aug 2, 1937 - Marijuana Tax Act

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On August 2nd, 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act was passed. The purpose of the Marijuana Tax Act was to increase the taxes on the use of hemp. This act did not criminalize marijuana, rather it only prohibited certain aspects of it. In order to legally hold marijuana, you had to register it with the IRS and pay taxes on it. In order to sell it, you must have an official written order. Additionally, it was mandatory to pay taxes on any sale with marijuana as well as have an order form that has the name and address of both parties with the amount of marijuana sold. Before the act was passed, twenty six states had already prohibited the plant. A major reason as to why this act passed was the xenophobia built around the relationship between marijuana and Mexican immigrants. This is highlighted by the fact that the first victim of the War on Drugs was a Mexican immigrant by the name of Moses Baca. He was arrested for the possession of a quarter pound of marijuana, and he later spent eighteen months in prison. The government associated the use of marijuana with working class people of color, and thus when it was criminalized, it disproportionately affected this group in specific. At the time, without any scientific proof, the government felt that this drug’s usage was causing working class people of color to be more violent and to misbehave more. By criminalizing it, the government felt as though it was doing the right thing, when instead it created more issues and placed a lot of people in prison over decades.

This act is considered to be the first step to the illegalization of cannabis. It pushed forward many laws and bills that further restricted the usage and selling of marijuana.This led to mass incarceration and marginalized communities became even more marginalized. With the inherent political nature of this problem, there was more political will in the decades that followed to legalize it. This political will ultimately shifted public opinion, giving us Proposition 64 in California that fully legalized the recreational use of cannabis.

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