Dope Ring Specialized in
Mexican Marijuana
Special Correspondence

The New York Times
December 3, 1933

LONGMONT, Col., Nov. 30 -- With the arrest here of five Mexicans, a dope ring specializing in the intoxicating weed, marijuana, is believed to have been broken up. About $7,275 worth of the weed, which is called "hay" in the vernacular, was seized. Marijuana sells for about $85 a pound or 5 cents for a single cigarette. It is highly intoxicating and constitutes an ever recurring problem where there are mexicans or Spanish-Americans of the lower classes. It is usually grown in the midst of other crops such as alfalfa and is thus hard to distinguish.

CAMPAIGN BATTLES MARIHUANA WEED

Mrs. William Dick Sporborg to Seek Aid of State Head of Schools in Drive

DRUG EDUCATION MAPPED Program of Crime Prevention Adopts Anti-Narcotic Work as Pivotal Point

New York Times

January 3, 1937

Cooperation of the Commissioner of Education of the State of New York will be asked by Mrs. William Dick Sporborg in inaugurating a campaign of education among the pupils of junior and senior high schools covering the devastating effects of the use of the marihuana weed.

In her duel capacity as chairman of the department of crime prevention of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs and chairman of legislation for the General Federation, Mrs. Sproborg has assumed responsibility for a concerted drive against the narcotic. This will be a pivotal point in the program for crime prevention locally but its ramifications, it is hoped, will reach into every State. Mrs. Sporborg has just returned from a conference with Henry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

The Federal bureau has admitted that its hands are tied by the fact that the marihuana weed is indigenous to so many States that its distribution is an intrastate problem. Hope for its ultimate control lies, in the opinion of the government's officers, in adoption by States of the Uniform Narcotic Act. More Aid to Be Sought In the work of education, assistance of the State Congress of Parents and Teachers will be sought.

Throughout the country, national educational organizations will be asked to assist in bringing home to young people not already acquatined with marihuana the reasons for its general designation as "the killer drug." In cigarettes, it is most commonly sold to school boys and girls, according to Mrs. Sporborg. Theweed derives its name from the Mexican equivalent of the names of Mary and John, a fact which those who are engaged in the attack on it say suggests its universal appeal to boys and girls.

"Primarily we want to protect our young people from a danger which is not apparent to them," says Mrs. Sporborg, "but if the government isgoing to stop the traffic in marihuana, it will have to have the cooperation of Statewide organizations.

Conference to Be Called: "Recently a boat came into New York Harbor from Southern waters with practically the entire crew under the influence of this drug. This endangers the lives of travelers and we are aghast, but the cigarettes sold in the vicinity of our high schools in an age when smoking is so generally indulged in by girls as well as boys, makes this our immediate concern.

After our general federation meeting in Washington this month it may seem advisable to call a conference here in New York to discuss the suppression of the drug." The General Federation of Women's Clubs has made measures against the smuggling of narcotics a part of its interest for many years and a sustained drive in every State for adoption of the Uniform Narcotic Act will probably grow out of the board meeting to be held in the near future.

Evidence to show that the sale of marihuana cigarettes is definitely tied up with juvenile delinquency has been accumulated by Mrs. Sporborg to fortify her department of crime prevention, which will make an attack on the vending of these cigarettes in the vicinity of high schools as part of its program.

SAYS OUR DRY LAW AIDS NARCOTIC EVIL

Berlin Toxicologist, in Book, Holds Prohibition Cannot Be Justified by Science.

FINDS ALCOHOL BENEFICIAL

New York Times December 23, 1931

Prof. Lewin Denies Its Normal Use Diminishes Intellectual Vigor or Clearness of Judgment. Prohibition is criticized as scientifically, morally and economically unsound, and the use of alcohol is defended as "a vital necessity" of mankind by Professor Louis Lewin, toxicologist of the University of Berlin, in his new book, "Phantastica: Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs, Their Use and Abuse."

The volume, an extensive study of the drugs of the world and the part they play in modern civilization, is released in this country by E. P. Dutton & Co. Prohibition in the United States has led to a tremendous increase in the use of narcotics and other excitants, Professor Lewin declares.

