Anslinger And Mellon Connection

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One man who first spread myths about marijuana was Harry J. Anslinger, who was appointed director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (predecessor of the Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA of today). He was a man who hated jazz music and tried to get jazz musicians herded into prison for smoking marijuana. Anslinger hated marijuana even more. At first, he declared marijuana caused users to go crazy and commit violent crime. As a result of his testimony, persons who used pot could use the insanity defense to get a lesser charge of murder. Later on, after doctors testified at a second hearing regarding marijuana, Anslinger recanted his earlier testimony, conceding that marijuana probably didn´t cause insanity or violent behavior, but added that it could lead to opi*m use.

This is how the gateway myth originated.

In 1931, Anslinger got his job at the Bureau of Narcotics at the recommendation of a man named Richard Mellon, who happened to be his wife's uncle. Mellon, also director of the Mellon Bank, was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Richard along with sister Sarah and brother R.K. inherited Mellon Financial Corporation from their father Thomas Mellon in 1902. Richard invested in major stock holdings such as Gulf Oil and Alcoa and associated with wealthy men such as William R. Hearst, Sr. and the DuPont brothers. Hearst owned a chain of newspapers across the U.S. as well as a large lumber company. The DuPont family had just patented a paper making process using wood pulp some years earlier. As well,they had a new invention, a kind of synthetic cotton called nylon.Unfortunately, the infant hemp industry seemed to threaten these rich men's monopoly in the pulp and paper industry. In fact, in 1937, Popular Science predicted that hemp would become a billion dollar industry. Dupont and Hearst (friends and business companions) feared this of course with hemp being able to accomplish much more than paper and paint. Since then, marijuana has endured a smear campaign originally instigated by Hearst's newspapers and imitated by other newspaper chains around the world.

After hemp was banned in 1938, DuPont came out with nylon. It licensed out the paper making process to Hearst so that wood-pulp could be easily made into cheap paper. Meanwhile, the anti-pot propaganda demonized marijuana whilst the alcohol and tobacco companies enjoyed wide advertising in the newspapers and on TV, especially in the post-war boom that followed the war. Today, both alcohol and tobacco consumption is dropping, due to education about the dangers of their use. Marijuana consumption peaked about twelve years ago, but is now on the rise, especially among today's youth. This is in spite of anti-pot propaganda. New studies have completely overturned the gateway myth surrounding marijuana and indicate that marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes.

A possible reason why the U.S. seeks to control international drug policy may have to do with the economic potential cannabis hemp represents. A single nation with the right tools and the land can grow hemp and supply raw material for paper making and textiles, as well as replacements and substitutes for petrochemicals. Economic sustainability is possible with hemp more so than with trees. Hemp produces 4.3 times more pulp fiber per hectare. Hemp paper products can be recycled seven times while paper made from wood-pulp can only be recycled three times. Hemp seed protein is very nutritious. Fiberboard made from hemp fiber is stronger than that made from wood-chips. Thus, a cannabis hemp industry can revitalize any country that starts one up, if the capital is there.

References:

The American Magazine, July 1937

Statement to Narcotics Commission, 1937

20 years of narcotics Control under United Nations, January, 1966

DuPont and Manhattan Project, 1943

Randolf Hearst, Biography, 1863-1951


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Source: American Chronicle
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