Flowers from the Devil: an American Opiate Crisis, the Criminalization of Marijuana, and the Triumph of the Prohibition State, 1840-1940

University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2020 FLOWERS FROM THE DEVIL: AN AMERICAN OPIATE CRISIS, THE CRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA, AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE PROHIBITION STATE, 1840-1940 Clinton David Lawson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Lawson, Clinton David, "FLOWERS FROM THE DEVIL: AN AMERICAN OPIATE CRISIS, THE CRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA, AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE PROHIBITION STATE, 1840-1940" (2020). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11642. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11642 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLOWERS FROM THE DEVIL: AN AMERICAN OPIATE CRISIS, THE CRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA, AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE PROHIBITION STATE, 1840-1940 By CLINTON DAVID LAWSON MA History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 2012 BA History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 2005 Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctorate in History The University of Montana Missoula, MT 2020 Approved by: Scott Whittenburg, Graduate School Dean Jeff Wiltse, Chair Department of History Kyle Volk Department of History Richard Drake Department of History Jim Mills Department of History, University of Strathclyde—Glasgow Kari Jo Harris School of Public and Community Health Sciences COPYRIGHT by Clinton Lawson 2020 All Rights Reserved Lawson, Clinton, PhD, May 2020 History FLOWERS FROM THE DEVIL: AN AMERICAN OPIATE CRISIS, THE CRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA, AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE PROHIBITION STATE, 1840-1940 Chairperson: Jeff Wiltse This dissertation focuses on historic changes in public perception of narcotic use and abuse from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. From the 1840s to the outbreak of Civil War, politicians, physicians, the general public, and state and federal government remained largely ambivalent on the topic of drug use. Opium, morphine, and cannabis were legal, widely available in American pharmacies, and touted as essential medicines. Within the Bohemian community, artists and writers experimented with the recreational use of cannabis and their accounts of that style of consumption filled the pages of Harper’s, The New Yorker, and a host of other literary- minded publications. By the 1880s, that seemingly permissive environment seemed to suddenly give way to a government increasingly focused on the regulation and prohibition of drugs. This work argues that a late-nineteenth century opiate epidemic radically transformed the country’s relationship with drugs and placed cannabis on a historical trajectory that led to its criminalization in the late-1930s. As newspapers blamed the perceived narcotic crisis that emerged in post-bellum America on the medical community, public opinion turned, to a large extent, against doctors and pharmacists. This erosion in public trust in the practice of medicine— a direct byproduct of an American opiate crisis—instigated a transfer of control over the nation’s approach to drug management. Once entirely the occupation of a relatively decentralized medical community, crucial choices over the dispensation of narcotics and their general management shifted to the arena of popular politics. This dissertation argues that transference of power aided the formation of a prohibition-minded state that rapidly banned smokable opium, non-medicinal opiates, cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and—eventually—marijuana. ii Flowers from the Devil: An American Opiate Crisis, the Criminalization of Marijuana, and the Triumph of the Prohibition State, 1840-1940 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………..iv Introduction……………………………………………………………………...1 1. “Giving the Resin of Hemp an Extensive Trial:” The Rise of a Global Medical Marijuana Economy……………………………………………………………..17 2. “Adventurous Tasters:” Non-Medicinal Drug Use in Nineteenth Century America………………………………………………………………………….55 3. An American Opiate Crisis, 1875-1905………………………………………….92 4. The Making of a Prohibition State: The Social and Political Response to an Opioid Crisis……………………………………………………………………..135 5. And Then Came Reefer Madness………………………………………………..169 6. A More Sober Union: The Triumph of the Prohibition State……………………202 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….254 iii Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the crucial resources given to me by the University of Montana Department of History and the latitude offered in forming the central questions I set out to answer. Those questions were then gently critiqued and reshaped by a number of individuals. The work’s early formation depended on crucial feedback from Professors Anya Jabour and Dan Flores. Dr. Richard Drake’s inexhaustible knowledge of classic historical texts offered the confidence I needed to search for the broader global and economic picture. Dr. Kyle Volk’s gift for skillfully diagnosing historical problems and offering clear fixes continually pushed my thinking forward. With the foundation set, I was dependent on the Inter-Library Loan team at Mansfield Library. I also consulted the Municipal Archives in New York City and owe a great deal to the staff at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. While it is difficult to thank those involved in digitizing historical material, this dissertation would have truly been impossible without the wide array of sources I easily accessed online from Missoula, Montana. So, I must offer a heartfelt thank you to the army of individuals involved in digitizing historical documents—archivists, volunteers, librarians, and so many others who work to modernize our profession. Their work not only democratizes historical research, but also offers landlocked scholars the freedom to pursue topics that would not be possible without those efforts. Dr. Jeff Wiltse’s guidance as my advisor was an incalculable factor in every aspect of this project—from its initial formation to the conclusion. I relied heavily on his detailed readings of my chapters as well as his undying confidence in the project. When backed into the many corners of my own creation along the way, Jeff pulled me out, inspired new trains of thought, and served as an essential collaborator. iv I would also like to thank Michael Dax, Pat O’Connor, Jerad Langley, and Grant Henderson for listening to me talk about this project for several years without complaint. John Herron and Miriam Forman-Brunell, professors at the University of Missouri—Kansas City, served as early shapers of my historical mind and undoubtedly influenced the way I approached the work undertaken here. Towards the end of this project, I benefited tremendously from my employment at the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia, where I learned new methods of research and adjusted my thinking to align with the practice of public history. I would like to thank my wife, Sasha Lawson, who has offered patience, support, and a sympathetic ear through the entire process. My two daughters Adria and Mariella Lawson continually inspire me to do the best work I can. Finally, I would like to thank my grandfather, D. Richard Laws, who passed just three weeks before the defense of the pages that follow. He read chapters, offered feedback, and generally pushed me to “get that thing done.” v Introduction In 1866, newspapers across the United States published advertisements for “Hasheesh Candy.” It labeled the confection a “Great Oriental Panacea!” and the “only, reliable, safe and agreeable preparation of this much esteemed Eastern Stimulant and Tonic.” The cannabis used to make the candy had been prepared “under the supervision of one of the most celebrated chemists in the country.” The papers billed the treat as a medicine and argued that, to those who could not get a good night’s sleep, it was “invaluable.” It also eased the symptoms of “nervousness, headache, low spirits, coughs, neuralgia, loss of appetite, chronic and camp diarrhea, dyspepsia, asthma, and dysentery.” In the treatment of those diseases, the promotional bulletin continued, cannabis was simply unparalleled. Indeed, Dr. Mott, who practiced in New York City, offered a testimonial that read, “the true medicinal virtues of the Hasheesh Candy are very great; much better than yet appears. I could wish that a remedy, so potent for good as it is, were more generally in use.”1 Sixty years later, the United States government went to war against that same substance. On November 27, 1937, it was widely reported that U.S. customs agents had assembled along the Mexican border to stop the flow of cannabis into the United States. The agents were “veterans in wars against international smuggling rings” and were “waging a battle to halt the flow of marihuana from its native Mexico” into the United States. In many cases, federal authorities crossed into Mexico. “The federal battle lines are moving southward,” a syndicated article proclaimed, “into the tiny villages of the vast, barren Northern Mexico country, where the dread ‘giggle weed’ is cultivated and grows wild.”2 1 “Hasheesh Candy,” Fall River Daily Monitor (Fall River, Massachusetts),

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