Industrial Hemp -- Natures Gift To Human

Industrial Hemp – Natures gift to humanity

“Prohibition… goes beyond the bound of reason in that it attempts to control man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Hemp, widely known to many as “marijuana” is in fact not the intoxicating drug that you hear about. Hemp may come from the same plant genus - cannabis sativa L, but the strains of hemp used in industrial and consumer products contain only a negligible level of the intoxicating substance THC. Some may argue that even a negligible amount of THC is enough to keep this natural resource outlawed, but if this is the case, shouldn’t Broccoli and Cauliflower be outlawed as well? It may sound ridiculous but these two vegetables fall into the same plant genus as hemp. Misleading information has plagued our nation, and has distorted our views of the true nature and possibilities that hemp has to offer the world.

To better understand the possibilities that industrial hemp has to offer, we first need to have a clear view of its history. The Chinese were the earliest known to have benefited from the use of the fibers that come from the hemp plant, which were woven into cloth fabric and worn during the era of 8000b.c. The Chinese then began to discover the many uses or hemp as they constructed fish nets, rope, oil, and eventually used it as a source of nutrition and medicine. By 100b.c. the Chinese learned how to create paper from hemp and mulberry, and to this day is still the oldest known surviving piece. Hemp rope was used by the Egyptians to help build pyramids due to its great durability and strength. Christopher Columbus’s journey to the Americas was only possible because of the hemp ropes and sails that they used (other products would have decayed before Columbus had reached America.) So far, we can see that hemp is not the dangerous plant that our government makes it out to be today; in fact with some clarification we can see that hemp is one of the most versatile natural resources in the world.

Most interesting of all is the history of hemp in the American colonies. Hemp was so well known for its ever-expanding use, some American colonies actually made it illegal to not grow hemp; in fact hemp was even considered legal tender and could be used for paying taxes. Benjamin Franklin’s first paper mill created hemp paper which allowed for the American colonies to not rely on European imported paper; helping fuel the colonies’ independence from European imported hemp paper and products. The Declaration of independence was drafted on hemp paper and fourteen years later the U.S. constitution was printed on hemp paper. The first American flag sewn by Betsy Ross was composed of Hemp. George Washington once said “make the most of the hemp seed, sow it everywhere.” Thomas Jefferson also said “hemp is the first necessity to the wealth and prosperity of the nation.” Apparently our current government does not agree with our founding fathers. By the late nineteenth century the America west was tamed with hemp lassos and hemp canvas covered wagons. The oils were also used extensively for lighting, paint, and varnishes. Hemp remained as the number one cash crop in the Americas until the mid nineteen thirties when the Corporation DuPont started producing products that imitated hemp, such as nylon, which was labeled as “synthetic hemp.”

The ties between DuPont, (the first to produce chemicals that allowed for trees to be turned into paper) other corporations such as the largest newspaper producer in the U.S. at the time, and select government officials eventually led to the demise, destruction, and outlaw of industrial hemp in the United States. DuPont also created chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers to help boost the cotton industry. (A direct action to purposely try an derail hemps success). Hemp is a hearty plant that does not require these chemicals and has the ability to self sustain in almost any given environment. At the time DuPont’s primary financer was Mellon bank, owned by U.S. treasury secretary Andrew Mellon. Mr. Mellon’s niece was married to Harry Anslinger who was the Deputy Commissioner of the government’s alcohol prohibition campaign. Anslinger and his Federal Bureau were out of a job after the repeal of the alcohol prohibition. To keep his family and friends employed, Mellon single-handedly created a new government Bureaucracy, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (later known as the DEA) and appointed Mr. Anslinger as the head of the new multimillion dollar bureaucracy. Hemps multiple uses were seen as a threat by Mr. Mellon and his associates, especially Randolph Hearst with his wood paper industry, Mr. Lammont DuPont with his petrochemical and synthetic fiber conglomerates, the oil companies, steel companies, and pharmaceutical companies. These threats against corporate giants were justified since hemp had the ability to dip its hands into each of these markets and was able to produce a better product with less impact on our environment, but Anslinger wasn’t going to let this happen.

At the time racism was running rampant and Ansliger found his angle to curb hemp production once and for all. Mexicans had been accused of smoking the flowers of the hemp plant, which in all actuality has no narcosis effect, but Anslinger labeled the hemp plant as “marijuana,” the Mexican slang word for Hemp. Mr. Anslinger went on to spread rumors stating that Mexicans and blacks became violent and disrespectful to white people when they smoked the “evil menace marijuana.” This slander was good news for the corporate giants. DuPont even supplied Randolph Hearst with chemicals to speed up the process of creating newspaper, and in turn Hearsts paper corporation jumped into the propaganda and began running hundreds of articles, even going as far to state that while under the influence of the plant it caused people to rape and kill one another. The population began to believe the one-sided stories and used that information to base their opinion about the plant. Once Anslinger received enough support from the public he took his act to congress, never stating that marijuana was actually hemp. Hemp industries found out what Anslinger was up to just in time and were able to defend and convince congress of the great benefits of hemp. Upset at the outcome of the case, Anslinger single-handedly appropriated congressional power and mandated hemp prohibition in 1937, stating that his agents were not able to tell the difference between actual high producing THC strands from the standard Hemp plant, which in all reality is ridiculous statement. Hemp takes on the features of a lanky bamboo plant where as the THC producing plant is extremely identifiable by its bushy, bud producing features. Anslinger also went on to say that it would be easy to hide the high THC producing plants in the middle of a hemp field. This statement is also false, as cross pollination would ruin the THC producing marijuana plants

Prohibition of hemp came at a time when Henry Ford created a vehicle made of hemp parts also running on hemp fuel. Hemp plastic is lighter than steel and able to withstand ten times the force of impact without denting. Ford never intended for his vehicles to run on gasoline. Prohibition simply forced him to rely on crude oil gasoline to power his automobiles. Automobile manufacturers are attempting to create vehicles that are environmentally safe; subsequently the outcome has been overpriced products that have a quality that can be described as “mediocre” at best. Thanks to the actions of Mr. Mellon and his associates, we have lost seventy years of innovation, prosperity, and the potential of what could have been for our automobile industry and our environment.

Today, our nation struggles with a poor economy, deforestation, rising fuel prices, pollution created from vehicles, paper mills and other large corporations. We have allowed the one plant species that can answer all of our environmental needs to become illegal. This resource will remain illegal until our society removes the blindfold that the government has placed over their eyes and demand the legalization of industrial hemp back into our economy. If we the people were able to change our laws, we would have the great benefit of using hemp as a food source, body care products, paper, fuel, paint, plastic, textile fibers, animal feed, and concrete, it can also be used as a replacement for wood products, as a rotational crop, soil rejuvenator and more. The possibilities of hemp products seem to be endless, showing us that hemp is nature’s gift to mankind. Harry Anslingers modern-day successors, true to his irrational and fanatical beliefs and methods have continued waging a global genocide war against a plant! I would be interested to hear what Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin would have say about the nation’s viewpoint of hemp today.