I knew it!!! Hemp isn't all bad.

I post this in the government programs forum because I believe the mis-information propaghanda is a government program backed by elitist cotton based business. I don't know if any of you clicked William's link at the top to TechTV of which I'm a big fan but one article in particular hits this head on. I truly hope they air a segment on it as I have been lobbying our agriculture science departments to begin introducing industrial hemp and managing it's growth with GIS. They like the idea but the law not only forbids the bad mary-jane but also the very profitable, useable hemp as well. What luck for the cotton growers and the Old Southern baptist which reach throughout the US and demonize it to keep competition down. Anyway, enough bitching, here's the story...from Tech TV...


www.techtv.com...

"In the early twentieth century, the United States was an age of discovery and innovation, but also of discrimination and ruthless, survival-of-the-fittest business tactics. In 1820, Eli Whitney's cotton gin had made big business of the South's cotton crop, and those big businesses weren't about to let go their hundred-year stranglehold on the American fiber industry, especially to an up-and-comer like hemp.


Hemp was the world's largest agricultural crop from 1,000 B.C. until just after the American Civil War, when it was overtaken by cotton. Hemp is used for fabrics, lighting oil, paper, and many other uses. The original draft of the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp, and Betsy Ross' original American flag was hemp fabric.


In the 1930s, new machinery was being developed that reduced hemp's production costs, putting it in direct competition with cotton. By some conservative estimates, the hemp crop would soon generate $500 billion per year. In some elite industrialist circles, something had to be done to stop it.


One variety of hemp, the well-known cannabis sativa, contained high amounts of THC (9-tetrahydrocannabinol), a known psychoactive substance. A massive misinformation campaign was launched, mostly funded (sometimes secretly) by those within the cotton industry. Others threatened by hemp (of note, the pulp and paper, liquor, and oil industries) joined the fray. Marijuana, it was said (and by association, hemp), was the devil's poison, and corrupted the fine upstanding youth of America. Capitalizing on this popular (and industrial) support, politicians readily threw their weight against all forms of the marijuana plant, including hemp. Harry J. Anslinger, the director for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was quoted, "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind." The rest of his comment is unfit for a politically correct audience. "



For the rest of the article click the link above. While I go off and stew some more...

Great article, Astro.
No worries, your topic is here to stay. So long as you keep it clean, I will weed out (no pun intended) the trouble makers who may create a less than serious interaction. Keep it agricultural and your golden, personally I would like to see a more hemp dependant culture. As has been proven time and time again, Hemp can be grown virtually any where, and help clean the oxygen faster and cleaner than most other plants outside the tree families.

Along with the clothing options hemp has been used to create plastics, cooking oils and as a nutrition suppliment. Our founding fathers believed hemp would be the pinicle of the US Economy, we have seen evidence that hemp has been abused and even by those who established this great nation. No excusses though, given the proper development hemp could replace many companies who add to the pollution of this world and replaceing them with hemp products would end that.
Perhaps thats another reason big companies and backers have been fighting this since what the 30s?

[Edited on 25-9-2003 by ADVISOR]

I just read this today also. It makes me mad too, cause this is just how screwed up and Sold Out everything within the Government is.

Hemp is THE CROP for almost 3000 years and yet it's all thrown to the dogs for the all mighty buck to go to a few selfish businessmen P.O.S. Costing Billions just in the War on Drugs alone, not counting Jail Time, Court Time, and then you can get to all the products and material and resources we could have saved over the years.

to "the" conspiracy... this is just one of the many age old power trips the people have to deal with.

I didn't realize that the cotton industry had such a huge hand in taking down Hemp. I knew about the others like Tobacco, Alcohol, medical, etc. Even knew about cotton, but didn't realize that it had such an incredible force behind it.

To just kill off 3000 years so easily and so late as the 1900's is quite a task to take on. Especially when America's own Forefathers grew it, Praised it, and Spoke so Highly of it!

Just a side note....Hemp has some of the craziest Propaganda films ever. How many have seen ReeferMadness?

