 the smoke
4:32 and that way they consumed it next to
4:35 Opium marijuana is one of the planet's
4:37 oldest medicines ancient Chinese
4:39 herbalists applied it to stomach pain
4:43 menstrual cramps malaria and
4:45 consumption according to Indian
4:47 mythology Shiva the Hindu goddess of
4:50 creation and destruction endowed man
4:53 with the plant for a joyful Pastime an
4:54 apt Legacy for the drug of the
4:56 generation that preached free love
4:59 challenged Authority and was out to
5:00 change the world [Music]
5:06 cannabis grows anywhere but the Arctic
5:09 Circle the earliest record of its use
5:11 begins in ancient China and India from
5:14 the East cannabis migrated to the rest
5:15 of the
5:17 world Arab traders brought it from the
5:26 Spain from Spain The Conquistadors
5:28 carried it to the Americas it was a
5:31 prized source of fiber for rope and
5:34 canvas essential ingredients for ships
5:37 in fact the word canvas comes from the Latin
5:39 Latin
5:42 cannabis but it was another conqueror
5:45 who introduced the plant to
5:49 Europe 1804 Napoleon bonapart triumphs
5:52 in Egypt during the conquest his army is
5:55 introduced to an intoxicant unseen in
5:57 Europe unlike in France where
6:06 smoked the soldiers fancy cannabis over
6:07 Brandy because it doesn't cause
6:10 hangovers and carry it back to France as
6:12 a spoil of [Music]
6:13 [Music]
6:16 war in Paris it finds favor with the
6:19 Bohemian set with artists authors
6:23 students and prostitutes the poet bodair
6:26 writes under its spell one must be
6:29 forever drunken if you would not feel
6:31 the hor horrible burden of time that
6:33 bruises your shoulders and bends you to
6:35 the Earth you must be drunken without
6:38 cease with wine with poetry with what
6:41 you please be drunken Without
6:45 End from Paris it travels to London as a
6:47 smoking substance and an extract in
6:50 medicine ladies of high society eat
6:53 hashish Confections to lower fevers ease
6:56 stomach pains or any ache at all even a
7:02 Queen Victoria used it for menstrual
7:06 cramps um it was used for insomnia for
7:09 especially for tuberculosis patients who
7:10 had lost their
7:13 appetites um it was also used
7:15 recreationally the Drug's next stop is
7:17 New York where cannabis and hashish
7:19 become one of the many ingredients in
7:22 America's unregulated patent medicine
7:25 industry the writer Fritz Hugh Ludo uses
7:28 it as a recreational intoxicant after
7:30 first taking it for a to toach with
7:33 continued use lllo becomes addicted he
7:36 writes about his experience in Diary of
7:43 1857 when I shut my eyes I dwelt in a
7:46 delicious land of dreams on the wings of
7:48 his speechless music I floated through
7:51 the air and in the cloud valleys played
7:53 hide and seek with
7:55 meteors sometimes these accounts
7:58 magnified and glamorized the drug
8:00 experience and encourage many people to
8:04 follow suit interestingly enough Fitz hu
8:07 Ludo became one of the most Ardent and
8:10 earliest supporters of drug regulation
8:14 through law in the 19th century writing
8:16 quite a few stories for Harpers and for
8:19 various popular magazines on on drug
8:21 addiction in the United States trying to
8:30 it congratulations now you'll [Music]
8:36 [Music]
8:38 living my head is so light it feels like it's
8:39 it's
8:41 floating that's because your troubles
8:44 are all gone try another
8:47 Po in the 19th century marijuana was far
8:49 from the recreational drug of a future
8:52 time by and large its only use comes
8:55 from patent medicines Americans know
8:57 little of smoking it as an intoxicant
9:00 accustom widespread in the east that is
9:03 until Abdul Hamid II Sultan of turkey
9:05 makes a very special birthday gift to
9:07 the American
9:09 people the History Channel now returns
9:12 to hook illegal drugs and how they got
9:14 that way
9:17 1876 a World's Exposition is held in
9:20 Philadelphia to celebrate the 100th
9:22 anniversary of the Declaration of
9:24 Independence on display are the wonders
9:26 of the modern world among them the
9:28 telephone and the personal printing
9:31 press otherwise known as the
9:35 typewriter the Industrial Age has
9:37 arrived at the Turkish Pavilion the
9:40 sultan Abdul Hamid II makes a gift of a
9:42 rare and exotic treat the crowd is
