Syn.: Cannabis indica Lam.
Cannabaceae
Hemp, Marijuana, Cannabis oil
Source: James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished.
Uses
A multiple-use plant, furnishing fiber, oil, medicine, and narcotics. Fibers are best produced from male plants. In the temperate zone, oil is produced from females which have been left to stand after the fiber-producing males have been harvested. Leaves are added to soups in southeast Asia. Varnish is made from the pressed seeds.
Three types of narcotics are produced: hashish (bhang), the dried leaves and flowers of male and female shoots; ganja, dried unfertilized inflorescences of special female plants; and charas, the crude resin, which is probably the strongest.
Modern medicine uses cannabis in glaucoma and alleviating the pains of cancer and chemotherapy.
More resin is produced in tropical than in temperate climates. Lewis lung adenocarcinonoma growth has been retarded by oral administration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabinol, but not by cannabidiol. (J.N.C.I. 55: 597-602. 1975).
The delta-9 also inhibits the replication of Herpes simplex virus.
Folk Medicine
Medicinally, plants are tonic, intoxicant, stomachic, antispasmodic, analgesic, narcotic, sedative and anodyne. Seeds and leaves are used to treat old cancer and scirrhous tumors. The seed, either as a paste or as an unguent, is said to be a folk remedy for tumors and cancerous ulcers.
The decoction of the root is said help remedy hard tumors and knots in the joints. The leaf, prepared in various manners, is said to alleviate cancerous sores, scirrhous tumors, cold tumors, and white tumors.
The plant is also used for mammary tumors and corns (C.S.I.R., 1948-1976). Europeans are said to use the dregs from Cannabis pipes in "cancer cures" (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962).
Few plants have a greater array of folk medicine uses: alcohol withdrawal, anthrax, asthma, blood poisoning, bronchitis, burns, catarrh, childbirth, convulsions, coughs, cystitis, delirium, depression, diarrhea, dysentery, dysmenorrhea, epilepsy, fever, gonorrhea, gout, inflammation, insomnia, jaundice, lockjaw, malaria, mania, mennorhagia, migraine, morphine withdrawal, neuralgia, palsy, rheumatism, scalds, snakebite, swellings, tetany, toothache, uteral prolapse, and whooping cough.
Seeds ground and mixed with porridge given to weaning children.
Chemistry
Most varieties contain cannabinol and cannabinin; Egyptian variety contains cannabidine, cannabol and cannabinol, their biological activity being due to the alcohols and phenolic compounds.
Resin contains crystalline compound cannin. Alcoholic extracts of American variety vary considerably in physiological activity. Per 100 g, the seed is reported to contain 8.8 g H2O, 21.5 g protein, 30.4 g fat, 34.7 g total carbohydrate, 18.8 g fiber, and 4.6 g ash.
In Asia, per 100 g, the seed is reported to contain 421 calories, 13.6 g H2O, 27.1 g protein, 25.6 g fat, 27.6 g total carbohydrate, 20.3 g fiber, 6.1 g ash, 120 mg Ca, 970 mg P, 12.0 mg Fe, 5 mg beta-carotene equivalent, 0.32 mg thiamine, 0.17 mg riboflavin, and 2.1 mg niacin.
A crystalline globulin has been isolated from defatted meal.
It contains 3.8% glycocol, 3.6 alanine, 20.9 valine and leucine, 2.4 phenylalanine, 2.1 tyrosine, 0.3 serine, 0.2 cystine, 4.1 proline, 2.0 oxyproline, 4.5 aspartic acid, 18.7 glutamic acid, 14.4 tryptophane and arginine, 1.7 lysine, and 2.4% histidine. Oil from the seeds contains 15% oleic, 70% linoleic, and 15% linolenic and isolinolenic acids.
The seed cake contains 10.8% water, 10.2% fat, 30.8% protein, 40.6% N-free extract, and 7.7% ash (20.3% K2O; 0.8% Na2O; 23.6% CaO, 5.7% MgO, 1.0% Fe2O3, 36.5% P2O5, 0.2% SO3; 11.9% SiO2, 0.1% Cl and a trace of Mn2O3). Trigonelline occurs in the seed.
Cannabis also contains choline, eugenol, guaiacol, nicotine, and piperidine (C.S.I.R., 1948-1976), all listed as toxins by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. A beta-resercyclic acid derivative has antibiotic and sedative properties; with a murine LD56 of 500 mg/kg, it has some aritiviral effect and inhibits the growth of mouse mammary tumor in egg embryo (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962).
Toxicity
Non-users may suffer muscular incoordination (9 of 22 persons), dizziness (8), difficulty concentrating (8), confusion (7), difficulty walking (7), dysarthria (7), dry mouth (7), dysphagia (5), blurred vision (5), and vomiting (1), following oral ingestion of THC disguised in cookies (MMWR, October 20, 1978).
People working with the plant or the fiber may develop dermatitis. In larger doses, hemp drugs may induce catalepsy, followed by coma and DEATH from cardiac failure (C.S.I.R., 1948-1976).
Description
Annual herb, usually erect; stems variable, up to 5 m tall, with resinous pubescence, angular, sometimes hollow, especially above the first pairs of true leaves; basal leaves opposite, the upper leaves alternate, stipulate, long petiolate, palmate, with 3-11, rarely single, lanceolate, serrate, acuminate leaflets up to 10 cm long, 1.5 cm broad; flowers monoecious or dioecious, the male in axillary and terminal panicles, apetalous, with 5 yellowish petals and 5 poricidal stamens;
the female flowers germinate in the axils and terminally, with one 1-ovulate ovary; fruit a brown, shining achene, variously marked or plain, tightly embracing the seed with its fleshy endosperm and curved embryo. Fl. summer; fr. late summer to early fall; year round in tropics. Seeds weigh 1.5-2.5 gm/100 seeds.
Germplasm
As Cannabis sativa has been cultivated for over 4,500 years for different purposes, many varieties and cultivars have been selected for specific purposes, as fiber, oil or narcotics. Drug-producing selections grow better and produce more drug in the tropics; oil and fiber producing plants thrive better in the temperate and subtropical areas.
Many of the cultivars and varieties have been named as to the locality where it is grown mainly. However, all so called varieties freely interbreed and produce various combinations of the characters.
The form of the plant and the yield of fiber from it vary according to climate and particular variety. Varieties cultivated particularly for their fibers have long stalks, branch very little, and yield only small quantities of seed. Varieties which are grown for the oil from their seed are short in height, mature early and produce large quantities of seed.
Varieties grown for the drugs are short, much-branched with smaller dark-green leaves. Between these three main types of plants are numerous varieties which differ from the main one in height, extent of branching and other characteristics.
Reported from the Central Asia, Hindustani, and Eurosiberian Centers of Diversity, marijuana or cvs thereof is reported to tolerate disease, drought, fungus, high pH, insects, laterite, low pH, mycobacteria, poor soil, slope, and weeds. (2n = 20, 10, 40.)
Distribution
Native to Central Asia, and long cultivated in Asia, Europe, and China. Now a widespread tropical, temperate and subarctic cultivar and waif. The oldest use of hemp seems to be for fiber, and later the seeds began to be used for culinary purposes.
Plants yielding the drug seem to have been discovered in India, cultivated for medicinal purposes as early as 900 BC. In medieval times it was brought to North Africa where today it is cultivated exclusively for hashish or kif.
Ecology
Plants very adaptable to soil and climatic conditions. Hemp for fiber requires a mild temperate climate with at least 67 cm annual rainfall, with abundant rain while seeds are germinating and until young plants become established.
Thrives on rich, fertile, neutral to slightly alkaline, well-drained silt or clay loams with moisture retentive subsoils; does not grow well on acid, sandy soils. Of the many types of hemp, some are adapted to most vegetated terrains and climates.
Ranging from Cool Temperate Steppe to Wet through Tropical Very Dry to Wet Forest Life Zones, marijuana is reported to tolerate annual precipitation of 3 to 40 dm (mean of 44 cases = 9.9 dm), annual temperature of 6 to 27°C (mean of 44 cases = 14.4), and pH of 4.5 to 8.2 (mean of 38 cases 6.5) (Duke, 1978, 1979).
Cultivation
Propagation mainly by seed. Experimentally, drug plants have been propagated from cuttings but such plants do not come true as to drug content of parent. Seeds stored in cool, dry place remain viable for up to two years.
Hemp seed sown as early in spring as possible. Before sowing, land is plowed (in fall) several times to a depth of about 20-23 cm and repeatedly harrowed the land. In spring the land is harrowed again and rolled, making a firm tilth over the entire surface.
In some areas a first plowing is done in the fall and red clover or lupin planted; in January or February a second plowing turns these under as a green-manure. Generally sown in March, seeds germinate at low temperature, but not below 1deg.C.
Rate of seed sown varies with type of fiber desired; for coarse fiber for cordage and coarser textiles, 2.5 bu/ha is used; ...for finest fibers, 7.5-10 bu/ha used.
Seed sown by machine in rows from 12 cm upwards, placing the seed at depth of 3.5 cm at rate of 40-60 kg/ha.
In many countries seed sown broadcast. When grown for seed (oil), seed sown by drills; then such plants sometimes reach height of 5.3 m with thick stems up to 5 cm in diameter, much-branched.
For fiber, stems up to 2 m tall and 0.5 cm in diameter are best; larger stems tend to get woody and have lower fiber content. Besides, they are more difficult to handle during harvesting, retting and scutching.
Plants require little cultivation, except for weeding during early stages of growth.
Hemp grows rapidly and soon crowds out weeds.
After plants are 20 cm tall, weeding is abandoned.
Hemp tends to exhaust the soil of nutrients. Some nutrients are returned to the soil after plants are harvested.
On medium fertile soils a dressing of farm manure or a green-manure crop should be added and turned under. Chalk, potash, or gypsum may be applied to the soil to add the needed nutrition. Sodium nitrate and ammonium along with potassium sulfate have a beneficial effect on the fiber crop.
Fiber-producing plants should always have plenty of proper nutrients, especially nitrogen, which is the most important element needed. Irrigation is seldom practiced.
Harvesting
Hemp is ready for harvest four to five months after planting, rarely earlier for some varieties. Harvesting depends on the climatic conditions, the variety of hemp grown and whether the crop is being grown for hemp or seed.
In temperate areas, hemp is usually harvested from mid July to mid August. Both male and female plants look alike until they flower; then the male plants turn yellow and die, whereas the female plants remain dark green for another month until the seed ripens.
Male plants are ready to harvest for fiber when the leaves change from dark green to light brown. The best yield of fiber (and only male plants are used) is then obtained.
Hemp is harvested when the staminate flowers are beginning to open and shed their pollen. Seed is harvested from the female plants when most of it falls off when the plant is shaken.
Best time of day to harvest seed is in early morning when fruits are turgid and conditions damp.
As fruits dry out by mid-day, seed loss increases due to shattering. Usually stems are cut and the seeds shaken out over canvas sheets or beaten with sticks to extract the seeds.
For fiber, hemp plants are cut by hand with a hemp knife, similar to a long-handled sickle. Plants are cut 2-3 cm above the ground and spread on the ground to dry. In some areas, the entire plants are pulled up and laid out to dry.
Hand cutting, one man can cut about one-fifth hectare per day. Sometimes specially designed harvesters with a tractor are able to harvest four hectares a day.
In many areas several varieties of hemp are grown so as to spread out the harvest, one maturing in late July and used later for seed crop in September, a second crop maturing in mid August, and a third maturing near end of August.
Fiber is extracted from the stems of hemp by retting by methods similar to those used for other fiber plants. Sometimes the stems are dried before they are retted. After plants have air-dried for 4-6 days, the root and flower ends are cut off and the remaining portions, with branches and leaves taken or beaten off, are made into small bundles.
For retting, 15-20 of these smaller bundles are made into larger bundles. In other areas stalks are not dried before retting, green stems, after roots and flower ends have been cut off, are made into bundles, and retted immediately.
Hemp can be water retted, dew retted, or snow retted, according to the climatic conditions.
The retted hemp stalks consist of fiber in the outer rind and a woody interior portion. Fiber is separated from the stalk by a breaking process. Stalks are dried after retting and the woody shive is broken into short pieces called hurds.
Eventually the fibers are separated from the interior woody pieces by scutching by passing the bundles through a number of fluted rollers and then past large revolving drums with projecting bars which remove any remaining pieces of wood.
Machines are able to handle 3-3.5 MT dried straw every hour, producing 0.4-0.5 MT of cleaned fiber.
Yields and Economics
Yields of hemp per hectare depend on climatic conditions, variety grown, soil and nutrition, and spacing of plants in the field.
Weight of dried stems per hectare is usually between 4.5 to 7.5 T, with a yield of fiber about 25% of the dried stalks.
Usually the taller the plant, the longer will be the fiber with a greater yield per plant. In some areas fiber yields of 850- 1,700 kg/ha compared to 1,300-1,700 kg/ha seed and 30 kg ganja.
The U.S.S.R. is the largest producer of hemp in the world, producing about 33% of hemp fiber, annually 105,000 MT compared to the world production of 255,000 MT (excepting China).
France and West Germany are the chief importers, Italy and Yugoslavia exporters.
Chile, China, Japan and Peru also produce hemp.
Narcotic production is usually clandestine, but there is legal marijuana production in India.
India is the main producer and exporter of oil from the seed.
Energy
In India, plants remaining in the field after harvesting for fiber are allowed to set seed. They are cut after the fruits are ripened and dried and threshed for seed collection. Grown solely for seeds, an average crop yields 1.3 to 1.6 MT/ha seed.
The world low production yield was 288 kg/ha in Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the international production yield was 613 kg/ha, and the world high production yield was 3,842 kg/ha in People's Republic of China.
Biotic Factors
Among diseases of Cannibis are: Botryosphaeria marconii (stem canker, wilt), Botrytis cinerea (gray mold), Cylindrosporium sp. (leaf spot), Fusarium sp. (canker, stem rot), Gibberella saubinetii (stem rot), Hypomyces cancri (?root rot), Macrophominia phaseoli, Phomopsis cannabina, Phymatotrichum omivorum (root rot), Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (stem rot, wilt), Sclerotium rolfsii (southern blight), Septoria cannabis (leaf spot).
Nematodes include: Ditylenchus dipsaci, Heterodera humuli, Longidorus maximus, Meloidogyne hapla, M. incognita, M. incognita acrita, M. spp., and Pratylenchus coffeae (Golden, p.c., 1984). Occasionally Orobanche ramosa is paratitic on the roots.
References
Duke, J.A. 1978. The quest for tolerant germplasm. p. 1-61. In: ASA Special Symposium 32, Crop tolerance to suboptimal land conditions. Am. Soc. Agron. Madison, WI.
Duke, J.A. 1979. Ecosystematic data on economic plants. Quart. J. Crude Drug Res. 17(3-4):91-110.
C.S.I.R. (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research). 1948-1976. The wealth of India. 11 vols. New Delhi.
Watt, J.M. and Breyer-Brandwijk, M.G. 1962. The medicinal and poisonous plants of southern and eastern Africa. 2nd ed. E.&S. Livingstone, Ltd., Edinburgh and London.
source
James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished.
Complete List of References
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Hemp Around the World
Common Names of hemp:
Canamo – Spain and Chile
Hanf – Austria and Germany
Hanp - Denmark
Hanpu – Finland
Hennep – Netherlands
Kender – Hungary
Konopli – Russia
Konoplja – Yugoslavia
Ma – China
Penek – Poland
Taima – Japan
[Hemp Werx~ been a long day of research, will come back and link this up later]
Since China is the birthplace of hemp, it is only logical that the origin of the name comes from there as well. Ma, the Chinese name for "hemp", is the most basic of verbal sounds, meaning "mother" in every human language. However, in China, it is also synonymous for horse and used much like a verbal question mark. The strokes for the Chinese character depict a home and inside, hemp fibers are hanging from a rack. Used in combination with other characters, ma gives influence to such other Chinese word-meanings as numb, clever, anaesthetic, linen, indifferent, troublesome, sparrow, and the game Mahjongg. Each of these words contains the character for hemp.
