The history of hemp is long and varied, and need not be reproduced here but can be viewed in part in the videos included here. Suffice it to say that, rather than for "moral" purposes having to do with the medicinal or recreational uses of one strain of cannabis, the prohibition of hemp has largely revolved around the desire by the ruling elite to horde and profit off of the resources they have virtually monopolized since the 1930s and earlier. Indeed, in my mind one of the greatest criminals in history is William Randolph Hearst, who, along with his "hired Anslinger," so to speak, almost singlehandedly managed to destroy the American hemp industry. Now, much of the environmental destruction can be placed squarely on the heads of this tiny minority of monopolizers. With hemp, there would have been little need for the oil industry and its attendant globe-destroying pollution and degradation. Another benefit of hemp production and the non-necessity of Middle Eastern oil would have been the lack of funding for "radical" Islamic extremists whose stated goal is total global domination, using billions of petrodollars currently at their disposal.
Instead of a peaceful, clean and well-nourished planet and populace, we are currently poised on the edge of the abyss from which many millions will never recover. The prohibition of hemp constitutes one of the greatest crimes against humanity ever committed. Millions of human beings will now die, millions more will be enslaved under a totalitarian system of government, and the suffering will go on, all for the want of a plant that has more uses than can be listed here.
The people in power who have upheld the criminal hemp prohibition should be ashamed, but I fear that they have no conscience at all - an assertion constantly validated by their actions. If the ruling elite cannot make massive amounts of money off of something, it will not only fall by the wayside, it will be deliberately kicked there. And that relegation is what has happened to hemp, a true gift of nature that could still solve many of our problems globally - if these powermongering sociopaths will step out of the way.
Will humankind wake up and make the necessary changes now that it faces an appalling crisis of a magnitude never before seen? I certainly hope so.
Lift the hemp ban now!
(In 1992, when Jerry Brown was running for President, I stood up at one of his press conferences and asked him, "Isn't it time to look to hemp to solve many of the world's problems?" He blanched, and one of his cameramen groaned and removed the camera from me. Brown deflected the question, answering only my previous question about his international policies. That's the sort of fearful environment we've lived in that has now led us to this atrocious mess.)
Study: U.S. Hemp Ban Hurts Environment, Economy
Hemp Used to Clean Radioactivity
(If you can't see the videos below, try opening this page in Internet Explorer.)
Hemp for Food
Hemp for Victory!
Hemp - The Environmentally Sustainable Alternative
Hemp for Biodiesel Fuel
Hemp to Solve Global Warming
Ron Paul & Cannabis
24 comments:
Thanks for bringing this up.
"First U.S. Hemp Farmer Since 1938
"A North Dakota man aims to be the first hemp farmer in the United States. That is, the first one since the practice was made illegal in 1938 and only allowed again temporarily as part of the WWII war effort. After 10 years of recent effort by North Dakota lawmaker David Monson, he is now poised to receive a license to grow the crop beloved by sustainability advocates -- as long as he gets fingerprinted first.
"Monson turned in an application Monday to the state Agriculture Department to become the nation's first licensed industrial hemp farmer along with a set of his fingerprints, which will be used for a background check to prove he is not a criminal. Hemp, a cousin of marijuana, does not have the drug's psychoactive properties however the federal Drug Enforcement Administration still has to give its permission before Monson, or anyone else, is allowed to grow industrial hemp. Law enforcement officials fear industrial hemp can shield illicit marijuana, although hemp supporters say the concern is unfounded with whom we agree. We've told you about all things sturdy, sexy and hemp, so we hope such state legislative initiatives do not remain purely symbolic.
