Interesting article on Hemp

mfield

Imagine a magical plant, the fastest growing on Earth, able to reach heights of 20 feet in a single growing season. Unaffected by pests, this plant actually rejuvenates the soil as it yields up to 10 tons per acre during two or three harvests a year. When harvested it can produce more than 25,000 useful products ranging from potent natural medicines, high-quality paper, durable clothing, construction paneling, easily digestible protein and a much cleaner burning fuel than the gasoline and diesel oil it replaces.

If this sounds like a pipe dream, you're close to the truth. But you might wonder what reality censor has been editing history when you learn that this miracle plant not only exists but has been used in most of these applications by human communities worldwide for at least 10,000 years. Until, that is, its recent prohibition as a "dangerous substance."

The danger, of course, is that the big papermaking, pharmaceutical, chemical and agro-transnationals would lose billions - perhaps even face bankruptcy - if hemp was returned to its former role as this planet's pre-eminent agricultural crop and most important industry for more than 3,000 years.

From more than 1,000 years before the crucified Christ drank a hemp mixture provided by his followers until 1883, cannabis hemp - or marijuana - produced most of humankind's fiber, fabric, lighting oil, paper and medicines. The broad-leafed plant also served as a primary source of protein for wild and human lives.

"This plant can save the Earth," declares Jack Herer, whose exhaustively researched and fabulously illustrated book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, is turning skeptics into a growing grass-roots movement from Kansas to Ucluelet.

"Hemp is by far Earth's premier, renewable natural resource," Herer maintains. He's even offered $10,000 to anyone who can successfully dispute his claim. There have been no takers.

Running through the research, a powerful Alice-In-Wonderland feeling of bizarre displacement steals over the reader. It's not that Herer's claims are preposterous. On the contrary, they are so meticulously documented reality as we've been taught it starts to hang askew. Quite quickly it becomes shockingly apparent that one of the single most common threads woven through the fabric of world history has been largely snipped from North American memories.

Charming 19th century illustrations show American farmers going forth to sow hemp; entire communities rejoicing in bountiful harvest. "Whole families came out together to harvest the hemp fields at the height of the flowering season all over the world for thousands upon thousands of years," Herer relates, "never dreaming that it would one day be banned from the face of the Earth, in favor of fossil fuels, timber and petrochemicals."

One of the oldest cultivated crops, hemp is the earliest known woven fabric beginning approximately 10,000 years ago about the same time as potters began shaping clay. In most of the world, 80% of all clothing, linens, tents, rugs and drapes were made from hemp until the 20th century. While water-intensive cotton cultivation accounts for half of all pesticide use, hemp requires no intensive irrigation. Because hemp has no natural enemies means it can be grown without pesticides - and without chemical fertilizers in most soils.

Throughout the 1600s, colonial governments in Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Ontario ordered all farmers to grow hemp seed. In England, full British citizenship was bestowed on immigrants who could grow cannabis; fines were often imposed against those who refused.

Herer also points out - and here the vertigo gets really dizzying - that cannabis was legal tender in most of the Americas from 1631 until the early 1800s. For over 200 years, Americans could pay their taxes with hemp.

By 1850, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 8,327 hemp plantations - minimum 2,000 acres - growing cannabis for cloth, canvas and cordage. In addition, says Herer, tens of thousands of smaller farms and perhaps hundreds of thousands of family plots were used to grow this valuable crop.

For thousands of years virtually all good paints and varnishes had been made from organic hemp or linseed oil. Tall ships roamed the oceans of the globe with sails and rigging made from hemp. Hemp oil for lighting was replaced by whale oil in the 1870s, and by kerosene in 1959 - with all the carnage which followed.

In one of the most delicious ironies in the annals of publishing, previous editorial deadlines led Popular Mechanics to hail hemp as the "NEW BILLION-DOLLAR CROP" soon after it was declared illegal by the U.S. government in 1937. The invention of a hemp threshing machine had, the editors of this influential magazine announced, solved "a problem more than 6,000 years old" by replacing the laborious task of stripping hemp fiber from the stalk with a fast, untiring machine. As important as the invention of the "cotton gin" used to gather cotton, this revolution in hemp harvesting could replace that water and pesticide-intensive crop at a manufacturing cost of just a half-cent per pound.