Countries
Australia allows research crops. In the state of Victoria, commercial production began in 1998; and in Tasmania, in 1995. New South Wales and Queensland are also in various stages of research and production. There are also thriving businesses selling hemp products. For more info about hemp growing in Australia and Tasmania, see here
Austria has a hemp industry, including production of hemp seed oil and medicines. For more info see here
Canada began licensing fiber research crops in 1994 and one seed crop in 1995. By 1997, many acres were planted. As of 2002, there were over 35,000 acres (14,200 hectares) planted. A number of Canadian farmers are now growing organically certified hemp crops. As an historical fact, the Doukabours, a Christian vegetarian freedom sect living in western Canada since the early 1900s, apparently prepared hempseed paste for food when they were in Russia. In the New World, they resumed growing and using hemp for food and fiber both before and after prohibition.
Chile grows hemp mostly for seed oil production. More can be read in this article http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/HEMP/IHA/iha03213.html
China still produces the largest commercial hemp crop. Hemp has a long history in China, where it has been a primary survival food for thousands of years. Near the end of WWII, hemp saved multitudes of starving people in northern China. General Counsel Ralph Loziers of the US National Institute of Oilseed Production told a congressional committee in 1937: "Hempseed…is used in all the Oriental nations and also in a part of Russia as food. It is grown in their fields and used as oatmeal. Millions of people every day are using hempseed in the Orient as food. They have been doing this for many generations, especially in periods of famine”. The seed crop is roasted for domestic snacks and oil where almost 40% is exported.
Until the 1980s, hemp was the primary fiber for clothing and has never ceased being used to make paper. During the century from 1890 to 1990, the hemp industry declined, but started to increase in the 1990s. Many people have always had their own tiny plots of hemp, which also grows abundantly around many temples. Because the Chinese system is socialist, business efforts are directed by the government. Scientists have been directed to research non-wood paper production alternatives; and, although hemp is by no means the only non-wood fiber that could be used, their conclusion is that it is the best, most productive, economical, and ecologically-beneficial fiber.
China remains the world’s largest exporter of hemp paper and textiles. Hemp textiles today are regarded by most Chinese as old-fashioned. Unfortunately, the trend there is to emulate Western styles. Most Chinese hemp pulp contains the whole stalk of both bast and hurd fibers which are pulped together in their natural percentages for paper-making. Hemp pulp is also used to strengthen other fibers that would otherwise not be strong enough on their own to make paper. Generally, between 5% and 25% hemp content is common in paper used domestically in China; but 100% hemp content is used for very thin specialty peper and currency.
In China, fiber hemp is designated by colour. Various varieties will produce red, yellow, and green; but the properties of the three types of fiber are identical. Hemp has three uses: textiles, paper, and seed production. The bast fiber is used primarily for textiles. When it is stripped from the stalk, it is generally done in the field by hand since 80% of the Chinese people work in agriculture. Most hemp is dew-retted and takes up to three weeks for the bacterial action to break down the leaves and stalks for easier removal of the bast fiber. This does limit the usefulness of hurds for animal bedding though.
Hemp has always played a major role in funeral rites. (See History of Hemp 300 BCE.)
Denmark planted its first modern hemp trials in 1997. The country is committed to utilizing organic agriculture methods.
Egypt, Korea, Portugal, Thailand, and Ukraine also produce hemp.
Europe is showing a renewed interest in growing hemp, and well it should since it has a long history with the hemp plant. Hempseed was an abundant food of the rural poor in the 15th century because of increased hemp production for fiber that supplied colonial ships with sails and rope. The raw material came from the traditional hemp cultivation zones in northeastern Europe, where hempseed was made into vegetable oil, hempseed meal, and a smooth paste similar to peanut butter. Eating hempseed porridge made them more resistant to diseases than the nobility, who considered hemp foods to be of the lower classes. Monks were sustained by three meals a day of hempseed in the form of porridge, gruel, or soup. In Latvia, hempseed is traditionally included in festival foods on St. John’s Day. In Latvia and Ukraine, a hempseed dish is served on Three Kings’ Day; and in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine, a hempseed soup, called semientiatka, is eaten on Christmas Eve. Southern Slavs offered hempseed at weddings to ensure happiness and wealth. (Perhaps it was tossed instead of rice). European peasants planted hempseed on all the saints’ days.
Finland has had a resurgence of hemp beginning in 1995 with several small test crops.
France harvested 10,000 tons of hemp in 1994 and is the main source of viable low-THC hemp seed. See the article “Fiber Hemp in France” for more information.
Germany banned hemp in 1982, but liftedthe ban in 1995 after research on new hemp use began in 1992. As a result, many technologies and products are being developed. Clothes and paper are currently made from imported raw materials.
Great Britain lifted its hemp prohibition in 1993 when only 300 acres were planted. A government grant was given to develop new markets for natural fibers, and 4,000 acres were grown in 1994. Since then, animal bedding, paper, and textiles have been developed. Subsidies of £230 per acre (£93 per hectare) are given by the government for growing hemp. It is well known that without hemp, the British navy would not have been the immense power it was. The sails and rigging were made of long strands of hemp fiber, and the sails from heavy hemp canvas. The rigging of the largest sailing ships weighed 50 to 100 tons. Hemp was used because it was the strongest natural fiber, gained strength when it was wet, did not become brittle or crack in extremely cold environments, and lasted the longest. A 100-ton ship’s rigging required about 200 acres of hemp and a fleet of 50 ships require 10,000 acres (15 square miles). More about the 1993 Hemp Project can be found here.)
Hungary is rebuilding its 1,000-year-old hemp industry. It is one of the biggest exporters of hemp cordage, rugs, and hemp fabric to the United States. Hungary also exports hemp seed and hemp paper. In 1991 there were about 6,500 hectares of hemp growing in two eastern areas, a mere remnant of a once-thriving industry. The Soviet army used hemp in the far north where the extremely low temperatures made plastics and synthetic fibers brittle and unusable. The empire’s dissolution and Russia’s subsequent near bankruptcy virtually eliminated Hungary’s principal customers. Consequently, hemp production has become a specialty item.
India has large stands of wild hemp and uses it for cordage, textiles, and seed oil. Since ancient times, hempseed has been pressed to provide oil for flavoring food and is still eaten by the poor, who consider it a tasteful and nutritious staple of their diet. They mix it with goosegrass to make bosa, or with wheat and rice or amaranth to make mura.
Italy has licensed 2,500 acres (1,018 hectares) for hemp fiber cultivation as a pilot project. The crop will be made into cloth for designer Georgio Armani and others.
Japan has a religious tradition that requires the Emperor to wear hemp garments, so there is a small plot maintained for the imperial family only. Some hemp is legally grown in the central part of the country, but Japan continues to import hemp for cloth and artistic applications.
Netherlands is conducting a four-year study to evaluate and test hemp for paper, and is in the process of developing the necessary processing equipment. Seed breeders are also developing new strains of low-THC varieties. In 1989, a $10 million four-year integrated research program which was to develop hemp as a crop for use in a non-polluting paper industry began. The report by the government’s agricultural department’s research center was released in 1994.
Nicaragua produces two hemp crops per year on 4,000 acres of a tropical engineered variety of hemp developed by a private company (Hemp-Agro International) located in Nicaragua and Canada. This variety called Zolguanica '95' was introduced in 1995 in conjunction with Ukranian and Chinese seed stock.
Poland currently grows hemp for fabric and cordage, and manufactures particleboard. Farmers there have a long tradition of growing hemp and have demonstrated the benefits of using hemp to cleanse soils contaminated by heavy metals since many toxic sites were left by the Russian army during its 45-year occupation. In fact, it has been found that hemp takes more metals from the soil than any other plant tested.
Romania is the largest commercial producer of hemp in Europe. In 1993, they had a total cultivation area of 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares). Some hemp is exported to Hungary for processing. Romania also exports to Western Europe and the United States.
Russia maintains the largest hemp germ plasm collection in the world at the N. I. Vavilov Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in Saint Petersburg. The institute needs money to pay curators to maintain this collection and to prevent it from being lost.
Slovenia grows hemp and manufactures currency paper.
South Africa has identified a demand for hemp fiber. European hemp cultivars are not adapted to the shorter daylight periods of South Africa and research was carried out to develop a suitable cultivar for the region. During the 1997/98 season, a breeding program began but currently, since both hemp and dagga are classified as Cannabis, it remains illegal to grow hemp in South Africa. It has long been known that Suto mothers weaned their children with hempseed and bread or mealie pap.
Spain grows and exports hemp pulp for paper and produces rope and textiles.
Switzerland is one of Europe’s major hemp producers.
United States granted the first hemp permit in 40 years to Hawaii for an experimental quarter-acre (0.10 hectare) plot in 1999. However, importers and manufacturers have long thrived using imported raw materials and food products. Legislators in Vermont, Hawaii, North Dakota, Montana, Maine, Illinois, Virginia, California, Arizona, and Maryland have passed bills to support research into hemp cultivation. Three states – Colorado, Arkansas, and Missouri – have initiatives pending.
source
Canamo – Spain and Chile
Hanf – Austria and Germany
Hanp - Denmark
Hanpu – Finland
Hennep – Netherlands
Kender – Hungary
Konopli – Russia
Konoplja – Yugoslavia
Ma – China
Penek – Poland
Taima – Japan
[Hemp Werx~ been a long day of research, will come back and link this up later]
Since China is the birthplace of hemp, it is only logical that the origin of the name comes from there as well. Ma, the Chinese name for "hemp", is the most basic of verbal sounds, meaning "mother" in every human language. However, in China, it is also synonymous for horse and used much like a verbal question mark. The strokes for the Chinese character depict a home and inside, hemp fibers are hanging from a rack. Used in combination with other characters, ma gives influence to such other Chinese word-meanings as numb, clever, anaesthetic, linen, indifferent, troublesome, sparrow, and the game Mahjongg. Each of these words contains the character for hemp.
Countries
Australia allows research crops. In the state of Victoria, commercial production began in 1998; and in Tasmania, in 1995. New South Wales and Queensland are also in various stages of research and production. There are also thriving businesses selling hemp products. For more info about hemp growing in Australia and Tasmania, see here
Austria has a hemp industry, including production of hemp seed oil and medicines. For more info see here
Canada began licensing fiber research crops in 1994 and one seed crop in 1995. By 1997, many acres were planted. As of 2002, there were over 35,000 acres (14,200 hectares) planted. A number of Canadian farmers are now growing organically certified hemp crops. As an historical fact, the Doukabours, a Christian vegetarian freedom sect living in western Canada since the early 1900s, apparently prepared hempseed paste for food when they were in Russia. In the New World, they resumed growing and using hemp for food and fiber both before and after prohibition.
Chile grows hemp mostly for seed oil production. More can be read in this article http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/HEMP/IHA/iha03213.html
China still produces the largest commercial hemp crop. Hemp has a long history in China, where it has been a primary survival food for thousands of years. Near the end of WWII, hemp saved multitudes of starving people in northern China. General Counsel Ralph Loziers of the US National Institute of Oilseed Production told a congressional committee in 1937: "Hempseed…is used in all the Oriental nations and also in a part of Russia as food. It is grown in their fields and used as oatmeal. Millions of people every day are using hempseed in the Orient as food. They have been doing this for many generations, especially in periods of famine”. The seed crop is roasted for domestic snacks and oil where almost 40% is exported.
Until the 1980s, hemp was the primary fiber for clothing and has never ceased being used to make paper. During the century from 1890 to 1990, the hemp industry declined, but started to increase in the 1990s. Many people have always had their own tiny plots of hemp, which also grows abundantly around many temples. Because the Chinese system is socialist, business efforts are directed by the government. Scientists have been directed to research non-wood paper production alternatives; and, although hemp is by no means the only non-wood fiber that could be used, their conclusion is that it is the best, most productive, economical, and ecologically-beneficial fiber.
China remains the world’s largest exporter of hemp paper and textiles. Hemp textiles today are regarded by most Chinese as old-fashioned. Unfortunately, the trend there is to emulate Western styles. Most Chinese hemp pulp contains the whole stalk of both bast and hurd fibers which are pulped together in their natural percentages for paper-making. Hemp pulp is also used to strengthen other fibers that would otherwise not be strong enough on their own to make paper. Generally, between 5% and 25% hemp content is common in paper used domestically in China; but 100% hemp content is used for very thin specialty peper and currency.
In China, fiber hemp is designated by colour. Various varieties will produce red, yellow, and green; but the properties of the three types of fiber are identical. Hemp has three uses: textiles, paper, and seed production. The bast fiber is used primarily for textiles. When it is stripped from the stalk, it is generally done in the field by hand since 80% of the Chinese people work in agriculture. Most hemp is dew-retted and takes up to three weeks for the bacterial action to break down the leaves and stalks for easier removal of the bast fiber. This does limit the usefulness of hurds for animal bedding though.
Hemp has always played a major role in funeral rites. (See History of Hemp 300 BCE.)
Denmark planted its first modern hemp trials in 1997. The country is committed to utilizing organic agriculture methods.
Egypt, Korea, Portugal, Thailand, and Ukraine also produce hemp.
Europe is showing a renewed interest in growing hemp, and well it should since it has a long history with the hemp plant. Hempseed was an abundant food of the rural poor in the 15th century because of increased hemp production for fiber that supplied colonial ships with sails and rope. The raw material came from the traditional hemp cultivation zones in northeastern Europe, where hempseed was made into vegetable oil, hempseed meal, and a smooth paste similar to peanut butter. Eating hempseed porridge made them more resistant to diseases than the nobility, who considered hemp foods to be of the lower classes. Monks were sustained by three meals a day of hempseed in the form of porridge, gruel, or soup. In Latvia, hempseed is traditionally included in festival foods on St. John’s Day. In Latvia and Ukraine, a hempseed dish is served on Three Kings’ Day; and in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine, a hempseed soup, called semientiatka, is eaten on Christmas Eve. Southern Slavs offered hempseed at weddings to ensure happiness and wealth. (Perhaps it was tossed instead of rice). European peasants planted hempseed on all the saints’ days.
Finland has had a resurgence of hemp beginning in 1995 with several small test crops.
France harvested 10,000 tons of hemp in 1994 and is the main source of viable low-THC hemp seed. See the article “Fiber Hemp in France” for more information.
Germany banned hemp in 1982, but liftedthe ban in 1995 after research on new hemp use began in 1992. As a result, many technologies and products are being developed. Clothes and paper are currently made from imported raw materials.
Great Britain lifted its hemp prohibition in 1993 when only 300 acres were planted. A government grant was given to develop new markets for natural fibers, and 4,000 acres were grown in 1994. Since then, animal bedding, paper, and textiles have been developed. Subsidies of £230 per acre (£93 per hectare) are given by the government for growing hemp. It is well known that without hemp, the British navy would not have been the immense power it was. The sails and rigging were made of long strands of hemp fiber, and the sails from heavy hemp canvas. The rigging of the largest sailing ships weighed 50 to 100 tons. Hemp was used because it was the strongest natural fiber, gained strength when it was wet, did not become brittle or crack in extremely cold environments, and lasted the longest. A 100-ton ship’s rigging required about 200 acres of hemp and a fleet of 50 ships require 10,000 acres (15 square miles). More about the 1993 Hemp Project can be found here.)
Hungary is rebuilding its 1,000-year-old hemp industry. It is one of the biggest exporters of hemp cordage, rugs, and hemp fabric to the United States. Hungary also exports hemp seed and hemp paper. In 1991 there were about 6,500 hectares of hemp growing in two eastern areas, a mere remnant of a once-thriving industry. The Soviet army used hemp in the far north where the extremely low temperatures made plastics and synthetic fibers brittle and unusable. The empire’s dissolution and Russia’s subsequent near bankruptcy virtually eliminated Hungary’s principal customers. Consequently, hemp production has become a specialty item.
India has large stands of wild hemp and uses it for cordage, textiles, and seed oil. Since ancient times, hempseed has been pressed to provide oil for flavoring food and is still eaten by the poor, who consider it a tasteful and nutritious staple of their diet. They mix it with goosegrass to make bosa, or with wheat and rice or amaranth to make mura.
Italy has licensed 2,500 acres (1,018 hectares) for hemp fiber cultivation as a pilot project. The crop will be made into cloth for designer Georgio Armani and others.
Japan has a religious tradition that requires the Emperor to wear hemp garments, so there is a small plot maintained for the imperial family only. Some hemp is legally grown in the central part of the country, but Japan continues to import hemp for cloth and artistic applications.
