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Dupont and the evil Weed
by Nelson Johnson
There is a very complex
relationship between the DuPont Company and
the war on Marijuana. In short, Prohibition was repealed in
1933,
DuPont had invented Nylon in 1935, and a new drug czar named Harry J.
Anslinger needed more work on his plate.
Harry J. Anslinger was 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 (FBN) on
August 12, 1930. His dad was Robert Anslinger, who was a highly
placed
executive of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
The Pennsylvania Railroad was owned by DuPont.
Now, DuPont didn't want any fiber competition for Nylon, and hemp was
a major obstacle, so, it seems that Anslinger may have gotten the word
from
his dad that his dad's company wanted marijuana (hemp) to be made
illegal.
In any case, Harry needed work to do to keep his job after the repeal
of
Prohibition, and he was already predisposed to make marijuana, as well
as
other drugs, illegal.
The March issue of the 'Costco Connection' magazine, of all things,
asks
the question "'Should Marijuana Be Legal?' with the Drug Policy
Alliance's
executive director Ethan Nadelmann arguing yes and Robert DuPont,
founding
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse arguing against."
Get that? Robert DuPont? Did you know that a member of the
DuPont
family was, well, the top man at NIDA? I did some searching on
this
Robert L. DuPont character and sure enough he shows up as a Dr. Robert
L. Dupont who is involved in treating drug abuse!
If these Robert DuPont characters are the same person, then the
historical
relationship of DuPont to reefer madness persecution by way of
Anslinger,
and Anslinger's father, is revealed. If true, Dr. Robert DuPont,
who is now
quite old, is a key to the entire house of cards. He has a
history of crackpot
theories against marijuana's medical benefits. It doesn't take
long to punch
holes in his arguments, but after all, he is the boss.
It is easy to see a connection between Robert and Harry here. And
it is also
easy to see that it is probable that the corporate needs of DuPont may
have
provided a strong incentive to making pot illegal. We can also
see how the
rules are made by complex webs of corporate greed.
This
is nothing new for DuPont, I hear.