A Seedy Bureaucrat
Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger, a loathsome and seedy figure who spearheaded the criminalization of drugs, led the Federal Bureau of Narcotics for 32 years. An extremely bigoted racist even by the standards of his day, he demonized racial minorities and immigrants. He also hated jazz, which he deemed a mongrel music of African, Caribbean, and European origins that mated on American soil. He thought it was musical anarchy, and proof of primitive impulses in black people, about to erupt at any moment. As he described jazz in internal memos: “It sounded like the jungles in the dead of night“.
The country’s drug czar became friends with Joseph McCarthy, as the two bonded over their anticommunism. When he learned about the senator’s addiction to opium, Anslinger’s first concern was not his duty to enforce the law. Instead, he grew worried that his seedy friend might be vulnerable to blackmail if his addiction was discovered by enemies – especially communist enemies. Anslinger covered up for McCarthy, shielded him from arrest, and saw to it that the senator was safely supplied with drugs.