The editors of Popular Mechanics saw a fantastic opportunity unfolding which would create enormous profits from paper making, drastically cut fiber imports and provide thousands of new "American" jobs.

Hemp seemed too good to be real. The plant's long roots break up the soil, reinvigorating and reclaiming land abandoned to thistles and "quack grass."

Calling hemp "the standard fiber of the world," the popular mechanics pointed to the fast-growing weed's "great tensile strength and durability." Noting that hemp was already used to produce more than 5,000 textile products ranging from ropes to fine laces, they reminded readers that the plant's woody "hurds" (which remain after the fiber has been removed) "contain more than 75% cellulose and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products ranging from Cellulose to dynamite."


MORE BELOW......................

mfield

But the hemp harvesting machines never went into mass-production. As researcher Shan Clark notes: the introduction of the first synthetic fiber - nylon, the patenting of the polluting sulfide paper-making process enabling pulp mills to use trees, the first successful use of machinery to separate hemp's long fibers from the cellulose hurd and the outlawing of hemp as "marijuana" all occurred simultaneously.

Forty years later, the Ford administration eliminated the threat to the powerful pharmaceutical transnationals by effectively outlawing further research into the medicinal properties of hemp.

The risk was real. By 1976, more than 60 therapeutic compounds had been developed from hemp - which for 3,000 years had been the most used medicine in the world. From 1842 to 1900 cannabis made up half of all medicine sold in the U.S.; in 1839, the Royal Academy of Science stated that the medicinal use of marijuana was as important to western medicine as "the discovery of antibiotics."

Hemp's healing powers are legendary. Poultices, THC and Cannabidohl extracts and other hemp preparations have been used to successfully treat asthma, glaucoma, many types of tumors, nausea, epilepsy, gonorrhea, herpes, rheumatism and anorexia - as well as high blood pressure, insomnia, migraines and stress - without the drastic side-effects of pharmaceuticals based on such dangerous and often addictive substances as mandrake, henbane and belladonna.

After reviewing extensive medical testimony, the U.S. Drug-busting department's own administrative law judge, Francis Young, concluded that "marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." (sic) If cannabis-derived medications were once again made legal, they could replace up to half of the synthetic drugs used in prescriptions.

Hemp also threatens the hegemony of the petro-chemical transnationals profiting heavily from a worldwide hydrocarbon economy. According to Herer, hemp is "50 times richer in biomass than any other plant used to replace petroleum-based fuels." Through a high-heat process known as pyrolsis, the much cleaner-burning hemp can be converted into charcoal, fuel oil, gas or liquid methanol with a 95.5% feed-to-fuel efficiency. Hemp seeds contain large quantities of oil which can be used as motor oil or burned in diesel engines.

Using hemp as a "halfway house" to help break our planet-ravaging petroleum dependency could also spark a return to large-scale hemp cultivation for food. The most natural compound closest to plasma, readily digested hemp seeds are also an important feed source for domestic and wild animals - especially millions of migratory birds on the decline worldwide as their feeding grounds are poisoned and paved over.

The seeds contain only trace amounts of mind-altering tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The bugaboo of hemp production, THC-free strains of hemp have been developed in Europe where France, Italy, Spain are once again growing hemp for pulp.

In terms of deforestation and mutagenic contamination. papermaking remains hemp's biggest single contribution to a commercial realignment which could overnight begin turning this planet away from ultimate catastrophe.

Until this century, 70 to 90 percent of all the world's paper came from hemp. Books, bibles, paper money, newspapers - all were made from hemp. One of North America's first pulp mills was started by Benjamin Franklin using hemp to make paper. Hemp paper and artist's canvas withstands heat, mildew and insects. While conventionally acid-bleached papers fall apart within 10-20 years, books printed on hemp paper have remained sound for centuries.