9:45 introduced to smoking marijuana in what
9:47 may have been the first pop party in the
9:49 United States and perhaps the biggest
9:52 until Woodstock 93 years later the
9:54 Sultan's gift ignites a wave of Yankee
9:57 Ingenuity seeing dollar signs in another
10:00 idle pleasure entrepreneurs open Turkish
10:02 smoking parlors in the
10:04 north sometimes people would go to these
10:07 places in great secrecy sort of as a
10:10 lark and they'd be society matrons as
10:13 well as prominent businessmen and they
10:16 would either smoke hashish or eat Hashi
10:19 LED Confections at a time when the
10:21 temperance movement is trying to ban
10:25 alcohol and close saloons smoking parlor
10:27 could have been the alternative way to
10:29 get high but the Parlor closed
10:32 liquor not cannabis continues to be the
10:35 country's drug of choice until a
10:38 constitutional amendment bans booze and
10:45 marijuana New Orleans
10:48 1920 America's second largest port is
10:56 City in this brawling place where blacks
10:58 French Cajun Spanish American Europeans
11:02 and ch Chinese live work and play a new
11:05 music emerges out of the constant clash
11:18 jazz marijuana and Jazz Go Together Like
11:20 A Melody and lyrics where Jazz goes
11:23 reefers follow but there's another
11:26 reason for its widespread use in 1920 it
11:29 is the only legal drug in town even here
11:30 where everything the flesh desires can
11:33 be had prohibition keeps the flow of
11:35 liquor out of sight the choice of a new
11:37 intoxicant becomes the perfectly legal
11:40 weed shipped in from the Caribbean
11:43 Mexico and South America and sold like
11:45 cigarettes in jazz clubs markets and
11:49 pharmacies it is cheap and
11:52 popular but even in Paradise there's
11:54 trouble new orans is in the midst of a
11:56 crime wave murder dominates the
11:58 headlines and attracts William Randolph
12:00 hurst's attention eager for a
12:03 sensational story to
12:06 sell New Orleans was a sort of a source
12:08 the beginning of uh concern about
12:11 marijuana they saw it as linked to Crime
12:16 violent crime or even um predatory crime
12:18 also sometimes it seemed to be related
12:22 to murders uh to rape and so on Hurst
12:25 coins the phrase marijuana Menace and
12:27 prints lurid tales about the Drug's
12:31 capacity to cause rape murder and Mayhem
12:32 just as reports of cocaine crazed
12:34 Negroes a decade ago had stirred
12:37 lawmakers to ban cocaine headlines and
12:39 stories of the marijuana Menace were
12:42 affecting cannabis the same way Society
12:44 worries about its members who are not in
12:46 control of their mind so in order to
12:48 prevent chaos in society limit the use
12:50 of the product or the thing that's
12:53 inducing those kinds of
12:55 effects State lawmakers were quick to
12:57 ban a drug that they identified with
13:00 black violence in
13:01 in
13:05 1924 Louisiana joins 14 other states
13:07 banning the distribution of marijuana
13:09 for non-medical purposes and it gets
13:11 back to the scapegoat so you can
13:12 scapegoat different racial groups you
13:15 can scap scapegoat the uh lower classes
13:16 um you can use the drug to do the
13:20 scapegoating for you you can attack them
13:21 because they're using the
13:24 drug slowly and surely it will be banned
13:27 across the country state by state for
13:30 one reason or another in the southwest
13:31 the reason for a ban on pot was
13:34 economics and Prejudice they were
13:35 worried about all these Mexicans down on
13:39 the Texas border who were uh it was the
13:40 depths of the
13:44 depression and these Mexicans had been
13:47 uh a very useful labor force uh in the
13:49 20s when we needed them but now it's the
13:51 depression you got all these Gringos in
13:53 the bread line you sure as hell don't
13:55 need all these Mexicans so how could we
13:57 stigmatize them and get rid of this
13:58 cheap labor force and get them out of here
14:00 here
14:02 according to the San Antonio Gazette
14:05 quote the men who smoke this herb become
14:07 excited to such an extent that they go
14:10 through periods of near frenzy and worse
14:12 it is always aggressive as the crimes
14:14 which have been committed in Garrison's
14:17 armories barracks and the humble suburbs of
14:19 of
14:23 Mexico in 1931 Mexican repatriation
