Reefer Madness, Du Pont, and the Marihuana
Tax Act of 1939
By: Ken La Rive
(I do not in any way advocate the use of
drugs in any shape or form, including marijuana. But we all deserve to know the
possible reasons behind the law that has ruined an industry, and put countless
people behind bars.)
I was slouching quite comfortably
in the LaGuardia Airport several years ago, waiting in a stupor
for my next flight, when suddenly a beautiful young woman in loose khaki pants
and a short orange tank top sat next to me. I couldn’t help notice that she had
a pierced bejeweled belly button, and though I’m sort of embarrassed to admit
it, but I immediately pilled myself up from that slouch, even trying to suck in
my stomach. Why do men feel the need to show their best for a woman, even a
strange women they will never see again, nor even want to see again? I think it
is hardwired in men, instilled into us by women from as far back as the cave.
But then, why would a woman display a bejeweled belly button, if not as bate.
She briefly glanced and smiled in
my direction as she lowered her well-stuffed bag from her shoulder to the white
polished floor, straddling it protectively with her legs. We sat there in
silence for some time, while she rummaged for what looked like something to
read.
Suddenly, from around our row of seats,
a security man and a small “sniffer” dog started in our direction, looking for
the usual suspected contraband: baggies of cocaine, plastic explosives, smuggled
organics. or a residual smell of marijuana. Usually when the dog takes an
interest in a bag it means a forgotten peanut butter sandwich, cheese from the
gift shop, or an apple your mom stuffed in for a snack. All of these are
illegal to export, and if you can’t produce any one of these pronto, you may be
escorted away for a proper search.
They passed us without incident,
and disappeared within the terminal throng of travelers.
This is what stimulated our hour
long conversation, and though it was several years ago, and a bit of the specifics
have now long vaporized, some of the ideas she mentioned to me stuck.
We talked of the countries she
had visited where certain drugs were completely legalized, and that American
sensibilities about such matters have been distorted by the new age of synthetics.
Synthetics? Yep, that’s what she said. She was from Norway, and the entire area is
noted for their very liberal views. To me, she seemed well educated,
opinionated, and right or wrong, seemingly informed. Without the least bit of
hesitation told me I should look up the company called Du Pont, and the history of hemp
as well.
I’m 68 now, and lived in the
world of the sixties as a formidable and well conditioned teenager. I remember
those days, the music, TV, and the thought processes too, far better than even last
week! Marijuana was very much against the law in our “hippie” generation, but
just a few years before, it was quite legal. What changed?
I found the answers in some very
unusual places: Albert Goldman’s, Grass
Roots: Marijuana in America Today, 1979, Jack Herer’s, The Emperor Wears No Cloths: hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy,
1992, and the main source, by Jon Vankin and John Whalen, The 60 Greatest Conspiracies of all time, 1995. In a nutshell…
What if I were to tell you that
the lowly hemp plant, also known as buds, grass, pot, bhang, weed, boo,
cannabis, or ganja, was once required by law to grow, and our founding fathers,
yep, the same ones who signed the Declaration of Independence, like Washington
and Jefferson, grew it on their farms.
It was so handy, known to be the
strongest of all plant fibers, that it was used for the making of sails,
clothing, rope, and a wide variety of health aids and therapy for dozens of
ailments. Here is a plant that was thought to be the key to the problems of our
new industrial age. It could have virtually replaced the use of fossil fuels in
the new combustible engines, feed and clothe the world, and put an end to
deforestation so rampant in the last century.
So Du Pont rings in my ears! In
the book above by Herer, he states, “malicious conspiracy to suppress not a
‘killer weed,’ but the world’s premier renewable natural resource, for the
benefit of a handful of wealthy and powerful individuals and corporations.” He
made reference to hemp’s demise as being the new Dark Ages, and nothing short
of, “a conspiracy against mankind.”
Wow! A bit strong, don’t you
think? But this is just the tip of the iceberg, and our own suppressed history!
There are three players here that I want you to meet. The first is a man we all
know by the name of William Randolph Hearst. His daughter was Patty, remember? He
led what some consider to be the first “hysterical crusade” against marijuana.
His newspapers were filled with anti-pot writings at the same time many
magazines, like Popular Mechanics, were saying that hemp was the savior of
mankind, and would be a “new billion dollar crop.” I wonder, what other holdings
did William have?
What was behind his initial
attempt to destroy this world market? Before the cotton gin, hemp was used to
make clothing that kept our men warm at Valley Forge,
bedding, tents, and even our “Old Glory” flag! Our bibles were printed on
reefer paper, and hemp seed oil could have taken the place of whale oil, that
brought on the near extinction of a species. God fearing men from every corner
of America
used it for a wide variety of medicinal purposes, from patented medicines legally
sold in drug stores!
Next, and soon after Hearst, came
a notable named A.J. Anslinger, and is the one who imaginatively coined the
term “reefer madness.” A so called “morality cop” of the prohibition era, he is
quoted as saying, “If the monster Frankenstein would come face to face with the
monster marihuana, he would drop dead from fright.” He later admitted to have illegally supplied
morphine to Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was then addicted, and helped the OSS, the forerunner of
our CIA, with unsuccessful experiments to use hashish concentrate and distillate
as a truth serum for captured spies.
But then the powerful Du Pont
Corporation took up the baton. And why is that would you suppose? Could it be
that they wanted the new synthetic fibers like nylon and polyester to take the
place of Hemp? And their plastic fibers did come to dominate, and a new super-polluting
wood pulp process was born too. In 1939, Lammot Du Pont is quoted in Popular
Mechanics as saying: We are…“conserving natural resources by developing
synthetic products to supplement or wholly replace natural products.” Well, is
this a lie? Was the additive dioxin understood then? Did they know of its
cancer causing properties? I think they did…
Ha! Anslinger even went before
Congress and said that the “reefer friend” was comprised mostly of the “Negro
and Mexican”, and worst of all, “entertainers.” (This sentence has been deleted by CPS so as not to offend.) In my
book, Anslinger was not much of a humanitarian, but a puppet to big business.
The final kick came with the
legislation called “The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.” It virtually breezed
through Congress with the strangled voices of hemp growers and the American
Medical Association watching helplessly on the sidelines. Strange to find out
now that Anslinger was then in charge of the Treasury Department, who owed his
job to his relation Andrew Mellon, owner of the sixth largest bank in our great
nation, and just happened to be the
Du Pont banker.
Of course there is no real proof
of conspiracy here, all of it is just pure speculation, of course. But then, Du
Pont continues to be the “largest producer of man-made fibers, while no citizen
has legally harvested a single acre of textile-grade hemp in over fifty years?”
says Herer. Well, thought you should
know…
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