The Real Reason Hemp is Illegal
We Could Put All Our Farmers Back To Work Tomorrow
The Marijuana Trick - The Real Reason Hemp is Illegal
Where did the word 'marijuana' come from? In the mid 1930s, the M-word was created to tarnish the good image and phenomenal history of the hemp plant...as you will read. The facts cited here, with references, are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was printed on hemp paper for 150 years:- All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s; Hemp Paper Reconsidered, Jack Frazier, 1974.
- It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until the early 1900s; LA Times, August 12, 1981.
- REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon.
- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers GREW HEMP; Washington and Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.
- Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow's export to England; Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer.
- For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and rope were made from hemp. The word 'canvas' is Dutch for hemp; Webster's New World Dictionary.
- 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.
- The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.
- The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th Century; State Archives.
- Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 8000 years in Persia. Hemp industrialization began 5000 years ago in Central Asia and North Africa, in ancient Persia, China and Egypt.
- Rembrandts, Gainsborough's, Van Gogh's as well as most early canvas paintings were principally painted on hemp linen.
- In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs; Department of Agriculture.
- Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until 1937. 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were used in America for paint products in 1935; Sherman Williams Paint Co. testimony before Congress against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.
- Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.
- Hemp called 'Billion Dollar Crop.' It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars; Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938.
- Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938) published an article entitled 'The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.' It stated that if hemp was cultivated using 20th Century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
'...When Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable...
...Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese...American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our industries...
...The Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory!'
Certified proof from the Library of Congress; found by the research of Jack Herer, refuting claims of other government agencies that the 1942 USDA film 'Hemp for Victory' did not exist.
Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that hemp produces 4 times as much pulp as wood with at least 4 to 7 times less pollution.
From Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938:
'It has a short growing season...It can be grown in any state...The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year's crop. The dense shock of leaves, 8 to 12 feet above the ground, chokes out weeds....hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.'
In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp. This single resource could have created millions of new jobs generating thousands of quality products. Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought America out of the Great Depression.
William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper products. Patty Hearst's grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit, stood to lose billions because of hemp.
In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make plastics from oil and coal. Dupont's Annual Report urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane, celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could now be made from oil. Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80% of Dupont's business.
Andrew Mellon became Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury and Dupont's primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took an obscure Mexican slang word: 'marihuana' and pushed it into the consciousness of America.
- Only Thing New Is History We Do not Know -
Hemp, or cannabis, or marijuana was outlawed in 1937 because it threatened the nation-less corporate interests of - William Randolph Hearst and - DuPont. They had to get rid of the competition. - Hearst's yellow journalism newspaper chain wrote scathing stories about "marijuana" - a word he made up - because he knew no one would believe them about hemp, which George Washington himself grew hemp.The decorticator, a state of the art hemp harvester, led Popular Mechanics to call hemp the New Billion Dollar Crop. - - Because of printing and bindery lead time required for publication, this February 1938 article was actually prepared in the spring of 1937, when cannabis hemp was still legal to grow and was an incredibly fast-growing industry. - - Newsprint could now be produced far more cheaply than any other method, and one acre of hemp could produce as much newsprint as four acres of forest trees. - Hearst owned vast timber acreage and competition from the hemp industry might have driven his paper manufacturing out of business. He stood to lose millions of dollars.
DuPont stood to lose on two fronts. DuPont owned the patent for converting wood pulp into newsprint and supplied Hearst with the necessary chemicals. Secondly, in the 1930s DuPont was gearing up to introduce nylon and other man-made fibers, along with synthetic petrochemical oils, which they hoped would replace hemp see oil used in paints and other products. The decorticator meant that hemp fibers could be manufactured as fine as any man-made fibers. DuPont would lose untold millions of invested dollars, plus an estimated 80 percent of all future business, unless hemp was outlawed.
DuPont's financial backer was Mellon Bank, owned and chaired by Andrew Mellon. - - Andrew Mellon at the time was also Secretary of Treasury Department, which was in charge of drug taxes - -, i.e., prohibition - -. Harry Anslinger, commissioners of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which answered to the Treasury Department, was married to Andrew Mellon's niece. Thus they had the power and the means. - Anslinger's lies about hemp were repeated endlessly in Hearst's newspapers. Stories about marijuana, the killer weed from Mexico, instilled fear and completely misled the public that the weed was, in fact, just good old hemp.
