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The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937) was a United States Act that placed a tax on the sale of cannabis. The H.R. 6385 act was drafted by Harry Anslinger and introduced by Rep. Robert L. Doughton of North Carolina, on April 14, 1937. The seventy-fifth Congress held hearings on April 27, 28, 29th, 30th, and May 4, 1937. Upon the congressional hearings confirmation, the H.R. 6385 act was redrafted as H.R. 6906 and introduced with House Report 792. The Act is now commonly referred to, using the modern spelling, as the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act. This act was overturned in 1969 in ''Leary v. United States'', and was repealed by Congress the next year.〔For repeal, see section 1101(b)(3), Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Pub. L. No. 91-513, 84 Stat. 1236, 1292 (Oct. 27, 1970) (repealing the Marihuana Tax Act which had been codified in Subchapter A of Chapter 39 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954).〕 ==Background== Regulations and restrictions on the sale of cannabis sativa as a drug began as early as 1860 (see Legal history of cannabis in the United States). The head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), Harry J. Anslinger, argued that, in the 1930s, the FBN had noticed an increase of reports of people smoking marijuana.〔(Harry J. Anslinger, U. S. Commissioner of Narcotics and Will Oursler : The Murderers, the story of the narcotic gangs, Pages: 541-554, 1961 )〕 He had also, in 1935, received support from president Franklin D. Roosevelt for adoption of the Uniform State Narcotic Act, state laws that included regulations of cannabis.〔(ROOSEVELT ASKS NARCOTIC WAR AID, 1935 )〕 The total production of hemp fiber in the United States had in 1933 decreased to around 500 tons/year. Cultivation of hemp began to increase in 1934 and 1935 but production remained at very low volume compared with other fibers.〔(David P. West: Fiber Wars: The Extinction of Kentucky Hemp chapter 8 )〕〔(STATEMENT OF DR. A. H. WRIGHT, 1938 )〕〔( H.T. NUGENT: COMMERCIALIZED HEMP (1934-35 CROP) in the STATE OF MINNESOTA )〕 Some parties have argued that the aim of the Act was to reduce the size of the hemp industry largely as an effort of businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family.〔〔 The same parties have argued that with the invention of the decorticator, hemp had become a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry.〔 These parties argue that Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the Du Pont family's new synthetic fiber, nylon, a fiber that was competing with hemp.〔 In 1916, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief scientists Jason L. Merrill and Lyster H. Dewey created a paper, USDA Bulletin No. 404 "Hemp Hurds as Paper-Making Material", in which they concluded that paper from the woody inner portion of the hemp stem broken into pieces, so called hemp hurds, was "favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood".〔Lyster H. Dewey and Jason L. Merrill (''Hemp Hurds as Paper-Making Material'' ) USDA Bulletin No. 404, Washington, D.C., October 14, 1916, p.25〕 Dewey and Merrill believed that hemp hurds were a suitable source for paper production. However, later research does not confirm this. The concentration of cellulose in hemp hurds is only between 32% and 38% (not 77%, a number often repeated by Jack Herer and others on the Internet).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Hayo M.G. van der Werf : Hemp facts and hemp fiction )〕 Manufacture of paper with hemp as a raw material has shown that hemp lacks the qualities needed to become a major competitor to the traditional paper industry, which still uses wood or waste paper as raw material. In 2003, 95% of the hemp hurds in the EU were used for animal bedding, almost 5% were used as building material.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Michael Karus: European Hemp Industry 2002 Cultivation, Processing and Product Lines. Journal of Industrial Hemp Volume 9 Issue 2 2004, Taylor & Francis, London )〕 The DuPont Company and many industrial historians dispute a link between nylon and hemp. They argue that the purpose of developing the nylon was to produce a fiber that could compete with silk and rayon.〔(Prof. L. Trossarelli: -the history of nylon, Prof. L. Trossarelli )〕〔(Audra J. Wolfe: Nylon: A revolution in textiles, page 1-4, Chemical Heritage Foundation )〕〔(American Chemical Society: THE FIRST NYLON PLANT. 1995 )〕 The American Medical Association (AMA) opposed the act because the tax was imposed on physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and medical cannabis cultivation/manufacturing. The AMA proposed that cannabis instead be added to the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Statement of Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Counsel, American Medical Association )〕 The bill was passed over the last-minute objections of the American Medical Association. Dr. William Creighton Woodward, legislative counsel for the AMA objected to the bill on the grounds that the bill had been prepared in secret without giving proper time to prepare their opposition to the bill.〔Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, 75c 2s. HR6906. Library of Congress transcript. July 12, 1937〕 He doubted their claims about marijuana addiction, violence, and overdosage; he further asserted that because the word ''Marijuana'' was largely unknown at the time, the medical profession did not realize they were losing cannabis. ''"Marijuana is not the correct term... Yet the burden of this bill is placed heavily on the doctors and pharmacists of this country."'' 〔 The bill was passed on the grounds of different reports〔(The Marijuana Tax Act, Reports )〕 and hearings.〔(The Marijuana Tax Act )〕 Anslinger also referred to the International Opium Convention that from 1928 included cannabis as a drug not a medicine, and that all states had some kind of laws against improper use of cannabis (for ex. the Uniform State Narcotic Act). Today, it is generally accepted that the hearings included incorrect, excessive or unfounded arguments.〔(The Alcohol Link by Uncle Mike March 29, 2009 & Method To The Madness, From Newspaper Reports To Reefer Madness Stories, A Colorado Case In Point, by Uncle Mike Jan 10, 2008. )〕 By 1951, however, new justifications had emerged, and the Boggs Act that superseded the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed. In August 1954, the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 was enacted, and the Marihuana Tax Act was included in Subchapter A of Chapter 39 of the 1954 Code. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marihuana Tax Act of 1937」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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