T
The420Guy
Guest
Our next president, George W. Bush, struck a chord with his acceptance
speech references to Thomas Jefferson and the plans he has to focus upon
that forefather's ideals.
Certainly, the nation owes much to Jefferson for his key role in getting us
started. And a funny thing is, if today's drug war tactics had applied back
in his time, and if he had been busted with all those cannabis plants at
Monticello, Jefferson may well have been a convicted criminal instead of an
elected president.
The same is true of most everyone involved in agriculture back in those
times, including George Washington. That is because practically everything
they needed was produced on their own farms. And they needed those cannabis
plants.
Not to inhale. They valued the crop for its fiber more than its fumes. It
makes a sturdy cloth. As a matter of fact, when prehistoric man invented
weaving, he likely used strands from the cannabis plant, judging from
remnants discovered by archaeologists.
It makes strong ropes, too. So, from the same crop, our forebears could
harvest both the sails needed to move their ships and the lines needed to
rig them. It was considered such an important resource, in fact, that the
first law regarding the cannabis plant in the New World required colonial
farmers to grow it.
When the Revolutionary War came along, the famous battleship Old Ironsides
was fitted out with just such sails and rope. Betsy Ross turned out the
original Old Glory using canvas made from the cannabis plant.
It also provides handy raw materials for making paper, the stalks being much
faster growing and easier to cut than trees. Would you care to guess what
kind of paper was used for the original drafts of both the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution?
Hemp vs. marijuana
Cannabis grown for industrial uses is called hemp. Cannabis grown for
smoking is called marijuana. The folks who would like to grow hemp or who
would like to make products from hemp grown in the United States, say the
two are different.
They point out that hemp plants are selected and planted and cultivated to
produce tall stalks, whereas the emphasis in marijuana production is on the
leaves and blooms of plants that spread out more.
Hemp fans say their cannabis plants don't contain nearly as much THC (the
active ingredient prized by pot smokers) as marijuana plants. They say it
would benefit American farmers to grow hemp, and point to the many thousands
of products that can be made from the plant, everything from wall board and
other building materials to biofuels that we could use in place of fossil
fuels and nuclear power.
However, officials in charge of the drug war make no distinction between
hemp and marijuana. They say if growing hemp were allowed, it would be too
difficult to prevent people from growing marijuana.
`Ditchweed' growing wild
Of course, hemp can be found growing wild in parts of the country. The
government drug warriors spend millions of dollars a year to eradicate
patches of it that come to their attention.
Commonly called "ditchweed," some of it may have descended from the vast
fields of hemp grown during World War II. Just five years after the
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 put an end to hemp crops on U.S. farms, the
nation's supply of fiber for many military uses was cut off when Japan took
the Philippines. So the government encouraged patriotic farmers to resume
growing "Hemp for Victory."
The U.S.-grown hemp fibers were used in uniforms, boots and a wide variety
of military items. I even read somewhere that the parachute that saved the
life of George Bush, the elder, when he had to bail out of his airplane over
the Pacific Ocean during the war, had some hemp in it.
Somewhere else I read that a U.S. farmer up near the northern border of our
country made on his grain crops only about one-tenth as much an acre as a
Canadian farmer only a few miles away made by growing hemp.
Canadian farmers are free to grow hemp and U.S. farmers are not. Don't you
wonder what Thomas Jefferson would have to say about this, if there were
some way to ask him?
Thom Marshall's e-mail address is thom.marshall@chron.com.
Newshawk: Al Robison
Pubdate: Friday, Dec 22, 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Author: Thom Marshall
speech references to Thomas Jefferson and the plans he has to focus upon
that forefather's ideals.
Certainly, the nation owes much to Jefferson for his key role in getting us
started. And a funny thing is, if today's drug war tactics had applied back
in his time, and if he had been busted with all those cannabis plants at
Monticello, Jefferson may well have been a convicted criminal instead of an
elected president.
The same is true of most everyone involved in agriculture back in those
times, including George Washington. That is because practically everything
they needed was produced on their own farms. And they needed those cannabis
plants.
Not to inhale. They valued the crop for its fiber more than its fumes. It
makes a sturdy cloth. As a matter of fact, when prehistoric man invented
weaving, he likely used strands from the cannabis plant, judging from
remnants discovered by archaeologists.
It makes strong ropes, too. So, from the same crop, our forebears could
harvest both the sails needed to move their ships and the lines needed to
rig them. It was considered such an important resource, in fact, that the
first law regarding the cannabis plant in the New World required colonial
farmers to grow it.
When the Revolutionary War came along, the famous battleship Old Ironsides
was fitted out with just such sails and rope. Betsy Ross turned out the
original Old Glory using canvas made from the cannabis plant.
It also provides handy raw materials for making paper, the stalks being much
faster growing and easier to cut than trees. Would you care to guess what
kind of paper was used for the original drafts of both the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution?
Hemp vs. marijuana
Cannabis grown for industrial uses is called hemp. Cannabis grown for
smoking is called marijuana. The folks who would like to grow hemp or who
would like to make products from hemp grown in the United States, say the
two are different.
They point out that hemp plants are selected and planted and cultivated to
produce tall stalks, whereas the emphasis in marijuana production is on the
leaves and blooms of plants that spread out more.
Hemp fans say their cannabis plants don't contain nearly as much THC (the
active ingredient prized by pot smokers) as marijuana plants. They say it
would benefit American farmers to grow hemp, and point to the many thousands
of products that can be made from the plant, everything from wall board and
other building materials to biofuels that we could use in place of fossil
fuels and nuclear power.
However, officials in charge of the drug war make no distinction between
hemp and marijuana. They say if growing hemp were allowed, it would be too
difficult to prevent people from growing marijuana.
`Ditchweed' growing wild
Of course, hemp can be found growing wild in parts of the country. The
government drug warriors spend millions of dollars a year to eradicate
patches of it that come to their attention.
Commonly called "ditchweed," some of it may have descended from the vast
fields of hemp grown during World War II. Just five years after the
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 put an end to hemp crops on U.S. farms, the
nation's supply of fiber for many military uses was cut off when Japan took
the Philippines. So the government encouraged patriotic farmers to resume
growing "Hemp for Victory."
The U.S.-grown hemp fibers were used in uniforms, boots and a wide variety
of military items. I even read somewhere that the parachute that saved the
life of George Bush, the elder, when he had to bail out of his airplane over
the Pacific Ocean during the war, had some hemp in it.
Somewhere else I read that a U.S. farmer up near the northern border of our
country made on his grain crops only about one-tenth as much an acre as a
Canadian farmer only a few miles away made by growing hemp.
Canadian farmers are free to grow hemp and U.S. farmers are not. Don't you
wonder what Thomas Jefferson would have to say about this, if there were
some way to ask him?
Thom Marshall's e-mail address is thom.marshall@chron.com.
Newshawk: Al Robison
Pubdate: Friday, Dec 22, 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Author: Thom Marshall