Cannabis hemp was not prohibited because it was dangerous. Indeed, for thousands of years it was the world's largest agricultural crop used in thousands of products and enterprises, producing the majority of fiber, fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense, medicine and food. - No, cannabis hemp was prohibited to protect the Hearst and DuPont corporations from devastating competition, as well as appealing to the overt racism stirred up by Hearst's yellow journalism.
MEDIA MANIPULATION
A media blitz of 'yellow journalism' raged in the late 1920s and 1930s. Hearst's newspapers ran stories emphasizing the horrors of marihuana. The menace of marihuana made headlines. Readers learned that it was responsible for everything from car accidents to loose morality. Films like 'Reefer Madness' (1936), 'Marihuana: Assassin of Youth' (1935) and 'Marihuana: The Devil's Weed' (1936) were propaganda designed by these industrialists to create an enemy. Their purpose was to gain public support so that anti-marihuana laws could be passed.
Examine the following quotes from 'The Burning Question' AKA REEFER MADNESS:
- A violent narcotic.
- Acts of shocking violence.
- Incurable insanity.
- Soul-destroying effects.
- Under the influence of the drug he killed his entire family with an axe.
- More vicious, more deadly even than these soul-destroying drugs (heroin, cocaine) is the menace of marihuana!
In the 1930s, people were very naive; even to the point of ignorance. The masses were like sheep waiting to be led by the few in power. They did not challenge authority. If the news was in print or on the radio, they believed it had to be true. They told their children and their children grew up to be the parents of the baby-boomers.
On April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law or the bill that outlawed hemp was directly brought to the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee is the only one that can introduce a bill to the House floor without it being debated by other committees. The Chairman of the Ways and Means, Robert Doughton, was a Dupont supporter. He insured that the bill would pass Congress.
Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney, testified too late on behalf of the American Medical Association. He told the committee that the reason the AMA had not denounced the Marihuana Tax Law sooner was that the Association had just discovered that marihuana was/is hemp.
Few people, at the time, realized that the deadly menace they had been reading about on Hearst's front pages was in fact passive hemp. The AMA understood hemp to be a MEDICINE found in numerous healing products sold over the last hundred years.
In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful crop known became a drug and our planet has been suffering ever since.
Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the most violence-causing drug known. Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea that marihuana made users act extremely violent. In the 1950s, under the Communist threat of McCarthyism, Anslinger now said the exact opposite. Marijuana will pacify you so much that soldiers would not want to fight.
Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating as large tracts of rain forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing people. These great problems could be reversed if we industrialized hemp. Natural biomass could provide all of the planet's energy needs that are currently supplied by fossil fuels. We have consumed 80% of our oil and gas reserves. We need a renewable resource. Hemp could be the solution to soaring gas prices.
THE WONDER PLANT
Hemp has a higher quality fiber than wood fiber. Far fewer caustic chemicals are required to make paper from hemp than from trees. Hemp paper does not turn yellow and is very durable. The plant grows quickly to maturity in a season where trees take a lifetime.
ALL PLASTIC PRODUCTS SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP SEED OIL. Hempen plastics are biodegradable! Over time, they would break down and not harm the environment. Oil-based plastics, the ones we are very familiar with, help ruin nature; they do not break down and will do great harm in the future. The process to produce the vast array of natural (hempen) plastics will not ruin the rivers as Dupont and other petrochemical companies have done. Ecology does not fit in with the plans of the Oil Industry and the political machine. Hemp products are safe and natural. MEDICINES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. We should go back to the days when the AMA supported hemp cures. 'Medical Marijuana' is given out legally to only a handful of people while the rest of us are forced into a system that relies on chemicals. Hemp is only healthy for the human body.
WORLD HUNGER COULD END. A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The seeds contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO: They have two essential fatty acids that clean your body of cholesterol. These essential fatty acids are not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming hemp seeds is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat uncooked hemp seeds.
CLOTHES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. Hemp clothing is extremely strong and durable over time. You could hand clothing, made from hemp, down to your grandchildren. Today, there are American companies that make hemp clothing; usually 50% hemp. Hemp fabrics should be everywhere. Instead, they are almost underground. Superior hemp products are not allowed to advertise on fascist television. Kentucky, once the top hemp producing state, made it ILLEGAL TO WEAR hemp clothing! Can you imagine being thrown into jail for wearing quality jeans?