"When the DEA smoke clears, North Dakota may be the first to break important farm ground. Six other states have also authorized industrial hemp farming, but yet to push their initiatives into action. Those others states are Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana and West Virginia. Last year, California lawmakers approved legislation that set out rules for industrial hemp production, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. The law asserted that the federal government lacked authority to regulate industrial hemp as a drug. Also, in 2005, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced legislation to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana in federal drug laws. It never came to a vote. Canada made it legal for farmers to grow the crop in March 1998. Last year, Canadian farmers planted 48,060 acres of hemp, government statistics say. Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the provinces along North Dakota's northern border, were Canada's biggest hemp producers. Here's to blurring the border. ::AP "
U.S. Hemp Farmer
Can Industrial Hemp Save the Forests of the World?
"Support H.R. 3037 IH, 'The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005'
"We the undersigned support H.R. 3037 IH, 'The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005.' Industrial hemp is NOT marijuana. Industrial hemp can NOT get you 'high.' Therefore, there is no reason for it to be illegal to grow! One acre of hemp makes the equivalent of four acres of tree's for paper products and construction materials and can grow twice in a season, while trees take 100's of years to grow tall again! Hemp is three times stronger than cotton and less detrimental to the environment. It uses no pesticides or herbicides and grows 1 to 2 inches a day on average. Hemp foods contain important essential fatty acids and are high in protein. Hemp has successfully been made into and used for fuel. The list of wonders goes on and on. At one time, hemp was our country's #1 resource and it was illegal NOT to grow it as a farmer. Hemp is a MAJOR CASH CROP and can help SAVE OUR PLANET! Our farmers and our country should not be left behind any longer. If you care about our environment and our countries economy, than you will pass this bill!"
Petition for Hemp
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Oh, I forgot to mention that the US Constitution was written on Hemp paper. Plus, Hemp was subsidized. It was a law that farmers were to set aside a certain % of their farm for hemp. Almost all of the founding fathers had hemp farms.
When the first Diesel engine was produced by Rudolph Diesel around 1895, it was designed to run on diesel fuel derived from hemp oil.
We could've been driving vehicles all this time running on veggie oils. We could add the hybrid system to it to conserve MPG today.
"The Volkswagen One-Litre, a two-seater prototype that ’s been on the roads in Europe, does 237 m.p.g. Yes, you read that correctly. By 2010, they'll probably do 250 m.p.g. "
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1009
Even motorcycles are in on it -
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_bikes.html
"The Use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignifigant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time"
~ Rudolph Diesel 1912
Oh give me a break. If hemp was such a wonder material, there would be no domestic paper industry or diesel refineries, because we would be importing cheaper hemp based paper and diesel instead.
And hemp cloth might make sacks and sail, but clothes? Homey don't think so....
Are you on crack, Homey? You make no sense.
It is obvious to anyone with a brain that it is far better to sacrifice a few lives and a bit of quality of life for earth population than to allow an evil addictive drug like hmarijuana that is made from hemp to be available and cause a whole lof of suffering
where did all the videos go???
Responsible adult use legislation, take action TODAY:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/19/143239/183/333/499032
WOW.. Truthteller. You are completely wrong. Hemp is the exact same plant as Marijuana. It is called Cannabis Sativa. True that the version used for industrial version is lower in THC, however, it is most certainly the same species.
Your opinion only reveals the ignorance surrounding the people today! Every word said in this piece is completely true. If you don't belive so, you are ill informed and under the influence of false propaganda. By the same people who fluoridate the water you drink so you would be dumb enough to accept the rediculous lies they tell you.
Hemp, Cannabis, or Marijuana is a gift to humaity believe it!
Marijuana is proven safer than alcohol, and is not addictive.
It is amazing that so many of the comments here are made with no facts. It's also interesting to note that those who make the retarted comments remain annonymous. Have you no comfidence in what you say? Id bet my life on what I know to be true...... why not you? Check out if you are above the ignorance?
http://www.abovetheignorance.org/
Trevor DeBlock said...
WOW.. Truthteller. You are completely wrong. Hemp is the exact same plant as Marijuana. It is called Cannabis Sativa. True that the version used for industrial version is lower in THC, however, it is most certainly the same species.
