Hemp

rom 1901 to 1937, the U.S. Department of Agriculture repeatedly predicted that
hemp was on the verge of becoming America's number one farm crop. In fact, in 1938,
Popular Mechanics ran an article entitled "The New Billion Dollar Crop," predicting a
bright future for the hemp plant. In the same year, Mechanical Engineering Magazine
called hemp "The most profitable and desirable crop that can be grown." Why the
sudden excitement? After all, the demand for hemp had existed for thousands of years.
The earliest known fabric was made from hemp, which came into use around 8,000 B.C.
From 1,000 B.C. until after the American Civil War, hemp was the world's largest
agricultural crop, used to make fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense, medicine, and food
oil, as well as being an important source of protein for human and animal consumption.

During periods of shortage between 1763 and 1767, farmers in Virginia were threatened
with jail sentences for NOT growing hemp. There were at least sixty tons of hemp on
the U.S.S. Constitution alone; the original draft of the Declaration of Independence was
written on hemp paper. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp on
their plantations, and the flag sewn by Betsy Ross was made from hemp fabric.Ben
Franklin's cannabis paper mill allowed the colonies to operate a free press without
having to beg for paper from England. And without the hemp thread used by our
Founding Mothers who sewed soldiers' clothing at spinning bees in the early days of the
Revolution, the Continental Army would have frozen to death at Valley Forge.

Hemp fibers were extracted from cannabis and used for textiles, rope, canvas, paper and
other industrial uses. For millennia, this was an extremely labor-intensive process,
although the results were deemed worthy of the effort. Hemp is softer, warmer and more
water-resistant than cotton, and has three times as much tensile strength. Although in
the 1820s Eli Whitney's legendary cotton gin launched cotton as America's number one
textile, hemp remained the second most popular natural fiber until the 1930s.

Which brings us to 1937. Human technology had finally reached the point at which
hemp could be processed economically. Machinery such as George Schlichten's
"decorticator," which could strip fiber from any plant, did for hemp what Whitney's gin
did for the cotton industry: production labor was reduced by an order of magnitude.
Hemp-based newsprint could be produced at half the cost of inferior wood-based
newsprint. Superior hemp fabric could easily compete with cotton. And scientists had
just begun to explore the medical uses of marijuana. In 1937, hemp was a rapidly
growing industry with virtually unlimited potential, which, according to conservative
estimates, would currently generate $500 billion per year -- if it had not been
criminalized by a group of elite industrialists with very different plans for industry in
the 20th century.
Hemp posed a dire threat to key American industrialists in the 1930s. Cheap, durable
hemp paper threatened Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division, Kimberly Clark (USA)
and other timber and paper companies, who stood to lose billions of dollars and possibly
face bankruptcy.

In 1937, DuPont patented processes to manufacture plastics and synthetic fibers from
oil and coal, as well as new processes to produce paper from wood pulp. According to
DuPont's own corporate records, these new processes would account for more than three
quarters of its industrial output for the next fifty years. The attack on the hemp industry
was two-fold: massive propaganda campaign demonized cannabis in the eyes of the
public, and the power of government was used to cripple and eventually exterminate
industrial uses of hemp. In DuPont's 1937 Annual Report, the company urged its
stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical products. Although stalks of hemp were
rising on the horizon, DuPont anticipated "radical changes" from "the revenue raising
power of government... converted into an instrument for forcing acceptance of sudden
new ideas of industrial and social reorganization."

William Randolph Hearst, king of yellow journalism, was going berserk. His massive
timber holdings, endangered by cheaper, cleaner and more durable hemp paper, brought
him face-to-face with financial catastrophe. Hence, a car wreck in which a marijuana
cigarette was found stayed on the front page of his newspapers for weeks, while news of
alcohol-related wrecks, which outnumbered marijuana-related wrecks by more than a
thousand to one, was relegated to the back pages. Hearst warned his readers of Negro
men raping white women while under the influence of marijuana and anti-white
"voodoo-satanic" jazz music. Not only that, but "Negroes and Mexicans," inflamed by
the hell-spawned herb, dared to step on white men's shadows, look white people directly
in the eye for more than a few seconds, look at a white woman twice, and even go so far
as to laugh at white people in public.

