High on Hemp

Humanist, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Jim Hightower

it was country music legend Willie Nelson who first suggested to me that hemp is "not just for breakfast anymore." And Willie is a fellow who knows quite a bit about the plant called cannabis, marijuana, pot, reefer, or whatever you choose to call it.

But Willies point wasn't to tout the smokable cannabis but to push a strain of the plant that farmers worldwide have been raising for 6,000 years to produce a cornucopia of products, including beautiful fabrics, fine paper, inexpensive fuel, safe pain-relievers, and plastic substitutes.

Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was drafted on paper made of 100 percent, pure dee hemp, that "Old Ironsides" was powered by hemp-cloth sails, and that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson cultivated the stufff Jefferson even wrote that "hemp is of first necessity ... to the wealth and protection of the country." And he wasn't just blowing smoke.

Even though hemp had been demonized and outlawed in the United States in 1937 as part of a nutty "Reefer Madness" campaign, it got a reprieve during World War II when the military suddenly needed huge amounts of rope and other hemp products. A "Hemp for Victory" drive was launched and 400,000 acres were rushed into production. With the war's end, however, the heroic crop went back on the no-no list, where it remains today.

This isn't about "Puff the Magic Dragon;" it's about an easy-to-grow commercial crop that can produce a natural high for our economy. As for its hallucinogenic properties, industrial hemp is to marijuana what near beer is to beer-it has practically zero tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the elemental oomph in marijuana that makes you get high. You could smoke a pure hemp rope all day long and you wouldn't get high; you'd get sick. As an agricultural economist put it: "You'd croak from smoke before you'd get high on hemp,"

Yet our ever-alert Drug Enforcement Administration classifies hemp as a "Schedule One Substance"--right up there with heroin, cocaine, and other life wreckers. Attempt to grow it, and John Ashcroft's drug troopers will storm your property, bulldoze your crop, and haul you off to the federal slammer. If he thinks you were growing hemp for "terrorist purposes,' he'll send you to Guantanamo Bay. He's nuts, but that's another story.

Suppose there was a political issue that could pull together people from all spheres--liberals and Libertarians; environmentalists and small businesses; the American Farm Bureau Federation and International Paper Company; Democrats, Republicans, Greens, New Party members, and Libertarians; Noneoftheabovers and Whatnots? Wouldn't that be worth pursuing? The legalization of hemp for America is one such common-sense, grassroots issue.

Family farmers could benefit because hemp can be a huge cash crop: it will grow anywhere in United States; indeed, the damned stuffliterally is a weed, growing wild in many areas. It has a short growing season, so it can be planted after other crops are harvested, giving farmers two incomes on the same plot of land. Plus, it's profitable. Imagine the frustration of farmers in North Dakota, who are losing money on the grain they raise, looking across the invisible border separating them from their neighbors in Manitoba, Canada, where farmers are enjoying $250-an-acre profit on their hemp crop.

The environment would win, too. Commercial farming today is soaked in chemicals, causing massive contamination of our soil, water, wildlife, and farm families. Contrast hemp: it's natural, requires very little water or fertilizers to produce an abundant yield, and is naturally disease and pest resistant, so toxic chemicals are unnecessary. Its seeds can be collected to grow next year's crop, too.

Also, hemp can save our forests! It produces a top quality pulp for papermaking and an excellent fiber that can be used in lieu of wood for homebuilding, and it's more productive than timber. For example, an acre of hemp generates more pulp than four acres of trees.

The economy also gains. As more and more U.S. jobs are being shipped out to Southeast Beelzebub by corporate America, hemp offers a grassroots opportunity for new economic growth and job creation. The whole plant can be used commercially--leaves, stalk, seeds, oils, and resins. For example:

* Make paper! Paper made from hemp is the best in the world--from beautiful writing papers to cardboard.

* Eat hemp! Its seeds have a wonderful flavor, great cooking versatility, and are more nutritious than soybean seeds because they are high in essential fatty acids, Vitamin E, and dietary fiber and they boost your immune system and are heart-friendly. The oil also makes a great base for skin care products.

* Make beer! Breweries in Kentucky, Maryland, and California are turning out case-loads of really good hemp brews.

* Wear it! Hemp makes strong canvas shoes and beautiful fabrics that "breathe" naturally. Hemp shower curtains are light and--get this--don't mildew. Hemp carpets are durable and naturally flame retardant.