14:25 becomes law Mexicans who don't go
14:28 quietly are subject to varying forms and
14:31 degrees of harassment many are charged
14:34 with vagrancy others are arrested for
14:37 violation of New State marijuana laws
14:39 laws that are often an excuse to drive
14:42 Mexicans out of the country so in Texas
14:43 for example if you got caught with one
14:45 joint you could get sent to you could
14:48 get sent to jail for life in fact there
14:50 were um uh campaigns in some of the
14:52 states for the death penalty and there
14:56 are cases of um people serving many many
15:02 many years decades in um in jails for
15:04 possession except for a handful of
15:06 states in the southwest marijuana is
15:09 still legal in the United States but
15:10 that will change soon after Harry J
15:12 anslinger the nation's top drug
15:15 enforcement agent takes office at the
15:18 Federal Bureau of narcotics but first
15:20 anslinger must convince Congress to do
15:22 something it has never done before
15:25 Outlaw a weed his chief tactic is to
15:28 convince Congress and the public that a
15:31 weed is the cause of sex and murder a
15:33 message that scares an already fearful
15:37 Depression era America I had to kill
15:40 before they killed me I had to kill him
15:43 can't you understand I had to kill him
15:46 they kill me unless I kill
15:49 them the History Channel now returns to
15:51 hook illegal drugs and how they got that way
16:00 [Music]
16:03 1930 the gay of marijuana collides with
16:06 a nation in despair across the United
16:08 States the Great Depression has brought
16:10 joblessness breadlines and above all
16:23 America let me assert my firm belief
16:27 that the only thing we have to fear is
16:30 fear itself
16:32 but the nation's fear is not just
16:36 economic there are fears of crime and
16:48 alcohol since 1920 alcohol has been
16:55 amendment but after 14 years the law is
16:57 repealed the government now focuses on
17:00 narcotics under a new federal bureau the
17:02 federal bureau narcotics was was
17:05 unprecedented in that it was the sole uh
17:07 autonomous uh Bureau charged with
17:11 enforcing narcotics legislation uh in
17:15 1930 it is headed by a 38-year-old Harry J
17:16 J
17:19 anslinger he had had no particular
17:20 experience with
17:24 drugs and but he came in and what he was
17:25 was a
17:29 complete bureaucrat uh that is he wanted
17:30 to protect his
17:34 agency uh he wanted to keep his budget
17:37 going to anslinger there is nothing
17:39 glamorous about fighting drugs but soon
17:41 he sees that it is one of the most
17:43 important issues of his time endorsed by
17:45 some of the country's most powerful men
17:48 like publisher William Randolph
17:50 Hurst anslinger went to visit Hurst at
17:53 San Simeon Castle I guess it was one
17:55 time and Hurst told him that he
17:58 personally wrote all of the anti-drug
18:01 editorials and the Hurst newspapers and
18:04 I think that uh anslinger himself felt
18:08 that this was a uh kind of a disgusting
18:12 subject like maybe um uh being
18:13 Commissioner of garbage or something
18:15 like this and he was just astounded that
18:18 anyone would you know in who's reverly
18:20 important would care about it the
18:22 bureau's efforts have been aimed at
18:24 fighting heroin in cocaine but with
18:26 enens Slinger's arrival in 1930
18:28 marijuana is the new drug problem born
18:30 out of the trouble in the southwest with
18:32 Mexican migrant
18:35 workers ANS Slinger's first battle with
18:37 marijuana is over who will police it
18:39 there are no federal laws against the
18:41 drug and he wants to keep it that way
18:43 leaving the states to control it not the federal
18:44 federal
18:46 government he had tried to get the
18:49 states to adopt a uniform narcotic law
18:51 which would include cannabis and that
18:53 would allow each state to decide how
18:55 much of its resources it wanted to put
18:58 out for the control of marijuana or
18:59 cannabis and it wouldn't touch his
19:02 budget or his
19:04 agents that had some
19:08 success uh but not complete there was
19:10 continued pressure on the government in
19:12 Washington to do something about these
19:14 Mexican immigrants who smoked marijuana
19:16 and went into town on the weekends and
19:19 and created Havoc Texas California
19:22 Arizona and Colorado insist it's the