The world is crazy...but that does not mean you have to join the insanity. Get together. Spread the news. Tell people, and that includes your children, the truth. Use hemp products. Eliminate the word 'marijuana.' Realize the history that created it. Make it politically incorrect to say or print the M-word. Fight against the propaganda (designed to favor the agenda of the super rich) and their bullshit. We must begin utilizing hemp now! Time is running out! We need a clean energy source to save our lives and planet Earth. WE MUST INDUSTRIALIZE HEMP!
The liquor, tobacco and oil companies fund more than a million dollars a day to Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other similar agencies. We have all seen their commercials. Now, their motto is: 'It's more dangerous than we thought.' Lies from the powerful Nation-Less Corporations, that began with Hearst, are still alive and well today.
The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say: If you buy a joint, you contribute to murders and gang wars. The latest - anti-Hemp - commercials say: If you buy a joint...you are promoting TERRORISM! The new enemy, (terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash you any way THEY see fit. The untold truth is that fossil fuels consumption is the direct link and help for maintaining, spreading and protecting TERRORISM, all over the world! Think about this next time pumping GAS into your SUVs at the pump!
There is only one enemy; the friendly people you pay your taxes to; the war-makers and nature destroyers. With your funding, they are killing the world right in front of your eyes. OVER A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY TOBACCO CONSUMPTION. AND HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION.
Ingesting THC, hemp's active agent, has a positive effect; relieving asthma and glaucoma. A joint tends to alleviate the nausea caused by chemotherapy. You are able to eat on hemp. This is a healthy state of being.
There is physical evidence that hemp plant is not like any other plant on Earth. Hemp is the ONLY plant where the males appear one way and the females appear very different, physically! No one ever speaks of males and females in regard to the plant kingdom because plants do not show their sexes; except for hemp. To determine what sex a certain, normal, Earthly plant is, you have to look internally, at its DNA. A male blade of grass (physically) looks exactly like a female blade of grass. The hemp plant has an intense sexuality.
HEMP IS ILLEGAL BECAUSE GREEDY STUPID CRIMINAL BILLIONAIRES WANT TO REMAIN BILLIONAIRES AT ALL COSTS, TO HUMANITY AND EVEN THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WE ALL LIVE!
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- - Evil Will Only Triumph When Good People Do Nothing To Stop It - -
What We, The People Can Do?
- Bahram MaskanianActually we can do plenty. Tiny inexpensive modifications in our self-destructive behaviors and taking small actions could potentially protect and save our one and only home, Planet Earth and us, the humankind whose survival is completely depends upon the health and well being of the host, Planet Earth.
To begin with we should review and follow the simple and easy seven (7) step guidelines stated below. We need to learn the two key word definitions also mentioned below. We must learn and understand that only we, the people, have the power to make things better. We need to learn how to obtain control, and exercise our power locally, collectively and responsibly, inspired by the superior wisdom of common sense and based on ethical standards.
1 - A simple low-cost action we all can take right away is to spend a few dollars and buy a couple of canvas shopping bags and take our own canvas bags with us when we go to the market shopping, thus stop accepting plastic bags.Definition Of Boycott:
2 - A simple and money saving action we all can take right away is to stop buying any disposable products and products made out of plastic. We must truly and seriously recycle and reuse, remember our one and only home, Planet Earth, is not disposable.
3 - A simple, money saving and environmentally safe action we all can take right away is to put a minimum deposit requirement of at least $0.25, cents for all plastic, glass and aluminum containers, from detergent and vegetable oil, to water and wine bottles.
4 - A simple, money saving and environmentally safe action we all can take right away is to buy a portable thermos. A 25 oz stainless steel vacuum flask double insulated tumbler costs between 7 to 6 dollars. Cool to touch exterior while holding our hot liquids such as coffee, tea or soup inside. We should also get a ceramic mug for drinking water / tea / coffee and having our soup at work. Obviously keeping a stainless steel knife, spoon and a fork for use at work is also a must.
5 - A simple and unifying action we all can take right away is to talk to our friends, family and neighbors to form our own community's action committee. We then must either force our local, city, state and federal politicians to legalize hemp cultivation or throw them out of office and replace them with intelligent and responsible politicians to begin correcting the grave and stupid mistakes of the past.
