# Testimony of Harry J. Anslinger, 28–29 July 1964 (Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics, Part 3)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/psi-1964-anslinger-testimony/

The former Commissioner of Narcotics, by then the U.S. representative on the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, testifies mainly on the international control treaties. His prepared statement says addiction is concentrated in large cities "where organized criminals have made it available."

Anslinger was sworn after Commissioner Giordano on July 28, 1964, at printed page 679 of [Part 3](/items/valachi-hearings-part-3-1963-1964/) (NCJRS PDF page 775), and resumed on July 29 at page 685. He identified himself as "at present the U.S. representative on the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations." Asked what he had been formerly, he said "Federal Commissioner of Narcotics," and asked for how many years, "Thirty-two years."

He told the subcommittee he would confine his remarks "mostly to the international field." His testimony covers the narcotics treaties and protocols, among them the 1953 protocol limiting opium production to medical and scientific needs, and the systems of estimates and controls run through Geneva. His prepared statement, at page 703, says: "Today addiction is almost completely confined to the large metropolitan areas, such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles, where organized criminals have made it available."

The research pass searched this testimony for "Mafia," "Cosa Nostra," "Luciano," "Genovese" and "Sicil" and found none of them. The Bureau's account of the Mafia in this volume is Giordano's, and in the next volume Martin Pera's; it is not attributed to Anslinger here.

## Sources

- National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303): https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/119303NCJRS.pdf