So, I did a little search and learned some interesting things...Hemp was king until the crude oil empire emerged.

...* It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until the early 1800s; LA Times, Aug. 12, 1981.

* REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th and 18th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon. ...

...* The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.

* The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th Century; State Archives.

more info @ http://www.world-mysteries.com/marijuana1.htm

So, if we want to decrease our dependency on crude oil, we can grow hemp. It's that simple. It has 24,000 uses that help people live better.

I'm sure this is another topic where I'm late getting to the ball, but it is true that if I am then there's got to be others who are late comers, too.

I knew it was used as fiber and as health aid but I never knew there was a time it was a crime not to grow it and that you could use it to pay your taxes! WOW, money can grow on trees from the land , LOL

Hemp for Victory posters, WW II

Yup, until the chemical companies (Dow, DuPont, Monsanto) created "new" fibers and saw hemp as a competitor, Hemp was king. The chemical companies killed hemp. Ah yes. The corporations again!

But you're right, hemp can be made into biofuel, rope, paper, clothing, food, soap, almost anything. And industrial hemp isn't the smoking kind. But why let truth stand in the way of business, eh?

Fact is, both kinds of hemp should be made legal. Neither of them is bad for you. And the industrial kind is far kinder to the environment than any man-made fiber.

(and the smokin' kind ain't too bad either).

This is something I truely believe in and have been talking about this for years! Hemp can be used to solve SO MANY problems and should be. Especially with what is going on around the world and in our economy. It is a shame that these large corporations have such control within our government and our lives as a whole. This needs to change and hopefully the more people become educated about this, the more chances for this change to come about. However, some people hear the word Hemp and think immediately that it is the same type that is use to smoke (which, in my opinion, isn't bad either).


I hope everyone is well?!! I've obviously not posted much since the new board came about. A bit shy...it took me a long time to come out of my shell on the last board! Take care all!!

This thread is incomplete without linkage to Jack Herer and The Emperor Wears No Clothes

Welcome, oh shy one!
Can you spare an ounce?

hahahaha..only kidding bush, who's reading this...okay not really kidding

I'm so sick of corporate rule. And they still allow De Beers cartel to operate. Maybe the American people should incorporate!

*Hemp can be made into fine quality paper. The long fibers in hemp allow such paper to be recycled several times more than wood-based paper.

*Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dixoide is possible with hemp fibers.

*Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.

*Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton.

*Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.

*Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.

LINK

I dont know why this isnt a bigger issue with most people. to me, its one of the biggest, when you include the war on drugs.

It boggles the mind when you think about all of the tax dollars being wasted on people jail for smoking a dube! And the tax revenue that is forgone by not legalizing it!

Great idea putting up this thread! Thank you!! I've read also that hemp fibers used in concrete to pave roads make much stronger pavement, less potholes, etc. There are so many uses for it - and the fact that we don't in this country should be a clear indicator that too many people are getting very rich by keeping us addicted to petroleum-based products and gasoline-powered cars. There is a better way!!! Hemp for Victory!!!

easiest way for the dollar to make a come back.

Oh...and hemp crops actually replenishes soil with nutrients and nitrogen, and helps control topsoil erosion, instead of depleting the soil year after year - many farmers struggle with this.

http://www.natural-environment.com/blog/20...nefits-of-hemp/

We should all write President Obama about this.

Awe...why thank you!! *SSSssshhh! Don't tell anyone...but sure...just let me know when*



Absolutely right on when you bring up the war on drugs. Have you all seen that documentary titled "America's War on Drugs"? If not, it is a MUST see documentary. It was on one of the Showtime channels when I saw it, but I imagine it is on DVD also. I have a collection of great documentaries (most political of sorts) and this is one I really would like to add.

And ALL of the above points made about the uses of hemp are so incredibly important to point out to people. So many people just haven't a clue how much potential hemp has! There are just too many uses and it SHOULD be being used to its fullest potential where ever necessary.

Another great point!! And yes...we all should write to President Obama about this ongoing issue!