19:23 federal government's responsibility to
19:26 do something but anslinger resists he
19:28 has no interest in staking a career on
19:31 combating a weed he has only a staff of
19:34 300 and a $1.5 million budget to battle
19:37 drugs the world over he wants to avoid a
19:40 law that will be difficult to enforce
19:42 and offers a different approach he
19:44 wanted silence if you had to say
19:46 something you made it sound as awful as
19:49 possible and I say marijuana is a killer
19:52 drug but by and large there was nothing
19:55 they could do about it there was no real
19:56 big action they didn't have the funding
19:59 they didn't have the people and and um
20:02 he I remember he said to me once I was
20:05 driving around the upper pomac and I was
20:07 crossing the bridge and I just parked on
20:08 the bridge and I got out and I looked
20:11 and there was marijuana plants as far as
20:13 you could see and he said I said to
20:16 myself and they want me to wipe this
20:18 this out anslinger can do nothing to
20:20 stop the push from states of the
20:21 Southwest for a federal law against
20:24 marijuana the issue is less about the
20:25 dangers of the drugs and more about
20:28 politics marijuana is entangled in
20:30 immigration problems I remember when I
20:32 interviewed Harry anslinger about it he
20:34 said we weren't having any trouble with
20:36 it uh you could get it in Harlem he said
20:39 and it just it was not a problem and but
20:42 the the pressure came from the southwest
20:45 and the west where the Mexican
20:48 immigrants were seen as a unnecessary
20:52 and uh dangerous Surplus population and
20:53 so there was a tremendous campaign to
20:56 try to push the uh Mexican immigrants
21:00 back into Mexico and marijuana got mixed
21:01 up in in that because there was no
21:04 question that they grew marijuana and
21:07 smoked marijuana in the end the
21:09 southwestern States Prevail upon
21:12 anslinger to do something hesitant as he
21:14 may have been the pressure is on for
21:16 anslinger to use the power of the
21:19 federal government to control
21:22 marijuana ever the bureaucrat anslinger
21:24 changes his position and becomes a
21:26 leading Warrior against
21:28 marijuana the treasury Department
21:32 intends to pursue a Relentless Warfare
21:34 against the Despicable dop pedling
21:37 vulture who prays on the weakness of his
21:40 fellow man his chief weapons are movies
21:42 that Express exaggerated dangers of the
21:45 drug the truth is that every Reaper is
21:47 loaded with immorality and beastial
21:50 perversions brutality murder sex crimes
21:54 insanity or suicide while a propaganda
21:56 war against marijuana is underway
21:58 anslinger begins working to draft a law
22:01 law but what kind of law like all
22:03 federal drug Prohibition in the early
22:05 20th century the Constitution stands in
22:08 the way he finds a way around that in a
22:12 new law passed to ban machine
22:14 guns a law was passed called the
22:17 National Firearms Act and which said
22:20 that you could not give borrow transfer
22:23 a machine gun to anyone without a
22:26 machine gun transfer stamp and it turns
22:29 out they aren't the government would not
22:32 make any machine gun transfer stamps so
22:34 this went up to the Supreme Court on the
22:36 grounds that this couldn't be legitimate
22:39 uh taxing measure because they weren't
22:41 doing anything to get the taxes it was
22:43 actually just a way to stop machine guns
22:46 being distributed the Supreme Court
22:48 ruled the National Firearms Act was
22:50 legal and its use of stamps even though
22:53 purposely not available was legitimate
22:55 anslinger now has a model for a national
22:59 ban against marijuana anslinger told me
23:02 that the general councel of the Treasury
23:04 Department came into his office holding
23:08 this decision by the uh Supreme Court
23:10 saying look we finally we have a way to
23:13 go after marijuana an Slinger's idea to
23:16 make marijuana illegal is simple anyone
23:19 involved in its use distribution sale or
23:21 transfer will be required to get from
23:24 the government a marijuana tax stamp but
23:26 the catch is the government will only
23:29 make a token number of tax stamps
23:31 available but can he convince Congress
23:44 gun the next tragedy may be that of your