6 - A simple, money saving, healthy and environmentally safe action we all can take right away is to buy a cookbook, or simply search the Internet where we can find thousands of recipes. We should especially buy organic seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, naturally raised and produced dairy, meet and eggs to ensure a healthy and happy disease and drug free life. We must learn the joy of cooking. We should cook as much as possible to avoid consuming the unhealthy, cancer causing, full of chemical preservatives and chemical coloring and artificial addictive chemical taste crap of the restaurants foods / deliveries.
7 - A simple, money saving, healthy and environmentally safe action we all can take right away is to buy a dozen soft cotton handkerchiefs for wiping the nose and mouth. We should also buy a dozen cotton wiping cloth (dish towels) especially for use in the kitchen, bathroom and generally around the house.
Boycott, is an inherent right of the consuming public to come together in unity abstaining from using, buying, and or dealing with merchants of greed and perpetrators of destructive environmental, economic and political practices currently plaguing the humanity.
Boycott, is an instrument of gaining political grounds and objectives. Boycott, is an expression of non-violent and constructive means of protest to peacefully correct and replace the destructive environmental, economic and political practices with wide-range of all encompassing prospers policies and procedures.
Definition of Politics:
Politics is the art and science of managing or governing one’s entire social and economic affairs interactively in conjunction with the rest of the community, especially the collective governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external relationships. Politics is the activity and interaction engaged in by any given society’s citizens, to build community and establish communal services for all. Politics is the maneuvering methods and tactics involved in managing any given society or state government. A politician is an individual, holding an intriguing and rewarding career of public service that honorably discharges hers or his duties in an ethical and caring manner.
All politics are local. We, the people, must at all times think globally but act locally. We should never forget that Reform always begins with oneself. The spirit and inspiration of reform can only be radiated, advanced and spread by, and through those who have already reformed themselves.
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In The Absence of Sustainable
And Environmentally Safe Hemp Production
- Plastic Particles Are Choking Earth's Oceans -
Plastic is creating an - Ocean Commotion - For years, the problem of plastics in the sea has been of plastics we could see. Six-pack rings strangled wildlife, old nets snared birds and other creatures, small bits and pieces clogged harbors, and garbage ruined our days at the beach. Scientists are more concerned about what is happening to these oceans of plastic. They say it's breaking down into microscopic fragments that are drowning the sea. For all practical purposes plastics are permanent. Because these synthetic materials do not occur in nature, nature never evolved a process to biodegrade them into harmless compounds. Plastic particles don't disappear. Instead, they simply break apart under the influence of sunlight, water, and abrasion into smaller and smaller pieces. That piece of old Styrofoam that looks like it is decomposing isn't at all. It's simply falling apart into trillions and trillions of microscopic bits of Styrofoam.
And therein lies what researchers have now identified as a problem of unknown dimension: The world's oceans are filling with invisible bits of plastic. According to a study conducted at England's University of Plymouth and published in the May edition of the journal Science, the seven seas are swimming with polymer particles.
Scientists examined 20 sites around the British Isles and found microscopic bits of plastic contaminating almost every soil sample they obtained. From apparently clean beach sand to mud in tidal estuaries and sediments on sea floors some 30 feet beneath the surface, unseen bits of plastic were lurking everywhere.
The researchers looked for nine different kinds of plastic that were easy to chemically identify in minute amounts, including polyester, acrylic and nylon. What they found were polymer fibers as small as 20 microns in length. (- One micron is equal to 1,000,000th of one meter -). Smaller, fragments about 75% smaller than the smallest grains of beach sand. These fibers were embedded in sands and soils and even found inside sea plankton. (- Sea Planktons are microscopic organisms, including algae and protozoans, that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or salt water, especially at or near the surface, and serve as food for fish and other larger organisms. -)
The scientists were also able to ascertain that the flood of plastics filling the seas has been increasing for at least 40 years. Since the 1960s, merchant ships have voluntarily trailed garbage can-sized filters behind them as they plied the ocean's waters. By comparing the current contents of these filters to those of archived filters, researchers were able to show that the number of invisible plastic pieces has tripled over the course of the last generation. Further, since the study's methods couldn't measure plastic fragments smaller than 20 microns, experts said the results, in all likelihood, underreported the actual amount of plastics microscopically drifting in ocean waters.
Currently, scientists aren't sure what all this means for the world and its wildlife, human included. The short answer might be nothing, but that's far from a certainty. As part of the project, researchers put some of the fragments in tanks containing tiny crustaceans, barnacles, and lugworms and found that they were readily eaten. Whether or not such materials accumulate in the food chain to eventually create some type of toxic effect remains to be seen, but previous research has shown that larger, one millimeter-sized pieces of plastic readily absorb toxins from ocean waters and can poison animals that ingest them.
