Hemp is one of the planet's most useful plants. It grows wild on every continent except Antarctica and it has scores of important uses. It grows rapidly, resists plant diseases and enriches the soil. And yet our Congress makes it a federal crime to grow, transport or possess hemp. Why?
Many people think it's because hemp is "marijuana" and you can get high by smoking it. It is not! Hemp and cannabis ("marijuana") are in the same class but have very different qualities - think Chihuahua and pit bull. You'd have to smoke a rope of hemp to get a buzz, and you'd be long dead before you got there. No, our government created and purposefully spead that lie (more on that in a minute) to stop its legitimate use.
The real reason hemp is illegal is because Big Business, especially the oil and forest industries, want it that way. Corporations!
Hemp can substitute for fuel, such as diesel fuel, which would reduce carbon monoxide and leave oil in the ground. It can also replace countless forms of plastics - bottles, cellophane, etc. And it's biodegradable, which would go a long way toward relieving our plastic-choked landfills. Think Big Oil would be happy with any of that?
Hemp also can replace wood in erecting buildings, including foundations, walls, paneling, roof shingles, even pipes and paint. It also makes the finest papers known, and they are naturally acid free and do not become yellow and brittle over time. Think of the trees that could be saved. Think the forest industry would go for it?
There is so much more. Medicines? Hemp can be used to make an astounding number of medicines. Food? Hempseeds and hemp oil are excellent sources of protein, minerals and dietary fiber; hemp is the only plant on earth that contains all of the essential fatty acids and amino acids required by the human body. Textiles? It can do everything cotton can do but do it better, especially with heavy materials such as jeans, tents, sails, ropes, webbing. The word canvas comes from the Latin word for hemp.
Now, about our government's blatant lie to prevent hemp's legalization. Here's a bit of history:
People have used hemp for myriad purposes for thousands of years. Until the early 1880s, as much as 90 percent of the world's paper was made of hemp. During the American Revolution, Congress made it mandatory for larger farms to grow hemp.
But hemp was hard to harvest in large quantities, so beginning in the late 1880s industrialists started looking for other sources. The Dupont Corp. patented oil- and coal-based plastics production methods. Papermakers turned to forests and began felling trees.
That lasted until 1930 when a hemp harvester was developed that could make hemp industrially viable again.
Green Left Weekly tells the story from there:
"Dupont's chief financial backer, Andrew Mellon, was US President Hoover's secretary of the treasury. He appointed his nephew, Harry S. Anslinger, to a position in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Anslinger whipped up a scare campaign about hemp, which referred to hemp as 'marijuana' so that people would begin to associate the whole plant with drug use only."
Not only did Anslinger's campaign work, it's still working nearly a century later. The public remains so stirred up about "marijuana" that it seems almost impossible to get a calm discussion going about hemp.
And deep-pocketed Big Business lobbyists are going to make certain it stays that way. All Congress has to do to end this lunacy is pass a law (there are no constitutional questions involved) but the issue isn't even on the table.
That's a shame. It should be a crime.
-Skip
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