Is it Time to Reevaluate the Stance on Commercial Hemp?

Is it Time to Reevaluate the Stance on Commercial Hemp?

Yes. Unfortunately, the hemp lobby isn't nearly as powerful as the ethanol lobby. There is (or perhaps was) a North American Industrial Hemp Council, however, that published a treatise called Hemp and Marijuana: Myths and Realities back in 1998. I encourage you to read it.

Uh-oh. It looks like I said the "m" word in that last paragraph and, no, I don't mean "myths". It will be interesting to see what kind of conversation we non-politicians can have on the nature of hemp vs. marijuana. Now back to blogging . . .

Moose

YES!

The founding fathers of the USA would be rolling in their graves to know that it has been made illegal. Most of them were hemp farmers who depended on it to survive! After all, the constitution was written on hemp.

Here are a few quotes from them about it...

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
- George Washington

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country."
- Thomas Jefferson

"We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption."
- John Adams

"After all, the constitution was written on hemp."

Now, who told you that?

From FAQ #145 at US Constitution Online:

"The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are currently housed in the National Archives. All three are written on parchment, not hemp paper."

No need to be sorry, it's just an urban legend.

No, it doesn't say any of the drafts were written on hemp, it says: "It is likely, however, that drafts of the documents were written on paper made from hemp."

I would vote to lift the ban on hemp.

The plant literally grows like a weed, needing little if any help to thrive, almost anywhere. It grows fast, provides amazing fibers, which rival any other fiber on the plant.

I could easily see creating lumber out of the pressed fibers. We could reduce the need for de-forestation (makes the greenies happy), and we could end this silly parade of corn for ethanol... Food prices could drop among many other things.

Why the heck would we not want to utilize all the best building blocks mother nature has to offer us?

and we could end this silly parade of corn for ethanol

Back in the early 1970's I secured a permit to grow Cannabis sativa for fiber in Texas to win a bar bet. To get the permit I had to provide a forward contract with a buyer who would buy the fiber that I produced at a given price. I also had to write a Residue Management Protocol that provided a way to ensure that no cannabinoid got diverted into unauthrized use. That was the difficult part. The final granting of the permit was based on the cash that would be realized on the bar bet, subject to my notifying them of my intention to plant if I needed to actually grow the crop to win the bet. The original bet had been that I "Could not get a permit to grow marijuana legally", not necessarily that I would actually grow the crop.

Now that I have the technology to make ethanol from non-food biomass, I am considering re-applying, with the ethanol profits adding to the fiber value and the medical market for the cannabinod to guarantee that there is enough profit in the overall operation that diversion into unauthorized use is unnecessary. If the fiber market is less than $50 per ton, then the fiber can also go to ethanol. If the entire crop goes to ethanol (and medical cannabinoid), my numbers indicate that it should be worth about 2500 gallons of ethanol per acre per year with a drouth tolerant crop that needs little fertilizer.

Where the strings you were pulling made of hemp? Must've been. In Texas, in the seventies, wow. I wasn't there but it was not funny for some I believe.

This has been discussed in CR4 and commercial farms are now being created in Australia and in many other countries. The witch hunt is nearly over, maybe even in my life time.

The modern fiber industries have a lot to answer for and that since generations. They will fester for as long as they can, naturally, Ky.

Where the strings you were pulling made of hemp?

No, I had recently left the USDA to go into private sector work. While with USDA I had been one of the parties named on a permit to import fresh marijuana leaves from Mexico to use in developing a remote sensing method of detecting marijuana growing under a corn canopy. The guy in the bar didn't know about that. So there was a certain "predisposition" in favor of my request, but anyone who was willing to be cooperative would have found the same treatment.

Simple, people with the power are makeing more money by not growing it, then if it were grown.

Read Jack Herer's "The Emperor Wear's No Clothes" for a great history, in brief, of why hemp is illegal in the USA. The power brokers in the 20's and 30's saw industrial hemp as a threat the their timber holdings (or more, the value of them) and made sure that hemp was not available for the making of paper (thanks William R. Hearst and Dow Corning) and, consequently, not food, fiber or fuel either. It never had anything to do with its psychoactive properties; that was just the selling point for criminalization.

yes

We can not continue to be led by ignorance in support of foolish laws

What was sold to the people as good intentions had little to do with keeping people safe from dubious harm and more to do with keeping ignorant cats.. fat

decriminalize it

It's not even about what it appears to be about. Same with lots of other things. The politicians, especially the conservative one's, you know, the really rich ones, have to have moral issues to engage supporters so they can remain in office to give GE and other cronies 3.2 billion dollar tax cuts. They don't care about the issue, never did. It's just a way to distract the serfs (who can only think about one or two pet issues at a time) and keep them scared and loyal.

How about reevaluating the stance on recreational hemp, too? I don't care for the stuff, but most of the legal policies are Reefer Madness redux.

It's strange that 13 states have legalized marijuana, (NC is considering it again), for medicinal use, even though it contradicts federal law, and hemp, which would be a huge boon to all kinds of industries, including a possible fuel source, remains so controversial..............even though it can't get you high.

I'd like to see a state go ahead and legalize commercial hemp production.

As with all varieties of the plant, though I haven't partaken since before my college age kids were born, I vote with Bill Maher on this one.