The Marijuana Tax Act passed and was signed into law in December, 1937, outlawing
hemp in America. Over the next few years, Federal Bureau of Narcotics Chief Harry J.
Anslinger played a key role in marijuana's criminalization. He was hand-picked to head
the FBN by his uncle-in-law, Andrew Mellon, owner and largest stockholder of the
Mellon Bank. The Mellon Bank was at the time the sixth largest bank in the United
States, and one of DuPont's only two bankers from 1928 to the present. Anslinger was
known to make references to "ginger-colored niggers" in letters to department heads on
FBN stationary. He told Congress that fifty percent of all violent crimes were
committed by Latinos, Negroes and Greeks, and that these crimes could usually be
traced back to marijuana. Anslinger did not consult FBI statistics, which would have
told him that at least 65 to 75 percent of all murders in the United States were related to
alcohol -- just as they are today.

Marijuana was criminalized, and the hemp industry died on the vine, guaranteeing
untold trillions in revenue for petrochemical monopolies and related industries. Millions
of aggregate life-years have been spent in prisons by people engaged in a victimless
crime, while tens of billions are spent to keep them there and to bring in new cellmates.
The Drug War has been used as an excuse to erode the Bill of Rights, just as hysteria
over "Marihuana, the Assassin of Youth" was used to destroy the burgeoning hemp
industry. Meanwhile, with the prohibition of marijuana, use of cannabis as a drug
increased tenfold.
As noted earlier, there are numerous maritime uses of hemp. Hemp is also perfect for
textiles, and is less harmful to the environment than cotton. Hemp requires no chemicals
and has few insect foes to contend with; by contrast, fifty percent of all agricultural
chemicals currently used in the United States are used to grow cotton. Hemp also
produces 4.3 times as much pulp fiber per hectare than trees. Hemp paper products can
be recycled seven times, while white paper made from wood pulp can only be recycled
three times.

The criminalization of marijuana in 1937 presented some difficulties in World War II,
when the Japanese seized the Philippines, the source of America's cordage at the time.
(The Philippines were seized forty years earlier by the United States during the Spanish-
American War, a war which Hearst worked very hard to help initiate -- but that's
another story.) Hemp was temporarily re-introduced in 1942 to fill the hemp gap, and
films such as the USDA's Hemp for Victory encouraged patriotic American farmers to
make good use of cannabis. George Bush, whose War on Drugs would send untold
American citizens to prison, was actually saved by hemp during World War II: the
webbing of the parachute he used after bailing out of his burning airplane over the
Pacific was made from - that's right - hemp.

In 1935, 116 million pounds of hemp seed were used in the United States to produce
paint and varnish. DuPont got most of that business after hemp was criminalized. More
significant that paints and rope, however, is hemp's potential as a source of biomass
energy. Biomass can be converted to methane and gasoline below the current costs of
fuel oil, and instead of creating sulfur-based smog and acid rain as by-products, it
produces oxygen instead. Plus, biomass is a truly sustainable fuel resource; costs will
not rise as resources become scarce. Widespread use of biomass fuel -- and hemp is one
of the best sources of biomass around -- would drastically cut our imports of foreign oil,
increasing our economic independence as a nation and saving us big bucks at the fuel
pump.

With world food reserves currently at an all-time low and bad weather hampering this
year's crops, it is worth noting that hemp seed is an excellent source of food. High in
protein, oil from hemp seeds has the highest percentage of essential fatty acids and the
lowest percentage of saturated fats. Tons of drought- and weather-resistant hemp seed
can be produced on a relatively small plot of ground.

The medical uses of cannabis are far too vast to examine in detail here, but to mention a
few: Marijuana is useful in treating approximately eighty percent of all asthma patients,
and could replace toxic legal medicines which reap huge profits for pharmaceutical
companies. Marijuana could be used to reduce ocular pressure in ninety percent of all
glaucoma patients, without the toxic side effects associated with legal medicines.
Federally-funded research at the Medical College of Virginia was shut down after it was
discovered that cannabis was very successful in reducing many types of cancerous
tumors. Marijuana can be used to control nausea resulting from AIDS medication and
chemotherapy. Cannabis is useful for treating many forms of epilepsy, reducing the
intensity of the seizures and in many cases out-performing legal pharmaceutical drugs.
Marijuana can also stimulate appetite (as any pot smoker who's had "the munchies" can
attest), relieve migraine headaches, relieve pain and stop an attack of insomnia dead in
its tracks Science Digest and Omni Magazine have reported that energy costs account
for eighty percent of every dollar of living expense in America. Eighty-two percent of
the value of all stocks traded in the world's major exchanges are tied directly to energy
supply companies, energy transportation, refineries and retail fuel sales.

