The Prohibition of Life

Henry Ford once rhetorically inquired, "why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?" In over thirty countries worldwide people utilize industrial hemp as a commercial resource of fiber, seed, and oil for use in a wide variety of industrial products. In fact, the United States is currently the only developed nation where hemp is not an established industrial crop.

Whether confused, misguided, or uninterested, by-in-large many Americans simply lack a basic understanding of the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. Cannabinoid Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is responsible for the most prominent psychoactive characteristics of Cannabis. Industrial hemp contains less than 0.3% THC, unlike marijuana, which has been cultivated for centuries to produce THC levels in excess of 20%.

Cannabinoid compounds found in the Cannabis sativa plant comprise the active drug ingredients unique to this genus. Due to human selection and isolation the plant has been split into many “varieties” or “races” for qualities unique to the farmer’s desired harvest. Seeds are sown in the spring and germinate in about three to seven days. Provided ideal conditions, Cannabis can grow to a height of five meters in a four- to six-month growing season.

Cannabis originated in Central Asia and was disseminated throughout the world by humans. Records indicate that Cannabis may have been the first cultivated plant. Historical artifacts reveal its use for food, paper, textiles, and medicine throughout time. Humans have been attracted to the economically valuable characteristics of Cannabis for thousands of years. Prior to 1000 BC until the late 1800’s, Cannabis was ranked as one of the most valuable agricultural crops. It was used for food, lighting oil, medicine, clothes, and more.

Hemp has been found in Chinese culture dating back to 4000 BC and also in Egypt around 3000 BC. History shows that it was grown in Russia, Transylvania, and Bulgaria in the Middle Ages. By the mid 1800’s the Cannabis plant was a well established agricultural commodity in the United States, as it was a primary resource for the both fine and course fabrics, twine, and paper. Benjamin Franklin started the first hemp paper mill, which allowed America to have a domestic resource of paper rather than relying on England.

Between 1914 and 1933, in an effort to stymie the use of Cannabis for its psychotropic effects, thirty-three states passed legislation restricting production of hemp to industrial and medical purposes only. California was the first state to outlaw Cannabis, followed by Texas in 1919. Between 1920 and 1940, economic powers were influenced by a number of steel, oil, and munitions companies, such as Dupont, which soon became the primary munitions manufacturer in America. During this time, Dupont patented fuel additives such as tetraethyl lead and other petroleum based products like nylon, cellophane and plastics.

Congress passed a law in 1937 to discourage Cannabis production for marijuana while still permitting industrial use. In 1942 the United States Department of Agriculture produced a short film titled “Hemp for Victory” encouraging farmers to grow hemp to provide resources for the war and domestic industries. At the government’s request, farmers planted thirty-six thousand acres of hemp. The goal for 1943 was fifty thousand acres. Hemp was used to make cordage, light-weight fire hoses, thread for shoes, parachute webbing, and more.

After the war, hemp fields began to disappear due to competition from synthetic fibers, the effects of the Marihuana Tax Act, and an increasing public anti-drug sentiment unable to distinguish the difference between marijuana and industrial hemp. Hemp production progressively decreased until 1958 when it was no longer grown at all. The prohibition of Cannabis as a drug has led to prohibition of the plant in general. Due to unresolved controversy, most of society has forgotten the historically important uses of Cannabis.

Considering the industrial advantages of the twenty-first century, the possibilities of what we can do with hemp today are endless. When compared to other oil crops, hemp involves less maintenance… resists weeds, thrives in poor soil and grows quickly. Cotton production requires excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers whereas hemp requires little to none. A single crop has the potential to stabilize almost every industry known to man and in doing so bring stability to our climate, offering ideal industrial sustainability.

Billions of malnourished people around the world could benefit from the excellent source of nutrition provided by hemp; immensely impacting global food production. The fruit of hemp is not actually a seed, but rather an achene, which is a small nut covered with a hard shell. Whole hemp seeds contain about twenty- to twenty-five percent protein, twenty- to thirty- percent carbohydrates, and ten- to fifteen- percent insoluble fibers. They contain a wide array of minerals including phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron, and zinc. It is also a great source of Vitamin A and carotene. Hemp seeds can contain about twenty-five to thirty-five percent oil. This highly polyunsaturated oil is particularly nutritious due to its spectrum of amino acids, including all eight that are essential in the human diet.