Hemp not only provides far superior paper, but is a much more efficient pulping plant than precious old growth trees chain-sawed to make paper bags and toilet paper. Hemp contains 77 percent cellulose, compared to trees' 44- percent. Because hemp contains very little lignin, no toxic bleaches necessary to make high-grade paper. The mustard gas-derived chlorine used to delignify wood chips release spectacular quantities of some of the deadliest, most persistent substances known into our air and waterways, altering the genetic structure and sabotaging the immune systems of wild and human lives for generations to come.

As early as 1916, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released special bulletin #404, which stated that hemp could replace trees for making paper at a 4 to 1 margin in favor of hemp. Harvesting 10,000 acres of hemp, the official record stated, could replace the fiber equivalent of 41,000 acres of trees.

It's at this point that outrage seems the only possible response to the hemp revelations. Outrage and determination to put hemp, kenaf and other papermaking vegetation into big time production as quickly as possible.

Had bulletin #404 been heeded, we could have saved most of the rivers, bays and ancient forests ravaged by timber-pulp consortiums. Just seven runs of the Sunday New York Times consumes 525,000 trees - "that's 25 million trees," Herer points out, "to print one year's editions of the Sunday NY Times!" An acre of hemp produces four times the pulp fiber of an acre of trees - and does so two or three times a year, while the fastest- growing pulp tree "crops" take 50 to 80 years to mature.

While family-run hemp farms are saving Canada's remaining forests, a process called Environcore can make up for the increasing shortfall in good timber by using hemp fibers to make construction paneling strong enough to replace plywood and drywall.

Hemp can also eliminate the plastics used in making many products, such as synthetic carpets and PVC pipe.

Awareness is power. It's also more than half the prelude to transformation. Fifty-four years after hemp was renamed "marijuana" and outlawed by what amounted to a corporate-instigated witch-hunt, Tracey Chester-Bennet observes that "60 percent of the world's rainforests are gone, and with them thousands of species of flora, fauna and every description of animal, from the tiniest insect to entire cultures of human beings." As this hemp proponent says, "We now rest at the crucial turning point if we are to save this planet."

It's obvious to more than prospective Earth stewards that extensive hemp cultivation is one obvious North American solution to a host of our worst environmental ills.
In 1991 the U.S. government instituted the death penalty for anyone caught growing more than 30,000 cannabis plants

Ajnag

some would come on and argue that hemp isnt that good, well if you can prove it you can win 100,000$ not 10,000 as the article below says.good article mfield, who did it?

jack herer made this challenge 10 years ago and to date no one has collected the prise.

goto: http://www.jackherer.com/

Wook

it all sounds a bit too much like a miracle plant.. dont get me wrong , i love hemp but huh...this article is a bit one sided, i would like to hear some people going against the all-goodness of hemp.

So i know how those people think and what kind of arguments they have.

Belfast

Here is some links and info for any one thinking of Growing Hemp in Ireland

Grow shop, Head shop in Temple Bar Dublin
http://www.cannabizireland.com/
hydroponics systems, Grow lights hps mh Enviro, grow mediums, rockwool, bulbs, nutrients and fertilizers, climate control devices, enhancers, cloning solutions, meters, regulators and much more...
Ok prices friendly staff
Open 12:00pm to 6:00 Monday to Saturday

http://www.dublinhemp.com/
Mostly hemp food and clothing some Marijuana and pipes etc

Evergreen Hydroponics Irl 37 Stannaway rd Dublin 12 01 4921511 (no Irish web address appear to be link to http://www.evergreenhydroponics.co.uk/index3.html. I do not know much about them)

http://www.dundrumlighting.com/prod.asp?product=GRO%2DLUX+FLOURESCENT
(Fluorescent lamps grolux lamps) this is a light shop with no interest in growing Hemp
http://www.yahooka.com/pages/Regional/Ireland/
(good set of links for growers in Ireland)

http://www.cannabisireland.com/
The Cannabis Ireland Alliance (Information on the Cannabis in Ireland no sales)

http://www.teagasc.ie/research/reports/crops/4487/eopr-4487.htm Irish state study on growing industrial hemp in Ireland

http://www.druglibrary.org/olsen/hemp/iha/jiha5114.html

more of same above

http://www.shee-eire.com/Herbs,Trees&Fungi/Herbs/Hemp/hempfactsheet.htm

(some historical back round to hemp in Ireland)

patch

Wow. That's an eye opener.
Reminds of a german doctor who discovered a new type of enery. He escaped Hitlers Germany to the states. He then built a contraption which harnessed the energy, whilst offering proof of the many benefits to be had.