Netherlands is conducting a four-year study to evaluate and test hemp for paper, and is in the process of developing the necessary processing equipment. Seed breeders are also developing new strains of low-THC varieties. In 1989, a $10 million four-year integrated research program which was to develop hemp as a crop for use in a non-polluting paper industry began. The report by the government’s agricultural department’s research center was released in 1994.
Nicaragua produces two hemp crops per year on 4,000 acres of a tropical engineered variety of hemp developed by a private company (Hemp-Agro International) located in Nicaragua and Canada. This variety called Zolguanica '95' was introduced in 1995 in conjunction with Ukranian and Chinese seed stock.
Poland currently grows hemp for fabric and cordage, and manufactures particleboard. Farmers there have a long tradition of growing hemp and have demonstrated the benefits of using hemp to cleanse soils contaminated by heavy metals since many toxic sites were left by the Russian army during its 45-year occupation. In fact, it has been found that hemp takes more metals from the soil than any other plant tested.
Romania is the largest commercial producer of hemp in Europe. In 1993, they had a total cultivation area of 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares). Some hemp is exported to Hungary for processing. Romania also exports to Western Europe and the United States.
Russia maintains the largest hemp germ plasm collection in the world at the N. I. Vavilov Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in Saint Petersburg. The institute needs money to pay curators to maintain this collection and to prevent it from being lost.
Slovenia grows hemp and manufactures currency paper.
South Africa has identified a demand for hemp fiber. European hemp cultivars are not adapted to the shorter daylight periods of South Africa and research was carried out to develop a suitable cultivar for the region. During the 1997/98 season, a breeding program began but currently, since both hemp and dagga are classified as Cannabis, it remains illegal to grow hemp in South Africa. It has long been known that Suto mothers weaned their children with hempseed and bread or mealie pap.
Spain grows and exports hemp pulp for paper and produces rope and textiles.
Switzerland is one of Europe’s major hemp producers.
United States granted the first hemp permit in 40 years to Hawaii for an experimental quarter-acre (0.10 hectare) plot in 1999. However, importers and manufacturers have long thrived using imported raw materials and food products. Legislators in Vermont, Hawaii, North Dakota, Montana, Maine, Illinois, Virginia, California, Arizona, and Maryland have passed bills to support research into hemp cultivation. Three states – Colorado, Arkansas, and Missouri – have initiatives pending.
source
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
"Old Ironsides" Is No Longer the Original... Where's the Hemp?
WHERE'S THE HEMP?
By John E. Dvorak, Hempologist
The U.S.S. Constitution is one of this country's national treasures. In addition to having the distinction of being the world's oldest commissioned warship, Constitution never lost a battle during her legendary career. Almost two feet of solid oak, live oak, and fir were used to construct the hulls that rendered cannon balls useless against "Old Ironsides".
The namesake of the last remaining Constitution-class frigate was originally outfitted with cannabis hemp sails and over 60 tons of cannabis hemp rigging. Constitution's most recent restoration was planned with an eye on her 200th birthday. On July 21, 1997, Constitution sailed off of Marblehead, MA under her own power for the first time in 116 years. The fact that little, or possibly no, "true" cannabis hemp was used during Constitution's restoration mars the celebration of this historic event.
I wanted to know why this American icon wasn't being restored in a historically accurate manner. Chris Conrad (author of the new book, Hemp For Health) summed up my feelings about this when he said, "that's not restoring it, that's defacing it". Chris also pointed out that Disney is using hemp in some of its exhibits and historical simulations at Disneyland. If the restoration of Constitution is not a "Mickey Mouse" operation, we'd like to know; WHERE'S THE HEMP!?!
Was this oversight a conspiracy by an evil industrial/political cabal, who, for over 60 years, have plotted and schemed to prevent cannabis hemp from being used to provide innumerable eco-friendly products?
Evidence of this exists in the March, 1997 issue of Buzz Magazine, where DEA special agent, Abel Reynoso, was quoted as saying "Nobody cares about the environmental uses of hemp. That's taking us back to the Stone Age. . . Whatever product you can make from hemp, DuPont will come out with a synthetic fiber to replace it." While petroleum products seem inexpensive, their true costs are being passed on to the environment and humanity when the negative aspects of petroleum exploration, refining, consumption, and dependence (i.e., The Gulf War) are factored in.
Unfortunately for historical (and hemp) purists, a lack of demand caused the production of marine grade (K1) hemp fiber to cease. However, thanks to the efforts of Don Wirtshafter (800-BUY-HEMP) and others, it is once again being produced. The individuals responsible for the rebuilding of one of Holland's most historic ships, the Batavia, are using cannabis hemp oakum and cordage.
As is the case with Holland's tolerance toward the personal use of cannabis, America should well consider adopting a new attitude toward the use of historically (and environmentally) correct materials over cheap, toxic replacements. If the masters of deception and fantasy (Disney) use hemp, why can't the United States Navy? Where's the Hemp?!? Please contact the Charlestown Navy Yard and politely ask them to consider using true cannabis hemp in any future restoration projects of Constitution.
By John E. Dvorak, Hempologist
The U.S.S. Constitution is one of this country's national treasures. In addition to having the distinction of being the world's oldest commissioned warship, Constitution never lost a battle during her legendary career. Almost two feet of solid oak, live oak, and fir were used to construct the hulls that rendered cannon balls useless against "Old Ironsides".
The namesake of the last remaining Constitution-class frigate was originally outfitted with cannabis hemp sails and over 60 tons of cannabis hemp rigging. Constitution's most recent restoration was planned with an eye on her 200th birthday. On July 21, 1997, Constitution sailed off of Marblehead, MA under her own power for the first time in 116 years. The fact that little, or possibly no, "true" cannabis hemp was used during Constitution's restoration mars the celebration of this historic event.
I wanted to know why this American icon wasn't being restored in a historically accurate manner. Chris Conrad (author of the new book, Hemp For Health) summed up my feelings about this when he said, "that's not restoring it, that's defacing it". Chris also pointed out that Disney is using hemp in some of its exhibits and historical simulations at Disneyland. If the restoration of Constitution is not a "Mickey Mouse" operation, we'd like to know; WHERE'S THE HEMP!?!
Was this oversight a conspiracy by an evil industrial/political cabal, who, for over 60 years, have plotted and schemed to prevent cannabis hemp from being used to provide innumerable eco-friendly products?
Evidence of this exists in the March, 1997 issue of Buzz Magazine, where DEA special agent, Abel Reynoso, was quoted as saying "Nobody cares about the environmental uses of hemp. That's taking us back to the Stone Age. . . Whatever product you can make from hemp, DuPont will come out with a synthetic fiber to replace it." While petroleum products seem inexpensive, their true costs are being passed on to the environment and humanity when the negative aspects of petroleum exploration, refining, consumption, and dependence (i.e., The Gulf War) are factored in.
Unfortunately for historical (and hemp) purists, a lack of demand caused the production of marine grade (K1) hemp fiber to cease. However, thanks to the efforts of Don Wirtshafter (800-BUY-HEMP) and others, it is once again being produced. The individuals responsible for the rebuilding of one of Holland's most historic ships, the Batavia, are using cannabis hemp oakum and cordage.
As is the case with Holland's tolerance toward the personal use of cannabis, America should well consider adopting a new attitude toward the use of historically (and environmentally) correct materials over cheap, toxic replacements. If the masters of deception and fantasy (Disney) use hemp, why can't the United States Navy? Where's the Hemp?!? Please contact the Charlestown Navy Yard and politely ask them to consider using true cannabis hemp in any future restoration projects of Constitution.
U.S.A. The Hemp Outsiders Looking In
Growing Hemp Food and Body Care Sales is Good News for Canadian Hemp Seed and Oil Producers
Left Out of Hemp's Renaissance, U.S. Farmers Continue Legal Battle
WASHINGTON, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Hemp Industries Association (HIA), a trade association consisting of hundreds of hemp businesses, has just released final estimates of the size of the U.S. retail market for hemp food and body care products in 2008. Data supporting the estimates show that retail sales of hemp food and body care products in the U.S. have continued to set records in 2008. Strong sales of popular hemp items like non-dairy milk, shelled hemp seed, soaps and lotions have occurred against the backdrop of state-licensed hemp farmers in North Dakota fighting a high stakes legal battle against the DEA to grow hemp for U.S. manufacturers. The new sales data validate U.S. farmers' position that they are being shut out of the lucrative hemp market that Canadian farmers have cashed in on for over a decade now.
The sales data, collected by the market research firm SPINS, were obtained from natural and conventional food retailers, excluding Whole Foods Market and other establishments not providing sales data - and thus underestimate actual sales by a factor of at least three. According to the SPINS data, hemp grocery sales grew in the sampled stores by 42% over the previous year ending December 27, 2008, or $2.56 million, to a total of $8.64 million. The SPINS data also show that sales of hemp body care products grew by 19%, or $3.00 million, over the previous year to a total of $19.12 million. Finally, according to SPINS, combined hemp food, body care and vitamin product sales grew by 22%, or $6.11 million, over the previous year to a total of $33.51 million.
Due to significant sales excluded from the SPINS data, such as The Body Shop, Whole Foods Market and restaurants, as well as the fact that many unreported leading mass-market brands of suntan lotion and sunscreen products include hemp oil, the HIA estimates the total retail value of North American hemp food, vitamin and body care product sales to be in the range of $100-120 million for 2008.
"Farmers who want to grow hemp to support the steady double-digit growth are mad as ever about being shut out by our backward federal government," says David Bronner, who makes Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and uses hemp oil in all his top-selling products. "The HIA is confident that the total North American hemp food and body care market over the last year accounted for $100-120 million in retail sales," adds Bronner, who also chairs the HIA Food and Oil Committee.
"We expect double-digit growth in the hemp food sector to continue through 2009, as consumer interest in 'green' healthy products grows," comments Eric Steenstra, HIA Executive Director. "It is amazing that the growth of the sector is as strong as it is, given the stigma of hemp being the only food crop not legal to grow in the U.S."
A federal bill was introduced in Congress earlier this month that, if passed into law, would remove restrictions on the cultivation of non-psychoactive industrial hemp. The chief sponsors of HR 1866, "The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009," Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX), were joined by nine other U.S. House members from both sides of the aisle.
[ source link ]
Left Out of Hemp's Renaissance, U.S. Farmers Continue Legal Battle
WASHINGTON, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Hemp Industries Association (HIA), a trade association consisting of hundreds of hemp businesses, has just released final estimates of the size of the U.S. retail market for hemp food and body care products in 2008. Data supporting the estimates show that retail sales of hemp food and body care products in the U.S. have continued to set records in 2008. Strong sales of popular hemp items like non-dairy milk, shelled hemp seed, soaps and lotions have occurred against the backdrop of state-licensed hemp farmers in North Dakota fighting a high stakes legal battle against the DEA to grow hemp for U.S. manufacturers. The new sales data validate U.S. farmers' position that they are being shut out of the lucrative hemp market that Canadian farmers have cashed in on for over a decade now.
The sales data, collected by the market research firm SPINS, were obtained from natural and conventional food retailers, excluding Whole Foods Market and other establishments not providing sales data - and thus underestimate actual sales by a factor of at least three. According to the SPINS data, hemp grocery sales grew in the sampled stores by 42% over the previous year ending December 27, 2008, or $2.56 million, to a total of $8.64 million. The SPINS data also show that sales of hemp body care products grew by 19%, or $3.00 million, over the previous year to a total of $19.12 million. Finally, according to SPINS, combined hemp food, body care and vitamin product sales grew by 22%, or $6.11 million, over the previous year to a total of $33.51 million.
Due to significant sales excluded from the SPINS data, such as The Body Shop, Whole Foods Market and restaurants, as well as the fact that many unreported leading mass-market brands of suntan lotion and sunscreen products include hemp oil, the HIA estimates the total retail value of North American hemp food, vitamin and body care product sales to be in the range of $100-120 million for 2008.
"Farmers who want to grow hemp to support the steady double-digit growth are mad as ever about being shut out by our backward federal government," says David Bronner, who makes Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and uses hemp oil in all his top-selling products. "The HIA is confident that the total North American hemp food and body care market over the last year accounted for $100-120 million in retail sales," adds Bronner, who also chairs the HIA Food and Oil Committee.
"We expect double-digit growth in the hemp food sector to continue through 2009, as consumer interest in 'green' healthy products grows," comments Eric Steenstra, HIA Executive Director. "It is amazing that the growth of the sector is as strong as it is, given the stigma of hemp being the only food crop not legal to grow in the U.S."
A federal bill was introduced in Congress earlier this month that, if passed into law, would remove restrictions on the cultivation of non-psychoactive industrial hemp. The chief sponsors of HR 1866, "The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009," Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX), were joined by nine other U.S. House members from both sides of the aisle.
[ source link ]
Industrial Hemp, No Dancing Matter
Hemp — the Law, the Musical
Dept. of Really Strange Bedfellows
By CHRIS FARAONE April 29, 2009
When liberal congressmen like Barney Frank begin co-sponsoring bills with libertarians like Ron Paul, there must be something funny in the air. That stench — according to activists, agriculturalists, and economists alike — is the manure that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials have fed Americans about industrial hemp for decades, which has resulted in policies that allow for hemp to be imported, but not ones that let suffering American farmers cultivate it themselves.
Coincidentally simultaneous with the landmark (and fashionably dubbed) Paul-Frank proposal — which would lift senseless restrictions on industrial-hemp farming — local playwrights Terry Crystal and Don DiVecchio are rolling out their five-years-in-the-making musical, The Caitlin County Hemp Wars, for one night only at the Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square. Their motivation is simple: banning non-psychoactive hemp because of stigmas regarding its genetic cousin marijuana is like banning bananas because of Ron Jeremy.
"It's outrageous that something so potentially useful is illegal to grow in the United States," says Crystal, a Boston University librarian who first became interested in hemp as a functional material while studying at Rhode Island School of Design more than a decade ago. "It's ridiculous, and you just have to wonder why."
Crystal and DiVecchio didn't have to manufacture their dramatic angle. The fictional Hendricks family of farmers in Hemp Wars turns to the forbidden plant as a means for survival, and in turn, get crop blocked by DEA agents, who, like in real life, cite federal prohibitions to ride roughshod over farmers in the four states where it's legal to grow hemp.
The musical was actually inspired in part by a Boston Phoenix article. In his 1998 story "Where's the Hemp?" author John E. Dvorak lambastes the United States Navy for replacing 60 tons of cannabis hemp rigging on the USS Constitution with synthetic sails and cordage. The larger notion in his commentary, though — much like that of Hemp Wars — is hemp's plight in America, which reads like a twisted capitalist conspiracy.
Since the production premieres in Harvard Square, the room will likely be filled with bespectacled liberal activists in loose clothes. But considering the affection that both farmers and hipsters have for hemp, this production is as universal a gesture as legislation proposed by a Newton Democrat and a Texas gasbag.
"Sure, our musical is about hemp," says Crystal. "But it's also about three generations of community and family trying to maintain."
The Caitlin County Hemp Wars will premiere Tuesday, May 5, at 7:30pm, at the Zero Arrow Theatre, in Harvard Square. Tickets are $20. For more information, visit caitlincounty.com.
Dept. of Really Strange Bedfellows
By CHRIS FARAONE April 29, 2009
When liberal congressmen like Barney Frank begin co-sponsoring bills with libertarians like Ron Paul, there must be something funny in the air. That stench — according to activists, agriculturalists, and economists alike — is the manure that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials have fed Americans about industrial hemp for decades, which has resulted in policies that allow for hemp to be imported, but not ones that let suffering American farmers cultivate it themselves.
Coincidentally simultaneous with the landmark (and fashionably dubbed) Paul-Frank proposal — which would lift senseless restrictions on industrial-hemp farming — local playwrights Terry Crystal and Don DiVecchio are rolling out their five-years-in-the-making musical, The Caitlin County Hemp Wars, for one night only at the Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square. Their motivation is simple: banning non-psychoactive hemp because of stigmas regarding its genetic cousin marijuana is like banning bananas because of Ron Jeremy.
