It may or may not make a difference, but we should stick to the truth. Herer's HEMP conspiracy has not, at this point, been conclusively proven or disproven. Indeed, the evidence we have tends to support a conspiracy. (I'd say that the state of the evidence is such that a diligent DA would be proceeding with a thorough investigation with the idea of indictments in mind.)
The fact that Anslinger and the Treasury Department carried on secret planning sessions for the MTA for over two years before introducing the bill to Congress indicates a conspiracy because only a favoured few of the concerned parties were invited to participate in framing legislation that directly affected their industries. The HEMP growers, the AMA, the birdseed manufacturers and most other concerned parties were excluded from these meetings and they weren't even notified that the MTA was being considered after its introduction to Congress.
That right there provides fertile ground for suspicion since Congress traditionally notifies affected industries of laws that might affect them and invites their commentary. Usually these industries hammer out compromises and exclusions that protect the businesses being regulated. This custom was given short shift in the MTA proceedings. Why?
The birdseed people were very lucky to hear about the proposed law in time to save their businesses because they knew nothing of the MTA until AFTER the Congressional hearings started. The premise entertained by the House Ways and Means Committee was to cut a law that prohibited all HEMP-cannabis-marihuana dealings without exception or as completely as possible. The preservation of HEMP business interests were such a low priority that no one notified the interested parties. Only those able to defend themselves got any consideration and most never knew until it was far too late. Does this sound like a conspiracy?
This conspiracy is more in force today than ever before. Drug control groups are supposed to make regular reports on their activities and are supposed to re-evaluate drugs from time to time. Maybe you could explain why studies, reports and other data gathering activities MANDATED BY LAW are simply ignored by the DEA, Congress, the Justice Department and so on if the data contradicts their narcomania. Some mandated reports are now many years behind the legal requirement and there is no sign that the law will be obeyed any time soon. Information detrimental to prohibition policy is ILLEGALLY SUPPRESSED. That sounds like a conspiracy to me.
Why do you suppose the drug warriors would overtly commit crimes if they didn't know there was such a widespread narco-conspiracy backing them that they could get away with it. And never doubt that they are getting away with it.
Our current crop of Reefer Maniacs is definitely involved in a conspiracy even if Anslinger did all of his perjury without outside encouragement.
The bottom line is that the handling of drug prohibition, even from their standpoint, is highly irregular and illegal. Janet Reno ought to be doing time for failing to provide Congress with data about drug enforcement. The same goes for her predecessors.
Then there's the little matter of perjury. Every time anything about drugs comes up in Congress, the different agencies parade forth a contingent of trained liars to endorse their tyranny. Only the ignorant and brain-dead cannot see through this charade, so they are inexcusable. And who developed this sleazy tactic for promoting drug prohibition, none other than our old acquaintance Harry Anslinger who stage managed double-dealing witnesses for every drug law he put through Congress.
Careful study of the history surrounding marihuana prohibition will reveal truths about what is going on today. To be frank, I think our legislators are far more corrupt now than in 1937. In 1937, the legislators had to be conned into supporting marihuana prohibition with a long siege of Reefer Madness propaganda. Now, we see these poltroons inventing their own narcomaniac fictions to support drug prohibition and actively resisting any truth telling.
If we can prove that the seed and root of the tree is rotten, that condemns everything that has grown out of the original rootstock. That is one good reason for examining this conspiracy theory.
And I might add, we can prove, yes, PROVE in capitol letters, that the enactment of the MTA involved many irregularities that make its passage highly suspect.
The main fraud was the notion that marihuana was a deadly menace. No primary evidence of the central theme of the MTA was ever presented. Instead lying anecdotes and yellow press journalism were used to support the notion that marihuana was a deadly menace. None of the Committee members who ran the MTA hearings ever questioned the idea that marihuana was a deadly menace. They swallowed Anslinger's Reefer Madness fiction with a gulp and never questioned the fundamental reason for the law.
