🌿 The Criminalization of Hemp:
A Deeper Look into the 1930s Ban
🔹 1. The Rise of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Harry Anslinger’s War on Cannabis
In 1930, as America emerged from the Prohibition era, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was established under the U.S. Treasury Department. Its first commissioner, Harry J. Anslinger, was a career bureaucrat known for his zealous pursuit of drug enforcement. With alcohol prohibition ending in 1933, Anslinger found himself at the helm of a newly formed agency with diminishing purpose—and he needed a new "enemy" to justify its existence.
Anslinger turned his attention to cannabis. Not just marijuana as we understand it today, but all forms of the cannabis plant, including industrial hemp—a non-intoxicating variety that had been used for centuries for everything from ship sails to clothing.
What followed was a coordinated moral panic: Anslinger orchestrated an aggressive national campaign that demonized cannabis through sensationalist media stories, racialized fear, and junk science. His rhetoric was inflammatory and deliberately misleading, often connecting cannabis use with violent crime, insanity, and social collapse.
“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind,” he claimed.
He repeatedly linked marijuana to Black Americans, Mexican immigrants, and jazz musicians, portraying users as morally degenerate and sexually deviant. One of his most infamous and repugnant quotes was:
“Marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
Anslinger also manipulated public perception through a linguistic sleight of hand: rather than using the clinical and well-known term cannabis, which appeared in medical and pharmacological literature, he popularized the foreign-sounding "marijuana", derived from Mexican Spanish. This shift was deliberate—it alienated the plant from mainstream medical and agricultural contexts and tied it to xenophobic fears of foreign influence.
Despite clear biological and chemical differences, no distinction was made between industrial hemp (which contains negligible THC) and psychoactive cannabis. In Anslinger’s framework, the entire cannabis genus was guilty by association. Hemp, despite having zero recreational or intoxicating value, was lumped in with “reefer madness” and criminalized in the same breath.
🔹 2. The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937
In 1937, after years of relentless propaganda, the Marihuana Tax Act was introduced and passed through Congress. Although it did not explicitly criminalize cannabis, the law effectively outlawed it by imposing punitive taxes and stringent bureaucratic regulations on anyone who possessed, grew, or distributed any form of the plant. This applied across the board—to psychoactive marijuana and to hemp.
At the hearings, the American Medical Association (AMA) strongly opposed the legislation, arguing that the law was rooted in misinformation and lacked any scientific credibility. Dr. William Woodward, speaking on behalf of the AMA, testified that the legislation was unnecessary and would hinder medical research. He was ignored.
Even more shockingly, industrial hemp farmers were largely unaware that the law would apply to them. Many had been using hemp to produce rope, paper, fabric, and animal feed without issue. They were caught completely off guard when their legitimate agricultural operations were swept into the same restrictive framework as illicit drug trafficking.
The Act was the legal culmination of Anslinger’s media campaign, backed by a wave of public hysteria that had been cultivated through years of manipulated headlines, pulp horror stories, and Hollywood films like Reefer Madness (1936), which depicted cannabis users as homicidal maniacs.
🔹 3. Corporate Collusion and Economic Sabotage
Beneath the surface of this moral panic lay a calculated corporate agenda. Several powerful American industries saw hemp as a threat to their business empires and had a vested interest in removing it from the market.
📜 The Paper Industry – William Randolph Hearst
Media mogul William Randolph Hearst owned extensive timber holdings and operated paper mills that supplied his massive newspaper empire. Hemp, with its superior yield and sustainability, posed a serious economic threat.
Rather than risk the rise of hemp-based paper, which could be produced faster and with less environmental damage, Hearst weaponized his newspapers to run inflammatory, racially charged stories about marijuana—fueling public fear and justifying prohibition. His media outlets published stories that equated cannabis use with madness, crime, and social decay.
🧪 DuPont and the Petrochemical Industry
DuPont, one of the largest chemical corporations in the U.S., had recently patented Nylon, a synthetic fiber made from petroleum. They were also heavily invested in petrochemical-based plastics and fertilizers—industries directly threatened by hemp’s natural versatility.
Hemp could produce bioplastics, ropes, textiles, and construction materials, all from a renewable source. It required far fewer chemicals and had greater sustainability. Hemp was, in short, a rival to synthetic innovation.
