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"The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution were written on hemp paper."

The rough drafts were written on hemp paper, historians believe. The final documents were written on parchment, which is an excellent material.

I had a student who wrote a paper several years ago on legalizing hemp as a paper source. According to the research performed by this student, hemp as a renewable source of paper products, has several advantages over wood based papers.

One is that hemp paper does not yellow as does wood paper. Second, hemp grows considerably faster than trees and is thus more renewable. The THC levels in hemp paper are so low, you would have to smoke several hundred pounds of hemp paper to get high.

During World War II, farmers here in Indiana and in other states were encouraged to grow hemp for making rope and parachutes. I've used rope from this era before and, if properly cared for, is just as strong as it ever was and has none of the problems of the nylon or other polymer-based products, the biggest being its ability to work in the cold.

I've often wondered why all uses for this plant were stopped, other than the obvious fear of misuse.