John Finlator

John Haywood Finlator was an American federal administrator and narcotics law enforcement director. He was the first and only director of the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (BDAC), and later served as deputy director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). He was one of the first members of the narcotics enforcement community that advocated for decriminalizing cannabis and marijuana. This advocacy often set him at odds with his coworkers at the bureau and with Congress but was praised by many medical community members.

Early life Finlator was born in 1911 in Louisburg, North Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree in history and economics from North Carolina State University, and a master's degree in management from American University. He was a member of the Cosmos Club and the Sons of the American Revolution.

Director of the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control John Finlator and Kenneth Durrin waiting for a new class of BDAC recruits. On March 7, 1966, Finlator was appointed the first Director of the BDAC by Dr. James L. Goddard. Finlator served as the first and only director of the bureau.

There was a differentiation between the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) and the BDAC here: FBN had jurisdiction over narcotics such as marijuana, cocaine, opium, and their derivatives. Finlator also wrote that marijuana would often be laced with LSD, confusing the jurisdictional pursuit of LSD. Under Finlator's leadership, the BDAC seized millions of units of hallucinogenic drugs, most of it LSD. This model defined the structure of BDAC and its three branches, and the modus of the basic BDAC operations. He was transferred on the same day as Henry Giordano, the Commissioner of the FBN. He resigned at 60 years of age, and 57 was the mandatory retirement age for most federal law enforcement employees. However, the press of the day reported that he quit the job over his disagreements with marijuana legislation.

Advisory Board of NORML John Finlator testifies for marijuana reform before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in 1973. Before Finlator officially retired, he had given several speeches and public notices on his opinion that marijuana should be decriminalized. Keith Stroup, the founding director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) contacted Finlator and asked him if he would like to join. Finlator told him to call back after he was no longer serving in the federal government. He also represented the organization in Washington.

Stroup writes of his interactions with Finlator in the early days of NORML:

"Finlator seemed to enjoy the surprise on people's faces when he testified in favor of marihuana decriminalization... I offered Finlator marijuana on several occasions, when we were spending a night in some hotel on the road waiting to testify the next day before some state legislature, but he always laughed and declined. Those of us who smoked would often meet in my room and share a joint before dinner, where Finlator and Whipple would join us and make jokes about our being stoned. They, of course, enjoyed a cocktail or two with dinner."

Retirement and later life In 1973, Finlator wrote the book The Drugged Nation: A Narc's story. Later he wrote several works of poetry.

Finlator lived in Arlington, Virginia for 44 years. He served as President of the Arlington Kiwanis Club and chairman of the Arlington Red Cross. He also served on the Arlington Salvation Army board and the Hospice of Northern Virginia. He was a member of Clarendon United Methodist Church in Arlington.

On August 17, 1990, Finlator died of cancer at the Hermitage Health Center in Alexandria, Virginia.