Your opinion only reveals the ignorance surrounding the people today! Every word said in this piece is completely true. If you don't belive so, you are ill informed and under the influence of false propaganda. By the same people who fluoridate the water you drink so you would be dumb enough to accept the rediculous lies they tell you.
Hemp, Cannabis, or Marijuana is a gift to humaity believe it!
Marijuana is proven safer than alcohol, and is not addictive.
It is amazing that so many of the comments here are made with no facts. It's also interesting to note that those who make the retarted comments remain annonymous. Have you no comfidence in what you say? Id bet my life on what I know to be true...... why not you? Check out if you are above the ignorance?
http://www.abovetheignorance.org/
Thanks. I think you got your commentators mixed up. "Truthteller" was obviously responding to the Anon above who made the ignorant comments regarding the "evil addictive drug" MADE from hemp. While hemp and marijuana are the same plant, marijuana does not "come" from hemp.
In any event, I agree with you that pot isn't an "evil addictive drug" but is in fact an important medicine. I didn't set out to write an extensive article on hemp/cannabis/marijuana, so I made only a brief mention of the "medical" aspect of it.
To the person who implied that you can make sails but not clothes from hemp...I'm wearing a hemp t-shirt right now. It looks like cotton but it is softer and lasts longer than cotton without the pesticides.
Pull your head out of the sand and you'll discover a whole world out there that hemp can help. But once again it's big business stalling things so they can guard their market share. They don't actually care that we are destroying the planet. Tehey only care about $.
The problem with this whole problem is the power of the Duponts,and the synthetic cloth industries; the weight of the criminal justice system which benefits from having so many more resources ...money to combat yet another enemy; the people who have already been firmly brainwashed to believe that marijuana is evil, as if it were a form of crack for instance ; the power elite who are afraid of the clarity which THC often provides; the petroleum boys whose interests as above noted would suffer;
and other vested interests....and the fact that it is very difficult to really separate hemp and marijuana. It is a difference of THC strength only
With this weight of adversaries the road to normalize hemp production has a difficult journey. Only the counterweight of the truth spoken by millions will make the difference .
really I've watched this battle for almost forty years. Been busted for and convicted for illegal possession of HEMP, ie no licence.
There is no need to offer more rational for this argument in favour of hemp. its a moot point. The problem is the opponents are just too strong for now...
I completely agree with this article.
Pot is the single best plant on the planet for people, for food, fiber, fun and medicine, and that is really WHY the word "marijuana" was used to demonize that plant.
The huge lie that marijuana was almost as bad as murder was used to criminalize all cannabis cultivation.
Marijuana laws have never been based on anything but dishonesty. backed up with violence, from governments, which served the interests of a fascist plutocracy, that wanted another excuse to build a fascist police state.
Regarding the comments about the difference between different varieties of this plant:
The differences between different hemp plants is the same as the differences between different races of human beings.
The scientific names were wrong. Cannabis is a species, not a genus.
The so-called species of hemp plants are NOT different species, no more than the different races of human beings are different species of animals.
All of the language about this plant is mostly mistaken, and at the bottom of a deep pit of prejudice. It is therefore hard to talk about this topic.
Attitudes towards hemp ARE very similar to racist attitudes.
There is a deep analogy between the melanin in the skin of people, and the THC in the resin of the flowers.
Hemp that grew in high altitude tropics, where it was hot and sunny, developed the most resin on its flowers, primarily to act as a sun screen to protect immature seeds from too much Ultra-violet light.
Hemp that grew in higher latitudes on the world developed races of that plant that looked different, and produced a lot less resin on the flowers.
When botanists first looked at these plants, they made a mistake to call them different species in the genus Cannabis.
The fact that all hemp plants can cross breed proves that they all really all one species, the same as the fact that different human races can have children proves they are actually one species.
Pot plants are different like coloured people are different. There is a range from pot plants that are like white people, to pot plants that are like black people.
Industrial hemp is obliged by law to be albino pot.
Medical marijuana is black pot that wraps itself in a white lab coat.