"It's outrageous that something so potentially useful is illegal to grow in the United States," says Crystal, a Boston University librarian who first became interested in hemp as a functional material while studying at Rhode Island School of Design more than a decade ago. "It's ridiculous, and you just have to wonder why."
Crystal and DiVecchio didn't have to manufacture their dramatic angle. The fictional Hendricks family of farmers in Hemp Wars turns to the forbidden plant as a means for survival, and in turn, get crop blocked by DEA agents, who, like in real life, cite federal prohibitions to ride roughshod over farmers in the four states where it's legal to grow hemp.
The musical was actually inspired in part by a Boston Phoenix article. In his 1998 story "Where's the Hemp?" author John E. Dvorak lambastes the United States Navy for replacing 60 tons of cannabis hemp rigging on the USS Constitution with synthetic sails and cordage. The larger notion in his commentary, though — much like that of Hemp Wars — is hemp's plight in America, which reads like a twisted capitalist conspiracy.
Since the production premieres in Harvard Square, the room will likely be filled with bespectacled liberal activists in loose clothes. But considering the affection that both farmers and hipsters have for hemp, this production is as universal a gesture as legislation proposed by a Newton Democrat and a Texas gasbag.
"Sure, our musical is about hemp," says Crystal. "But it's also about three generations of community and family trying to maintain."
The Caitlin County Hemp Wars will premiere Tuesday, May 5, at 7:30pm, at the Zero Arrow Theatre, in Harvard Square. Tickets are $20. For more information, visit caitlincounty.com.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
California Bill AB 390
BILL NUMBER: AB 390 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ammiano
FEBRUARY 23, 2009
An act to add Section 22394.1 to, and to add Chapter 14.5
(commencing with Section 25400) to Division 9 of, the Business and
Professions Code, to amend Section 68152 of the Government Code, to
amend Sections 11014.5, 11054, 11357, 11364.5, 11370, 11470, 11479,
11488, 11532, 11703, and 11705 of, to add Division 10.3 (commencing
with Section 11720) to, and to repeal Sections 11358, 11359, 11360,
11361, and 11485 of, the Health and Safety Code, to add Part 14.6
(commencing with Section 34001) to Division 2 of the Revenue and
Taxation Code, to amend Sections 23222 and 40000.15 of the Vehicle
Code, and to amend Section 18901.3 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to marijuana.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 390, as introduced, Ammiano. Marijuana Control, Regulation, and
Education Act.
Existing state law provides that every person who possesses,
sells, transports, or cultivates marijuana, concentrated cannabis, or
derivatives of marijuana, except as authorized by law, is guilty of
one or more crimes.
This bill would remove marijuana and its derivatives from existing
statutes defining and regulating controlled substances. It would
instead legalize the possession, sale, cultivation, and other conduct
relating to marijuana and its derivatives by persons 21 years of age
and older, except as specified. It would set up a wholesale and
retail marijuana sales regulation program, including special fees to
fund drug abuse prevention programs, as specified, to commence after
regulations concerning the program have been issued, and federal law
permits possession and sale consistent with the program. It would ban
local and state assistance in enforcing inconsistent federal and
other laws relating to marijuana, and would provide specified
infraction penalties for violations of these new marijuana laws and
regulations, as specified. It would make other conforming changes.
By creating various infractions for violations of regulations and
laws created by this act, this bill would impose a state-mandated
local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1.
It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this,
the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act, to do all of
the following:
(a) To legalize marijuana and its derivatives.
(b) To remove all existing civil and criminal penalties for adults
21 years of age or older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or
use marijuana, without impacting existing laws proscribing dangerous
activities while under the influence of marijuana, or certain
conduct that exposes younger persons to marijuana.
(c) To ensure that the proper regulatory apparatus for marijuana
sale and cultivation is ready when permitted by the federal
government.
(d) To raise funds and to discourage substance abuse by the
imposition of a substantial fee on the legal sale of marijuana, the
proceeds of which will support drug education and awareness.
(e) To impose a set of regulations and laws concerning marijuana
comparable to those imposed on alcohol.
(f) To impose substantial fines for violations of the
noncommercial regulations and laws concerning marijuana, which will
be applicable until and after commercial marijuana is available by
virtue of future changes in federal law.
(g) To prevent state and local agencies from supporting any
prosecution for federal or other crimes relating to marijuana that
are inconsistent with those provided in this bill.
(h) To exclude from the fees and regulations imposed by this act
marijuana that is for uses other than smoking or ingestion, and to
exclude medicinal marijuana from fees under these provisions.
(i) To encourage the federal government to reconsider its policies
concerning marijuana, and to change its laws accordingly.
SEC. 2.
Section 23394.1 is added to the Business and Professions
Code, to read:
23394.1. An off-sale general license, as provided for in Section
23394, also authorizes the sale, to consumers only and not for
resale, of marijuana, concentrated cannabis, or any of its
derivatives pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 14.5 (commencing
with Section 25400) of this division.
SEC. 3. Chapter 14.5 (commencing with Section 25400) is added to
Division 9 of the Business and Professions Code, to read:
CHAPTER 14.5. COMMERCIAL MARIJUANA PRODUCTION AND SALE
25400. For purposes of this chapter, "marijuana" means all parts
of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds
thereof; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; concentrated
cannabis; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative,
mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds or resin. It does not
include the mature stalks of the plant, fiber produced from the
stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of the plant, any other
compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of
the mature stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber, oil,
or cake, or the sterilized seed of the plant that is incapable of
germination.
25401.
(a) The department shall license commercial cultivators of
marijuana. The fee for the license shall be set at an amount that
will reasonably cover to costs of assuring compliance with the
regulations to be issued, but may not exceed five thousand dollars
($5,000) for an initial application, or two thousand five hundred
dollars ($2,500) per year for each annual renewal.
(b) Regulations adopted by the department pursuant to this chapter
shall require background checks of applicants be conducted. At the
request of the department, the Attorney General or any local agency
shall provide summary criminal history information to the department
as provided in Sections 11105 and 13300 of the Penal Code.
25402.
The department shall, with consideration for the risks
posed by cultivation of a valuable crop with public health
implications that is subject to significant fees, issue and enforce
regulations concerning commercial cultivators of marijuana that
provide for all of the following:
(a) Adequate security to reasonably protect against unauthorized
access to the marijuana crop at all stages of cultivation,
harvesting, drying, processing, packing, and delivery to licensed
sales outlets or wholesalers. Each licensee shall be required to
provide a detailed crop security plan, along with satisfactory proof
of the financial ability of the licensee to provide for that
security.
(b) Appropriate employment rules, including the rule that a person
under 21 years of age may not have access to marijuana during
cultivation, storage, drying, packing, or at any other time.
(c) Safeguards to assure that a person under 21 years of age may
not transport marijuana on behalf of a commercial buyer or commercial
seller.
(d) Restrictions to ensure that marijuana is not used or consumed
on the premises of a commercial cultivator.
(e) An inspection and tracking system to reasonably ensure that
all marijuana produced by the cultivator that is eventually sold is
assessed pursuant to Part 14.6 (commencing with Section 34001) of
Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(f) Recordkeeping consistent with the regulatory needs of the
department.
25403.
(a) The department shall license marijuana wholesalers,
who shall be allowed to package and prepare marijuana for sale, and
who shall be authorized to sell marijuana to licensed sales outlets.
The fee for the license shall be set in an amount that will
reasonably cover the costs of compliance with the regulations to be
issued, but may not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) for an
initial application, or two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500)
per year for each annual renewal.
(b) The department shall issue regulations that include a
requirement that all applicants for licensure receive background
checks. At the request of the department, the Attorney General or any
local agency shall provide summary criminal history information to
the department as provided in Sections 11105 and 13300 of the Penal
Code.
25404.
The department shall, with consideration for the risks
posed by a valuable commodity with public health implications that is
subject to significant fees, issue and enforce regulations
concerning the sale and packaging of marijuana by wholesale
licensees. Those regulations shall provide for all of the following:
(a) Adequate security to reasonably protect against unauthorized
access to marijuana at all stages of the wholesaler's possession of
the marijuana, including receiving, processing, packing, storage, and
delivery to licensed sales outlets. Each wholesaler shall be
required to provide a detailed product security plan, along with
satisfactory proof of the financial ability of the licensee to
provide for that security.
(b) Appropriate employment rules, including the rule that a person
under 21 years of age may not have access to marijuana during
receiving, processing, packing, storage, and delivery or at any other
time.
(c) Safeguards to assure that a person under 21 years of age may
not transport marijuana on behalf of a commercial buyer or commercial
seller.
(d) Restrictions to ensure that marijuana is not used or consumed
on the premises of a wholesaler.
(e) An inspection and tracking system to reasonably ensure that
all marijuana received by the wholesaler that is eventually sold is
assessed pursuant to Part 14.6 (commencing with Section 34001) of
Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(f) Recordkeeping consistent with the regulatory needs of the
department.
25405.
The department shall issue and enforce regulations
concerning the sale of marijuana by off-sale general licensees. Those
regulations shall provide for all of the following:
(a) An inspection and tracking system to ensure that marijuana may
not be sold by a licensee if that marijuana has not been made
subject to an assessment provided for in Part 14.6 (commencing with
Section 34001) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(b) Marijuana shall be kept behind a counter in an area not
directly accessible to any customer, and shall be stored in a case
that is locked between sales.
(c) Marijuana may not be sold to anyone under 21 years of age.
(d) Punishments for violations in actions against licensees that
are in substantial accord with those applicable to the regulation of
alcohol sales, including heavy penalties for permitting persons under
21 years of age to purchase these products and other appropriate
regulatory provisions concerning such matters as the time of sale,
deliveries, and signage. It is the intent of the people in enacting
this act that the regulation of marijuana sales be consistent with
the statutory guidance regarding alcohol sales in Chapter 16
(commencing with Section 25600), to the extent that consistency is
feasible.
(e) Recordkeeping consistent with the regulatory needs of the
department.
25406.
Beginning 30 days after the operative date of the
regulations issued pursuant to this chapter, or 30 days after the
date when federal law permits the possession and sale of marijuana
consistent with this chapter, whichever is latest, the department
shall begin to enforce the provisions of this chapter.
SEC. 4. Section 68152 of the Government Code is amended to read:
68152.
The trial court clerk may destroy court records under
Section 68153 after notice of destruction and if there is no request
and order for transfer of the records, except the comprehensive
historical and sample superior court records preserved for research
under the California Rules of Court, when the following times have
expired after final disposition of the case in the categories listed:
(a) Adoption: retain permanently.
(b) Change of name: retain permanently.
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ammiano
FEBRUARY 23, 2009
An act to add Section 22394.1 to, and to add Chapter 14.5
(commencing with Section 25400) to Division 9 of, the Business and
Professions Code, to amend Section 68152 of the Government Code, to
amend Sections 11014.5, 11054, 11357, 11364.5, 11370, 11470, 11479,
11488, 11532, 11703, and 11705 of, to add Division 10.3 (commencing
with Section 11720) to, and to repeal Sections 11358, 11359, 11360,
11361, and 11485 of, the Health and Safety Code, to add Part 14.6
(commencing with Section 34001) to Division 2 of the Revenue and
Taxation Code, to amend Sections 23222 and 40000.15 of the Vehicle
Code, and to amend Section 18901.3 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to marijuana.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 390, as introduced, Ammiano. Marijuana Control, Regulation, and
Education Act.
Existing state law provides that every person who possesses,
sells, transports, or cultivates marijuana, concentrated cannabis, or
derivatives of marijuana, except as authorized by law, is guilty of
one or more crimes.
This bill would remove marijuana and its derivatives from existing
statutes defining and regulating controlled substances. It would
instead legalize the possession, sale, cultivation, and other conduct
relating to marijuana and its derivatives by persons 21 years of age
and older, except as specified. It would set up a wholesale and
retail marijuana sales regulation program, including special fees to
fund drug abuse prevention programs, as specified, to commence after
regulations concerning the program have been issued, and federal law
permits possession and sale consistent with the program. It would ban
local and state assistance in enforcing inconsistent federal and
other laws relating to marijuana, and would provide specified
infraction penalties for violations of these new marijuana laws and
regulations, as specified. It would make other conforming changes.
By creating various infractions for violations of regulations and
laws created by this act, this bill would impose a state-mandated
local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1.
It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this,
the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act, to do all of
the following:
(a) To legalize marijuana and its derivatives.
(b) To remove all existing civil and criminal penalties for adults
21 years of age or older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or
use marijuana, without impacting existing laws proscribing dangerous
activities while under the influence of marijuana, or certain
conduct that exposes younger persons to marijuana.
(c) To ensure that the proper regulatory apparatus for marijuana
sale and cultivation is ready when permitted by the federal
government.
(d) To raise funds and to discourage substance abuse by the
imposition of a substantial fee on the legal sale of marijuana, the
proceeds of which will support drug education and awareness.
(e) To impose a set of regulations and laws concerning marijuana
comparable to those imposed on alcohol.
(f) To impose substantial fines for violations of the
noncommercial regulations and laws concerning marijuana, which will
be applicable until and after commercial marijuana is available by
virtue of future changes in federal law.
(g) To prevent state and local agencies from supporting any
prosecution for federal or other crimes relating to marijuana that
are inconsistent with those provided in this bill.
(h) To exclude from the fees and regulations imposed by this act
marijuana that is for uses other than smoking or ingestion, and to
exclude medicinal marijuana from fees under these provisions.
(i) To encourage the federal government to reconsider its policies
concerning marijuana, and to change its laws accordingly.
SEC. 2.
Section 23394.1 is added to the Business and Professions
Code, to read:
23394.1. An off-sale general license, as provided for in Section
23394, also authorizes the sale, to consumers only and not for
resale, of marijuana, concentrated cannabis, or any of its
derivatives pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 14.5 (commencing
with Section 25400) of this division.
SEC. 3. Chapter 14.5 (commencing with Section 25400) is added to
Division 9 of the Business and Professions Code, to read:
CHAPTER 14.5. COMMERCIAL MARIJUANA PRODUCTION AND SALE
25400. For purposes of this chapter, "marijuana" means all parts
of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds
thereof; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; concentrated
cannabis; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative,
mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds or resin. It does not
include the mature stalks of the plant, fiber produced from the
stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of the plant, any other
compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of
the mature stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber, oil,
or cake, or the sterilized seed of the plant that is incapable of
germination.
25401.
(a) The department shall license commercial cultivators of
marijuana. The fee for the license shall be set at an amount that
will reasonably cover to costs of assuring compliance with the
regulations to be issued, but may not exceed five thousand dollars
($5,000) for an initial application, or two thousand five hundred
dollars ($2,500) per year for each annual renewal.
(b) Regulations adopted by the department pursuant to this chapter
shall require background checks of applicants be conducted. At the
request of the department, the Attorney General or any local agency
shall provide summary criminal history information to the department
as provided in Sections 11105 and 13300 of the Penal Code.
25402.
The department shall, with consideration for the risks
posed by cultivation of a valuable crop with public health
implications that is subject to significant fees, issue and enforce
regulations concerning commercial cultivators of marijuana that
provide for all of the following:
(a) Adequate security to reasonably protect against unauthorized
access to the marijuana crop at all stages of cultivation,
harvesting, drying, processing, packing, and delivery to licensed
sales outlets or wholesalers. Each licensee shall be required to
provide a detailed crop security plan, along with satisfactory proof
of the financial ability of the licensee to provide for that
security.
(b) Appropriate employment rules, including the rule that a person
under 21 years of age may not have access to marijuana during
cultivation, storage, drying, packing, or at any other time.
(c) Safeguards to assure that a person under 21 years of age may
not transport marijuana on behalf of a commercial buyer or commercial
seller.
(d) Restrictions to ensure that marijuana is not used or consumed
on the premises of a commercial cultivator.
(e) An inspection and tracking system to reasonably ensure that
all marijuana produced by the cultivator that is eventually sold is
assessed pursuant to Part 14.6 (commencing with Section 34001) of
Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(f) Recordkeeping consistent with the regulatory needs of the
department.
25403.
(a) The department shall license marijuana wholesalers,
who shall be allowed to package and prepare marijuana for sale, and
who shall be authorized to sell marijuana to licensed sales outlets.
The fee for the license shall be set in an amount that will
reasonably cover the costs of compliance with the regulations to be
issued, but may not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) for an
initial application, or two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500)
per year for each annual renewal.
