HEMP: A GREAT CASH CROP [Thread II]

It's the largest cash-crop in my State. Besides what is cultivated, the stuff grows wild like weeds everywhere. In fact, a couple years ago, a nice sized, fully developed patch of the best domestic version was spotted growing in the median of the Interstate highway. No one noticed until fall, when the pretty blue flowers developed.

If I were a "toker," I would be in heaven around here. It seems to grow wild in all sorts of strange places -- especially in those not very accessible wooded places down by the river. Alas, I'm rather allergic to the stuff.

If I smell marijuana burning, it aggravates my nose and I start sneezing if I don't quickly get away from the smoke. But, it's out in nature where it really gets to me. When it's damp out, like on a misty morning, I seem to be able to smell that stuff a quarter-mile away. Then, I really start with the sneezing and coughing. I have no idea why that is and I have no intention of experimenting to find out. That's just how it is.

Which means, of course, there are a whole lot of people around here who should be very happy I am not a cop.

Did I mention that marijuana is this State's largest cash crop? Mostly because the federal government interfered in just about everything people can do to make a living in this State, it is. There is good money in growing those "weeds" and government's environmental regulation nerds put the kibosh on just about everything that was legal. People still have to make enough money to keep up a home and eat, so that's the way it goes.

So, even if I do break into a conniption fit of sneezing once in a while, I will never interfere with those who may be "growing" a little commercial product here and there. My practice is to walk the other way before I actually see the stuff -- and begin sneezing.

But, this also puts me in a unique position to talk about both hemp and regular marijuana. I have repeatedly proposed that our State Legislators allow industrial hemp to be grown in this State. That would go far in decreasing cultivation of the smoking kind and would be a great source of inexpensive, high quality paper for some of the major printers we have here. Sure, I would probably still sneeze near the industrial hemp pants -- although that has yet to be determined for certain.

The "excuse" Commonwealth Legislators give for not approving the cultivation of industrial hemp in this State as a cash crop is that police say they cannot tell the difference between the industrial and the smoking kind. That is silliness personified, of course.

Any police officer seeing forty acres of hemp growing in nice rows on a farm should have enough common sense to know that it ain't likely "Farmer Joe" is planting the smoking stuff out in plain sight. If a farmer wanted to grow the smoking kind, ten to one he would grow the stuff back where he did before industrial hemp became legal to grow. In which case, the police would not see it.

Besides, the plants look somewhat different. Which means, police could be trained to know industrial hemp on sight. Sure, that might mean that the officer needs to get out of the car and go look once in a growing season, but that is no big deal. Few farmers would be fooling around with marijuana, anyway. There are good bucks to be made in industrial hemp, this is an optimum area of the country to grow it and it is a relatively easy crop to deal with.

Besides, industrial hemp would stimulate some very interesting industry in this State. Without giving out any proprietary information, we know of at least two major corporations that would move most of their facilities here -- with many, many well paying jobs -- if this were an industrial hemp producing State. Furthermore, more large printers would also be attracted because of the inexpensive, high quality paper.(1)

Of course, as much as I personally repel from the stuff, I also believe that ordinary marijuana should be legalized.(2) It is probably better for humans than hard liquor. Other then the present legal prohibitions, it certainly causes less personal interaction problems in society. And, if taxed and regulated like alcohol, its distribution could be limited to adults.

- we heard it all before ... and it ain't true anymore THIS time than the last!

It's Time to End the War on Hemp

"Propaganda" is a word many Americans associate with anti-democratic movements such as Nazism and Communism. Our reverence for the United States with its commitment to constitutional freedoms has made it difficult to even contemplate the existence of U.S.-sponsored propaganda. Yet reverence for and trust in our government were not at all what Jefferson and the other founding fathers had in mind when the established the United States. Our constitution was created not only to govern, but also to protect us from and intrusive, repressive government.

