MR. ANSLINGER: I have another letter from the prosecutor at a place in New Jersey.

It is as follows:

"That I fully appreciate the need for action, you may judge from the fact that last January I tried a murder case for several days, of a particularly brutal character in which one colored young man killed another, literally smashing his face and head to a pulp, as the enclosed photograph demonstrates. One of the defenses was that the defendant's intellect was so prostrated from his smoking marihuana cigarettes that he did not know what he was doing. The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to a long term of years. I am convinced that marihuana had been indulged in, that the smoking had occurred, and the brutality of the murder was accounted for by the narcotic, though the defendant's intellect had not been totally prostrate, so the verdict was legally correct. It seems to me that this instance might be of value to you in your campaign."

SENATOR BROWN: It affects them that way?

MR. ANSLINGER: Yes. This is a photograph of the murdered man, Senator. It shows the fury of the murderer.

In June of this year, at Geneva, an international committee of experts in going over the reports received from all over the world said that the reports thus far indicate that the medical value of cannabis derivatives is very doubtful. There is another report here from Dr. Paul Nicholas Leech.

SENATOR BROWN: That is, to make perfectly clear, its medical value is not very great, and there are many other drugs that may be used in place of it that are fully as good if not better?

MR. ANSLINGER: Yes, sir; it is not indispensable.

SENATOR BROWN: I think some medical men say that if we had no such drug at all the medical profession would not be very greatly handicapped. That is, medical science would not be very greatly handicapped.

MR. ANSLINGER: I think they are pretty generally in agreement that its use could be abandoned without any suffering.

I have a few cases here that I would like to tell the committee about. In Alamosa, Colorado, they seem to be having a lot of difficulty. The citizens petitioned Congress for help, in addition to the help that is given them under state law. In Kansas and New Mexico also we have had a great deal of trouble.

Here is a typical illustration: A 15-year-old boy, found mentally deranged from smoking marihuana cigarettes, furnished enough information to police officers to lead to the seizure of 15 pounds of marihuana. That was seized in a garage in an Ohio town. These boys had been getting marihuana at a playground, and the supervisors there had been peddling it to children, but they got rather alarmed when they saw these boys were developing the habit, and particularly when this boy began to go insane.

In Florida some years ago we had the case of a 20-year-old boy who killed his brothers, a sister, and his parents while under the influence of marihuana.

Recently, in Ohio, there was a gang of very young men, all under 20 years of age, every one of whom had confessed that they had committed some 38 holdups while under the influence of the drug.

In another place in Ohio, a young man shot the hotel clerk while trying to hold him up. His defense was that he was under the influence of marihuana.

SENATOR BROWN: When a person smokes the cigarette, how long does the influence of the drug continue?

MR. ANSLINGER: From reports coming to me, I think it might last as long as 48 hours before the effects of the drug fully wear off.

SENATOR BROWN: I do not know whether it was your article I read, or an article from some other source, but I understand that experiments have been conducted, in which the persons smoking the marihuana have been kept under control after taking the drug. Do you know whether or not that demonstrated how long the effect would be felt?

MR. ANSLINGER: As I remember it, the effects in those cases were something like 48 hours, before they fully returned to their normal senses.

This post was edited on 8/27/14 at 3:33 pm