Harry J. Anslinger

Who was Harry J. Anslinger?

Harry Jacob Anslinger held office as the assistant prohibition commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, before being appointed as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics on August 12, 1930.

Anslinger held office an unprecedented 32 years in his role as commissioner until 1962. He then held office two years as US Representative to the United Nations Narcotics Commission. The responsibilities once held by Anslinger are now largely under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. He died at the age of 83 of heart failure in Altoona, Pennsylvania.