The idea that the world can be improved by prohibition is "destitute of all reasonable foundation," he asserts, pointing to increased crime in this country as a proof of his argument. The growing addiction to narcotics here as a result of prohibition he regards as a problem of vast importance.

"The absolute coercion which is imposed on the Americans by the prohibition act with respect to alcohol has necessarily had the result of greatly increasing the use of other excitants and narcotics," Professor Lewin asserts. "The enormous use of the latter seems to be totally ignored by the abstainers in America. Morphinists and cocainists are continually growing in number. The consumption of coffee has also developed in an undreamed-of manner."

He denies there is any foundation for the charges of abstainers that alcohol paralyzes the higher mental functions, diminishes the quality of intellectual work, the sharpness and accuracy of conception, the clearness of judgment and the faculties of memory. A person in a state of drunkenness may suffer from these deficiencies, he points out, but this is not true of a regular, moderate user of alcohol.

"Prohibition as it is compulsorily enforced in the United States cannot be defended by recourse to accurate scientific psychological research nor by the testimony of physical disturbances produced by the moderate use of alcohol," the author declares.

"The use of alcoholic beverages has become for the greater part of mankind a vital necessity. The desire to procure alcohol in the United States inevitably leads to infringements of the law, fraud, smuggling., especially in the 'dry States.' The quantities of alcohol which a person with normally inhibitory senses consumes are neither physically nor intellectually injurious. He is beneficially affected by them quite apart from the alimentary qualities of alcohol."

DENVER, Sept. 13. -- Although as appalling in its effects on the human mind and body as narcotics, the consumption of marijuana appears to be proceeding, virtually unchecked in Colorado and other Western States with a large Spanish-American population. The drug is particularly popular with latin Americans and its use is rapidly spreading to include all classes.

The poisonous weed which maddens the senses and emaciates the body of the user, is being sold more or less openly in pool halls and beer gardens throughout the West and Southwest and, according to some authorities, it is being peddled to school children. The Federal Government is powerless to stop the traffic, officials of the Narcotic Bureau say, because marijuana was left out of the Harrison Act under which the bureau gets its authority to stop the traffic in opium and its derivatives.

The seriousness of the problem, growing out of laxity in enforcing State laws barring the drug, is indicated by the fact that it is the same weed from which the Egyptian hashish is made. The plant grows wild in many parts of the United States, but when cultivated it is usually concealed in a stand of some other high-growing crop such as sugar beets, alfalfa or corn.After it grows to a height of three or four feet it blossoms and is cut and dried. The leaves and blossoms are then packed in ordinary pocket-size tobacco tins which retail at $3 to $5 each and contain enough "hay" to make thirty or forty cigarettes, one of which is enough to intoxicate the smoker.

The sensations of the addict are wholly different from those of the user of narcotics. Users of marijuana become stimulated as they inhale the drug and are likely to do anything. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts, are laid to users of the drug. However, it is said that the marijuana habit can be more easily broken than that of narcotics. The weed's toxic qualities are not confined to men, but have equally deleterious effects on animals. Kin to the loco weed, marijuana when mixed with hay causes death to the horses that eat it.

WAR ON MARIHUANA URGED ON PARENTS

Federal Expert Calls on P.T.A. Congress to Act Against Newest Narcotic

2,000 ATTEND SESSIONS

Dr. Studebaker at Richmond Meeting Says Child Should Be Taught to Think

May 4, 1937

RICHMOND, Va., May 3. -- Relentless warfare on marihuana, which was termed the latest narcotic menace to youth, was urgently recommended to the National Congress of Parents and Teachers here today by Mrs. Hamilton Wright, special representative of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

The congress opened its convention this morning with 2,000 members present. Addressing a group on the use of alcohol and narcotics, one of a series of afternoon conferences on a variety of problems to be held throughout most of the week, Mrs. Wright characterized marihuana as the "most pernicious" of drugs. She said it produced in smokers of the weed a temporary sense of complete irresponsibility which led to sex crimes and other "horrible" acts of violence.

Comparatively few persons are familiar with it, she explained, because it was introduced into the country ten years ago as a cigarette by Mexican peddlers, who have since reaped a financial harvest on its sale in the larger centers. But in that short time, she added, every State save South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee had passed laws against it. ...several less-relevant paragraphs omitted.