DuPont’s chief financial backer was Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury and Harry Anslinger’s boss. Not only did Mellon appoint Anslinger to head the FBN—he was also his uncle-in-law, adding a layer of nepotistic intrigue to this collusion. Mellon had every reason to support a campaign that eliminated hemp from the market.
👕 Cotton Industry
The cotton industry also stood to gain from hemp’s downfall. Compared to cotton, hemp required less water, fewer pesticides, and yielded more fiber per acre. It was stronger, more durable, and more eco-friendly.
But cotton was deeply entrenched in the Southern U.S. economy. The industry had powerful political allies and lobbyists who were determined to ensure hemp remained suppressed.
In essence, multiple industries—media, chemicals, textiles, and finance—collaborated to marginalize hemp, cloaking their motives in moral outrage and pseudoscience.
🔹 4. The Lost Promise of a Super Crop
Before its demonization, hemp was considered one of the most valuable crops in human history. It had been used by ancient civilizations in China, India, and Europe. In colonial America, hemp was so vital that in some regions, farmers were legally required to grow it. It provided sails for ships, rope for navies, and uniforms for soldiers.
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both hemp farmers. Benjamin Franklin used hemp paper in his printing press. Hempseed oil was used in lamps, and the fiber went into everything from clothing to construction.
In the 1930s, technological advances such as the decorticator (a machine that separated fiber from the stalk) made it easier and cheaper to harvest hemp at scale. Just as this innovation promised a renaissance in hemp agriculture, the plant was abruptly outlawed.
A 1938 article in Popular Mechanics hailed hemp as “The New Billion-Dollar Crop”, predicting that it could revolutionize multiple industries. Ironically, by the time that article was printed, hemp cultivation had already been shut down.
🔹 5. War, Exceptions, and the Final Nail
The only exception came during World War II, when Japan cut off supplies of Manila hemp (used for rope and canvas). The U.S. government temporarily reversed its stance and launched the “Hemp for Victory” campaign in 1942. Farmers were encouraged—sometimes mandated—to grow hemp to support the war effort.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture produced educational films and manuals to help farmers cultivate and process hemp. Over 400,000 acres were planted during this brief period of sanity.
But after the war, hemp was again criminalized, and the machinery used for processing was destroyed or abandoned. The final nail came in 1970, with the introduction of the Controlled Substances Act. Cannabis—regardless of THC content—was now a Schedule I drug, categorized alongside heroin and LSD, defined as having no medical use and high abuse potential. This classification ignored the growing body of international medical research on cannabinoids and further cemented hemp’s fate.
🔹 6. Modern Reevaluation and Legalization
Decades of misinformation began to unravel in the 1990s and 2000s, as scientists, activists, and entrepreneurs pushed for the distinction between hemp and marijuana to be recognized.
The 2014 U.S. Farm Bill allowed limited cultivation of hemp for research purposes in states with legalized programs.
The 2018 Farm Bill fully legalized industrial hemp nationwide, defining it as cannabis with less than 0.3% THC.
Today, hemp is undergoing a long-overdue renaissance. It’s used in:
CBD products for wellness and medical applications
Biodegradable plastics and sustainable packaging
Plant-based textiles and building materials (e.g., hempcrete)
Hempseed foods and oils
Biofuels and even car panels
Yet the decades-long ban inflicted lasting damage. Entire rural economies missed opportunities, supply chains collapsed, and tens of thousands were criminalized for growing or possessing a plant with no intoxicating properties.
🔚 Conclusion: Why Was Hemp Really Outlawed?
The criminalization of hemp in the 1930s was not driven by concerns about public health, safety, or scientific understanding. It was a perfect storm of:
Racist fearmongering, moral panic, and xenophobic propaganda,
Corporate lobbying to eliminate economic competition,
Bureaucratic overreach and inter-agency power struggles,
Deliberate public confusion between hemp and psychoactive cannabis.
This history is a cautionary tale. It reveals how a mixture of disinformation, vested interests, and political ambition can redirect the course of national policy—even when that policy undermines health, science, and sustainable innovation.
As we revisit hemp’s potential today, it’s crucial to remember that this “super crop” was never a danger to society—but a victim of political sabotage and corporate greed dressed up as public protection.