In a digital world, we often overlook the importance of a sheet of paper. Industries that process cellulose into paper pulp from traditional sources like trees are criticized for deforestation, emission of chemical waste, production of mutagenic waste through chlorine bleaching, and high energy demands. Trees, made of thirty percent cellulose, leave seventy percent to be extracted as a waste product using toxic chemicals whereas industrial hemp can contain up to eighty-five percent cellulose. Important documents throughout history have been written on hemp paper, as it lasts longer and does not yellow over time. In fact, the United Stated Constitution was printed on paper made from hemp.

Just one acre of hemp can produce as much paper as four- to ten- acres of trees over a twenty-year cycle. Hemp only takes four- to six- months to reach maturity whereas trees can take up to eighty years. Less energy is required to produce pulp from hemp than from wood. Furthermore, lignin content is low, allowing the production of unbleached pulp. When seen in this light, using trees for paper production is an inefficient, antiquated, and all around unsustainable practice that is destructive to our biosphere.

Similarly, continued mining of fossil fuels rather than pursuing alternative energy solutions is setting the global economy up for disaster and polluting our atmosphere. Building enterprises on unsustainable, non-renewable resources should be seen as foolhardy when renewable alternatives are so readily available. Gasoline has many disadvantages as an automotive resource. Petroleum has a lower octane rating than ethanol, is more toxic, more dangerous, and contains threatening air pollutants.

In 1925 Henry Ford told a New York Times reporter that ethyl alcohol was “the fuel of the future.” Elaborating, he stated that "there is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years." Henry Ford’s first Model-T was made from resin stiffened hemp fiber, and was fueled by ethanol made from hemp that he grew on his own plantation.

Despite the obvious environmental and economical problems implicit in using petroleum fuels, they continue to be used as the primary fuel for the automobile industry. According to “Hempcar: Transamerica”, there are two key reasons for this: “First, cost per kilometer of travel has been virtually the sole selection criteria. Second, the large investments made by the oil and auto industries in physical capital, human skills, and technology make the entry of a new cost-competitive industry difficult. Until very recently, environmental concerns have been largely ignored. All of that is finally changing as consumers demand fuels such as ethanol, which are much better for the environment and human health.”

Bob Newland explains that between 1920 and 1970 the big oil companies such as Rockefeller, Standard Oil, and Rothschild of Shell, “realized the possibilities of Henry Ford’s vision of cheap methanol fuel, so they kept oil prices at between one dollar and four dollars a barrel (almost 42 gallons in a barrel), so that no other energy source could compete with it, until 1970, after all competition was erased, when the price of oil jumped to almost forty dollars per barrel.” Faced with little competition and the ever-looming threat of “Peak Oil”, fuel prices will continue to climb until governments begin to shape policy that will stop the outsourcing of energy to OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations.

All cellulose material takes in carbon during its life cycle and when it decays this carbon is released back into the atmosphere. Hemp, when used properly, is one of the smartest building materials in the world. The internal part of the stem, called hemp shiv, when mixed with a lime-based binder creates building materials with a negative carbon footprint. If you take the plant and put it into a wall such as one built from hempcrete, carbon is now sequestered into the wall and not becoming a part of climate change. One building made from hemp can sequester up to twenty-thousand pounds of carbon.

Hempcrete is airtight but welcomes water. When humidity rises in the air, the wall can absorb water and hold it until the humidity drops. The addition of lime to hempcrete has a twofold effect in that while protecting the cellulose from rotting due to water exposure, it also becomes harder over time, in effect returning to its natural state as a rock. This means that hempcrete buildings have the potential to last for thousands of years as opposed to the much shorter life expectancy of modern building materials. Lime is also superior to concrete because it does not have to be heated as much. Concrete must be heated to almost three-thousand degrees which takes a lot of energy and pollutes our environment.

Despite the abounding evidence supporting the benefits of industrial hemp, it is still illegal to grow commercially in the United States today. Rawson explains: “Congress adopted in the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) the same definition of Cannabis sativa that appeared in the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.” The definition makes no distinction between varieties that are very high in THC content and those that contain so little that they lack the potential to produce a psychoactive effect. Since legislation confuses Cannabis fiber varieties with drug varieties, we are unable to harness the industrial potential of a multi-billion dollar domestic renewable resource.