The news that microscopic pieces of plastic are polluting the oceans is just part of a recent tide of discomforting news about the environment that covers 71% of the Earth's surface. According to recent reports from both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission, the world's oceans are in poor health as a result of human pressures. Water quality is falling; coastal development pressures are increasing (some 37 million people have moved to U.S. shore regions in the last 30 years); populations of whales and large fish, like sharks and marlins, have declined by 90%; only 22% of smaller fisheries are being harvested sustainably; and invasive species are causing a number of negative effects.
To combat this, both organizations have recommended a sweeping series of regulatory changes in the way the world's oceans are managed, and a dramatic increase in funding. For more information about these reports and their suggested plans for a rescue at sea, visit:
http://www.pewoceans.org/
http://www.oceancommission.gov/documents/prelimreport/welcome.html
Asthma Miasma: Have Phthalates Flung Dung At Our Kids' Lungs? Among the more eye-opening pieces of evidence that things are out of whack in today's world are the latest asthma statistics for kids. Between 1980 and 1994, the incidence of asthma among pre-school aged children rose 160%, more than twice the overall rate. Today, the disease is the leading chronic illness of childhood. Some nine million kids have the disease, or nearly one in 13. Together, they miss 14 million school days each year and need $3.2 billion of treatment. What's causing all this asthma has been a bit of mystery. Now scientists think they may have a clue. And it's a culprit called phthalates.
Dedicated Non-Toxic Times readers will recall that we've discussed phthalates in these pages before, and never in a positive light. A group of industrial compounds widely used in a variety of common products, there are about 7.6 billion pounds of phthalates produced throughout the world each year. The largest use of phthalates is as a plasticizer in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other soft plastic products. These materials rely on phthalates to keep them flexible. Without the addition of phthalate plasticizers, these otherwise pliant materials would be fairly stiff and difficult to use for their intended purposes. Consumer products that contain phthalate plasticizers include everything from siding and flooring to plastic food wrap and soft plastic toys.
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TODAY'S HEMP INDUSTRY
AUSTRALIA - Tasmania research trials began in 1995. Victoria commercial production since1998. New South Wales has research. In 2002 Queensland began production.AUSTRIA - has a hemp industry including production of hempseed oil, medicinals and Hanf magazine.
CANADA - started to license research crops in 1994 on an experimental basis. In addition to crops for fibre, one seed crop was experimentally licensed in 1995. Many acres were planted in 1997. Licenses for commercial agriculture saw thousands of acres planted in 1998. 30,000 acres planted in 1999. In 2000, due to speculative investing,12,250 acres were sown. In 2001 ninety-two farmers grew 3,250 acres. A number of Canadian farmers are now growing organically certified hemp crops.
CHILE - has grown hemp in the recent past for seed oil production.
CHINA - is the largest exporter of hemp paper and textiles. The fabrics are of excellent quality. (ma)
DENMARK - planted its first modern hemp trials in 1997. Committed to utilizing organic methods.
ENGLAND - lifted hemp prohibition in 1993. Animal bedding, paper and textiles have been developed. A government grant was given to develop new markets for natural fibers. 4,000 acres were grown in 1994. Subsidies of $230 Eng. pounds per acre are given by the govt. for growing.
FINLAND - had a resurgence of hemp in 1995 with several small test plots. A seed variety for northern climates was developed: Finola, previously know by the breeder code 'FIN-314'. In 2003, Finola was accepted to the EU list of subsidized hemp cultivars. (hamppu)
FRANCE - harvested 10,000 tons in 1994. France is the main source of low-thc producing hempseed. (chanvre)
GERMANY - only banned hemp in 1982, but research began in 1992 and many technologies and products are being developed. Clothes and paper are being made from imported raw materials. Germany lifted the ban on growing hemp November, 1995. Mercedes and BMW use hemp fiber for composites. (hanf)
HUNGARY - is rebuilding their hemp industry, and is one of the biggest exporters of hemp cordage, rugs and hemp fabric to the U.S. They also export hemp seed and hemp paper. Fiberboard is also made. (kender)
INDIA - has large stands of naturalized Cannabis and uses it for cordage, textiles, and seed oil.