(b) The department shall issue regulations that include a
requirement that all applicants for licensure receive background
checks. At the request of the department, the Attorney General or any
local agency shall provide summary criminal history information to
the department as provided in Sections 11105 and 13300 of the Penal
Code.
25404.
The department shall, with consideration for the risks
posed by a valuable commodity with public health implications that is
subject to significant fees, issue and enforce regulations
concerning the sale and packaging of marijuana by wholesale
licensees. Those regulations shall provide for all of the following:
(a) Adequate security to reasonably protect against unauthorized
access to marijuana at all stages of the wholesaler's possession of
the marijuana, including receiving, processing, packing, storage, and
delivery to licensed sales outlets. Each wholesaler shall be
required to provide a detailed product security plan, along with
satisfactory proof of the financial ability of the licensee to
provide for that security.
(b) Appropriate employment rules, including the rule that a person
under 21 years of age may not have access to marijuana during
receiving, processing, packing, storage, and delivery or at any other
time.
(c) Safeguards to assure that a person under 21 years of age may
not transport marijuana on behalf of a commercial buyer or commercial
seller.
(d) Restrictions to ensure that marijuana is not used or consumed
on the premises of a wholesaler.
(e) An inspection and tracking system to reasonably ensure that
all marijuana received by the wholesaler that is eventually sold is
assessed pursuant to Part 14.6 (commencing with Section 34001) of
Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(f) Recordkeeping consistent with the regulatory needs of the
department.
25405.
The department shall issue and enforce regulations
concerning the sale of marijuana by off-sale general licensees. Those
regulations shall provide for all of the following:
(a) An inspection and tracking system to ensure that marijuana may
not be sold by a licensee if that marijuana has not been made
subject to an assessment provided for in Part 14.6 (commencing with
Section 34001) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(b) Marijuana shall be kept behind a counter in an area not
directly accessible to any customer, and shall be stored in a case
that is locked between sales.
(c) Marijuana may not be sold to anyone under 21 years of age.
(d) Punishments for violations in actions against licensees that
are in substantial accord with those applicable to the regulation of
alcohol sales, including heavy penalties for permitting persons under
21 years of age to purchase these products and other appropriate
regulatory provisions concerning such matters as the time of sale,
deliveries, and signage. It is the intent of the people in enacting
this act that the regulation of marijuana sales be consistent with
the statutory guidance regarding alcohol sales in Chapter 16
(commencing with Section 25600), to the extent that consistency is
feasible.
(e) Recordkeeping consistent with the regulatory needs of the
department.
25406.
Beginning 30 days after the operative date of the
regulations issued pursuant to this chapter, or 30 days after the
date when federal law permits the possession and sale of marijuana
consistent with this chapter, whichever is latest, the department
shall begin to enforce the provisions of this chapter.
SEC. 4. Section 68152 of the Government Code is amended to read:
68152.
The trial court clerk may destroy court records under
Section 68153 after notice of destruction and if there is no request
and order for transfer of the records, except the comprehensive
historical and sample superior court records preserved for research
under the California Rules of Court, when the following times have
expired after final disposition of the case in the categories listed:
(a) Adoption: retain permanently.
(b) Change of name: retain permanently.
(c) Other civil actions and proceedings, as follows:
(1) Except as otherwise specified: 10 years.
(2) Where a party appears by a guardian ad litem: 10 years after
termination of the court's jurisdiction.
(3) Domestic violence: same period as duration of the restraining
or other orders and renewals, then retain the restraining or other
orders as a judgment; 60 days after expiration of the temporary
protective or temporary restraining order.
(4) Eminent domain: retain permanently.
(5) Family law, except as otherwise specified: 30 years.
(6) Harassment: same period as duration of the injunction and
renewals, then retain the injunction as a judgment; 60 days after
expiration of the temporary restraining order.
(7) Mental health (Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services
Act and Lanterman-Petris-Short Act): 30 years.
(8) Paternity: retain permanently.
(9) Petition, except as otherwise specified: 10 years.
(10) Real property other than unlawful detainer: retain
permanently if the action affects title or an interest in real
property.
(11) Small claims: 10 years.
(12) Unlawful detainer: one year if judgment is for possession of
the premises; 10 years if judgment is for money.
(d) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), any civil or small claims
case in the trial court:
(1) Involuntarily dismissed by the court for delay in prosecution
or failure to comply with state or local rules: one year.
(2) Voluntarily dismissed by a party without entry of judgment:
one year.
Notation of the dismissal shall be made on the civil index of
cases or on a separate dismissal index.
(e) Criminal.
(1) Capital felony (murder with special circumstances where the
prosecution seeks the death penalty): retain permanently. If the
charge is disposed of by acquittal or a sentence less than death, the
case shall be reclassified.
(2) Felony, except as otherwise specified: 75 years.
(3) Felony, except capital felony, with court records from the
initial complaint through the preliminary hearing or plea and for
which the case file does not include final sentencing or other final
disposition of the case because the case was bound over to the
superior court: five years.
(4) Misdemeanor, except as otherwise specified: five years.
(5) Misdemeanor alleging a violation of the Vehicle Code, except
as otherwise specified: three years.
(6) Misdemeanor alleging a violation of Section 23103, 23152, or
23153 of the Vehicle Code: 10 years.
(7) Misdemeanor alleging a violation of Section 14601, 14601.1,
20002, 23104, 23105, 23109, or 23109.1 of the Vehicle Code: five
years.
(8) Misdemeanor alleging a marijuana violation under subdivision
(b), (c), (d), or (e) (a) or (b) of
Section 11357 of the Health and Safety Code , or subdivision
(b) of Section 11360 of the Health and Safety Code in
accordance with the procedure set forth in Section 11361.5 of the
Health and Safety Code: records shall be destroyed two years from the
date of conviction or from the date of arrest if no conviction.
(9) Misdemeanor, infraction, or civil action alleging a violation
of the regulation and licensing of dogs under Sections 30951 to
30956, inclusive, of the Food and Agricultural Code or violation of
any other local ordinance: three years.
(10) Misdemeanor action resulting in a requirement that the
defendant register as a sex offender pursuant to Section 290 of the
Penal Code: 75 years. This paragraph shall apply to records relating
to a person convicted on or after September 20, 2006.
(11) Infraction, except as otherwise specified: three years.
(12) Parking infractions, including alleged violations under the
stopping, standing, and parking provisions set forth in Chapter 9
(commencing with Section 22500) of Division 11 of the Vehicle Code:
two years.
(f) Habeas corpus: same period as period for retention of the
records in the underlying case category.
(g) Juvenile.
(1) Dependent (Section 300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code):
upon reaching age 28 or on written request shall be released to the
juvenile five years after jurisdiction over the person has terminated
under subdivision (a) of Section 826 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code. Sealed records shall be destroyed upon court order five years
after the records have been sealed pursuant to subdivision (c) of
Section 389 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(2) Ward (Section 601 of the Welfare and Institutions Code): upon
reaching age 21 or on written request shall be released to the
juvenile five years after jurisdiction over the person has terminated
under subdivision (a) of Section 826 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code. Sealed records shall be destroyed upon court order five years
after the records have been sealed under subdivision (d) of Section
781 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(3) Ward (Section 602 of the Welfare and Institutions Code): upon
reaching age 38 under subdivision (a) of Section 826 of the Welfare
and Institutions Code. Sealed records shall be destroyed upon court
order when the subject of the record reaches the age of 38 under
subdivision (d) of Section 781 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(4) Traffic and some nontraffic misdemeanors and infractions
(Section 601 of the Welfare and Institutions Code): upon reaching age
21 or five years after jurisdiction over the person has terminated
under subdivision (c) of Section 826 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code. May be microfilmed or photocopied.
(5) Marijuana misdemeanor under subdivision (e)
(b) of Section 11357 of the Health and Safety Code in
accordance with procedures specified in subdivision (a) of Section
11361.5 of the Health and Safety Code: upon reaching age 18 the
records shall be destroyed.
(h) Probate.
(1) Conservatorship: 10 years after decree of termination.
(2) Guardianship: 10 years after the age of 18.
(3) Probate, including probated wills, except as otherwise
specified: retain permanently.
(i) Court records of the appellate division of the superior court:
five years.
(j) Other records.
(1) Applications in forma pauperis: any time after the disposition
of the underlying case.
(2) Arrest warrant: same period as period for retention of the
records in the underlying case category.
(3) Bench warrant: same period as period for retention of the
records in the underlying case category.
(4) Bond: three years after exoneration and release.
(5) Coroner's inquest report: same period as period for retention
of the records in the underlying case category; if no case, then
permanent.
(6) Court orders not associated with an underlying case, such as
orders for destruction of court records for telephone taps, or to
destroy drugs, and other miscellaneous court orders: three years.
(7) Court reporter notes: 10 years after the notes have been taken
in criminal and juvenile proceedings and five years after the notes
have been taken in all other proceedings, except notes reporting
proceedings in capital felony cases (murder with special
circumstances where the prosecution seeks the death penalty and the
sentence is death), including notes reporting the preliminary
hearing, which shall be retained permanently, unless the Supreme
Court on request of the court clerk authorizes the destruction.
(8) Electronic recordings made as the official record of the oral
proceedings under the California Rules of Court: any time after final
disposition of the case in infraction and misdemeanor proceedings,
10 years in all other criminal proceedings, and five years in all
other proceedings.
(9) Electronic recordings not made as the official record of the
oral proceedings under the California Rules of Court: any time either
before or after final disposition of the case.
(10) Index, except as otherwise specified: retain permanently.
(11) Index for cases alleging traffic violations: same period as
period for retention of the records in the underlying case category.
(12) Judgments within the jurisdiction of the superior court other
than in a limited civil case, misdemeanor case, or infraction case:
retain permanently.
(13) Judgments in misdemeanor cases, infraction cases, and limited
civil cases: same period as period for retention of the records in
the underlying case category.
(14) Minutes: same period as period for retention of the records
in the underlying case category.
(15) Naturalization index: retain permanently.
(16) Ninety-day evaluation (under Section 1203.03 of the Penal
Code): same period as period for retention of the records in the
underlying case category, or period for completion or termination of
probation, whichever is longer.
(17) Register of actions or docket: same period as period for
retention of the records in the underlying case category, but in no
event less than 10 years for civil and small claims cases.
(18) Search warrant: 10 years, except search warrants issued in
connection with a capital felony case defined in paragraph (7), which
shall be retained permanently.
(k) Retention of the court records under this section shall be
extended as follows:
(1) By order of the court on its own motion, or on application of
a party or an interested member of the public for good cause shown
and on those terms as are just. A fee shall not be charged for making
the application.
(2) Upon application and order for renewal of the judgment to the
extended time for enforcing the judgment.
SEC. 5. Section 11014.5 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
11014.5. (a) "Drug paraphernalia" means all equipment, products
, and materials of any kind which
that are designed for use or marketed for use ,
in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting,
manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing,
preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing,
containing, concealing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise
introducing into the human body a controlled substance in violation
of this division. It includes, but is not limited to:
History of Medical Cannabis
Cannabis was a part of the American pharmacopoeia until 1942 and is currently available by prescription in the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, and Italy in its whole plant form.
In 1937, the U.S. passed the first federal law against cannabis, despite the objections of the American Medical Association (AMA). Dr. William C. Woodward, testifying on behalf of the AMA, told Congress that, "The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug" and warned that a prohibition "loses sight of the fact that future investigation may show that there are substantial medical uses for Cannabis."
Ironically, the U.S. federal government currently grows and provides cannabis for a small number of patients. In 1976 the federal government created the Investigational New Drug (IND) compassionate access research program to allow patients to receive up to nine pounds of cannabis from the government each year. Today, five surviving patients still receive medical cannabis from the federal government, paid for by federal tax dollars.
In 1988, the DEA's Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young, ruled after extensive hearings that, "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known... It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance..." Yet the DEA refused to implement this ruling based on a procedural technicality and resists rescheduling to this day.
In 1989, the FDA was flooded with new applications from people with HIV/AIDS. In June 1991, the Public Health Service announced that the program would be suspended because it undermined federal prohibition. Despite this successful medical program and centuries of documented safe use, cannabis is still classified in America as a Schedule I substance “indicating a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value. Healthcare advocates have tried to resolve this contradiction through legal and administrative channels to no avail.
In 1996, patients and advocates turned to the state level for access, passing voter initiatives in California and Arizona that allowed for legal use of cannabis with a doctor's recommendation. These victories were followed by the passage of similar initiatives in Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Washington D.C. The legislatures of Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico Rhode Island, and Vermont have also acted on behalf of their citizens, and every legislative session sees more bills introduced at the state level across the country.
In 1997, The Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a comprehensive study of the medical efficacy of cannabis therapeutics. The IOM concluded that cannabis is a safe and effective medicine, patients should have access, and the government should expand avenues for research and drug development. The federal government has completely ignored its findings and refused to act on its recommendations.
Despite the federal barriers to research, hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have been published worldwide since the IOM report. While there is still much to learn, the medical potential is indisputable for a variety of symptoms and conditions.
In 1997, the federal government began a campaign to arrest and prosecute medical cannabis patients and their providers. These raids resulted in two Supreme Court Cases, OCBC and Gonzales v. Raich. In each of these cases the Justices found that the federal law and state law can exist in conflict and that the federal government could continue their campaign against medical cannabis patients if they so choose. However, the Justices questioned "the wisdom' of going after patients and their providers and called on Congress to change the current laws to allow for medical use.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Raich, on June 6, 2005, the federal government has intensified its war against patients across the state of California. These raids have resulted in more than two-dozen patients and providers being needlessly prosecuted by the federal government.
Unfortunately, these defendants will not be permitted to mention during trial that their use of cannabis was for legitimate purposes and in accordance with state law. These raids alone are estimated to have cost taxpayers over $10,000,000.
Patients who could and do benefit from cannabis therapeutics face a variety of challenges at both the federal and state levels. Patients have been made to needlessly suffer because they have been denied access or, worse, because they have been imprisoned for using a medicine their doctors recommended.
Medical cannabis patients and current Executive Director Steph Sherer founded Americans for Safe Access (ASA) in 2002 in response to federal raids on patients in California. Ever since then, ASA has been instrumental in shaping the political and legal landscape of medical cannabis. Our successful lobbying, media, and legal campaigns led to positive court precedents, new sentencing standards, more compassionate legislative and administrative polices and procedures, as well as new legislation.
article source
In 1937, the U.S. passed the first federal law against cannabis, despite the objections of the American Medical Association (AMA). Dr. William C. Woodward, testifying on behalf of the AMA, told Congress that, "The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug" and warned that a prohibition "loses sight of the fact that future investigation may show that there are substantial medical uses for Cannabis."
Ironically, the U.S. federal government currently grows and provides cannabis for a small number of patients. In 1976 the federal government created the Investigational New Drug (IND) compassionate access research program to allow patients to receive up to nine pounds of cannabis from the government each year. Today, five surviving patients still receive medical cannabis from the federal government, paid for by federal tax dollars.
In 1988, the DEA's Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young, ruled after extensive hearings that, "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known... It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance..." Yet the DEA refused to implement this ruling based on a procedural technicality and resists rescheduling to this day.
In 1989, the FDA was flooded with new applications from people with HIV/AIDS. In June 1991, the Public Health Service announced that the program would be suspended because it undermined federal prohibition. Despite this successful medical program and centuries of documented safe use, cannabis is still classified in America as a Schedule I substance “indicating a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value. Healthcare advocates have tried to resolve this contradiction through legal and administrative channels to no avail.
In 1996, patients and advocates turned to the state level for access, passing voter initiatives in California and Arizona that allowed for legal use of cannabis with a doctor's recommendation. These victories were followed by the passage of similar initiatives in Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Washington D.C. The legislatures of Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico Rhode Island, and Vermont have also acted on behalf of their citizens, and every legislative session sees more bills introduced at the state level across the country.
In 1997, The Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a comprehensive study of the medical efficacy of cannabis therapeutics. The IOM concluded that cannabis is a safe and effective medicine, patients should have access, and the government should expand avenues for research and drug development. The federal government has completely ignored its findings and refused to act on its recommendations.
Despite the federal barriers to research, hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have been published worldwide since the IOM report. While there is still much to learn, the medical potential is indisputable for a variety of symptoms and conditions.
