After growing concerns about the regular cannabis smoking among U.S. troops in the Panama Canal Zone, an investigation is launched and culminated in the publication of a report. The Panama Canal Zone Report concludes that "there is no evidence that marihuana, as grown and used [in the Canal Zone] is a 'habit-forming' drug in the sense in which the term is applied to alcohol, opium, cocaine, etc., or that it has any appreciably deleterious influence on the individuals using it." No action is recommended to be taken to prevent cannabis use or sale in the Zone.
Source: Austin, G. A. et al. (1979). Perspectives on the history of psychoactive substance use. NIDA.
| Drugs: |
Cannabis (marijuana) |
| Regions: |
Central America, USA (United States of America) |
| Topics: |
Drugs and war |
Related Timeline Items
La Guardia Committee contradicts US Treasury Department (1944 CE)
The La Guardia Committee was the first in-depth study of the effects of smoking marijuana in the United States. The report contradicted claims made by the US Treasury Department.
According to the report, "The practice of marihuana does not lead to addiction in the medical sense of the word… The sale and distribution of marihuana is not under the control of any single organized group…The use of marihuana does not lead to morphine or heroin or cocaine addiction… Marihuana is not the determining factor in the commission of crimes… Juvenile delinquency is not associated with the practice of smoking marihuana…Marihuana is not the determining factor in the commission of crimes."
New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who was opposed to the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, appointed the a committee from the New York Academy of Medicine to prepare the report. As the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission had earlier discovered, the La Guardia Committee also found many popular associations were built on faulty reasoning or were complete fabrications growing out of hysteria or special interests. For example, if people who use cannabis are targeted and arrested, it will not be surprising to find that many "criminals" use cannabis. This does not prove that cannabis causes crime.