JAPAN - has a religious tradition requiring the Emperor wear hemp garments, so there is a small plot maintained for the imperial family only. They have a thriving retail market selling a variety of hemp products. (asa)
NETHERLANDS - is conducting a four years study to evaluate and test hemp for paper, and is developing processing equipment. Seed breeders are developing new strains of low-thc varieties. (hennep)
NEW ZEALAND - started hemp trials in 2001. Various cultivars are being planted in the North and South.
POLAND - currently grows hemp for fabric and cordage and manufactures hemp particle board. They have demonstrated the benefits of using hemp to cleanse soils contaminated by heavy metals. (konopij)
ROMANIA - was the largest commercial producer of hemp in Europe in the late 80's and early 90's. Total acreage in 1993 was 40,000 acres. Some of it is exported to Hungary for processing. They also export to Western Europe and the United States. (cinepa)
RUSSIA - maintains the largest hemp germ plasm collection in the world at the N.I. Vavilov Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in Saint Petersburg. They are in need of funds. (konoplya)
SLOVENIA - grows hemp and manufactures currency paper.
SPAIN - grows and exports hemp pulp for paper and produces rope and textiles. (cañamo)
SWITZERLAND - is a producer of hemp and hosts one of the largest hemp events: Cannatrade.
EGYPT, KOREA, PORTUGAL, THAILAND, and the UKRAINE also produce hemp.
USA - The United States - granted the first hemp permit in over 40 years to Hawaii for an experimental quarter acre plot in 1999. The license has been renewed since. Importers and manufacturers have thrived using imported raw materials. Twenty-two states in the United States have introduced legislation. VT, HI, ND, MT, MN, IL, VA, NM, CA, AR, KY, MD, WV have passed legislation for support, research, or cultivation. The National Conference of State Legislators has endorsed industrial hemp production for years.
Get on the - HEMP WAGON - and support the idea by forcing your local, state and federal government officials to do the right thing for a change, and legalize HEMP.
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More Facts About Hemp
- Hemp is among the oldest industries on the planet, going back more than 10,000 years to the beginnings of pottery. The Columbia History of the World states that the oldest relic of human industry is a bit of hemp fabric dating back to approximately 8,000 BC.
- Presidents Washington and Jefferson both grew hemp. Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic. The federal government subsidized hemp during the Second World War and US farmers grew about a million acres of hemp as part of that program.
- Hemp Seed is far more nutritious than even soybean, contains more essential fatty acids than any other source, is second only to soybeans in complete protein (but is more digestible by humans), is high in B-vitamins, and is 35% dietary fiber. Hemp seed is not psychoactive and cannot be used as a drug. See TestPledge.com
- The bark of the hemp stalk contains bast fibers, which are among the Earth's longest natural soft fibers and are also rich in cellulose; the cellulose and hemi-cellulose in its inner woody core are called hurds. Hemp stalk is not psychoactive. Hemp fiber is longer, stronger, more absorbent and more insulative than cotton fiber.
- According to the Department of Energy, hemp as a biomass fuel producer requires the least specialized growing and processing procedures of all hemp products. The hydrocarbons in hemp can be processed into a wide range of biomass energy sources, from fuel pellets to liquid fuels and gas. Development of biofuels could significantly reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and nuclear power.
- Hemp grows well without herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides. Almost half of the agricultural chemicals used on US crops are applied to cotton.
- Hemp produces more pulp per acre than timber on a sustainable basis, and can be used for every quality of paper. Hemp paper manufacturing can reduce wastewater contamination. Hemp's low lignin content reduces the need for acids used in pulping, and it's creamy color lends itself to environmentally friendly bleaching instead of harsh chlorine compounds. Less bleaching results in less dioxin and fewer chemical byproducts.
- pHemp fiber paper resists decomposition, and does not yellow with age when an acid-free process is used. Hemp paper more than 1,500 years old has been found. It can also be recycled more times.
- Hemp fiberboard produced by Washington State University was found to be twice as strong as wood-based fiberboard.
- Eco-friendly hemp can replace most toxic petrochemical products. Research is being done to use hemp in manufacturing biodegradable plastic products: plant-based cellophane, recycled plastic mixed with hemp for injection-molded products, and resins made from the oil, to name just a very few examples.
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- Marijuana Prohibition -
War On A Miraculous Gift
If a miracle suddenly appeared, would we try to learn from it or try to destroy it?
A common plant can relieve pain and muscle spasticity. The plant's components show promise to inhibit tumor growth and control diabetes.