Progress is being made however. In 2005, a specialist in agricultural commodity named Jean Rawson wrote a Congressional Research Service Report for Congress that outlines the political history of the Cannabis plant and highlights many positive findings regarding the remarkable qualities of the plant. He explains that “between 1995 and 2002, fifty-three bills were introduced in state legislatures.” According to one of the industries trade groups, Vote Hemp, twenty-five of those bills were passed. At least fourteen states currently have hemp-related laws in effect. Many of them are requesting scientific, environmental, or economic studies. Some allow the growth of regulated experimental plots. Hawaii, West Virginia, Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota have all passed laws to remove the state barriers of hemp production.

In the past decade, interest in producing industrial hemp in America has grown almost exponentially. Many farmers that are highly dependent upon a single crop such as wheat or tobacco see the plant as a potential high-value crop. Unfortunately, Cannabis is only legal to be grown with a DEA permit that requires adhesion to strict security measures, which are excessive and expensive. These permits are very difficult to obtain and are only granted in rare cases.

In 1998, Canada authorized production of commercial hemp after a fifty-year prohibition. Agriculture Canada (the Canadian department of agriculture) estimates that over one hundred farmers grow hemp in Canada. A Canadian farmer must acquire a license and register the GPS coordinates of their fields. They are also subject to government testing to maintain a ten parts-per-million standard for the maximum amount of THC allowed in hemp grain products. In December of 2003, Agriculture Canada published a report regarding their success with industrial hemp. The following excerpt highlights their positive conclusion:

“Hemp’s remarkable advantages are hard to beat; it matures in three to four months, and it can yield four times as much paper per acre as trees. Hemp can be used to create building materials that are twice as strong as wood and concrete, textile fiber that is stronger than cotton, better oil and paint than petroleum, clean-burning diesel fuel, and biodegradable plastics. In addition, it can produce more digestible protein per acre than any other food source.”

Arguments against commercial hemp production allege that commercial cultivation could increase the likelihood of production of Cannabis high in THC and complicate surveillance and enforcement of covert drug operations. They believe that it would send the wrong message to the American public concerning the government’s position on drugs. The facts simply do not support this stance.

Fiber varieties of hemp contain an insufficient amount of THC to cause a psychological effect. Mark Bourrie, in his book titled Hemp, explains that “high grade marijuana plants are short and bushy with many flower buds, while fiber hemp is tall with one small flower top.” It is easy to see the distinction between different varieties of the Cannabis plant, and therefore using the fiber hemp as concealment of high THC varieties is implausible. Furthermore, to grow marijuana anywhere near a hemp field would significantly lower the THC levels of the marijuana plant because of cross-pollination.

The Arizona Industrial Hemp Counsil informs that marijuana and industrial hemp must be grown very differently in order to yield their respective desired qualities. Hemp plants are grown very close together to produce plants with tall stalks, while high THC varieties are short and bushy and must be grown spaced out so that they can develop their THC-rich flowers and leaves. Marijuana cultivators also try to cull male plants to prevent fertilization of the female plant. Unfertilized females produce more THC, making it attractive as a drug.

In contrast, hemp production normally requires fertilization to produce seeds for future propagation. If hemp pollinates marijuana, genetically, the result will always be lower-THC marijuana. It would be illogical for a farmer to attempt to grow marijuana anywhere near a hemp field because the inevitable pollen would progressively alter the marijuana strain until it no longer produced enough THC to induce a psychoactive effect.

Distinctions made between varieties of Cannabis grown for industrial purposes versus those grown for their psychotropic effects are not made to discredit the potential of cannabinoids as a useful medicine, but rather to illustrate the absurdity behind any legal premise that denies distinction between two separate and different entities. Thomas Jefferson once stated: "If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."

On September the 6th of 1988, Francis Young, an Administrative Law Judge of the DEA stated: "In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. It is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." The University of California’s Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR) has found that Medical marijuana can be effective in treating a wide range of medical ailments. It is most commonly used to treat chronic pain and other neurological disorders, severe nausea and vomiting associated with cancer treatments, muscle spasticity caused by diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and severe appetite suppression. It can be smoked, vaporized, ingested orally, or used as a tincture to relieve a wide range of symptoms.

Sativex, a medical marijuana tincture and recently introduced pharmaceutical drug, administers the medicinal benefits of cannabinoids in an easy to use spray. It is currently approved for usage in Spain, UK, Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada. GW Pharmaceuticals claim that studies of Sativex use in patients has led to the discovery of the endocannabinoid system which has “provided new insights into a neuromodulatory scheme that may provide better explanations of, and treatments for, a wide variety of previously poorly treatable, often painful disorders.”

