Hemp

Conall Cernach wrote: »

That argument doesn't hold up as according to the OP we were all growing and using hemp for thousands of years before we switched to cotton. We don't switch to electric cars because they are more expensive, more awkward and are less flexible. That's the opposite of what it is claimed happened with cotton. We apparently switched from something cheap and altogether fantastic to a more expensive and crappier product. It doesn't ring true.

Now I'm going from memory here so... IIRC it's pretty much down to the US of A and vested interests and other issues there. EG Randolph Hearst the publishing magnate was also a heavy investor in forestry. Now much of that was being grown for paper production. Hemp was a direct competitor for that market so Hearst wanted it out of the market and with the power of the media could do this. The lobbyists for the southern cotton states were also heavily vested in having hemp removed from the market. Even oil producers and the petrochemical industry on the back of them saw hemp as a competitor. In a culture of industrial "barons" like the the US was competition was often squeezed out.

There were practical issues too. Cotton harvesting was easier to mechanise in them days. Mechanised hemp harvesting never really took off at the time. That put a lot of people off. Storing hemp can be more troublesome too as it's more prone to rot than cotton. It also requires more bleaching(which isn't as hippie green). It also pongs a bit in it's unprocessed state and removing that used to be tricky back in the day.

There are a lot of reasons why it;s not as used today. Many of those reasons are vested interests, followed by practical things. Today it's not used so much, because the existing machinery is geared up for other products and it still has that inaccurate connection with getting monged. The hemp we're discussing has very very little of the THC of the Indica variety. Teeny amounts. It also has a different growth habit, leggier taller. You'd need to smoke an acre of the stuff to get the same bang as one pull on skunk.