Dr. Woodward was the only person to complain about the lack of primary evidence about marihuana's harm. Every other witness meekly accepted the Committee's preconceived notion that marihuana was a lethal menace that was killing thousands every year. Even those who's personal experience contradicted the Reefer Madness theory were intimidated into accepting this basic lie. Dr. Woodward was the only person to testify who expressed any serious doubts about the purpose of the law. He was ignored. After putting Dr. Woodward through a third degree which they inflicted on no other witness, they insulted the man for opposing their wonderful MTA with something so trite as the plain truth or an honest opinion.
Does anybody doubt that Orrin Hatch or Gerald Solomon would orchestrate the same Reefer Madness inquisition to prevent negative views about drug prohibition from being voiced. These drug war liars do not receive a truth teller gladly and go to great lengths to prevent reality from entering their deliberations.
All of this spells conspiracy to me and there's more evidence to support this view.
We have to realize that HARRY J ANSLINGER is the single most important figure in American and world-wide drug prohibition. Contrary to what some might think, Anslinger is not some doddering antique who stumbled off the stage in 1962 to be heard of no more. Anslinger's influence hasn't waned one iota since 1937. In fact, his impact is increasing. There isn't a single area of modern drug enforcement that doesn't have Anslinger's fingerprints all over it. In fact, Anslinger's insane notions about drugs have become official policy. The draconian laws passed during the Reagan-Bush era represent Anslinger's thinking to a tee. Newt Gingrich's call for the death penalty would get a hearty slap on the back if Anslinger were around to express his pleasure.
Anslinger is the architect of virtually every concept of modern drug prohibition. Long mandatory minimum sentences, blame Anslinger; he always wanted very heavy criminal penalties on drug use! Focusing drug laws on blacks and minorities, blame Anslinger. Drug war racism was an Anslinger speciality that is carried on zealously down to this day. The fact that 76% of our drug prisoners are blacks would meet with great approval from the thoroughly racist Harry J Anslinger if he were alive. Destruction of civil rights, blame Anslinger, he never showed any concern for the basic rights of drug users or anybody else.
Anslinger virtually wrote the US drug policy when things were reorganized in the early 1970s. The Satan of Sativa also wrote the Single Convention Treaty which embodies most of Anslinger's Reefer Madness into international law. Virtually every US drug law since 1972 has been something that Anslinger would have been proud to author. In short, we are still firmly in the grip of this Mephistopheles of Marihuana from out of the past. Anslinger's body may be dead, but the evil he did lives on.
The bottom line is that current US and world drug prohibition polices were set by Mr. Reefer Madness himself, Harry J Anslinger. Anslinger's spirit is very much alive in the halls of Congress right down to this day. The whole idea of "zero tolerance" is something out of an Anslinger wet dream. The escalation of drug policy to our number one national priority is pure Anslingerism.
The point is that Harry J Anslinger is still the most influential person in drug prohibition over 20 years after his death.
A lot more could be said, but I'd have to dig into my notes. The bottom line is that we should endeavour to learn as much as possible about the father of modern drug prohibition because his theories are still the guiding light for drug policy. I'd look into this matter a little deeper before pronouncing Anslinger, DuPont et al innocent of conspiracy charges. Sufficient information has not yet emerged to positively convict our list of suspects, but that doesn't mean it will not be found.
Steven B Duke, who maintains an open mind about the possibility of a HEMP conspiracy, told me how to prove or disprove this accusation. According to Duke, the answer lies in the public, personal and official papers of the suspects. So far as I know, no one has ever undertaken the tedious, time consuming, expensive task of checking all of these records. When somebody does, fasten your seat belts because they'll open up a cesspool of narco-corruption that stinks to high heaven.
Examining the public, private and business papers of Anslinger, DuPont (including corporate papers), officials in the Treasury Department, Rep. Robert Doughton, Sen. Prentiss Brown, Morganthau et al will prove this conspiracy one way or another because if there was such a plot some SOB somewhere wrote it into his diary or inadvertently let the cat out of the bag in a memo or something of the sort. It never fails. Like Nixon's Watergate tapes, the proof is there if it hasn't been destroyed. (We have already located some smoking guns in these documents, even though only a tiny fraction of these records have been examined.)