The history of pot prohibition was based on racism and political corruption, and that goes very deep indeed.
Criminalizing cannabis was the most salient symbol, and the most extreme example of the pattern of the social facts that the real world is being controlled by a fascist plutocracy.
Governments are the best organized gangs of criminals, that have the power to legalize their own lies, because nobody else can stop them.
Large numbers of people have been brainwashed to believe in the bullies' bullshit world view.
That includes the situation surrounding the hemp plant, that the single best plant for people is treated as if it was almost as bad as murder.
The absurd, insane and evil laws against cultivating cannabis were components in the overall social pyramid systems.
There is a deliberate war against consciousness, to try to keep most people ignorant and afraid, so that they can be controlled and exploited.
In the short-term, there appears to be no practical way to prevent the triumphs of lies and coercions from continuing to serve organized systems of fraud and robbery that dominate the whole world.
However, in the long-term, since the lies can not be made to become true by being enforced with violence, the entire system necessarily spins out of control, as a civilization controlled by lies gets further and further away from reality, but nevertheless, keeps going, by its huge lies by being enforced with lots of violence.
The cannabis conundrum is merely the most extreme example of the overall set of social facts that society is being controlled by huge lies.
That will have extremely bad long-term consequences. However, I know of no practical way to prevent the triumph of lies, backed up with violence, continuing to make things worse in the foreseeable future.
Legalizing industrial hemp is like changing from slavery to segregation or apartheid.
It is slightly better, but still derived from the history of slavery.
Cannabis culture is still mostly a de facto slave society.
Pot prohibition is a tool of persecution that fits inside of the overall fascist plutocracy.
I can not think of any practical way to stop that, except that, eventually, the consequences of controlling civilization with huge lies will cause it to go through psychotic breakdowns of collapsing into chaos.
Marijuana is good, and
the government is evil.
Marijuana laws are evil.
The same things apply on an astronomically larger scale to monetary laws.
Money is good, but
monetary laws are
extremely evil.
The heart of the fascist plutocracy is in its monetary laws.
Understanding the truth about marijuana can be a way to approach understanding money and taxation, and everything else that is actually being controlled by huge lies, backed up with lots of violence.
I agree that criminalizing cannabis was itself one of the greatest crimes against humanity.
However, making the best plant on the plant for people be illegal is only a salient symbol of the entire pattern of social facts that all fit into the same pattern.
Legalizing marijuana to make it become a "normal" part of the mainstream is not nearly enough.
The mainstream itself has become the madness of militarism too triumphant.
Backing up huge lies with violence has become a system of fraudulent electronic money, backed up with the threat of atomic weapons of mass destruction.
The triumph of huge lies truly does drive society to become more and more insane. "Whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad." Marijuana laws are madness, that is only possible inside of a civilization that is seriously insane, because it is controlled by believing in the bullies' bullshit, which is huge lies about almost everything else throughout our entire culture.
Criminalizing cannabis was surely, absurd, insane and evil, but, everything else in the mainstream is being controlled by huge lies and coercions too.
The fascist plutocracy used propaganda to put the hemp industry out of business, so that cannabis could not compete with the monopoly profits from businesses that the fascist plutocrats owned.
I have developed a radical political philosophy to cope with the social facts that civilization is controlled by huge lies, backed up with lots of violence.
The main concepts that I use to understand this overall situation are subtraction and robbery.
The most important aspects of the fascist plutocracy are its death control and debt control.
The most important form of robbery is killing, and death control is the fundamental issue in human ecology, and political economy.
I endeavour to think about what sort of possible paradigm shifts and scientific revolutions could be necessary and possible.
I have no practical solutions to offer to the political problems that the world is controlled by huge lies, backed up with lots of violence.
I only have ways to philosophically and psychologically cope with discovering and demonstrated that is the real situation we are in.