Come to Seattle on August 16th and 17th 2008. Maybe Randi will be here again.

http://hempfest.org/drupal/

Great link! I wish I could go. BUT...at least I can support the cause though. I really need to find a way to plan to attend the next HempFest. One day...

There is an old city hall somewhere in central Kentucky, I don't remember where, that has a murial painted on it's rotunda that depicts, among other things, a Kentucky hemp farmer, in the field, harvesting his crop. There's no mistaking what it is he's harvesting, I've seen it. The court house is somewhere close to Harrodsburg KY I believe. Kentucky's first newspaper took hemp in exchange for subscription to the paper.
One plantation that is still in existence is in Louisville Ky. The Farmington plantation http://www.historichomes.org/farmington/workingfarm.html was one that relied heavily on hemp for it's existence. In fact there was a road called Hemp Walk Way that ran from the plantation to the river., The road has since been renamed, unfortunately. It was also said that Lincolns stay there was instrumental in developing his attitude towards slavery.
The abolishing of slavery took a heavy toll on the Hemp industry at that time because it took away the cheap labor force needed to get the crop out of the fields and to process it into rope or cloth. It wasn't until the invention of the decordicator in 1936 that some decided that hemp needed to be illegal as the decordicator would have made it economically feasible to grow hemp in mass. Enter William Randolf Hearst and the rest is prohibition history.

On the otherhand, prisons are big business. Maybe they've looked at the numbers and decided the revenue under the current system is large enough and don't want to gamble that on being able to replace or exceed it with taxation of something so easily grown anywhere.

Unless only taxed pot is legalized do you really see enough smokers leaving what they do now for government sanctioned packs of marijuana cigarettes with whatever tinkering you know they are bound to do (filters, additives)? They wouldn't sell it loose because it would be indestinguishable from the non-taxed stuff.

That's why regulation won't work. Legalization is the only sane thing but that isn't happening because [read my first paragraph again ]

Slavery was big business too but we were able to change that as we will "for profit prisons" once we get people to realize what a scam they are.
I saw a friend this past weekend who is from California he handed me a baggie ( take a guess at what was in it) that had a stamp on the outside that said "this is medicine" and he has a legal prescription for it. They are selling it in baggies now and people are buying it. They sell it lose in Amsterdam by the gram and that is the way it would be sold here. You wouldn't have to worry about the "non taxed" stuff because the only ones who would have it would be the people who grew their own and not everyone would be growing. The money wouldn't be worth dealing in anything illegal because you could go down to the dispensary and get as much as you want at a cheaper price. The dealers would move on to other things.

That's if weed is legalized across the board. I don't see that happening. I see more of a chance of regulation, like they are doing with medicinal pot. Unless the stores are allowed to sell all the varieties (and potencies) out there, people are not going to quit getting it from were they are now, and the market (and price) will still be there for dealers. If the government puts in THC limits (likely, in a regulated scenario) then people would buy it only when their regular contact was unavailable.

I also doubt they would allow just anyone to get into the legal weed growing business. Rather, a few well-greased palms players would get licensed to put out products that stay within the government decided guidelines.

I still think the guaranteed money in fining and imprisoning people versus the uncertain income of taxed weed is the primary reason legalization has not occurred, not any noble concern for the public health or morality.

Somehow, as usual, the conversation always turns into pot, maryjane, stick, weed, dope...from talking about Industrial Hemp and All Of Its Uses we so desparately need to be growing. But don't get me wrong, I love the pot.

I don't have to guess.


Latest in L.A.: pot vending machine
Medical marijuana dispensary offers goods 24/7 - at a discount

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1/MNSHUOSIM.DTL

Let us face it. For a long time now, bloviated righteousness has gripped the nation for centuries. Our forefathers tried to address this, but people with greed for money and power have used the holes in the law. Now we have a justice system that feeds upon itself. It creates the crime, prosecutes it and profits from it. It is now not an issue of morality, it is an issue of profit. The laws will change simply from profit. I have a friend that was wrongfully prosecuted, but he also made some stupid mistakes that pissed off the judge. He lied to her, he told her that he did the graffiti cleanup, he never did. For this he did a year in prison.

Thanks to Mr Hearst a new drug war started with his propaganda machine. It has been raging since the 40s.

