DEA EXHIBIT SKIPS HARRY ANSLINGER’S RACIST LANGUAGE

As cannabis legalization activists tell it, Harry Anslinger, the government executive who successfully lobbied to make marijuana illegal in 1937, is one of the chief villains of prohibition. Anslinger’s detractors argue his push to ban cannabis was driven largely by racism, and attribute a number of racist statements to him.

• Now an exhibit mounted by the DEA — once live, now virtual — is under criticism for ignoring documented examples of Anslinger’s racially inflammatory language.
  N.Y. Times
• An Anslinger biographer said he, “was a product of his time, when that sort of language was not unusual, unfortunately.”
• “D.E.A. has always acknowledged that the history of drug control policy and enforcement is complicated and ever-evolving,” the agency said in a statement.

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   CommonWealth