In 1997, the federal government began a campaign to arrest and prosecute medical cannabis patients and their providers. These raids resulted in two Supreme Court Cases, OCBC and Gonzales v. Raich. In each of these cases the Justices found that the federal law and state law can exist in conflict and that the federal government could continue their campaign against medical cannabis patients if they so choose. However, the Justices questioned "the wisdom' of going after patients and their providers and called on Congress to change the current laws to allow for medical use.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Raich, on June 6, 2005, the federal government has intensified its war against patients across the state of California. These raids have resulted in more than two-dozen patients and providers being needlessly prosecuted by the federal government.
Unfortunately, these defendants will not be permitted to mention during trial that their use of cannabis was for legitimate purposes and in accordance with state law. These raids alone are estimated to have cost taxpayers over $10,000,000.
Patients who could and do benefit from cannabis therapeutics face a variety of challenges at both the federal and state levels. Patients have been made to needlessly suffer because they have been denied access or, worse, because they have been imprisoned for using a medicine their doctors recommended.
Medical cannabis patients and current Executive Director Steph Sherer founded Americans for Safe Access (ASA) in 2002 in response to federal raids on patients in California. Ever since then, ASA has been instrumental in shaping the political and legal landscape of medical cannabis. Our successful lobbying, media, and legal campaigns led to positive court precedents, new sentencing standards, more compassionate legislative and administrative polices and procedures, as well as new legislation.
article source
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The History and Benefits of Hemp
Everything you ever wanted to know -- and maybe more -- about hemp.
by Anon
Hemp is another word for the plant Cannabis sativa L. Marijuana comes from this same plant genus – and so do broccoli and cauliflower. But the strains of hemp used in industrial and consumer products contain only a negligible level of the intoxicating substance delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Thus, industrial grade hemp is not marijuana.
Hemp is the most useful and beneficial plant in nature.
Hemp as food
Hemp seeds are drug-free and extremely nutritious. They can be eaten whole, pressed into edible oil like soybeans, or ground into flour for baking. They are one of the best sources of vegetable protein. They contain a full complement of essential amino acids, essential fatty-acids (EFA'S), and have been shown to lower blood cholesterol and dissolve plaque in coronary arteries.
Because hemp is such a hardy plant, it can grow easily and abundantly almost anywhere, and can provide nutrition where other edible crops just won't grow. Hemp can even be cultivated in arid regions with poor soil like Saharan Africa or in places with a very short growing season like Scandinavia.
Hemp for body care
Hemp seed oil is perfectly suited for hair and skin care. Its nutritional value, combined with its moisturizing and replenishing EFA's, make it one of the best vegetable body care foundations. Hemp seed oil's EFA complement includes polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3, omega-6, omega-9, linoleic acid, and gamma linoleic acids (GLA's). Although they are very effective in skin care maintenance, GLA's are rarely found in natural oils. Hemp is an excellent source of GLA's.
Paper from hemp
Hemp paper is naturally acid-free. The oldest printed paper in existence is a 100 percent hemp Chinese text dated to 770 AD. Thomas Jefferson drafted both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution on hemp paper.
Hemp's cellulose level is almost three times that of wood, so it makes superior paper and yields four times as much pulp per acre as trees. The hemp paper process also utilizes less energy and fewer chemicals than tree paper processing and doesn't create the harmful dioxins, chloroform, or any of the other 2,000 chlorinated organic compounds that have been identified as byproducts of the wood paper process.
Hemp is a sustainable, annual crop that is ready for harvest just 120 days after going to seed, compared to trees which take tens or hundreds of years to reach maturity. Further, harvesting hemp doesn't destroy the natural habitats of thousands of distinct animal and plant species.
Historically, hemp was an important source of paper fiber until the early 1900's when chemicals were developed to advance the wood paper pulp industry. Wood pulp paper rode the chemical revolution to its apex before the public health hazards of toxic chemicals were an issue and before the environmental consequences of clear-cutting forests were appreciated.
Hemp as fuel
Hemp seeds have provided a combustible fuel oil throughout human history. More importantly, though, the same high cellulose level that makes hemp ideal for paper also makes it perfect for ethanol fuel production. Ethanol is the cleanest-burning liquid bio-alternative to gasoline. In one test, an unleaded gasoline automobile engine produced a thick, black carbon residue in its exhaust, while the tailpipe of a modified ethanol engine tested for the same 3,500 miles remained pristine and residue-free.
Ethanol is derived from plant cellulose. Plants absorb carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight and produce oxygen and cellulose, which contains the sun's energy captured in plant cells. When ethanol combusts, it releases energy, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is then absorbed by plants, along with water and sunlight, to create more oxygen and cellulose. It is a clean and sustainable cycle.
Since gasoline engines are a primary source of carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases, alternative fuels such as ethanol could contribute significantly to the rejuvenation of our atmospheric air quality. Hemp provides a sustainable, renewable, and natural alternative to toxic fossil fuels.
Hemp as paint & plastic
Hemp oil extract can also be used as an ingredient in nontoxic, biodegradable inks, paints, and varnishes. It is an ideal raw material for plant-based plastics such as cellophane as well as more recently developed cellulose-based plastics.
Henry Ford himself manufactured the body of an automobile from hemp-based plastic in 1941. The plastic was much lighter than steel and could withstand ten times the impact without denting. The car was even fueled by clean-burning hemp-based ethanol fuel.
Hemp as textile fiber
Hemp is the longest and strongest plant fiber. It is extremely abrasion and rot resistant and was the primary source of canvas, sail, rope, twine, and webbing fiber for hundreds of years before nylon was patented by DuPont in 1937. Hemp was used for clothing, military uniforms, ship's rigging, shoes, parachute webbing, baggage, and much more. Christopher Columbus' ships were fully rigged in hemp. The U.S.S. Constitution, "Old Ironsides," was outfitted with over 40 tons of hemp rigging.
Because of the multitude of uses for hemp, the early Colonial American governments mandated its cultivation. Early American settlers even used hemp fiber as money and to pay taxes. Because of its length and strength, hemp fiber can be woven into natural advanced composites, which can then be fashioned into anything from fast food containers to skateboard decks to the body of a stealth fighter.
Concrete from hemp
Madame France Perrier builds about 300 houses per year out of hemp in France. Years ago she researched ways to petrify vegetable matter. During her studies, she found evidence in ancient Egyptian archaeological sites of hemp-based concrete. When she discovered the ingredients of the mix, she duplicated the method. She mixes hemp hurds (the inner fiber) with limestone and water, which causes the hemp to harden into a substance stronger than cement and only one sixth the weight. Madame Perrier' isochanvre is also more flexible than concrete, giving it a major advantage over conventional building materials, especially in areas throughout the world that are prone to earthquakes.
Hemp replacing wood
Bill Conde is the owner of the largest Redwood lumberyard in Oregon, and one of the few lumber men willing to admit hemp's benefits. His family has been in the lumber industry for generations. He is a firsthand witness to the destruction of the nation's pristine forests. The fiberboard offshoot of the lumber industry is one of the most threatening to the world's forests.
Fiberboard, or pressboard, is made by chipping trees into small pieces and then compressing the chips into boards using adhesives. This industry is so destructive because chip plants can use young immature trees, which are just as useful for pressboard as older trees. These mills threaten to destroy even the youngest of forests. Conde and the highly regarded wood products division of Washington State University developed a method of fabricating tree-free pressboard out of hemp. The method uses existing technology and wood-chip mills. Their hemp fiberboard is superior in strength and quality to the same product produced using trees.
Hemp as rotation crop and soil rejuvenator
Hemp is an ideal rotation crop for farmers worldwide. It puts down a taproot twelve inches long in only thirty days, preventing topsoil erosion. Its water requirements are negligible, so it doesn't require much irrigation and will grow in arid regions. It matures from seed in only 120 days, so it doesn't need a long growing season. Hemp's soil nutrients concentrate in the plant's roots and leaves. After harvest, the roots remain and the leaves are returned to the fields. In this way, soil nutrients are preserved.
Hemp is also a beneficial crop for the Earth itself. It is very easy on the land. It doesn't need many nutrients, so it doesn't require chemical fertilizers. Hemp outcompetes other weeds, so it doesn't need herbicides to thrive. Even hemp strains that are 100 percent THC-free produce their own resins that make the crop naturally pest-free, so it doesn't require toxic chemical pesticides. Hemp actually leaves the soil in better condition than before it was planted.
Hemp as public enemy #1
Hemp was the first plant known to have been domestically cultivated. The oldest relic of human history is hemp fabric dated to 8,000 BC from ancient Mesopotamia, an area in present-day Turkey. It has been grown as long as recorded history for food, fuel, fiber, and for another legitimate use, which is not even discussed here for the sake of brevity medicine. So, with all these uses and benefits, why is cannabis cultivation illegal in the United States today? Here is a brief history of cannabis prohibition:
Hemp was a primary source of paper, textile, and cordage fiber for thousands of years until just after the turn of the 20th century. It was at this time that companies like DuPont first developed chemicals that enabled trees to be processed into paper.
DuPont's chemicals made wood pulp paper cheaper than paper made from annual crops like hemp. At the same time Wm. Randolph Hearst, the owner of the largest newspaper chain in the United States, backed by Mellon Bank, invested significant capital in timberland and wood paper mills to produce his newsprint using DuPont's chemicals.
DuPont also developed nylon fiber as a direct competitor to hemp in the textile and cordage industries. Nylon was even billed as synthetic hemp.
DuPont was also manufacturing chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers useful in the cotton industry, another hemp competitor.
Mellon Bank, owned by U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, was also DuPont's primary financier. Mellon's niece was married to Harry Anslinger, deputy commissioner of the federal government's alcohol prohibition campaign. After the repeal of Prohibition, Anslinger and his entire federal bureau were out of a job. But Treasurer Mellon didn't let that happen. Andrew Mellon single-handedly created a new government bureaucracy, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, to keep his family and friends employed. And then he unapologetically appointed his own niece's husband, Harry Anslinger, as head of the new multimillion dollar bureaucracy.
At the same time, a machine was developed that was to hemp what the cotton gin was to cotton: it allowed hemp's long, tough fiber to be mass processed efficiently and economically for the first time. Popular Mechanics, in February 1937, predicted hemp would be the world's first "Billion Dollar Crop" that would support thousands of jobs and provide a vast array of consumer products from dynamite to plastics.
This potential rejuvenation of hemp was a major threat to Secretary Mellon's friends and business associates, especially Randolph Hearst with his wood paper industry and Lammont DuPont with his petrochemical and synthetic fiber conglomerates. After all, hemp farmers wouldn't need DuPont's chemicals to grow their hemp because the crop is self-sufficient. The hemp-based ethanol fuel that was mentioned in the Popular Mechanics' article probably didn't sit too well with the oil companies of the time. They also couldn't have been too thrilled to learn that this same plant produced high-strength plastics without a petroleum base. The hemp-based plastics developed at the time were stronger and lighter than steel, which we can imagine wasn't the best news for the steel industry.
In addition, the growing pharmaceutical companies were producing synthetic drugs to replace natural medicines. Hemp extract was used for thousands of years to effectively treat everything from epileptic fits to rheumatoid arthritis. Chances are, hemp's resurgence wasn't good news for these drug companies either.
What we see is that the potential revival of the hemp industry was a threat to almost all the corporate giants of the time, and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon was at the top of this food chain.
So Commissioner Anslinger, Mellon's appointee, begins researching rumors that immigrants from Mexico are smoking the flowers of the hemp plant. Racism was rampant at the time, and there was a government movement to curb the number of immigrants crossing the U.S. border at Mexico. Anslinger plugged into the racist sentiment, and began referring to the "hemp" that Americans knew cannabis to be, as "marijuana," the Mexican slang word for the plant. He labeled it as a "narcotic" even though cannabis flowers cannot cause narcosis, and spread exaggerated stories and outright lies that Mexicans and blacks became violent and disrespectful to whites when they smoked the "evil menace marijuana."
This slander of cannabis was all just fine for Anslinger's friends, the Mellons, the DuPonts, and the Hearsts. In fact, Hearst's newspapers picked up on the propaganda and fueled the fire by publishing hundreds of lurid stories about people raping and murdering while under the influence of marijuana. The sensationalism sold lots of newspapers, and the people of the country actually based their opinions on this one-sided information. Of course the stories never mentioned the hemp that people used everyday as rope, paper, medicine, and more. The stories always referred to cannabis by the Mexican slang word, marijuana.
With the moral and prohibitive fervor of the time duly stirred, Anslinger took his show to Congress. At the proceedings of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, Anslinger didn't mention that marijuana was hemp. And because anti-marijuana propaganda didn't mention that basic fact, hemp industries found out almost too late about the effort to criminalize cannabis cultivation. Testimony was heard from the full gamut of hemp companies and advocates, from birdseed suppliers to cordage manufacturers, from farmers to physicians, all touting hemp's importance in American history and the many industrial, agricultural, medicinal, and economic benefits of cannabis. Only after their testimony, was the wording of the bill changed to allow for the continued legal cultivation of industrial hemp. Anslinger even backed off on hemp prohibition in a very cunning maneuver.
After the Act was passed, Anslinger single-handedly usurped congressional power by mandating hemp prohibition. He justified his action by saying that his agents couldn't tell the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana in the field, so hemp cultivation made enforcement of marijuana prohibition impossible. This unconstitutional usurpation of congressional law is still in effect today as the Department of Justice and the DEA still cling to Anslinger's unjust and unjustifiable prohibition on domestic hemp cultivation.
Hemp for victory
With the United States entering World War II only four years after hemp's prohibition, and the synthetic fiber industry still in its infancy, the armed forces experienced a dangerous shortage of fiber for the war effort. In 1942, the U.S. government performed a convenient about-face on the hemp issue. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) produced and distributed a motion picture called "Hemp for Victory" in which the federal government not only promoted the many uses of cannabis hemp, but also detailed the most efficient cultivation and harvesting methods. The picture pronounced, "Hemp for mooring ships! Hemp for tackle and gear! Thread for shoes for millions of American soldiers! And parachute webbing for our paratroopers! Hemp for Victory!"
By the end of the war, hemp was no longer needed for strategic purposes and synthetic fiber was being produced more efficiently and abundantly than ever. The same soldiers that hemp had supplied with ship's rigging, rope, tackle, gear, shoes, and parachutes turn against their recent ally. The Marines themselves, armed with flame-throwers, and Air Force pilots in crop dusters are ordered to destroy the same million acres of hemp that were recently planted for the war effort. These actions were the beginning of the modern war on marijuana, or more correctly, the modern war on cannabis, including non-drug hemp.
The war on hemp
This is a war that Harry Anslinger took to the United Nations. As U.S. representative on the UN's drug committee, Anslinger initiated a series of conventions to prohibit the plant worldwide. To this day, most nations (especially the poorer ones) cannot get aid from the United States unless they have a government plan to eradicate hemp.
For example, Bangladesh. "Bang" means marijuana; Bang-la-desh means marijuana-land-people. The U.S. government went into Bangladesh and cropdusted their country with toxic herbicides. Not only did we poison the people of Bangladesh with our "War on Drugs", but we killed all the hemp that was holding the hillsides together. There was massive flooding and landslides as a direct result of America's global drug policy.
Another example is when we paid King Hassad of Syria to go into the camps of Lebanese Bedouin nomads and cut down their hemp fields, their food and fiber, with tanks! Harry Anslinger's modern-day successors, true to his irrational and fanatical methods, are waging a global genocide war against a plant!
It's not about drugs
The DEA and Department of Justice's claim that the prohibition of domestic hemp cultivation should continue because of its relationship to marijuana is a farce. There are strains of industrial hemp that are entirely drug-free. Law enforcement's contention that high-THC cannabis could be hidden in a hemp field is also erroneous, as cross-pollination would ruin the marijuana.
Their claim that it's too difficult to tell the difference in the field is also a lie. Industrial hemp looks more like bamboo than marijuana, and the other 30 industrial nations that cultivate hemp legally have no problem identifying the types of cannabis in their fields. The fact that the Drug Enforcement Agency is prohibiting a drug-free plant is proof positive that the hemp issue is not about drugs. There is no drug in the plant.
