“On the day the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act was enacted — Oct. 2, 1937 — the FBI and Denver, Colo., police raided the Lexington Hotel and arrested Samuel R. Caldwell, 58, an unemployed labourer and Moses Baca, 26. On Oct. 5, Caldwell went into the history trivia books as the first marijuana seller convicted under U.S. federal law. His customer, Baca, was found guilty of possession…
Caldwell was sentenced to four years of hard labour in Leavenworth Penitentiary, plus a $1,000 fine. Baca received 18 months incarceration. Both men served every day of their sentence. A year after Caldwell was released from prison, he died.”
Contact Us
ProCon/Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200
Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA
Natalie Leppard
Managing Editor
procon@eb.com
© 2023 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
All rights reserved
ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order):
APA (7th ed.):ProCon.org. (2019, September 24). Oct. 2, 1937 – First Marijuana Seller Convicted under US Federal Law Is Arrested. ProCon.org. https://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/timeline-events/oct-2-1937-first-marijuana-seller-convicted-under-us-federal-law-is-arrested
[Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]
Chicago (17th ed.):ProCon.org, "Oct. 2, 1937 – First Marijuana Seller Convicted under US Federal Law Is Arrested," ProCon.org. last modified September 24, 2019. https://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/timeline-events/oct-2-1937-first-marijuana-seller-convicted-under-us-federal-law-is-arrested/.
MLA (9th ed.):ProCon.org, "Oct. 2, 1937 – First Marijuana Seller Convicted under US Federal Law Is Arrested." ProCon.org. 24 Sep. 2019, medicalmarijuana.procon.org/timeline-events/oct-2-1937-first-marijuana-seller-convicted-under-us-federal-law-is-arrested
[Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]