The medical board had his place busted up, and him thrown in jail for being a quack. All he had to do was state that he was talking crap. He wouldn't, and so died in jail in the sixties.

If he had marketed his findings, most of the drugs being sold at the time would have become obselete. Can't remember his name though....

Sorry, that was fairly off topic!

bombidol

I tell ya what i find humourous about the whole hemp situation. The pro hemp punters throw out all these facts and statements, most of which are true. But at the end of the day all they want to do is.......Smoke the bleedin' stuff. Hemp fibre clothing my arse, Weed filled joint? Yes! . Are you seriously trying to tell me that if the stuff didnt get you high that you'd actually give a fuc|< ? balls!

Belfast

The problem with the whole hemp debate is so politicised on both sides.
The pro hemp side makes it sound like the answer to every problem on earth is Hemp and the anti-hemp side makes in sound like it is the cause of every problem.

Industrial hemp is useless for smoking; all it will do is give you a headache. The main problem with is use is it is difficult to hardest and process with industrial machinery. Ireland as a country is also heavily committed to forester and Hemp is a direct competitor the paper and wood subistute markets.

The case against hemp as a recreational is most a question of what type society we want to live in.
1. Where the state takes a moral stance and decides what is moral acceptable behaviour. This changes for time to time depending on the moral view of the time. Homosexual relations, suicide, catholic church, etc were all in the past deemed moral unacceptable but now are accepted in law at least. While the above items were banned hemp, opium and other drugs were legal. Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/toc.htm

2. The Libertarian society where you are free to live the lifestyle you wish as long as it does not harm others. Libertarian Party: Home Page http://www.lp.org/

The other problem with recreational or medical hemp is Ireland is heavily committed to manufacturing patented medicine. (The kind of drug the chemeist sells and you doctor prescribes). The Medical hemp might reduce the sales of the products and reduce employment in Ireland and tax revenue to the government.

the_mushieman

Yes. Because it is the most sustainable crop to grow, thereby saving money, the environment and improving local flora and fauna.

Hemp is not Cannabis. It is the same plant, but is the male version of the plant from which you cannot get stoned off because there is no CHP in it.

Banjo String

Waited for ages to write this.

TLDR.

ScumLord

bombidol wrote: »

I tell ya what i find humourous about the whole hemp situation. The pro hemp punters throw out all these facts and statements, most of which are true. But at the end of the day all they want to do is.......Smoke the bleedin' stuff. Hemp fibre clothing my arse, Weed filled joint? Yes! . Are you seriously trying to tell me that if the stuff didnt get you high that you'd actually give a fuc|< ? balls!

While it's true that most people would be introduced to hemp through their cannabis smoking no body can deny the benefits of hemp and it's a shinning example of the hypocrisy and ignorance of the laws against the cannabis plant. Here is a benign and extremely useful product that's illegal because it looks something like another benign plant that people don't like.

E.S.T.

Growing hemp is legal in China and Canada and something like 30 other countries around the world and it hasn't saved the world in those countries. Hemp would be of no interest to anybody if it didn't come from the same plant that weed comes from. Plastics and synthetics have replaced any use of hemp and soy and jatropha can produce more biofuel than hemp.

120_Minutes

in before the following words:

"john q taxpayer"
"tax eurons"
"buddy"
"pal"
"bulldust"
"hophead"
"dont expect me to pay for your addiction"

etc etc etc.

I remember when this was all fields.

/nostalgia

/zombie thread