One of the best Pro films yet has been "Grass" narrated by Woody Harrelson(sp?). Really shows how Marijuana has been so misrepresented to the public for so damn long.

i think it wasn't only the cotton industry but the clothes industry, because hemp is much stronger and more durable so people would buy clothes less. However they were also shooting themselves in the foot because if they want to control illegal outdoor cannabis cultivation they should jsut grow hemp, all the pollen will lower the potentcy of all the outdoor plants and nobody will be able to grow decent pot outdoors. but they won't do that, it would screw up too many industries now, clothing, wood, paper, food, there would be alot more competition, so they'll just not let ppl grow it, we can in canada tho

all hemp is good :d especially female unpollinated cannabis sativa, indica is also ok

[Edited on 25-9-2003 by banjoechef]

Keep the thread clean, please. Any abuse of the matter will result in relocation or worse.

Thank you, carry on.

[Edited on 25-9-2003 by ADVISOR]

Are you guys familiar with Anslinger and Dupont?

There were some shady backroom deals between execs from DuPont and Senator Anslinger when the tax act was passed. Cotton was definately part of the push to get hemp banned but the coming revolution in plastics was also a factor.

[Edited on 25-9-2003 by kukla]

I am sorry i have never tried drugs(and never wil) so i cant comment but a relative of mine said its quite cool tho.

First off let me differentiate between the hemp that people smoke to get high and the industrial hemp to which I advocate. I do not or do not want this thread to represent any ideology that I support drug use of any kind. I am speaking mainly of indutrialized hemp production for the various things that you good people have already named. With the Clinton age assault on big tobacco, my home state is seeing a huge economic threat because we grow much of the countries tobacco. Its hard work, Its not that profitable for the farmer and its takes huge supplies of labor most of which are illegal aliens.

We need to look down the road at using our rich soils which have been proven to grow hemp better than anywhere to adapt to a new crop but the conspiracy between the government, the cotton growers, and the southern baptists who continue to demonize it by lumping it all into one catagory pose a huge roadblock. By keeping KY, and WVA out of the hemp business, we see our economies plummit while the elitist southern states continue to grow richer by the day. Healthy competition has always been a mainstay in our ideology in America but when we have people using false facts to skew that premise, something must be done.

Thankfully, we now have a candidate for our state attorney general's office who supports this idea. I don't know how much one man could do against this huge corrupt machine but its a start and a glimmer of hope. I have pitched my ideas about controlling its growth with GIS systems to map controlled areas which will still allow DEA and nat'l guard to differentiate between inductrial crops and illegal crops. The farmer would pay for a GPS specialist to come and do an area map of his base and keep a 20' clear cut area around it at all times. I know years ago, this would have been very difficult to manage but we have the technology now to do it and the means to more than pay for any modifications through sales taxes of the product itself.

you drink don't you? I'm sure you drink coffee as well or something. These are all drugs, and don't think they are any less dangerous as the others in the long run.

It wasnt just the cotton, clothes etc industries that got rid of hemp.

William Randolph Hearst, the paper magnate , was crusian in the public campaign against hemp.

why?

Because he owned shares in the oil companies. The Model T ford was originally built to run on hemp fuel.

hemp and cannabis are mother earths gifts to us, why are they made illegal man?

I don't know much about the history of hemp/marijuana, but I did see a television show (Discovery?) a few years ago....One of the alleged reasons for making marijuana illegal was due to mexican immigration. I have no idea if that really played a role, but I do believe there's a conspiracy involved. Interesting find, astrocreep.

Quote-Smokey (Friday)

"God put this here for me and you. Take advantage man, take advantage."

"Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind."

peace man!

Hemp could safe the african continent. It is cheap grows like hell and needs only sunlight and even can stand drought for while. The best stuff comes from marokko as we europeans found out.
The seeds are harmless and do not make people high or stoned, they are nutricious and good for making bread.

The whole plant is a holy thing. We should be carefull with making it legal though. There is a whole province in pakistan that chews some sort of halucinating plant. that system fell down and there is hardly any work done there.

The Netherlands proudly said yes to allowing it. Now there are more coffeeshops than theehouses.the youth smokes marijuana in theire schoolbreaks. not verry healthy in examtimes. It is a fact that it destroys memory short term one that is. It is (if you actually burn it) more cancerrous than siggarettes, triggers schizofrenia To people with already a high potential)
and on long term every day use it give a high risk of getting depression.