Modern medicine asserts a pill for every ill but many drugs have serious side effects, withdrawal symptoms, can lead to severe addiction, and in some cases death. Some would think it illogical to assume the pharmaceutical industry in a capitalist society would be in the business of healing people; for if that were the case then it would be in the business of putting itself out of business. In fact, the goal and legal obligation of any publically traded company in a capitalist society is to gain more capital. Given the proper policy regarding medical marijuana, society will have yet another tool in the alleviation of human suffering.

Albert Einstein once stated that "the prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law, for nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." Prohibition only creates a catalyst for crime.

In a 1977 message to congress, President Jimmy Carter stated that "penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use. Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.”

Known for centuries but only recently forgotten, many are once again acknowledging the widespread medicinal qualities of marijuana. As with the prohibition of alcohol in the United States during the 1920’s, marijuana can be found in the streets and homes of America today. Citizens once swayed and frightened by propaganda films like “Reefer Madness” have introduced dialogue into popular culture and supported seventeen states and the nation’s capital in legalizing medical marijuana. Currently, these states have removed barriers from medical marijuana and are regulated by possession limits, laws, and fees.

Despite state legislation that permits the use and possession of marijuana, it is still illegal on a federal level in the United States and is enforced by the DEA. It is listed as a Schedule I drug; meaning that the potential for abuse is high and it has no medical value whereas cocaine and morphine are listed as Schedule II although they are far more dangerous and addictive. Recently, the bill HR 2306 was introduced to congress by Congressmen Ron Paul and Barney Frank to remove marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances. They argue “marijuana laws should be set at the state, not federal, level.” As Ronald Regan once eloquently asserted, "Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."

Society should be concerned about this topic today. Consumerism in a global market is leaving a terrible legacy on our planet. We have a growing need for resources that once extracted and processed will not create harmful effects to the delicate biosphere we depend on for life. Abraham Maslow once observed: "Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values."

No government should have the power to prohibit the life of a natural resource that perpetuates our energy cycle, positively affects global warming, and can be sustainably grown in a very short amount of time when compared to trees and other resources that take many years to form. Thomas Jefferson once said “a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” It would seem the founding fathers’ imparted wisdom regarding the purpose of government has been largely forgotten.

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References:

United States Government. Department of Agriculture. “Hemp for Victory.” Youtube. 1942. Web. 6 Sep 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLpLIP3g-w>.

Ranalli, Paolo. Advances in Hemp Research. New York: The Haworth Press, Inc., 1999. Print.

Bourrie, Mark. Hemp: A Short History of the Most Misunderstood Plant and its Uses and Abuses. New York: Firefly Books (U.S.) Inc., 2003. Print.

Rawson, Jean. "Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity." CRS Report for Congress. Congressional Research Service, 05 Jan 2005. Web. 8 Sep 2012. <http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32725.pdf>.

Newland, Bob. "Chronology of Hemp Throughout History." Hemphasis. N.p., N.d.. Web. 8 Sep 2012. <http://www.hemphasis.net/History/history.htm>. This resource offers a broad overview of the history of hemp, assisting in the chronological structure of history facts.

Osburn, Lynn. "Hemp Seed: The Most Nutritionally Complete Food Source in the World." Ratical. Hemp Line Journal, August 1992. Web. 8 Sep 2012. <http://www.ratical.org/renewables/hempseed1.html>. 

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"Hemp vs. Marijuana." AZ Hemp. Arizona Industrial Hemp Council, 2001. Web. 23 Sep 2012.<http://www.azhemp.org/Archive/Package/Legal/legal.html>. 

"Mechanism of Action." GW Pharmaceuticals . GW Pharmaceuticals, 2012. Web. 24 Sep 2012.<http://www.gwpharm.com/mechanism-action.aspx>.

"Famous Hemp Quotes." Fiberjet. Hemp for Hope, n.d. Web. 24 Sep 2012. <http://www.fiberjet.net/hemp/quotes.html>.

"Medical Marijuana." ProCon.org. ProCon.org, 06 Sep 2012. Web. 24 Sep 2012. <Medicalmarijuana.procon.org>.

"Medical marijuana: Research, not fear." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 13 Jul 2011. Web. 24 Sep 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/13/opinion/la-ed-marijuana-20110713>.

"Marijuana bill officially introduced to Congress by Ron Paul, Barney Frank." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 23 Jun 2011. Web. 24 Sep 2012.  <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/13/opinion/la-ed-marijuana-20110713>.