According to the federal Bureau of Mortality Statistics and the National Institute of
Drug Abuse, tobacco kills 340,000 to 425,000 per year. Alcohol -- NOT including 50
percent of all highway deaths and 65 percent of all murders -- kills more than 150,000
Americans per year. Even aspirin takes out between 180 and 1,000 people per year.
According to these same figures, marijuana kills not one person per year. Zero. Zilch.
Nada.
 Hemp Questions

Name_____________________________________ date________________________

1. From a) 1901 to 1937 b) 1901 to 1978 c) 1901- 1999 the U.S. Department of
Agriculture repeatedly predicted that hemp was on the verge of becoming America's
number one farm crop.

2. I n 1938, Popular Mechanics ran an article entitled. _____"The New Billion Dollar
Crop," ____

3. The earliest known fabric was made from hemp, which came into use around:
a) 8,000 BC b) 7,000 B.C. c) 5,000 BC

4. During periods of shortage between 1763 and 1767, farmers in Virginia were
threatened with jail sentences for NOT growing hemp. True False

5. The original draft of the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
True False

6. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp on their plantations.
True False

7. The flag sewn by Betsy Ross was made from hemp fabric. True False

8. Ben Franklin's cannabis paper mill allowed the colonies to operate a free press
without having to beg for paper from England. True False

9. Hemp was the second most popular natural fiber until the
a) 1940´s b) 1930s c) 1920´s.

10. Hemp could be processed economically by machinery such as a) George

Washington´s b) George Schlichten's c) Thomas Jefferson´s "decorticator," which
could strip fiber from any plant.

11. Hemp posed a dire threat to key American industrialists in the 1930s. Name two:
a) __ Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division___ b) ______, Kimberly Clark
(USA) _____

12. Federal Bureau of Narcotics Chief Harry J. Anslinger was known to make
references to "ginger-colored niggers" He told Congress that fifty percent of all violent
crimes were committed by Latinos, Negroes and Greeks, and that these crimes could
usually be traced back to marijuana. True False

13. Hemp is a) less b) more harmful to the environment than cotton.

14. Hemp requires no chemicals and has few insect foes to contend with; by contrast,
a) fifty percent b) sixty percent c) seventy percent of all agricultural chemicals used
in the United States are used to grow cotton.

15. Hemp produces 4.3 times as much pulp fiber per hectare than trees. Hemp paper
products can be recycled seven times, while white paper made from wood pulp can only
be recycled a) three b) seven c) eight times.

16. George Bush was saved by hemp during World War II. Explain how:_______
whose War on Drugs would send untold American citizens to prison, was actually saved
by hemp during World War II: the webbing of the parachute he used after bailing out of
his burning airplane over the Pacific was made from - that's right - hemp.

______

17. In 1935, 116 million pounds of hemp seed were used in the U.S. to produce paint
and varnish. a) DuPont b) Pemex c) Dell got most of that business after hemp was
criminalized.

18. Name three medical uses of cannabis: a)___ asthma patients __ b)_____ could be
used to reduce ocular pressure ____ c)__ reducing many types of cancerous tumors __

19. Biomass can be converted to methane and gasoline below the current costs of fuel
oil. True False

20. Hemp cannot be used for food. True False

21. According to the federal Bureau of Mortality Statistics and the National Institute of
Drug Abuse, tobacco kills 340,000 to 425,000 per year. Alcohol -- NOT including 50
percent of all highway deaths and 65 percent of all murders -- kills more than 150,000
Americans per year. Even aspirin takes out between 180 and 1,000 people per year.
According to these same figures, marijuana kills how many people per year? ___
marijuana kills not one person per year. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

__

Summary

The text talks about hemp of how it was used for several years in America and since
that time, it tells us that hemp was like a revolution in America, explains where it is
obtained from and that in several important events hemp was present, talks about how
cannabis is extracted and that there have been no deaths because of cannabis annually