Also is it adictive. We think it is not but scientists are comming back from that conclusion. It is addictive. Just as alcohol is. some people drink a glass off wine every day or party with friends every weekend and get loaded. doesnt make you an alcoholic. If you need to drink alcohol, to function , you are an alcoholic. I know there are a lot of people who NEED that joint to live their life.

most of those people are having no jobs and their social life is becomming smaller and smaller. Isolementing themselves. i am not saying this happens to everyone who smokes alot. I like to call it problemsmokers.

Anyway. To legalize it..... well everybody has their choice what to do with life. I would say if you legalize it do it totally, but the governments would miss out on a lot of criminal money.
so they only alow it to happen.
i must say i dont have a clue why america likes to have so many drug affenders on their lists.. maybe for the DNA samples...

better legalize it, take it out of the criminal world and make use of it the best way you can.

Again, I'm only advocating the legalization of industrial hemp for oil, rope, fabric, and other domestic uses. I have no problem with your alls views on cannibus but that wasn't my initial intent. I wished to focus on the government's continued involvement with southern cotton-growers, textile manufacterers and southern baptist church which wrongly demonize industrial hemp by lumping it into the catagory with the other.

Frickin' marijuana! Just say no!





[Edited on 7-10-2003 by heelstone]

I said it before in these pages but it is always potheads pushing hemp in the belief that the regrowing of hemp will lead to wide open ganga useage.

I like the idea of hemp being grown and hopefully it will become an important crop again.

While I have smoked my share of ganga in the past I am not interested in it now. Not sure whether it should be legal or not. If so then treated like alcohol is now.

Yeh you're right man, it was apure propighanda thing. It was Mexican custom at this time to smoke pot after work to relax and the like, America claimed it made them crazy and dangerous. They had all these posters with mexicans with devil like red eyes "ready to strike at any moment" sort of thing. Pot is no different to Ciggerettes and alchohol, they are all drugs, except ciggerettes and alchohol actually kill people everyday. alchohol causes violence, accidents, car crashes, liver damage and its just an intoxicating substance like pot. There as actually no logical reason why it should be illigal. none. Its just because the government can tax ciggerettes and alchohol. no one has ever overdosed on pot. It's just sense. Cannabis isn't a #ing drug, it's a herb man

The general public, when they see or talk about the hemp plant, almost always link it to "marijuana". This is because they are uninformed about hemp and its uses and benefits to the world environment and economy.

Hemp is the cousin of "marijuana". They are from the same plant - Cannabis sativa L. Ther are over 1,000 strains of Cannabis hemp bred for various uses. The term "hemp" refers to the industrial use of the stalk and seed. "Marijuana" refers to the smoking or ingesting of the flowers and leaves.

Hemp has a very low level of THC (terahydrocannabinol), which is the primary intoxicant in Cannabis. Hemp is about .3%-1.5% THC and Marijuana is about 5%-15% THC. Hemp is so low in THC that if you tried to smoke a hundred pounds of it, you would just have one great big headache.


During the 1930's, machinery was developed for separating hemp fiber from the stalk, thus making widespread industrial use feasible. Hemp's future looked promising, but this was not to be.

DuPont and others had just obtained patents for making nylon from coal, plastic from oil, and paper from trees. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (an oil baron) was DuPont's chief financial backer. the Hearst newspaper empire owned enormous timber tracts. The oil, synthetic fiber, timber, and cotton industries stood to lose billions of dollars if hemp was not outlawed.

Secret meetings were held. Treasury Secretary Mellon appointed his nephew-in-law, Harry Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Hearst newspaper introduced the word "marijuana" into the language and inflammed the public with outrageous stories of drug-related violence. The strategy worked, and in 1937 Congress outlawed hemp by imposing a prohibitive tax.

As a model of deception and orchestrated media manipulation, the anti-hemp crusade constitutes one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people. Few public-relations campaigns in history can match its success in eradicating competition while transforming citizens into unknowing pawns of big business.

Industrial hemp is worthless as marijuana since its THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content is so low. Industrial hemp contains no psycho-active effects.

Major polluters such as DuPont, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, and Standard oil are protected from competition by the marijuana laws. The major considerations blocking hemp's utilization are not agricultural or botanical but political.


To futher back my claim that industrial hemp is far more valuable to us just take a look aat some products made from it here.

www.hemptech.com...


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