Anyone interested in more of my kind of bla, bla, blah, rambling, redundant radical political philosophy about these topics may look at the party leader section of our Web site, or in our English language forum, that I use like my personal diary.
www.marijuanaparty.ca
These repetitive essays have been around for 30 years. China and Europe withhold industrial hemp advocacy and information sharing from developing countries for protectionist reasons perhaps. China, the world's biggest industrial hemp nation, refuses to discuss or share hemp related technologies in Africa, while trading Wal Mart goods for oil. However, this may have changed due to the writers advocacy at fairly high levels in Chinese govt .
Monsanto is organized, doing work in field, while industrial hemp and organic farm talkers are not. Going over the same material as Emperor has no Clothes will not bring finance and structure to developing countries where Ind hemp could be a lifesaver (agreed!).
Hemp as fuel suffers the same pitfalls as corn, massive new ag production expansion environmental destruction and food shortages. Strictly regulated hemp oil for farm equipment only is reasonable, but still alchohol or some diesal to warm up engines to operating temp (pure oil fired diesel engines) is needed.
The analysis is still the same in oil v ag fuels - pierce the ground in one spot and come up with fuel equivelent to thousands of acres of ag production. Oil is not demonic fuel , the same as nuclear power advocates demonic "CO2" . The oil and gas happens to be where brown and black people are.
Iran, by the way, is hemp friendly on all fronts> may this also be one reason why one of the world's oldest continuous civilization is scheduled for destruction? NO alchohol, hemp ok for medicine, recreate, industrial??? Talk is cheap
Happy Earth Day 2008 !!!
unbelievably to normal folks, the ones who can't listen to the truth about hemp are actually plants of a different strain here to feign disinterest, and they are now exposed, and so are their handlers
it's more than multinational, think children with unlimited power
the old "my daddy is going to get you" type of mentality
it makes no sense. our country was built on hemp. during wwII, farmers were encouraged to grow it. as stated in other posts, racism is the main reason it was outlawed. there is too much money to be lost by big oil, the textile industry, the pharmacutical industry, religeous zealots, ect. make people fear something and you can control thier will. it is stupid not to make this an agricultural crop. and if one does want to get high, why shouldn't they be able to? governments are overstepping thier boundaries trying to tell us what we can ingest. personal freedoms are a thing of the past. i am sick of the lies and the morals of so called christians. i believe that in the old testament, God gave Adam the right to use all the plants and animals as he needed. did YOUR God make a mistake when He created certain plants?
Truth be known your blog hast inspired moi to do a "Hemp Boats Is A-Comin"
("Shrimp Boats Is A-Comin'") parody but for now.....
“.....Earth is not a caring, nurturing planet it is a DNA slaughterhouse,” to see where that quote comes from watch the following YouTube film
“The Origin of Jesus Christ”
Parts I & II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzY2bVsZK5s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sckuqPulRGk
Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor
Believe it or not, you can find a lot of info on Hemp at the USDA, and our forefathers would put you in jail if you didnt have Hemp crops,Duponts and your Murdochs did away with it because it was competition, cannot market Hemp , cannot corner that market, sooooo what do we do?? create serious propaganda and wala our best resource is illegal, DO THE RESEARCH! Its there people
Anonymous said...
Believe it or not, you can find a lot of info on Hemp at the USDA, and our forefathers would put you in jail if you didnt have Hemp crops,Duponts and your Murdochs did away with it because it was competition, cannot market Hemp , cannot corner that market, sooooo what do we do?? create serious propaganda and wala our best resource is illegal, DO THE RESEARCH! Its there people
What "Murdochs" were those who had anything to do with hemp abolition?
My name is spelled differently in any event, and I am not directly related to Rupert Murdoch, if that's who you're thinking about. But what did he have to do with hemp prohibition?
