Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy

Marijuana was outlawed in 1937 due to racism, greed, deception and lies, primarily through the instrument of Harry J. Anslinger of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD), the predecessor of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), who testifies before congress that “marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind.”

Anslinger was appointed director of the FBNDD in 1931 by his future uncle-in-law, Andrew Mellon, of Mellon Bank (DuPont’s financial backer); his goal: criminalize cannabis hemp, which has accounted for nearly all paper, textiles, rope and lighting oil used prior to the 1930s, and promised, with the advent of new technologies, the become America’s new billion dollar crop with over 25,000 applications ranging from biomass fuel to cellophane. With the improved methods of processing raw hemp, it was expected that hemp products would replace the polluting sulfate/sulfite process of making paper from wood pulp, as well as the environmentally detrimental process of making plastic from oil and coal, which were patented in 1937 by DuPont, the the nation’s leading munitions manufacturer. The hemp seed oil market, which in 1935 consumed 58,000 tons of seed for paints and varnishes went to DuPont’s petrochemicals.

Additionally, oil companies risked losing their lucrative petroleum fuel markets to hemp oil and biomass fuel produced from the cellulose of hemp (among other) pants. Henry Ford foresaw some of the detriments of petrochemicals and strived to replace fossil fuel with biomass. However, Rockefeller, Rothschild and others lobbied in the late 1800s to create the ubiquitous monopoly over energy that the multinational petrochemical companies enjoy today. In fact, on the New York Stock Exchange, over 80% of the total value of issues traded is directly related to the fossil fuel industry, which is diametrically opposed to the employment of biomass as a source of energy, due to the more efficient and environmentally stable nature of the earth’s premier source of renewable energy, hemp.

Inextricably involved in the “anti-marijuana” campaign, the timber industry and paper manufacturing industry also stood to lose substantial portions of their markets. The Hearst Empire, with it’s large timber holdings and nation-wide newspaper chain unscrupulously and viciously attacked “marijuana” use with such a racist, deceitful smear campaign that by the time of the proposition of the Marijuana Tax Bill (1937), very few people, not even the American Medical Association, knew that marijuana and cannabis were the same substance. After the AMA realized what marijuana is, Dr. James Woodward testified before the House Ways and Means committee that cannabis is a benign substance used in scores of medical application for over a hundred years, and that the federal testimony against marijuana was pure fabrication. The Ways and Means committee, however, told Congress that the AMA was in “complete agreement” with the prohibitive tax.

The pharmaceutical companies were also in favor of hemp prohibition because the raw drug cannabis is unpatentable (because it requires no chemicals) and the legal drug industry joined in the fray to “wipe out the natural competition.”

The medical purposes of cannabis hemp, as they are presently known, include the treatment and/or relief of asthma, glaucoma, tumors, nausea, epilepsy, M.S., back pain, muscle spasms, migraine headaches, cystic fibrosis, herpes, rheumatism, senility, stress and dementia, as well as being the best natural expectorant for treating emphysema and to clear the lungs of smog, dust and tobacco-related phlegm. Cannabis can also serve as an appetite stimulant, sleep aid and a recreational/creative aid.

Conversely, marijuana smoking has never resulted in a single incident of death or even cancer, and the THC metabolites that linger in the body for 30 days are a non-toxic, harmless residue, which don’t, as we thought, cause sterility. Another popular myth is that marijuana use results in brain damage. The Health/Tulane monkey study, conducted in California, in 1974, under Governor Ronald Reagan which came to this conclusion, maintained their lie for 6 years, while NORML and Playboy sued the government, under the Freedom of Information Act, to find out how they obtained their results. What they found was that the monkeys who suffered brain damage due to marijuana consumption were strapped in a chair and, within five minutes, does with the equivalent of 63 Colombian strength joints through gas masks. The monkeys died of asphyxiation and carbon monoxide poisoning which caused the brain damage that was attributed to marijuana use.

This is just a small example of the level of corruption in American government and business exposed in Jack Herer’s fully documented, 1991 edition of The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Citing seemingly insurmountable evidence testifying to the statement “Hemp can save the planet,” Herer’s research has uncovered some intriguing motives behind the Drug War.

For example: George Bush, after he serves as director of the C.I.A., was made director of the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company by Dan Quayle’s father. While Bush was Vice-President, he lobbied (illegally) for eased restrictions on pharmaceutical companies (such as Eli Lilly) that were selling drugs that were unwanted or illegal in the U.S. He also went to the I.R.S. to secure a tax break for certain drug companies (such as Eli Lilly) operating in Puerto Rico. The Supreme Court found out what Bush was up to, and ordered him to stop. A 23% additional tax break was granted to Bush’s friends, anyway.

The World Health Organization estimates that some 500,000 people per year are poisoned by the chemicals, pesticides and “medicines” dumped on the Third World, by the same pharmaceutical companies that campaign so heavily (along with the tobacco and alcohol companies) here, in the U.S..

Alcohol caused over 150,000 deaths in the U.S. in 1988, in addition to at least 50% of all traffic deaths and 65% of all murders. For the same year, tobacco related deaths claimed about 350,000 lives. Diazepine (Valium) is the most widely abused drug in the U.S., responsible for more emergency room admissions than cocaine, heroin and morphine related problems combined.

Marijuana prohibition is an example of our government’s flat refusal to respect the democratic process and the Bill of Rights (there are at least 30 million pot smokers in America) and is a blatant abridgment of human liberty. The illegality of cannabis hemp is not, however, just a hassle for the stoner and a stepping stone for increased government control of our lives; it is a detriment to humanity, as a whole. The hemp plant is the answer to land reclamation, deforestation, reversing the Greenhouse Effect, replacing petrochemicals and developing the Third World.

For further information, read The Emperor Wears No Clothes, (available through High Times), contact the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp (B.A.C.H.– a Salt Lake branch has recently been opened) and call 1-800-662-HELP, which is the number for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America information line on the “dangers of marijuana.”

Be informed, be active, or beware. Whether you smoke pot or just feel that it is a fundamental right to decide for oneself which substance to consume or not, express your opinion before the First Amendment is repealed.

For more from the SLUG Archives:
The Art of Body Piercing
Interview: Jim Thirwell A.KA. Clint Ruin of Foetus, Inc.