Stoner

Alexandra Chasin is an associate professor at The New School. Her new book [Assassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger's War on Drugs](https://www.amazon.com/Assassin-Youth-Kaleidoscopic-History-Anslinger%C2%92s/dp/022627697X) is a biography of America's first drug czar who popularized the term 'marijuana' and ushered in the Reefer Madness period of drug prohibition. A master propagandist prone to demonizing ethnic and immigrant groups, Anslinger's ideas laid the foundation for the modern drug war and brought awareness of cannabis to the American masses. Alexandra and I talked about the Harrison Act, how America was scandalized by wild 'marijuana parties,' and the analogues between coming out as queer and coming out as a stoner.