23:50 daughter or your son or yours or
23:57 yours the History Channel now returns to
24:00 hook illegal drugs and how they got that
24:04 way on April 27th 1937 hearings begin
24:07 before Congress on the first federal law
24:13 marijuana anslinger hopes to convince
24:16 Congress that marijuana is dangerous and
24:19 that they will enact a law like the one
24:21 that banned machine
24:24 guns I think his attitude toward
24:26 marijuana uh
24:29 was that it was not as serious as
24:33 cocaine and heroin but you wouldn't know
24:36 that publicly because one of the
24:38 strategies against marijuana was to
24:40 describe it in so horrible and
24:42 disgusting a way that no one would be
24:45 tempted to try it once matter with you
24:47 son anslinger tells Congress the drug
24:51 makes the user insane or Worse nuts I
24:52 didn't do it on purpose of course she
24:54 did but rather than argue with them the
24:56 mother Stoops to pick it up and when she
24:58 does Elvin takes that heavy fying fans
25:00 in the stove and kills his mother with
25:03 it this is exactly what happened and how
25:05 it happened in fact he said anslinger
25:07 also tells Congress marijuana is the
25:11 stepping stone or gateway to heroin and
25:15 cocaine one more I'll be
25:18 floating I want something stronger how
25:25 got he adds that it is the Assassin of Youth
25:27 Youth [Music]
25:29 [Music]
25:31 one of the cases that he was was uh
25:33 constantly presenting in these
25:35 Congressional hearings was uh the case
25:37 of Victor Lata who was a young boy in
25:39 Florida who cut up his family with an
25:42 axe and uh according to Harry anslinger
25:44 he did this after smoking a marijuana
25:46 joint he then went out and and chopped
25:49 up his mother and father but what ansing
25:52 omitted in his testimony as was uh
25:54 published uh several days later in the
25:56 Tampa newspaper that Lata uh was
25:58 probably schizophrenic and there's very
26:01 little probability that marijuana was
26:04 the cause and effect of of the terrible
26:06 crime he committed not a very nice thing
26:10 to look at but this is marijuana and
26:13 there's nothing beautiful about
26:16 marijuana well the officer drew his gun
26:18 reached for the closet door and pulled out
26:19 out [Applause]
26:21 [Applause]
26:24 Victor anslinger tells Congress that
26:26 school children are using marijuana that
26:29 assertion results in the only testimony
26:30 against the
26:33 law Dr William Woodward of the American
26:36 Medical Association testifies that for
26:38 all the complaints about marijuana's
26:40 danger to school children there was no
26:42 evidence to back it up Congress
26:45 disregards his
26:47 testimony they just attacked him
26:48 viciously they said how can you come
26:50 down here trying to interrupt us when
26:52 we're trying to do something good for
26:53 the American people and so forth well it
26:55 turns out their argument with him had
26:57 nothing to do with marijuana they just
27:00 chopped him into pieces and verbally
27:01 excoriated him in front of this
27:03 Congressional hearing and then lied
27:06 about what he said H follows the
27:08 hearings adding extra newspaper runs to
27:10 cover the news in Washington and
27:13 headlining the evils of
27:16 marijuana Across America independent
27:18 movies add to the propaganda bombarding
27:21 the public the most famous Reefer
27:23 Madness warns of The Perils of smoking
27:26 marijuana as stated by anslinger and
27:32 didn't come from the feder narcotics but
27:34 ANS Slinger's Bureau did endorse it he
27:36 did support it in fact in the opening
27:38 scene when uh the high school principal
27:40 is talking to an audience of parents he
27:43 refers to the Bureau of Narcotics uh
27:46 several times on Capitol Hill anslinger
27:49 wins Congress passes the marijuana tax
27:51 act the first federal law against the
27:54 drug the Southwest gets the federal law they
27:56 they
27:59 wanted after five days of hearings the
28:02 marijuana tax law goes to Congress for a
28:05 vote it's passed within weeks by roll
28:07 call vote President Roosevelt signs the
28:11 bill on August 2nd it takes effect
28:13 October 1st perhaps one of an's most
28:17 significant contributions to fighting
28:20 drugs is that he more than any other
28:23 individual demonized drugs I don't know