The plant contains remarkable substances identical to substances which already flow through human bodies and are thought to regulate critical functions from memory to mood.
A close relative of the plant also offers profitable but Environmentally Friendly alternative fiber and food crops.
Research continues on the plant in the United States, but most studies focus on allegedly negative effects.
The plant is cannabis - more commonly known as marijuana -, and the government does not see it as a miracle. The government denies that marijuana and similar plants - like the very useful buy wholly non-intoxicating hemp - can ever be good. But that denial took another hit from the facts recently.
Marijuana prohibitionists have long argued that since cannabis smoke contains more tars than tobacco, it must cause cancer.
A thorough study presented recently at The American Thoracic Society's annual conference showed that even heavy marijuana smoking did not increase the risk for lung cancer. Indeed, in the study by Donald Tashkin of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, marijuana smokers showed slightly lower cancer rates than non-smokers.
This is not an entirely new finding, as a review of the literature on lung cancer and marijuana smoke by Dr. Robert Melamede suggested last year.
Tashkin's study results should have been on the front page of every newspaper in the nation. Why? Because we have been wasting lives and resources on a war based on faulty intelligence, only this war has been going on for close to 70 years. And because the media has helped to disseminate this faulty intelligence for an even longer time, it bears the responsibility of correcting the record fully.
The initial reasons given for marijuana prohibition included its supposed propensity to turn users violent. That misconception finally got cleared up as the drug became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s despite prohibition. That era had its own litany of false stories about cannabis, including the absurdity that it made teenage boys sprout breasts. More recently we heard that marijuana smoking will lead to lung, head and neck cancer. It's a lie that is especially damaging considering the reality.
In other places in the world, marijuana is being studied medically, and not only for the relief from cancer treatments like chemotherapy. Research suggests cannabis might actually be an anti-cancer agent, - which would explain why Tashkin's study showed marijuana smokers with lower lung cancer rates than non-smokers. - Italian researchers last week seemed to show anti-cancer properties in substances found in cannabis. This hasn't been widely publicized, similar to other promising research released in 2003, as well as research that goes back to the early 1970s.
If any other substance were involved, this would have been on the cover of major U.S. News magazines, but unfortunately most US Media have missed most of the amazing new science related to cannabis and human health.
Substances called cannabinoids found in cannabis plants also occur naturally human bodies. Special receptors exist around the body specifically to interact with the cannabinoids that we make or that cannabis makes. The cannabinoids don't appear in any other plant. Kind of, well, miraculous, isn't it?
More research needs to be done on how cannabis and cannabinoids can be used beneficially. For now, that research won't take place in the United States.
All U.S. Government funded research starts with the presumption that marijuana is bad. Researchers trying to learn about possible benefits report being denied a legal supply of the plant.
This notion that sending a wholly negative message about marijuana - - even devoting a multi-billion dollar taxpayer financed ad campaign equating the plant with badness - - will somehow keep our young people away from marijuana has also been exposed as a lie. For the past several years teenagers surveyed on drug use say it's easy to get marijuana if they want it.
There are reasons for young people not to use marijuana. Hearing over hyped scare stories about the substance isn't one of them. A recent study of that multi-billion dollar taxpayer financed ad campaign showed many teenagers who viewed the ads became more interested in marijuana, not less.
The rationale for the war on marijuana, and the tactics used to fight that war, have been exposed as false and counterproductive. Each year police arrest more than 700,000 Americans for marijuana. This summer, police across the nation will be out cutting down wild hemp plants that can't intoxicate anyone. Certainly all that police time could be spent on more pressing issues, and otherwise law-abiding citizens don't need to get drawn into the criminal justice system.
As it stands, we are wasting vast resources to destroy another beneficial resource and to ensure that our country stays behind the curve in terms of scientific research. The next medical breakthroughs related to this easily available plant won't occur in our country solely due to ingrained political myopia and cowardice.
We must take off the ideological blinders that decades of drug war have forced on us. We could have new medicine, new crops for farmers, even new revenue streams for government through legitimate taxation, along with regulation schemes to better keep young people out of the market.
In fact, these things will happen one day. It's all coming, and we could all save ourselves a lot of shame and misery by trying to learn from the miracle now, instead of wasting billings trying - but failing - to destroy it.
The miracle itself does not suffer for our actions, but we do.
Stephen Young is an editor with DrugSense Weekly and a member of the Board of Directors for Illinois NORML.
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