Peter Bensinger, DEA Chief Who Profited from Drug Testing, Dies at 88

Cartoon: John Trever for the Albuquerque Journal

If you've ever lost a job or a job opportunity because you failed a marijuana piss test, one of the people you can "thank" is Peter Bensinger, who has just died at the age of 88.

After serving at the Illinois Director of the Department of Corrections, Bensinger became chief of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) in 1976, appointed by President Ford. He held that office through Jimmy Carter's administration and for the first several months of Ronald Reagan's. 

After leaving office, Bensinger and former NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) chief Dr. Robert DuPont formed the company Bensinger, Dupont & Associates (BDA), to provide corporations with “a full-service solution to drug testing with management and training.” Bensinger emerged as "the most outspoken proponent of mass testing, appearing regularly in the media as an 'unofficial spokesman',” according to Abbie Hoffman in “Steal This Urine Test.” 

That checks out: According to his bio at the Substance Abuse Program Administrators Association: "Both the United States Senate House and House of Representatives have sought Mr. Bensinger’s testimony, and he has lectured widely throughout the United States and overseas on the subject of drug control, drugs in the workplace, and the need for consistency in corporate and government policy. He has authored articles published in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and in other national and international publications on drug abuse, and has appeared on network news programs, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, the MacNeil–Lehrer Report, Nightline, Meet the Press, the Oprah Winfrey Show, Crossfire, and Discussions with David Brinkley.... he has been quoted on this subject in cover stories in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Financial Times, and in Fortune, Business Week and Sports Illustrated."

Bensinger with President Jimmy Carter

Bensinger's death announcement says, "Among other accomplishments, he was instrumental in the passage and implementation of the Asset Forfeiture Law and the formulation of the Department of Transportation’s federal regulations for safety sensitive positions." It continues, "Having read Bensinger’s article in Harvard Business Review entitled, 'Drugs in the Workplace,' the CEO of Illinois Commonwealth Edison Jim O’Connor approached Bensinger at the first Reagan inaugural ball to ask for Bensinger’s help addressing the risk of drug use by nuclear power plant workers. In response, BDA developed a pathway for employers to drug test workers in safety-sensitive positions using a test previously restricted to the military....This pioneering effort was one of Bensinger’s greatest accomplishments with a far-reaching impact worldwide.”

Bensinger was in office at DEA until July 10, 1981. He must have planned his lucrative exit strategy to capitalize on the public policy he helped create soon after that Reagan inauguration party in January 1981. Bensinger DuPont was acquired by a company named Moreau Shepell in 2015; they changed their name to LifeWorks and in 2022 were acquired by Telus Health, a Canadian company, for $2.9B. 

When Colorado and Washington legalized recreational cannabis in 2012, Bensinger joined seven other former DEA chiefs urging the Obama administration to file suit against the laws. Bensinger told AP the government must sue the states or risk creating "a domino effect" in which other states follow suit. He said, "My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing. If they don't act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months." Thankfully, Obama's AG Eric Holder let the voters' mandate take effect. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration was established on July 1, 1973, by President Richard Nixon. It combined the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE); approximately 600 Special Agents of the Bureau of Customs, and others. Under the Controlled Substances Act, the DEA is responsible for ranking drugs into five drug Schedules, based on their potential for harm and whether they have a medical use. Despite numerous lawsuits by groups like NORML and court rulings favorable to rescheduling cannabis, DEA has steadfastly refused to move it out of Schedule I, the most dangerous category for drugs with no accepted medical use. The latest move by the Biden administration to reschedule cannabis down to Schedule 3 is currently in the courts over DEA's obvious favoritism towards groups opposed to reform.

The current budget of the DEA is $3.3 billion. People have begun to call for the agency to be abolished. President Nixon was recently discovered to have said on tape that he didn't think marijuana was very dangerous. Drug testing has never been shown to improve workplace safety.