wow, way to write about whitewashing Harry Anslinger while whitewashing Harry Anslinger. For 1, how do you not mention his persecution of Billie Holliday, hatred of jazz and oh yeah outright lies about drugs? He was not a "narcotics expert" he was a cop https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/arts/design/Anslinger-drug-czar-exhibition.html

Also, this lede "Harry J. Anslinger’s pioneering work as head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics has largely been unsung, though experts see him as the founding father of America’s war on drugs"... how do you write this without irony about an utterly failed policy?

& what do I mean when I say a cop isn't a drugs expert? Expertise in enforcing laws is not expertise in pharmacology, medicine, psychology, history, sociology or any other discipline that actually studies drugs & adxn. we don't ask cops about treating depression or cancer..

Finally, racism isn't just incidental to the war on drugs, it is the core of why some drugs are legal & some aren't. until we stop pretending drug policy is based on science & relative drug dangers, we won't have decent policy.

p.s. if you want to read the real story of Anslinger, check out Johann Hari's Chasing the Scream...