yup, commercial hemp/ditch weed is truly a weed...
Posted on 04/26/2018 6:09:41 PM PDT by aimhigh
It turns out Oregonians are good at growing cannabis—too good. In February, state officials announced that 1.1 million pounds of cannabis flower were logged in the state's database.
If a million pounds sounds like a lot of pot, that's because it is: Last year, Oregonians smoked, vaped or otherwise consumed just under 340,000 pounds of legal bud.
This month, WW spoke to two dozen people across Oregon's cannabis industry. They describe a bleak scene: Small businesses laying off employees and shrinking operations. Farms shuttering. People losing their life's savings are unable to declare bankruptcy because marijuana is still a federally scheduled narcotic.
(Excerpt) Read more at wweek.com ...
Living in southern Oregon, and not partaking, I can tell you from people I know that the small-time unregistered growers are also losing their shirts.
When it became legal, every low IQ lazy bum in the state thought he was going to make a fortune growing 6 to 12 plants. Price when it was not legal was $1500-2000 per pound and they had dreams of that staying the same. So they spent all they could borrow on production facilities, fences, etc.
Well, surprise, it is legal and the price has dropped. No takers at $600-700 per pound. So they are not selling anything and trying to hang on until next year. I think the price will be even lower then, but their hope springs eternal.
The USDA made a short film in 1942 to promote hemp production for the war effort.
Partial transcript of the film:
Long ago when these ancient Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850 all the ships that sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails.
For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable.
A 44-gun frigate like our cherished Old Ironsides took over 60 tons of hemp for rigging, including an anchor cable 25 inches in circumference. The Conestoga wagons and prairie schooners of pioneer days were covered with hemp canvas. Indeed the very word canvas comes from the Arabic word for hemp. In those days hemp was an important crop in Kentucky and Missouri. Then came cheaper imported fibers for cordage, like jute, sisal and Manila hemp, and the culture of hemp in America declined.
But now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese, and shipment of jute from India curtailed, American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our Industry. In 1942, patriotic farmers at the government’s request planted 36,000 acres of seed hemp, an increase of several thousand percent. The goal for 1943 is 50,000 acres of seed hemp.
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This is hemp seed. Be careful how you use it. For to grow hemp legally you must have a federal registration and tax stamp. This is provided for in your contract. Ask your county agent about it. Don’t forget.
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Hemp grows so luxuriantly in Kentucky that harvesting is sometimes difficult, which may account for the popularity of the self-rake with its lateral stroke. A modified rice binder has been used to some extent. This machine works well on average hemp. Recently, the improved hemp harvester, used for many years in Wisconsin, has been introduced in Kentucky. This machine spreads the hemp in a continuous swath. It is a far cry from this fast and efficient modern harvester, that doesn’t stall in the heaviest hemp.
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As for the United States Navy, every battleship requires 34,000 feet of rope. Here in the Boston Navy Yard, where cables for frigates were made long ago, crews are now working night and day making cordage for the fleet. In the old days rope yarn was spun by hand. The rope yarn feeds through holes in an iron plate. This is Manila hemp from the Navy’s rapidly dwindling reserves. When it is gone, American hemp will go on duty again: hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the sea victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory.
Eventually that has got to have an effect on the "street price". The stuff literally grows on trees. It should eventually be selling for about a nickel a joint. The only reason it couldn't is because of illegality and/or taxes.
What I like about the trend is that there will be no profit margin left to support gangsterism. Who's going to steal someone's stash for $1 worth of pot? Who's going to commit murder or even assault to win control of a market for nickel joints?
The harm done to the abusers of the drug will be an unfortunate consequence of making bad choices. It sure beats losing our Fourth and Second Amendment rights to become people's nannies.
Export it to China!
'...and there I sat on that sack of seeds!' - Ray Stevens (butchered by me). 100 million more pounds of weed.
Left Columbia, but never seen again.
A guy standing outside a small office building was puffing-up a huge plume of MJ smoke. I held my breath and walked by. The office building? A bank!
yup, commercial hemp/ditch weed is truly a weed...
I know a dude who gets this wax/shatter/glass stuff from Colorado.
It is very concentrated stuff.
My thought about Oregon’s surplus is that they can easily shift that surplus of actual weed to the production of these concentrates. Why? because it takes a big fistful of weed to make a tiny .5 oz vial of concentrate, which then goes for big bucks.
Historically and across cultures, hemp/pot seeds were used as a "last resort" food when the food ran out in early spring.
Pot/hemp seeds are full of calories and oils/fat.
Wait: First you say weed laced with rat poison, then you say synthetic weed.
Which is it?
Because synthetic weed is not cannabis in any way, shape or form.
Stupid idiots . . greedy, selfish bastards
Who cares if kids get it and people drive under the influence?
Or lose their desire to study and work? And yes, it happens I’ve seen it with college classmates who stopped giving a damn
And haven’t been worth squat since
Surplus will be taken car of by supply and demand issues. Apparently there is an issue of legal growers vs the black market or illegal growers. That said, all the growers are really illegal based on MJ being a schedule one narco drug:
DEA Schedule I include:
Heroin (diacetylmorphine)
LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide)
Marijuana (cannabis, THC)
Mescaline (Peyote)
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or “ecstasy”)
GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) - except formulations in an FDA-approved drug product sodium oxybate (Xyrem) are Schedule III
Ecstasy (MDMA or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)
Psilocybin
Synthetic marijuana and analogs (Spice, K2)
Methaqualone (Quaalude)
Khat (Cathinone)
Bath Salts (3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone or MDPV)
See? Wouldn’t that be way more entertaining?
Hah!
The post is using legal weed numbers of pounds produced and pounds sold. There is a disparity. But there are a lot of illegal growers. Also, lots of people are growing their own, and s lot is given away to friends. It’s Oregon’s zucchini squash.
I see two right away sunthetic connected to rat poison in the headlines. Actually more. Sythetic weed. Fake pot. Marijuana. Synthetic marijuana. All linked to the words rat poison.
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