Cannabis Prohibition: The LaGuardia Report

Now that laws have relaxed around cannabis research—particularly with the passage of the Farm Bill last year—the field has exploded. Although scientists have only recently become aware of the structure and effects of the major chemical compounds found in cannabis, people have been studying its subjective effects for far longer (one notable example is the Le Club des Haschischins, or the French Hash Eaters Club, which was started by a French psychiatrist in the mid 19th century to study the effects of cannabis use on social alienation and other Mental Illnesses). 

Shortly after the criminalization of cannabis groups began looking into cannabis’s potentially harmful effects, and a number of reports were released over the following years. The United States government commissioned a number of these studies after the Marijuana Tax Act made cannabis illegal in the 1930s. The first major report was commissioned by New York City Mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, who formed the LaGuardia committee to study the effects of smoking cannabis. The report released by the commission in 1944 found that there were very minimal negative effects, mostly having to do with reduced motivation. In fact, in the summary they report that, ‘[t]he only very definite change as a result of the ingestion of marijuana was in [the subjects’] attitude toward the drug itself. Without marijuana only 4 out of 14 subjects said they would tolerate the sale of marijuana while after ingestion 8 of them were in favor of this.’ (That means the number of people in favor of cannabis doubled(!) after experiencing its effects.)

The committee was made up of doctors and scientists from the New York Academy of Medicine, but the methods used in this study would never pass muster in today’s scientific community. A small group of individuals were instructed to use children’s toys to build homes or cities and asked how they would act in hypothetical situations, making their findings incredibly subjective. Even so, it is still very interesting that right from the beginning studies showed that cannabis poses little to no threat to individuals and society. 

The LaGuardia commission found Anslinger’s fearsome claims of marijuana induced violence and insanity to be false (which really pissed Anslinger off). Furthermore, the report categorically denounced cannabis’s status as a narcotic—because it is both non-lethal and non-addictive—and recommended further research be done to assess potential therapeutic effects. If you want to read more on this topic check out our post about The Beginning of America’s Cannabis Prohibition!