It's all about money
The prohibition of domestic hemp growth is about what everything is about in this country. It's about money. The drug war is big business huge business. If hemp cultivation were legalized, there would be an awful lot of DEA agents out of a job.
Consider this: of the one-and-a-half billion cannabis plants found and destroyed by U.S. drug agents between 1993 and 1997, only fourteen million were marijuana. That's 0.9 percent. That means that 99.1 percent were low-THC hemp. Legalizing hemp would translate to laying off 99.1 percent of all agents of the War on Marijuana, 99.1 percent fewer guns, helicopters, automobiles, flack jackets, etc. That's a lot of money in government contracts.
Hemp is a plant that can naturally and sustainably provide many products presently available only from corporate giants like DuPont, International Paper, Texaco, BASF and the like. They could lose billions if hemp was grown in the United States for fiber, paper, fuel, and plastics. They have millions of dollars to back anti-hemp propaganda. They sponsor programs like D.A.R.E. and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America that equate hemp's cousin marijuana with deadly drugs like heroin and methamphetamine to prevent Americans from learning the truth. The cannabis leaf has even become the poster child for the drug war. Corporate-backed programs such as D.A.R.E. and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America are teaching our children that this incredible Earth-friendly plant is as dangerous as heroin and methamphetamine. These corporations slander cannabis while promoting themselves as lovers and supporters of the environment. They run TV commercials that would have us believe that they are environmental activists with deceptive claims and scenes of pristine streams and forests. But what they really do is clear-cut pristine rainforests, poison our air with ozone-depleting greenhouse gases, and produce tons of toxic chemicals that end up in our drinking water.
source
by Anon
Hemp is another word for the plant Cannabis sativa L. Marijuana comes from this same plant genus – and so do broccoli and cauliflower. But the strains of hemp used in industrial and consumer products contain only a negligible level of the intoxicating substance delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Thus, industrial grade hemp is not marijuana.
Hemp is the most useful and beneficial plant in nature.
Hemp as food
Hemp seeds are drug-free and extremely nutritious. They can be eaten whole, pressed into edible oil like soybeans, or ground into flour for baking. They are one of the best sources of vegetable protein. They contain a full complement of essential amino acids, essential fatty-acids (EFA'S), and have been shown to lower blood cholesterol and dissolve plaque in coronary arteries.
Because hemp is such a hardy plant, it can grow easily and abundantly almost anywhere, and can provide nutrition where other edible crops just won't grow. Hemp can even be cultivated in arid regions with poor soil like Saharan Africa or in places with a very short growing season like Scandinavia.
Hemp for body care
Hemp seed oil is perfectly suited for hair and skin care. Its nutritional value, combined with its moisturizing and replenishing EFA's, make it one of the best vegetable body care foundations. Hemp seed oil's EFA complement includes polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3, omega-6, omega-9, linoleic acid, and gamma linoleic acids (GLA's). Although they are very effective in skin care maintenance, GLA's are rarely found in natural oils. Hemp is an excellent source of GLA's.
Paper from hemp
Hemp paper is naturally acid-free. The oldest printed paper in existence is a 100 percent hemp Chinese text dated to 770 AD. Thomas Jefferson drafted both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution on hemp paper.
Hemp's cellulose level is almost three times that of wood, so it makes superior paper and yields four times as much pulp per acre as trees. The hemp paper process also utilizes less energy and fewer chemicals than tree paper processing and doesn't create the harmful dioxins, chloroform, or any of the other 2,000 chlorinated organic compounds that have been identified as byproducts of the wood paper process.
Hemp is a sustainable, annual crop that is ready for harvest just 120 days after going to seed, compared to trees which take tens or hundreds of years to reach maturity. Further, harvesting hemp doesn't destroy the natural habitats of thousands of distinct animal and plant species.
Historically, hemp was an important source of paper fiber until the early 1900's when chemicals were developed to advance the wood paper pulp industry. Wood pulp paper rode the chemical revolution to its apex before the public health hazards of toxic chemicals were an issue and before the environmental consequences of clear-cutting forests were appreciated.
Hemp as fuel
Hemp seeds have provided a combustible fuel oil throughout human history. More importantly, though, the same high cellulose level that makes hemp ideal for paper also makes it perfect for ethanol fuel production. Ethanol is the cleanest-burning liquid bio-alternative to gasoline. In one test, an unleaded gasoline automobile engine produced a thick, black carbon residue in its exhaust, while the tailpipe of a modified ethanol engine tested for the same 3,500 miles remained pristine and residue-free.
Ethanol is derived from plant cellulose. Plants absorb carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight and produce oxygen and cellulose, which contains the sun's energy captured in plant cells. When ethanol combusts, it releases energy, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is then absorbed by plants, along with water and sunlight, to create more oxygen and cellulose. It is a clean and sustainable cycle.
Since gasoline engines are a primary source of carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases, alternative fuels such as ethanol could contribute significantly to the rejuvenation of our atmospheric air quality. Hemp provides a sustainable, renewable, and natural alternative to toxic fossil fuels.
Hemp as paint & plastic
Hemp oil extract can also be used as an ingredient in nontoxic, biodegradable inks, paints, and varnishes. It is an ideal raw material for plant-based plastics such as cellophane as well as more recently developed cellulose-based plastics.
Henry Ford himself manufactured the body of an automobile from hemp-based plastic in 1941. The plastic was much lighter than steel and could withstand ten times the impact without denting. The car was even fueled by clean-burning hemp-based ethanol fuel.
Hemp as textile fiber
Hemp is the longest and strongest plant fiber. It is extremely abrasion and rot resistant and was the primary source of canvas, sail, rope, twine, and webbing fiber for hundreds of years before nylon was patented by DuPont in 1937. Hemp was used for clothing, military uniforms, ship's rigging, shoes, parachute webbing, baggage, and much more. Christopher Columbus' ships were fully rigged in hemp. The U.S.S. Constitution, "Old Ironsides," was outfitted with over 40 tons of hemp rigging.
Because of the multitude of uses for hemp, the early Colonial American governments mandated its cultivation. Early American settlers even used hemp fiber as money and to pay taxes. Because of its length and strength, hemp fiber can be woven into natural advanced composites, which can then be fashioned into anything from fast food containers to skateboard decks to the body of a stealth fighter.
Concrete from hemp
Madame France Perrier builds about 300 houses per year out of hemp in France. Years ago she researched ways to petrify vegetable matter. During her studies, she found evidence in ancient Egyptian archaeological sites of hemp-based concrete. When she discovered the ingredients of the mix, she duplicated the method. She mixes hemp hurds (the inner fiber) with limestone and water, which causes the hemp to harden into a substance stronger than cement and only one sixth the weight. Madame Perrier' isochanvre is also more flexible than concrete, giving it a major advantage over conventional building materials, especially in areas throughout the world that are prone to earthquakes.
Hemp replacing wood
Bill Conde is the owner of the largest Redwood lumberyard in Oregon, and one of the few lumber men willing to admit hemp's benefits. His family has been in the lumber industry for generations. He is a firsthand witness to the destruction of the nation's pristine forests. The fiberboard offshoot of the lumber industry is one of the most threatening to the world's forests.
Fiberboard, or pressboard, is made by chipping trees into small pieces and then compressing the chips into boards using adhesives. This industry is so destructive because chip plants can use young immature trees, which are just as useful for pressboard as older trees. These mills threaten to destroy even the youngest of forests. Conde and the highly regarded wood products division of Washington State University developed a method of fabricating tree-free pressboard out of hemp. The method uses existing technology and wood-chip mills. Their hemp fiberboard is superior in strength and quality to the same product produced using trees.
Hemp as rotation crop and soil rejuvenator
Hemp is an ideal rotation crop for farmers worldwide. It puts down a taproot twelve inches long in only thirty days, preventing topsoil erosion. Its water requirements are negligible, so it doesn't require much irrigation and will grow in arid regions. It matures from seed in only 120 days, so it doesn't need a long growing season. Hemp's soil nutrients concentrate in the plant's roots and leaves. After harvest, the roots remain and the leaves are returned to the fields. In this way, soil nutrients are preserved.
Hemp is also a beneficial crop for the Earth itself. It is very easy on the land. It doesn't need many nutrients, so it doesn't require chemical fertilizers. Hemp outcompetes other weeds, so it doesn't need herbicides to thrive. Even hemp strains that are 100 percent THC-free produce their own resins that make the crop naturally pest-free, so it doesn't require toxic chemical pesticides. Hemp actually leaves the soil in better condition than before it was planted.
Hemp as public enemy #1
Hemp was the first plant known to have been domestically cultivated. The oldest relic of human history is hemp fabric dated to 8,000 BC from ancient Mesopotamia, an area in present-day Turkey. It has been grown as long as recorded history for food, fuel, fiber, and for another legitimate use, which is not even discussed here for the sake of brevity medicine. So, with all these uses and benefits, why is cannabis cultivation illegal in the United States today? Here is a brief history of cannabis prohibition:
Hemp was a primary source of paper, textile, and cordage fiber for thousands of years until just after the turn of the 20th century. It was at this time that companies like DuPont first developed chemicals that enabled trees to be processed into paper.
DuPont's chemicals made wood pulp paper cheaper than paper made from annual crops like hemp. At the same time Wm. Randolph Hearst, the owner of the largest newspaper chain in the United States, backed by Mellon Bank, invested significant capital in timberland and wood paper mills to produce his newsprint using DuPont's chemicals.
DuPont also developed nylon fiber as a direct competitor to hemp in the textile and cordage industries. Nylon was even billed as synthetic hemp.
DuPont was also manufacturing chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers useful in the cotton industry, another hemp competitor.
Mellon Bank, owned by U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, was also DuPont's primary financier. Mellon's niece was married to Harry Anslinger, deputy commissioner of the federal government's alcohol prohibition campaign. After the repeal of Prohibition, Anslinger and his entire federal bureau were out of a job. But Treasurer Mellon didn't let that happen. Andrew Mellon single-handedly created a new government bureaucracy, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, to keep his family and friends employed. And then he unapologetically appointed his own niece's husband, Harry Anslinger, as head of the new multimillion dollar bureaucracy.
At the same time, a machine was developed that was to hemp what the cotton gin was to cotton: it allowed hemp's long, tough fiber to be mass processed efficiently and economically for the first time. Popular Mechanics, in February 1937, predicted hemp would be the world's first "Billion Dollar Crop" that would support thousands of jobs and provide a vast array of consumer products from dynamite to plastics.
This potential rejuvenation of hemp was a major threat to Secretary Mellon's friends and business associates, especially Randolph Hearst with his wood paper industry and Lammont DuPont with his petrochemical and synthetic fiber conglomerates. After all, hemp farmers wouldn't need DuPont's chemicals to grow their hemp because the crop is self-sufficient. The hemp-based ethanol fuel that was mentioned in the Popular Mechanics' article probably didn't sit too well with the oil companies of the time. They also couldn't have been too thrilled to learn that this same plant produced high-strength plastics without a petroleum base. The hemp-based plastics developed at the time were stronger and lighter than steel, which we can imagine wasn't the best news for the steel industry.
In addition, the growing pharmaceutical companies were producing synthetic drugs to replace natural medicines. Hemp extract was used for thousands of years to effectively treat everything from epileptic fits to rheumatoid arthritis. Chances are, hemp's resurgence wasn't good news for these drug companies either.
What we see is that the potential revival of the hemp industry was a threat to almost all the corporate giants of the time, and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon was at the top of this food chain.
So Commissioner Anslinger, Mellon's appointee, begins researching rumors that immigrants from Mexico are smoking the flowers of the hemp plant. Racism was rampant at the time, and there was a government movement to curb the number of immigrants crossing the U.S. border at Mexico. Anslinger plugged into the racist sentiment, and began referring to the "hemp" that Americans knew cannabis to be, as "marijuana," the Mexican slang word for the plant. He labeled it as a "narcotic" even though cannabis flowers cannot cause narcosis, and spread exaggerated stories and outright lies that Mexicans and blacks became violent and disrespectful to whites when they smoked the "evil menace marijuana."
This slander of cannabis was all just fine for Anslinger's friends, the Mellons, the DuPonts, and the Hearsts. In fact, Hearst's newspapers picked up on the propaganda and fueled the fire by publishing hundreds of lurid stories about people raping and murdering while under the influence of marijuana. The sensationalism sold lots of newspapers, and the people of the country actually based their opinions on this one-sided information. Of course the stories never mentioned the hemp that people used everyday as rope, paper, medicine, and more. The stories always referred to cannabis by the Mexican slang word, marijuana.
With the moral and prohibitive fervor of the time duly stirred, Anslinger took his show to Congress. At the proceedings of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, Anslinger didn't mention that marijuana was hemp. And because anti-marijuana propaganda didn't mention that basic fact, hemp industries found out almost too late about the effort to criminalize cannabis cultivation. Testimony was heard from the full gamut of hemp companies and advocates, from birdseed suppliers to cordage manufacturers, from farmers to physicians, all touting hemp's importance in American history and the many industrial, agricultural, medicinal, and economic benefits of cannabis. Only after their testimony, was the wording of the bill changed to allow for the continued legal cultivation of industrial hemp. Anslinger even backed off on hemp prohibition in a very cunning maneuver.
After the Act was passed, Anslinger single-handedly usurped congressional power by mandating hemp prohibition. He justified his action by saying that his agents couldn't tell the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana in the field, so hemp cultivation made enforcement of marijuana prohibition impossible. This unconstitutional usurpation of congressional law is still in effect today as the Department of Justice and the DEA still cling to Anslinger's unjust and unjustifiable prohibition on domestic hemp cultivation.
Hemp for victory
With the United States entering World War II only four years after hemp's prohibition, and the synthetic fiber industry still in its infancy, the armed forces experienced a dangerous shortage of fiber for the war effort. In 1942, the U.S. government performed a convenient about-face on the hemp issue. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) produced and distributed a motion picture called "Hemp for Victory" in which the federal government not only promoted the many uses of cannabis hemp, but also detailed the most efficient cultivation and harvesting methods. The picture pronounced, "Hemp for mooring ships! Hemp for tackle and gear! Thread for shoes for millions of American soldiers! And parachute webbing for our paratroopers! Hemp for Victory!"
By the end of the war, hemp was no longer needed for strategic purposes and synthetic fiber was being produced more efficiently and abundantly than ever. The same soldiers that hemp had supplied with ship's rigging, rope, tackle, gear, shoes, and parachutes turn against their recent ally. The Marines themselves, armed with flame-throwers, and Air Force pilots in crop dusters are ordered to destroy the same million acres of hemp that were recently planted for the war effort. These actions were the beginning of the modern war on marijuana, or more correctly, the modern war on cannabis, including non-drug hemp.
The war on hemp
This is a war that Harry Anslinger took to the United Nations. As U.S. representative on the UN's drug committee, Anslinger initiated a series of conventions to prohibit the plant worldwide. To this day, most nations (especially the poorer ones) cannot get aid from the United States unless they have a government plan to eradicate hemp.
For example, Bangladesh. "Bang" means marijuana; Bang-la-desh means marijuana-land-people. The U.S. government went into Bangladesh and cropdusted their country with toxic herbicides. Not only did we poison the people of Bangladesh with our "War on Drugs", but we killed all the hemp that was holding the hillsides together. There was massive flooding and landslides as a direct result of America's global drug policy.
Another example is when we paid King Hassad of Syria to go into the camps of Lebanese Bedouin nomads and cut down their hemp fields, their food and fiber, with tanks! Harry Anslinger's modern-day successors, true to his irrational and fanatical methods, are waging a global genocide war against a plant!
It's not about drugs
The DEA and Department of Justice's claim that the prohibition of domestic hemp cultivation should continue because of its relationship to marijuana is a farce. There are strains of industrial hemp that are entirely drug-free. Law enforcement's contention that high-THC cannabis could be hidden in a hemp field is also erroneous, as cross-pollination would ruin the marijuana.
Their claim that it's too difficult to tell the difference in the field is also a lie. Industrial hemp looks more like bamboo than marijuana, and the other 30 industrial nations that cultivate hemp legally have no problem identifying the types of cannabis in their fields. The fact that the Drug Enforcement Agency is prohibiting a drug-free plant is proof positive that the hemp issue is not about drugs. There is no drug in the plant.
