On October 2, 1937- the very day the Marihuana Tax Stamp Act was enacted - a 58-year-old unemployed laborer and part-time reeferman named Samuel R. Caldwell set up shop in Denver's seedy Lexington Hotel. Local police and FBI officers raided, caught Caldwell in the act of selling two joints, and took him down for dealing - the first person ever charged under the brand-new federal law. "I consider marijuana the worst of all narcotics, far worse than the use of morphine or cocaine. Under its influence men become beasts," the judge declared, sentencing Caldwell to four years of hard labor. "I have no sympathy with those who sell this weed. The government is good to enforce this new law to the letter."
Samuel R. Caldwell served every day of his sentence in Leavenworth Penitentiary, on top of a $1000 fine, and died a year after his release.
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