The Timing of Nylon

“DuPont's nylon patent was filed in April 1937 and granted in September 1938. The Marihuana Tax Act was signed in August 1937 and took effect in October 1937. Herer said this was not a coincidence.”

The Marihuana Tax Act was signed into law on August 2, 1937 and took effect on October 1, 1937. DuPont's nylon patent was filed in April 1937 and granted in September 1938. Popular Mechanics published its 'New Billion-Dollar Crop' article describing hemp's industrial potential in February 1938.

Herer's argument: these are not independent events. DuPont needed hemp eliminated from the market to protect nylon's commercial position.

The correlation is real. Whether the correlation is causal is the question historians disagree about.

The case for causation, as Herer tells it: DuPont's financial institution was Mellon Bank. Andrew Mellon was Secretary of Treasury. Harry Anslinger, whom Mellon appointed to lead the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, was married to Mellon's niece. DuPont had been briefing Treasury officials on the decorticator technology that threatened nylon. The legislation was drafted by Herman Oliphant, who received DuPont's briefings.

The case against simple causation: the racial panic around cannabis, immigration anxiety, and the moral reform movement were independently sufficient to produce prohibition legislation. DuPont may have benefited without orchestrating.

The honest assessment: DuPont almost certainly benefited from hemp prohibition. Whether it engineered the prohibition or exploited existing political conditions is not fully established. Herer presents the former as fact. The evidence supports the latter.

Sources

• Herer, The Emperor Wears No Clothes (1985)
• Popular Mechanics, New Billion-Dollar Crop (February 1938)
• Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, 50 Stat. 551 (approved August 2, 1937)
• U.S. Patent 2,130,948, Synthetic fiber (granted September 20, 1938)
• Wishnia, Debunking the Hemp Conspiracy Theory, AlterNet (2008)