Nowhere is our own government's propaganda more evident than in its approach to marijuana prohibition. Marijuana, hemp, or cannabis, are all derived from the same plant and have been cultivated since at least 4000 bc. For much of recorded history, the hemp plant has been staple of world trade and agriculture. Early American colonists were required to grow hemp, and hemp was legal tender, even for payment of taxes. Cannabis fiber is the strongest of all natural fibers. Prior to synthetic fibers, hemp was used for sails, rope and clothing. Levi's first jeans were made from hemp, as was the first American flag. Long before 200 year old trees were laid to waste to produce paper, hemp supplied that fiber. Hemp supplied the paper for the Gutenberg Bible as well as our Declaration of Independence.

Cannabis was described as a remedy in use in India before 1000 bc. Between 1840 and 1900, more than 100 papers were published in Western medical literature recommending its therapeutic properties as an analgesic, appetite stimulant and muscle relaxant, just to name a few. Cannabis is considered by some experts to be possible the least toxic, most theoretically active substance known to man. Cancer patients today describe benefits in pain reduction available from no other medicine.

In 5000 years, not a single human death has been attributed to cannabis overdose. Even so, independent medical research is effectively outlawed in America, and cannabis is classified in the DEA as a Schedule I Substance. (Schedule I substances are described as those so dangerous they cannot be used safely even under a doctor's supervision.)

The nutritional value of the hemp seed is highly regarded. Hemp seed oil has one of the lowest saturated fat contents at 8% of volume. Hemp seed is among the highest of any plant in essential fatty acids which are responsible for effective immune response. Additionally, hemp seeds contain no THC, marijuana's psycho-active ingredient.

Though the benefits of cannabis are well documented, since 1937 our government has made every effort to eradicate this extremely useful plant. Why?

By that date, the DuPont corporation had perfected the production of synthetic fibers from oil and coal, and invented nylon. Hemp fiber would be their largest competitor. At the time, Andrew Mellon was the Secretary of the Treasury - and the banker for DuPont through his powerful Mellon Bank. In fact, DuPont was the Mellon Bank's largest customer.

In 1931, Andrew Mellon had appointed his brother-in-law, Harry J. Ansilnger to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBN), a post Ansilnger held for the next 31 years. In 1937, Ansilnger testified before congress, saying, "Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind," and established himself as marijuanas most outspoken adversary. The Marijuana Tax Act, which effectively prohibited the use of hemp sped through congress under his direction.

Today, DuPont still controls the world's synthetic fiber production, and no American Citizen has legally harvest an acre of hemp in more than 50 years. DuPont had to face no competition from hemp.

The American people have been denied access to this valuable plant through government propaganda. Otherwise law-abiding citizens have been branded criminals because they chose to use this beneficial plant.

We Americans owe it to ourselves to become educated about marijuana and our government's motive for criminalizing it. We owe it to our founders to be skeptical of needlessly repressive government tactics. We owe it to our society to end the War on Hemp.

Your "bread" post was so funny. I hope you don't mind if I post it here so more people will see it:

Bread Kills!
1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. Every piece of bread you eat brings you nearer to death.
5. Bread is associated with all the major diseases of the body. For example, nearly all sick people have eaten bread. The effects areobviously cumulative:
"- 99.9% of all people who die from cancer have eaten bread.
"- 100% of all soldiers have eaten bread.
"- 96.9% of all Communist sympathizers have eaten bread.
"- 99.7% of the people involved in air and auto accidents ate bread within 6 months preceding the accident.
"- 93.1% of juvenile delinquents came from homes where bread is served frequently.
6. Evidence points to the long-term effects of bread eating: Of all the people born since 1839 who later dined on bread, there has been a 100% mortality rate.
7. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as a teaspoon of dough can be used to suffocate a lab rat. The average American eats more bread than that in one day!
8. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
9. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
10. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
11. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
12. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
13. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
14. Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.
In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:
1. No sale of bread to minors.
2. A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
5. The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.

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