28:27 that anslinger lied to Congress but he
28:29 was an effective propagandist we might
28:32 say the law requires that anyone wishing
28:34 to buy sell distribute or transfer
28:36 marijuana must pay a tax and have a
28:39 stamp the penalty for failure to do so
28:42 is 5 years in jail a $2,000 fine or both
28:44 but like the machine gun law the
28:46 government doesn't make the marijuana
28:48 stamps available there was another
28:50 problem too and that was that in order
28:52 to get the license you had to have the
28:55 marijuana in hand but if you had the
28:57 marijuana in hand without the license
29:00 you had already violated the law 2 days
29:02 after the law goes into effect the first
29:05 offender of the marijuana tax act Samuel
29:08 calwell is arrested in Colorado 4 days
29:10 later he is convicted and sentenced to 4
29:14 years in jail and a $1,000 fine
29:16 anslinger flies in from Washington to
29:19 see Justice done so Begins the federal
29:23 government's effort to punish marijuana
29:26 users one year after its ban anslinger
29:28 law runs into a powerful critic it was
29:30 none other than the mayor of America's
29:33 biggest Metropolitan city mayor felo
29:36 LaGuardia of New York LaGuardia
29:37 commissions a group of medical
29:39 professionals from the New York Academy
29:41 of Medicine to study his City's
29:44 marijuana problem this Blue Ribbon panel
29:47 visits schoolyards interviews principles
29:49 even tests the effects of the drug on
29:51 adults after four years of study the
29:54 following conclusions are drawn smoking
29:56 marijuana does not lead to addiction
29:58 marijuana smoking is not WI WID spread
30:01 among school children marijuana is not a
30:03 determining factor in Major Crimes
30:05 publicity concerning the catastrophic
30:07 effects of marijuana use in New York
30:11 City is unfounded ironically LaGuardia
30:14 obtained the pot used in his study from
30:16 anslinger and then when the lardi report
30:20 came out anslinger felt betrayed that
30:21 was the end of scientific research in
30:24 marijuana as far as he was concerned no
30:26 matter what the scientific basis for
30:28 laguardia's study he is pressured to tow
30:31 the party line in the Big Apple
30:38 drug through World War II marijuana
30:41 arrests drop but ever wise to the power
30:43 of the press anslinger begins targeting
30:45 celebrities and musicians to grab
30:48 headlines he arrests Jazz drummer Jean
30:51 Kupa for possessing marijuana who spends
30:57 jail actor Robert Mitchum is busted and
30:59 his career is almost shattered after
31:01 he's arrested at a pot [Music]
31:03 [Music]
31:06 party but there will be new drugs to
31:09 combat one other legal for the time
31:11 being is making history on the
31:14 battlefields of World War
31:16 II The History Channel now returns to
31:25 way of all the new technologies Germany
31:29 uses in the Second World War one touches
31:32 the common Soldier and the furer alike
31:35 it is the synthetic chemical amphetamine
31:38 more commonly known as speed the blitz
31:40 cre could just as easily have been
31:44 called speed C everybody was amazed uh
31:47 how fast the German Panza troops rushed
31:50 across Europe Westward towards the
31:52 lowlands couldn't believe they could
31:54 just keep going night and day and so
31:56 forth and it was they to learn that they
31:59 were dispensing uh large amounts of
32:07 troops Hitler is injected as many as
32:10 five times a day with methamphetamine a
32:13 supercharged amphetamine Scholars claim
32:15 Hitler's mad Rants and blunders were the
32:18 result of his addiction to the drug it
32:21 is also used in the Japanese war effort
32:24 given to the Imperial ground forces and
32:27 kamakazi Pilots the drug of the axis War
32:30 Machine is a stimulant it affects the
32:32 sympathetic nervous system to increase
32:34 alertness and decrease fatigue
32:37 amphetamine stimulate the adrenal gland
32:39 to increase spontaneity initiative
32:42 confidence and a sense of well-being
32:44 amphetamines are commonly associated
32:47 with appetite suppression but the drug
32:49 was first introduced as a lung
32:52 decongestant the benzidine inhaler
32:55 nicknamed Benny in Germany in 1932 it
32:58 would clear up your sinuses and and and
33:00 and do a lot of other things it wasn't