It's all about money
The prohibition of domestic hemp growth is about what everything is about in this country. It's about money. The drug war is big business huge business. If hemp cultivation were legalized, there would be an awful lot of DEA agents out of a job.
Consider this: of the one-and-a-half billion cannabis plants found and destroyed by U.S. drug agents between 1993 and 1997, only fourteen million were marijuana. That's 0.9 percent. That means that 99.1 percent were low-THC hemp. Legalizing hemp would translate to laying off 99.1 percent of all agents of the War on Marijuana, 99.1 percent fewer guns, helicopters, automobiles, flack jackets, etc. That's a lot of money in government contracts.
Hemp is a plant that can naturally and sustainably provide many products presently available only from corporate giants like DuPont, International Paper, Texaco, BASF and the like. They could lose billions if hemp was grown in the United States for fiber, paper, fuel, and plastics. They have millions of dollars to back anti-hemp propaganda. They sponsor programs like D.A.R.E. and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America that equate hemp's cousin marijuana with deadly drugs like heroin and methamphetamine to prevent Americans from learning the truth. The cannabis leaf has even become the poster child for the drug war. Corporate-backed programs such as D.A.R.E. and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America are teaching our children that this incredible Earth-friendly plant is as dangerous as heroin and methamphetamine. These corporations slander cannabis while promoting themselves as lovers and supporters of the environment. They run TV commercials that would have us believe that they are environmental activists with deceptive claims and scenes of pristine streams and forests. But what they really do is clear-cut pristine rainforests, poison our air with ozone-depleting greenhouse gases, and produce tons of toxic chemicals that end up in our drinking water.
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Industrial Hemp in the United States
The "top" search for "United States Hemp Cultivation", reveals just how little is being done in the Industrial Hemp field of the U.S.A.. Even the evaluation of industrial hemp is undercultivated.
Dave Kristula, March 29, 2000
The hemp plant "has played a vital role in world commerce for at least six thousand years," according to John W. Roulac, author of Hemp Horizons (27). Originally cultivated in China and used for making rope and fishnets (HH 27), today hemp is grown throughout the world - except in the United States, where it is illegal to grow the plant but not illegal to manufacture and sell products made from it. Many hurdles face the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce.
Hemp is an annual fiber crop with over 25,000 known uses (HH back cover). Common products that can be made from hemp include clothing, paper, and building materials. The advantages of hemp cultivation over traditional crop cultivation are numerous. For example, Roulac suggests that "one acre of industrial hemp can produce up to four times as much paper as one acre of trees" (HH viii). Hemp can be grown in most fields "with little or no herbicides or insecticides" and rotates well with grain, beans, and flax (HH 129).
Hemp's true botanical name is Cannabis Sativa L. In many countries, including the United States, hemp is grown illicitly to produce marijuana. Virtually all varieties of hemp contain "[t]he potentially psychoactive chemical . . . delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)" (HH 9). Marijuana-producing hemp usually has a THC content of three to fifteen percent or higher while industrial hemp usually contains less than one percent THC (HH 9).
Hemp was cultivated in the colonies that would later become the United States soon after settlement (HH 32). The Declaration of Independence was written on paper containing hemp fiber (HH 32). States where hemp was once an extremely important crop include Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Each of these states has at least one town whose name contains hemp including Hempfield, Pennsylvania (HH 33).
The first law preventing the cultivation of hemp in the United States was the Marihuana [SIC] Tax Act of 1937, which virtually eliminated a farmer's right to grow the plant (HH 42). In 1937 THC had not yet been identified as the chemical causing the psychoactive effects of marijuana (HH 48). Although THC was identified as "marijuana's psychoactive agent" in 1964 (HH 64) Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act in 1970 (HH 62) which continued to disallow the cultivation of industrial hemp because all hemp was still classified as psychoactive, regardless of actual THC content. The United Kingdom and Canada passed similar legislation following the lead of the United States, but both of these countries lifted their bans on industrial hemp in the 1990s (HH 21).
Jon Gettman, in his 1996 Business Survey entitled Hemp Power, discovered that American hemp business owners believe most of the hemp fiber used in the products they sell are imported from China, Hungary, Romania, and Thailand (13). The most popular hemp items in 1996 were clothing, accessories, hats, and caps (HP 11). Gettman found that hemp imports in Germany and the United Kingdom totaled over $3 million in 1994 (HP 15), and predicted in his report that gross revenues in the United States from hemp products sold in 1996 would total at least $23.3 million (HP 19).
The eyes of those involved in the American hemp industry were focused on Canadian farms in the late 1990s. On March 12, 1998, hemp cultivation was once again permitted with license in Canada (ICPIH). In August 1998, Doug Campbell of Consolidated Growers and Processors of Canada Ltd. announced company plans to build a $6 million hemp processing plant in rural Manitoba (CHF). According to David Kuxhaus, legislative reporter of the Winnipeg Free Press, "Campbell said [Canadian] farmers could gross in excess of $400 per acre" (CHF). In a 1998 study the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky estimated a typical hemp crop in Kentucky would be worth from $220 in net revenue for grain production to $600 in net revenue for certified seed production (FH 3). Tobacco is the only crop capable of producing higher revenues (FH 3).
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration recently allowed a test plot of hemp to be grown in Hawaii. The University of Hawaii received $200,000 in funding for this project from Alterna, a hair care company interested in using the hemp seed in their products (HBHE). The results of this experimental plot may determine the likelihood of further allowance of industrial hemp cultivation in the United States.
Given the rise in petroleum prices, it is unfortunate that so little attention has been paid to the industrial hemp industry. The oils of the hemp plant have been made into both biodegradable plastics (HH 120) and ethanol fuels (BOH). Both of these uses of hemp oil would be more ecologically sound when compared to using their petroleum counterparts because most petroleum-based plastics are not biodegradable and the burning of petroleum-based gasoline, unlike biomass (plant) fuel, is a major cause of air pollution.
Farmers, corporations, business owners, and consumers will all play a major role in the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American society. According to a United States Department of Agriculture report "Canada's 35,000 acres [of industrial hemp] seemingly oversupplied the North American hemp market in 1999" (IHUS). An increase in the demand for hemp products as well as widespread knowledge of the benefits of hemp is ultimately necessary for the reintroduction of this crop to be both feasible and successful.
Works Cited
Dunford. Bruce. "Hawaii Begins Hemp Experiment." Fox News Online. 15 December 1999. 28 January 2000..
"Factbook : Hemp." Common Sense for Drug Policy. 1998. 4 sections. 26 March 2000..
Gettman, Jon. "Hemp Power: Hemp Entrepreneurs and U.S. Policy." Hemp Company of America, 1996.
"Information on the Commercial Production of Industrial Hemp." Canadian Industrial Hemp Council. March 1998. 9 December 1999..
Kuxhaus, David. "Canadian Hemp Facility A First." Winnipeg Free Press Business Section 18 August 1998. Media Awareness Project. 2 February 2000. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n712.a02.html>.
"Our World, Sustainable Forestry Challenge." International Paper. 9 December 1999. http://www.internationalpaper.com/our_world/sfi/forestry/forestry5.html>.
Pollitt, Eric C. ed. "Industrial Hemp in the United States: Status and Market Potential." Global Hemp. 19 January 2000. 1 February 2000. http://www.globalhemp.com/Archives/Government_Research/USDA/hemp_study_2000_summary.shtml>.
Roulac, John W. Hemp Horizons: The Comeback of the World's Most Promising Plant. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1997.
Roussel, Scott. "The Benefits of Hemp." San Diego Earth Times. Ecomall. Ecology America, Inc. 28 January 2000..
Dave Kristula, March 29, 2000
The hemp plant "has played a vital role in world commerce for at least six thousand years," according to John W. Roulac, author of Hemp Horizons (27). Originally cultivated in China and used for making rope and fishnets (HH 27), today hemp is grown throughout the world - except in the United States, where it is illegal to grow the plant but not illegal to manufacture and sell products made from it. Many hurdles face the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce.
Hemp is an annual fiber crop with over 25,000 known uses (HH back cover). Common products that can be made from hemp include clothing, paper, and building materials. The advantages of hemp cultivation over traditional crop cultivation are numerous. For example, Roulac suggests that "one acre of industrial hemp can produce up to four times as much paper as one acre of trees" (HH viii). Hemp can be grown in most fields "with little or no herbicides or insecticides" and rotates well with grain, beans, and flax (HH 129).
Hemp's true botanical name is Cannabis Sativa L. In many countries, including the United States, hemp is grown illicitly to produce marijuana. Virtually all varieties of hemp contain "[t]he potentially psychoactive chemical . . . delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)" (HH 9). Marijuana-producing hemp usually has a THC content of three to fifteen percent or higher while industrial hemp usually contains less than one percent THC (HH 9).
Hemp was cultivated in the colonies that would later become the United States soon after settlement (HH 32). The Declaration of Independence was written on paper containing hemp fiber (HH 32). States where hemp was once an extremely important crop include Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Each of these states has at least one town whose name contains hemp including Hempfield, Pennsylvania (HH 33).
The first law preventing the cultivation of hemp in the United States was the Marihuana [SIC] Tax Act of 1937, which virtually eliminated a farmer's right to grow the plant (HH 42). In 1937 THC had not yet been identified as the chemical causing the psychoactive effects of marijuana (HH 48). Although THC was identified as "marijuana's psychoactive agent" in 1964 (HH 64) Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act in 1970 (HH 62) which continued to disallow the cultivation of industrial hemp because all hemp was still classified as psychoactive, regardless of actual THC content. The United Kingdom and Canada passed similar legislation following the lead of the United States, but both of these countries lifted their bans on industrial hemp in the 1990s (HH 21).
Jon Gettman, in his 1996 Business Survey entitled Hemp Power, discovered that American hemp business owners believe most of the hemp fiber used in the products they sell are imported from China, Hungary, Romania, and Thailand (13). The most popular hemp items in 1996 were clothing, accessories, hats, and caps (HP 11). Gettman found that hemp imports in Germany and the United Kingdom totaled over $3 million in 1994 (HP 15), and predicted in his report that gross revenues in the United States from hemp products sold in 1996 would total at least $23.3 million (HP 19).
The eyes of those involved in the American hemp industry were focused on Canadian farms in the late 1990s. On March 12, 1998, hemp cultivation was once again permitted with license in Canada (ICPIH). In August 1998, Doug Campbell of Consolidated Growers and Processors of Canada Ltd. announced company plans to build a $6 million hemp processing plant in rural Manitoba (CHF). According to David Kuxhaus, legislative reporter of the Winnipeg Free Press, "Campbell said [Canadian] farmers could gross in excess of $400 per acre" (CHF). In a 1998 study the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky estimated a typical hemp crop in Kentucky would be worth from $220 in net revenue for grain production to $600 in net revenue for certified seed production (FH 3). Tobacco is the only crop capable of producing higher revenues (FH 3).
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration recently allowed a test plot of hemp to be grown in Hawaii. The University of Hawaii received $200,000 in funding for this project from Alterna, a hair care company interested in using the hemp seed in their products (HBHE). The results of this experimental plot may determine the likelihood of further allowance of industrial hemp cultivation in the United States.
Given the rise in petroleum prices, it is unfortunate that so little attention has been paid to the industrial hemp industry. The oils of the hemp plant have been made into both biodegradable plastics (HH 120) and ethanol fuels (BOH). Both of these uses of hemp oil would be more ecologically sound when compared to using their petroleum counterparts because most petroleum-based plastics are not biodegradable and the burning of petroleum-based gasoline, unlike biomass (plant) fuel, is a major cause of air pollution.
Farmers, corporations, business owners, and consumers will all play a major role in the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American society. According to a United States Department of Agriculture report "Canada's 35,000 acres [of industrial hemp] seemingly oversupplied the North American hemp market in 1999" (IHUS). An increase in the demand for hemp products as well as widespread knowledge of the benefits of hemp is ultimately necessary for the reintroduction of this crop to be both feasible and successful.
Works Cited
Dunford. Bruce. "Hawaii Begins Hemp Experiment." Fox News Online. 15 December 1999. 28 January 2000.
"Factbook : Hemp." Common Sense for Drug Policy. 1998. 4 sections. 26 March 2000.
Gettman, Jon. "Hemp Power: Hemp Entrepreneurs and U.S. Policy." Hemp Company of America, 1996.
"Information on the Commercial Production of Industrial Hemp." Canadian Industrial Hemp Council. March 1998. 9 December 1999.
Kuxhaus, David. "Canadian Hemp Facility A First." Winnipeg Free Press Business Section 18 August 1998. Media Awareness Project. 2 February 2000. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n712.a02.html>.
"Our World, Sustainable Forestry Challenge." International Paper. 9 December 1999. http://www.internationalpaper.com/our_world/sfi/forestry/forestry5.html>.
Pollitt, Eric C. ed. "Industrial Hemp in the United States: Status and Market Potential." Global Hemp. 19 January 2000. 1 February 2000. http://www.globalhemp.com/Archives/Government_Research/USDA/hemp_study_2000_summary.shtml>.
Roulac, John W. Hemp Horizons: The Comeback of the World's Most Promising Plant. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1997.
Roussel, Scott. "The Benefits of Hemp." San Diego Earth Times. Ecomall. Ecology America, Inc. 28 January 2000.
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA INVESTS IN FIBRE RESEARCH TO HELP FARMERS
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, March 18, 2009 - The Government of Canada is investing in the hemp and flax industry so that farmers can harness new opportunities and access new value added markets. The Honourable Vic Toews, Member of Parliament for Provencher and President of the Treasury Board, today announced a $9.6 million investment in the Natural Fibres for the Green Economy Network (NAFGEN).
"Our Government is continuing to deliver real results to our farmers, our rural communities and our economy," said Mr. Toews, on behalf of Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "This new, innovative research will explore the full potential of Canadian flax and hemp crops to create better returns for farmers and boost our economy."
Led by Flax Canada 2015 Inc., NAFGEN is a multidisciplinary network that brings together Canada's top researchers, industry and producers to help create additional profitable natural fibre-based industrial value chains by improving varieties, technologies and processes, and by improving products made out of the natural fibres.
"NAFGEN's networking approach is significant in that through collaboration of government, university and corporate research facilities and scientists their strengths and specialities are combined," said Barry Hall, President, Flax Canada 2015 Inc. "Working as a team affords the best opportunity for the industry to develop new and improved technology and products for both flax and hemp fibre, thereby enhancing the value of these two crops."
Funding for this project is being provided through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program (ABIP), a federal funding program designed to integrate Canada's talent from universities, industry and government in order to stimulate creativity, leverage resources, reduce costs and accelerate progress towards commercialization of bioproducts and bioprocesses.
"The funding for fibre research through the NAFGEN network is important and holds considerable promise for enhancing the value of the flax crop to producers through whole crop utilization," said Eric Fridfinnson, a Manitoba-based flax producer and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Flax Canada 2015 Inc.
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Agricultural and Agri-food Canada
"Our Government is continuing to deliver real results to our farmers, our rural communities and our economy," said Mr. Toews, on behalf of Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "This new, innovative research will explore the full potential of Canadian flax and hemp crops to create better returns for farmers and boost our economy."
Led by Flax Canada 2015 Inc., NAFGEN is a multidisciplinary network that brings together Canada's top researchers, industry and producers to help create additional profitable natural fibre-based industrial value chains by improving varieties, technologies and processes, and by improving products made out of the natural fibres.
"NAFGEN's networking approach is significant in that through collaboration of government, university and corporate research facilities and scientists their strengths and specialities are combined," said Barry Hall, President, Flax Canada 2015 Inc. "Working as a team affords the best opportunity for the industry to develop new and improved technology and products for both flax and hemp fibre, thereby enhancing the value of these two crops."
Funding for this project is being provided through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program (ABIP), a federal funding program designed to integrate Canada's talent from universities, industry and government in order to stimulate creativity, leverage resources, reduce costs and accelerate progress towards commercialization of bioproducts and bioprocesses.
"The funding for fibre research through the NAFGEN network is important and holds considerable promise for enhancing the value of the flax crop to producers through whole crop utilization," said Eric Fridfinnson, a Manitoba-based flax producer and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Flax Canada 2015 Inc.
article
Related Links:
Agricultural and Agri-food Canada
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