I happen to believe proof of a conspiracy exists because I recently received about 50 pages of Anslinger's office documents and messages back and forth to agents in the field from the FOI access. Some of this material shows that Anslinger was not enforcing the HEMP growing provisions of the law according to the clear mandate written into the MTA.
Records from the Agriculture Department which I have already located show that Anslinger had virtually wiped out the domestic HEMP industry by 1940. However, there was one group of HEMP growers, producers and manufacturers who escaped the wrath of great Satan of Sativa.
To wit: almost all of the 2,000 acres of HEMP grown in 1940 was under contract to the War and Navy Departments because of their recognition of the strategic importance of HEMP in the coming war. Likewise, the 7,000+ acres reported in 1941 all went to the Navy and War Department. By 1940, the FBN records report, "no one applied to grow flowering tops in 1940." Indeed, every aspect of the HEMP industry was rapidly declining as Anslinger enforced the MTA to their detriment. Only the needs of the Navy and War Department prevented the total extermination of the domestic HEMP industry by 1941.
As we can plainly see, every category except importers shows an immediate and precipitous decline until the War and Navy Departments recognized the threat to national security and put the brakes on Anslinger's treasonous HEMP eradication policy in 1940.
The Agriculture Dept. report about hemp's strategic importance indicates that Anslinger's activities in destroying our "core hemp industry" were stopped in 1940 for national security reasons and there is little doubt that Mr. A was quietly informed that his bald scalp would be a trophy hanging on some Admiral's bulkhead if he interfered with War or Navy Department HEMP growing.
As a consequence of War and Navy Department actions, growers in Wisconsin and Kentucky were immune from FBN harassment and we see an increase in the number growers in 1940 and 1941 (any one want to bet that they were almost all from Kentucky or Wisconsin??) while every other category quickly declines.
If someone can find an example of FBN interference with ANY commercial growers in Wisconsin or Kentucky from 1940 to 1949, please let me know.
War and Navy Department protection of certain growers makes Anslinger's efforts to demolish the HEMP industry look more benign because it enables them to say, "see there, that's how the MTA protected HEMP growers. Anslinger didn't bother the honest growers in Wisconsin or Kentucky."
All the while Anslinger would have destroyed them in an instant if the threat of a treason charge wasn't in the offing.
This Agriculture report has some VERY strong things to say about the strategic importance of HEMP and the vital necessity of having it available for the coming war. There isn't the slightest doubt that Anslinger would have been removed from office and possibly imprisoned if he had turned the FBN loose on the Kentucky and Wisconsin growers. You see there isn't one word of Reefer Madness in the Agriculture Department report. In fact, the word marihuana doesn't appear! The value of HEMP is clearly shown by the vital importance the War Department placed on this commodity and their special efforts to preserve and build a "core hemp industry."
At the same time, commercial growers in Minnesota and Illinois who didn't have the good fortune to be connected with the War Department, were being harassed at every turn by Mr. Reefer Madness. Anslinger damaged these industries so badly with his ranting and raving about marihuana and his subsequent prejudicial enforcement of the MTA that every one of these businesses failed. Anslinger made it impossible for them to raise the capital needed to succeed and prevented them from marketing their crops among other things.
As the statistics show, Anslinger succeeded in virtually wiping out the HEMP industry in a matter of a couple of years. If it had not been for the War and Navy Department's foresight, the US would have lacked the cordage essential for naval activity (anchor cables etc) during WW II. That's how concerned Anslinger was with anything other than his Reefer Mania.
I've gone on more than I intended, but I'd advise researching the MTA and Asnlinger's career before dismissing a conspiracy theory so lightly.
I predict that a thorough investigation of Anslinger and his Reefer Madness allies WILL provide enough information to convict every one of these SOBs of a conspiracy against HEMP! Until this evidence is examined the conspiracy theory is valid.
Of course, if you have proof that I'm wrong I'd like to see it. Me and John Matthews went around and around this discussion for months and nobody was able to PROVE anything one way or another. If you've got the PROOF, let us know.
R Givens