33:02 long before people discovered that if
33:05 you break the inhaler and take the
33:07 cotton swab the little cotton
33:11 swab uh which holds all of the uh
33:13 amphetamine some people just swallowed
33:15 at whole other people dissolved it in
33:17 coffee or what have you well I was just
33:18 wondering about those bennes and things
33:22 we've been fooling around with a Benny a
33:25 Benny you mean a vadine tablet this
33:28 method of ingestion is commonly called
33:31 Popp and Benny's at the time no one knew
33:33 how highly addictive and Powerful a
33:36 stimulant amphetamines
33:40 were it it was quite euphorigenic it uh
33:43 gave people a sense of confidence uh
33:46 life seemed brighter uh you didn't have
33:50 to sleep as much you could overcome uh
33:53 fatigue it made doing boring things uh
33:56 more interesting and of course weight loss
33:57 loss [Music]
34:01 [Music]
34:04 1946 amphetamines find their way into
34:06 post-war Society in Japan the market is
34:09 flooded with vast amounts of the drug in
34:11 America Housewives take speed to feel
34:14 better amphetamines are to the 50s what
34:17 opiates were in the past truck drivers
34:20 take them to stay up for days like Dock
34:22 Workers who once used cocaine to work
34:24 through the night and artists and
34:27 writers who used Lum a century ago now
34:30 pop Benny for kicks and inspiration like
34:32 author Jack kowak while popping benad
34:35 dream he writes on the road in 20 days in
34:36 in
34:40 1955 meth's the All-American drug meth
34:41 was invented for
34:45 Americans it it it it really embodies
34:49 all of the values that that we hold dear
34:55 industriousness um hard work um uh um
34:58 basically um enthusiasm for
35:01 accomplishing tasks it was the most
35:08 history the appeal of amphetamines cuts
35:12 across all walks of life one of the most
35:15 famous users is the newly drafted Elvis
35:19 Aaron Presley in October 1958 Presley
35:22 begins a tour of Duty in West
35:25 Germany as an army GI a sergeant
35:28 introduces him to speed from this point
35:31 on the king of rock and roll is hooked
35:35 for the rest of his life drugs must be
35:38 prescribed by a doctor and prepared by a
35:41 licensed pharmacist and Physicians were
35:45 the real pushers of this drug uh you're
35:47 a little depressed here let me let me
35:50 prescribe some form of amphetamine you
35:52 want to lose weight here let me
35:54 prescribe some
35:56 amphetamine uh you say you don't have
35:59 enough energy I mean the the reasons
36:01 were Le Legion in
36:05 1946 a physician by the name of
36:08 WRB uh published a paper in which he
36:11 claimed there were 39 medical reasons
36:13 for prescribing
36:15 amphetamines and they were everything
36:18 from hiccups to
36:21 schizophrenia by the 1960s amphetamine
36:24 use was a hidden epidemic on the other
36:27 hand marijuana once kept behind closed
36:38 used unlike methamphetamine a legal drug
36:40 marijuana has been outlawed by the
36:42 marijuana Stamp Act of
36:46 1937 users face fines and jail sentences
36:49 under federal law but it is the latest
36:52 drug fad the favorite of baby boomers
36:54 despite these potentially harsh penalties
37:15 marijuana is kind of a of a hybrid it
37:17 has some features that are that are like
37:20 LSD it also doesn't produce physical
37:21 dependence and it doesn't produce
37:24 overdose deaths and and the fact that it
37:26 doesn't do those two things makes it
37:28 seem like it's not quote an addictive
37:32 drug it has an appeal to people who are
37:35 uh smart uh and who are interested in uh
37:39 going beyond the conventional uh
37:42 boundaries and of their behavior 33
37:45 years after the marijuana tax act its
37:47 constitutionality was questioned in the
37:50 Supreme Court the man who led the charge
37:52 to change the law was the man who told a
37:56 generation to tune in turn on and drop
38:02 out Tim lry Timothy lirry the LSD Guru
38:06 argued that in order to get the license
38:08 one had to break the law in other words
38:10 one had to have the marijuana before you
38:12 got the license and therefore you were
38:14 already in violation of the law and
38:17 therefore getting the license was simply
38:18 self-incrimination the Supreme Court
38:21 agreed with him and overturned the law
38:23 in the slam of a gavl the federal law