Have you read The Emperor Wears No Cloths? It was Pot, maryjane, stick weed dope and all the myths about it that was instrumental in Hemp being made illegal. Yellow journalism and the witch hunt of Reefer Madness brain washed generations against this wonderful crop. In order to make some sanity out of it and get people to realize the good this plant will do it is essential to bust through the myths and paranoia surrounding it. Show people the hypocrisy of their fears and the rest will be easy to follow, but as along as you try and separate the two they will never let you have Industrial Hemp.

You are correct.


BAD POLICIES can be changed.


It is our DUTY to put forth an effort to change those BAD policies.

While it is true that we are fighting the Goliath oil companies, it is NOT true that they win.


JOIN one of the ARMIES FOR LEGALIZATION. Your pen is your sword.


http://www.drugwarfacts.org/
http://www.csdp.org/
http://www.ardpark.org/
http://marijuana-as-medicine.org/
http://www.medmjscience.org/
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/
http://www.cjpf.org/

and so many more...http://www.csdp.org/links.htm

You can read "The Emporer Wears No Cloths" here

http://www.jackherer.com/

DRUG LAWS' ABSENCE OF JUSTICE

http://www.mapinc.org/newscjpf/v08/n250/a01.html?248

"What passes for a drug kingpin in 99 percent of the cases is nothing more than a young man who can't even afford a lawyer when he's hauled into court," a frustrated U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Murphy of East St. Louis told "60 Minutes" in 2004. "I've seen very few drug kings."

I thought I already posted that ... or was it the other thread, lol

Another nice online freebie is Reefer Madness in it's entirity

Another piece of the Industrial hemp/pot/maryjane puzzle is the timing of the anti-marijuana laws.
By 1936-37 there were a whole lot of Prohibition narks out of a job.

Hempfests are all over the country not just in Seattle!!

It's all the same plant ... really just a matter of gender. Indian hemp, maryjane, it's all cannabis sativa. As always, the female plant does its "best" when left unmolested by the "male".

Even in its "pot/MJ" form, the government can't come up with a good rationale for keeping it illegal, especially considering that it declares it schedule I - (no known medicinal value), yet puts its active compound (marinol - THC) in schedule III, declaring that it does have medicinal value. Somehow, the DEA should make up its mind.

Thanks for clarifying that - you're right and I agree

One of the main reasons pot became illegal was because the US corporations were importing many Japanese and Chinese with promices ofr riches and freedom and good jobs...when they got here they were the wound up being stuck in work camps, building railroads, or working for BigAgra in Cali. Eventually they did organize..and eventually we did have a job crunch here..plenty of Americans out of work but the Orientals were working at slave wages and when American Labor got involved, government and the corporations and the newpapers propagated the propaganda of racism and also blamed them for the "drug problem" raging across America. This was their strategy to get Ameircans to stop fighting for their right to a job and redirecting them to hating the Chinese and Japanese. The Chinese were blamed for the opium, the Japanese for the pot.

It doesn't take much to see where this went. Instead of strengthening labor by including the Chinese and the Japanese, terrified Americans acquired hatred for these people based in lies and the Corporations got over and the Government successfully diverted the raging anger of poor out of work Whites to the Asians and far away form the Corporations who were screwing them out of their right to work at a fair wage.

Now you'd think people would see thru the Marijuana scam, at least...but nope, stupid American didn't know their history...didn't know it was a cash crop here for a long time well before the Japanese showed up.

So, of course the rabid Christians, with the help of BigOil and other corporations that would directly benefit from Americans being Racist int heir attitude against Asians fought to get marijuana made illegal.


The result was that it was made illegal and Americans dutifully shifted their anger toward the Asians and forgot about not being employed for a little while. Then FDR was elected and he put Americans back to work. But, the damage was done. Americans were more racist than ever before.

I'll try to find resources on the web, I learned all of this in a documentary about the Japanese; why they were immigrating here and what happened to them when they were immigrating here, a documentary on the Chinese immigrants and why they came and what happened to them when they got here and another documentary on US labor...at least 10 years ago...