If you had the resources to block a competing technology that was more efficient and better for the environment, would you do it to protect your profits? In a cash driven society, many of the wealthiest companies have no remorse about choosing profit over progress.
The consumer tech industry will delay the release of better models until the current ones finish their sales cycles and become obsolete. Hospitals make money off a sick population, there is no incentive to push through medical breakthroughs when there is little profit to be made from a healthy society.
Here are examples of the most suppressed inventions ever:
Cannabis, Medicine Disgraced by the Pharmaceutical Industry
In 2001, Rick Simpson discovered that a cancerous spot on his skin disappeared within a few days of applying an essential oil made from marijuana. Since then, Simpson and others have treated thousands of cancer patients with incredible success. Spanish researchers have confirmed that THC, an active compound in marijuana, kills brain-tumor cells in human subjects and shows promise with breast, pancreatic and liver tumors.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it has no accepted medical use, unlike Schedule II drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine, which may provide medical benefits. Bullshit.
No Profit in Free Energy, An Example of Society Going the Wrong Direction
Nikola Tesla was an undisputed genius, he figured out a way to bypass fossil-fuel-burning power plants and power lines, proving that “free energy” could be harnessed using ionization in the upper atmosphere to produce electrical vibrations.
J.P. Morgan, who had been funding Tesla’s research, had a bit of buyer’s remorse when he realized that free energy for all wasn’t as profitable as, say, actually charging people for every watt of energy use. Morgan then drove another nail in free energy’s coffin by chasing away other investors, ensuring Tesla’s dream would die.
Oil Companies End Desire for the Streetcar
In 1921, the streetcar industry netted $1 billion, causing General Motors to hemorrhage $65 million in the face of a thriving industry. GM retaliated by buying and closing hundreds of independent railway companies, boosting the market for gas-guzzling GM buses and cars.
While a recent urban movement to rescue mass transit has been underway, it is unlikely we’ll ever see streetcars return to their former glory.
Hot Fusion, Safe and Cheap Energy Halted by Government
When two physicists who were working on the decades-long Tokamak Hot Fusion project stumbled across a cheaper, safer method of creating energy from colliding atoms, they were allegedly forced to repudiate their own discoveries or be fired; the lab feared losing the torrent of government money for Tokamak.
In retaliation, the lead researchers created the Focus Fusion Society, which raises private money to fund their research outside of government interference.
Electric Car Unplugged by Oil Companies
Perhaps the most notorious suppressed invention is the General Motors EV1, subject of the 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? The EV1 was the world’s first mass-produced electric car, with 800 of them up for lease from GM in the late ’90s. GM ended the EV1 line in 1999, stating that consumers weren’t happy with the limited driving range of the car’s batteries, making it unprofitable to continue production.
Many skeptics, however, believe GM killed the EV1 under pressure from oil companies, who stand to lose the most if high-efficiency vehicles conquer the market. It didn’t help that GM hunted down and destroyed every last EV1, ensuring the technology would die out.
Tylenol Wants to be the Only Pain Relief
The Transcutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulation (TENS) device was created to alleviate pain impulses from the body without the use of drugs.
In 1974, Johnson & Johnson bought StimTech, one of the first companies to sell the machine, and proceeded to starve the TENS division of money, causing it to flounder. StimTech sued, alleging that Johnson & Johnson purposely stifled the TENS technology to protect sales of its flagship drug, Tylenol. Johnson & Johnson responded that the device never performed as well as was claimed and that it was not profitable. StimTech’s founders won $170 Million, although the ruling was appealed and overturned on a technicality. The court’s finding that the corporation suppressed the TENS device was never overturned.
Corn Used as Fuel Over Hemp, The More Efficient and Environment Friendly Choice
Hemp, is often identified as the same plant as marijuana and therefore unfairly maligned. Governmental roadblocks prevent hemp from becoming the leader in extracting ethanol, allowing environmentally damaging sources like corn to take over the ethanol industry.
Despite the fact that it requires fewer chemicals, less water and less processing to do the same job, hemp has never caught on. Experts also lay the blame at the feet of Presidential candidates, who kiss up to Iowa corn growers for votes.
Water Powered Vehicles, A Threat to Profit
Despite how silly it sounds, water-fueled vehicles do exist. The most famous is Stan Meyer’s dune buggy, which achieved 100 miles per gallon and might have become more commonplace had Meyer not succumbed to a suspicious brain aneurysm at 57.
Insiders have loudly claimed that Meyer was poisoned after he refused to sell his patents or end his research. Fearing a conspiracy, his partners have all but gone underground and taken his famed water-powered dune buggy with them.
Efficient Light Bulbs Slowed Down By Inferior Companies
Phillips, GE and Osram engaged in a conspiracy from 1924 to 1939 with the goal of controlling the fledgling light-bulb industry, according to a report published in Time magazine six years later.
The alleged cartel set prices and suppressed competing technologies that would have produced longer-lasting and more efficient light bulbs. By the time the cabal dissolved, the industry-standard incandescent bulb was established as the dominant source of artificial light across Europe and North America. Not until the late 1990s did compact fluorescent bulbs begin to edge into the worldwide lighting market as an alternative.