38:26 that banned marijuana vanished until
38:29 1914 most people belied the Constitution
38:31 upheld one's right to ingest any
38:34 substance one wanted besides a drug that
38:36 made you feel better was perceived as
38:40 good but by 1970 recreational drug use
38:42 was perceived as bad and Congress didn't
38:45 consider the right to use drugs a right
38:47 protected by the Constitution and banned
38:49 marijuana in the controlled substance
38:56 1970 a lot of people became concerned
38:58 with drugs for the the first time in the
39:03 60s because the young people were using
39:05 them with
39:11 such uh seeming uh freedom and uh and
39:14 recklessness um they were particularly
39:17 concerned about marijuana the new
39:19 federal law is on firm constitutional
39:22 ground unlike the self-incriminating tax of
39:23 of
39:25 1937 but still marijuana use does not
39:29 end it just becomes illegal and finds a
39:31 place in a subculture of its own that
39:34 includes a comedy troop and a magazine
39:37 unlike pot methamphetamine is not
39:39 completely illegal it can still be
39:42 prescribed by doctors but illegal
39:45 non-medicinal use is at an all-time high
39:47 it's estimated that by
39:50 1971 so many amphetamine pills were
39:53 produced illicitly that there
39:55 were if you gave them to every man woman
39:57 and child in the country you would would
40:01 give them 50 a piece methamphetamine is
40:04 banned for non-medicinal use still it is
40:07 manufactured illegally in all 50 states
40:10 Missouri and Utah can claim the dubious
40:13 prize as meth lab capitals of the US
40:16 naively and innocently put on the market
40:18 as the benzidine inhaler almost 70 years
40:22 ago no one could predict amphetamines
40:25 damage people who used a lot of
40:28 amphetamines tended to be triger happy
40:31 about violence first of all they were
40:33 become a little paranoid and they
40:36 misinterpret something and think that
40:38 that person is out to do him harm and
40:41 they uh you know give him a punch or or
40:44 Worse amphetamines are also the
40:46 preferred drug of the Sports World pro
40:49 football horse racing and bicycle racing
40:51 are breeding grounds for Speed abuse
40:53 while racing the tour to France Tommy
40:55 Simpson collapses and dies under the
40:58 influence of methamphetamine speed kills
41:01 by blowing your heart up uh it actually
41:04 can blow your heart up I mean you the
41:05 heart muscle you'll get it to rip a hole
41:09 in itself you'll uh it the messages that
41:12 are being sent by the brain
41:16 are uh just completely out of whack
41:18 recreational use of this addictive drug
41:20 ruins thousands of lives despite its
41:23 dangers its powers of addiction claim
41:25 new addicts every
41:27 day that first shot of speed was like
41:29 having an orgasm I didn't have to have a
41:32 man I didn't have to have anybody I just
41:34 stood there and backed up and sat down
41:36 on the couch and it was it was
41:39 unbelievable and it was a rush a high
41:42 that um I knew I had found what I was
41:44 looking for my own
41:47 life and I was off and
41:49 running while amphetamines have long
41:51 been prescribed by doctors medicinal
41:53 marijuana has only gained Acceptance in
41:56 the '90s
41:59 today it is used by AIDS and cancer
42:01 patients to stimulate appetite and
42:04 reduce the nausea from chemotherapy it's
42:07 also a treatment for glaucoma the
42:09 attitude of the American public towards
42:12 marijuana is most fickle once the
42:14 federal government was opposed to a
42:17 national marijuana law but enacted one
42:18 anyway in
42:21 1937 only to see it overturned 30 Years
42:25 Later by the Supreme Court in 1970 a new
42:28 federal law banned marijuana again
42:31 citing it was of no medicinal use but
42:34 today marijuana is used legally for that
42:38 very reason now at the turn of the 21st
42:41 century 11 states have decriminalized
42:44 possession of small amounts of marijuana
42:46 judging the legal side effects to be
42:55 [Music]
42:57 itself next up
43:00 Atlantis an all new season kicks off as
43:02 we embark on our greatest Journey yet we
43:04 have found the island of Atlantis the
43:05 event that will change everything you
43:07 thought about the lost city the season
43:09 premiere of digging for the truth