Acharya, while I am not against an alternate form of energy and alike, I would like to ask you what will those who are allergic to hemp do if it become an alternative? Yes, I've been asked this before- how do you know you are allergic 1. hemp ropes were popular when I was a kid in grade school and I would often break out in a rash. 2. we didn't understand why until I was taken to an allergist only to find out that the one of many things I am allergic to is hemp. yes, they tested for hemp, esp Western Water hemp which grows wild in my area, believe it or not. 3. while some people deny marijuana and alike drugs are hemp related, my older son nor I can be around people who are smoking it without breathing problems and trust me, we had a neighbour who was as rude as some smokers and would come to our door with a lit joint. *rolling eyes* She apparently didn't care if a cop saw her with it or something, but boy was she apologetic when the smoke blew into our house and we had trouble breathing. Even my first ex-husband stopped bringing his junk into the house after he saw what it did to me and I don't/didn't smoke it. It was all secondhand smoke. I don't think he wanted to have to admit to an ER why I was having breathing problems.
Bottomline, I kid you not that like peanuts (and other nuts), eggs, wheat, pollen, ragweed, alfalfa etc, there are people who are allergic to hemp. While I have no other objection to it's use as a form of fuel, at least not one with sustainable and rational argument as allergies, there has to also be an alternative for those who are allergic to such a plant and it is a plant. As such, it is not unreasonable or what have you that there are others and will be others who are allergic to it.
That is my one true and very real objection to such a source. While it maybe a great alternative, it can cause some people some very serious health issues. The use of such a plant as a source of fuel could turn out as hazardous as peanuts or shellfish to some people, esp if it is burned into the atmospher like coal and oil is now. Natural, renewable, and very abundant sources of fuel is not always or necessarily the best.
Of course, my argument could be applied to peanut sources of fuel. Not sure about corn, which has also been mentioned too.
I seriously would appreciate a serious answer to my very serious question for I know my older son and I are not the only ones allergic to the plant and I'm sure there are people who do not know as of yet they are allergic to it too. It is a very real and serious concern. Rashes and the inability to breath isn't fun at all. I have come accustom to breathing personally. No joke intented and I don't want to live on albuteral and/or alike medication either. That could be almost as bad health wise.
zyzzyx - I believe you are incorrect. Hemp grows like a weed... hence the name "WEED". it can grow practically anywhere and it nourishes the grown it is grown on, meaning the possibility of more land to grow food on... Hemp is a one stop solution folks –
Dried biomass has a heating value of 5000-8000 Btu/lb, with virtually no ash or sulfur produced during combustion. About 6% of contiguous United States land area put into cultivation for biomass could supply all current demands for oil and gas. And this production would not add any net carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. (Environmental Chemistry, Stanley E. Manahan, Willard Grant Press, 1984)
Hemp is not Marijuana - just as useful and less threatening. HEMP can replace so many products at a cheaper, safer, cleaner cost. It can be used to nourish farm lands as it grows so fast. This can save us from our current situation! America can support itself again – as it once did with this one crop.
as for allergies, I’m sure there are people who are allergic to Corn but we used Ethanol. I am sure if hemp is refined into a fuel, allergies will be observed, but non-existent since it will be processed to use without all other substances that may cause allergic reactions - ;-)
It would help if you visited / watched
http://www.hemp4fuel.com/page.php?2
(very informative)
Hemp revolution - a documentary
And
Totally Baked - a movie like documentary aimed to educate.
Thank you... whoever is reading this,
-Mike from L.A.
If hemp is such a miracle weed why do we use paper from precious forests and oil from other countries… please don’t tell speak until you’ve done your research, you may sound like an idiot. Hemp is a miracle weed and there is a reason why BIG oil lobbied to have it illegalized in 1939.
It would help if you visited / watched
http://www.hemp4fuel.com/page.php?2
(very informative)
Hemp revolution - a documentary
And
Totally Baked - a movie like documentary aimed to educate. - Funny
if hemp can't get you high, why grow it?
Anonymous said...
if hemp can't get you high, why grow it?
Well gee, the answer to your (inane) question is here in the blog post itself - it's titled Hemp for Food and Fuel. And there are even videos for those who are too lazy to read!
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