Ex-DEA Chief Lobbying Holder to Nullify Marijuana Legalization Owns a Drug Testing Company

Nine former Drug Enforcement Agency administrators urged Attorney General Holder today to sue Colorado and Washington in order to nullify the recently passed marijuana legalization ballot measures in those states.

Coincidentally, the letter was sent the same day that the U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board also sent an appeal to Holder to nullify the will of the voters in these states because allowing them to legalize pot is against global drug treaties.

The former DEA chiefs Peter Bensinger, John Bartels, Robert Bonner, Thomas Constantine, Asa Hutchinson, John Lawn, Donnie Marshall and Francis Mullen wrote a letter to Eric Holder to be released some time this week, but they gave an advanced copy to the Associated Press.

Peter B. Bensinger, the apparent spokesman for the group, told the AP, “the supremacy of federal law over state law when it comes to drug laws isn’t in doubt.” He added,  “It is outrageous that a lawsuit hasn’t been filed in federal court yet.”

It turns out Peter B. Bensinger, who in the letter is representing the lobbying organization Save Our Society from Drugs, has a huge financial stake in preventing the legalization of cannabis. He is the founder and CEO of a drug testing company.

After Bensinger left the DEA he founded Bensinger Dupont Associates which according to their website handles large scale drug testing for corporations:

Bensinger, DuPont & Associates’ (BDA) provides a full-service solution to drug testing management. Our services are designed to help employers establish and manage workplace drug and alcohol testing programs that are technically and forensically sound, protecting the rights of applicants, employees and employers.

BDA’s years of experience can help your organization to implement and maintain a viable drug testing program. The company’s principals are Peter Bensinger, who served as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Dr. Robert DuPont, the founding Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Full-Service Solution for Drug Testing Management 

BDA’s drug testing management provides high quality, convenient drug testing. Our full service third party administration and specific drug testing management allows you to focus on your organization’s core operations. Services include:

• Policy Development and Review
• Medical Review Officer (MRO) Services
• Random Testing Management
• Collection Site and Laboratory Selection
• Web Site Reporting of Results
• Supervisor Training and Employee Education Programs Online and In-Person

It should be noted that Bensinger’s partner, Dr. Robert DuPont, is a former White House drug czar. Both have been involved with lobbying groups like the Drug & Alcohol Testing Industry Association who were behind the Drug Testing Integrity Act of 2008 which made products that help people “defraud a drug test” illegal. They are also behind many of the state bills for drug testing welfare recipients.

These drug war profiteers told the public they would save tax dollars by getting junkies kicked off the welfare rolls, yet in the just the first few months of the law passing in Florida last year, the drug testing firms made $118,140 testing welfare applicants, which was significantly more than giving welfare to the few who tested positive for drugs.

Also curiously timed, this new lobbying push comes only a day after a bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress to drug test all welfare recipients nationwide. The bill has obvious Constitutional ramifications to the privacy of recipients, which the bill addresses by forcing people seeking aid to sign “a waiver of constitutional rights with respect to testing,”

Bensinger and his cohorts in the drug testing industry represent just one of the many industries that are lobbying to keep the failed war on drugs alive, and they’re willing to subvert democracy and the Constitution to do it.

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