Then (1985), The Emperor Wears No Clothes
The DuPont-Hearst Conspiracy: Evidence Assessed
DuPont and Hearst Paper Company orchestrated the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act to eliminate hemp as competition for DuPont's synthetic fibers and Hearst's timber-based paper supply. Anslinger's appointment by the Mellon family, DuPont's bankers, was the mechanism.
contested
The Mellon-Anslinger family connection is confirmed. Hearst's anti-marijuana newspaper campaign is documented. DuPont's synthetic fiber patents (nylon 1938) are historically dated. However, historians including Michael Pollan, Isaac Campos, and Elizabeth Gill have argued that Herer overstates DuPont's role and understates the genuine racial panic, immigration anxiety, and moral reform movements that drove the 1937 legislation. The conspiracy theory is not disproven but is probably not the complete explanation. The conclusion, that cannabis prohibition served corporate interests alongside racial targeting, is supported even if the specific orchestration is disputed.
Sources
- Herer, The Emperor Wears No Clothes (1985)
- Campos, Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs (2012)
- Gill, The DEA's Misguided War on Drugs (2019)