By ‘Nib’

Cannabis prohibition is the crime of the modern era... hemp can save the world...

A potted history to set the tone - There is no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle... As the Industrial age developed ever faster, cannabis began to lose favour. Steamships replaced sail. Chemical and synthesised drugs replaced herbal remedies. The invention of the cotton gin and all cotton’s concomitant horrors of slavery and ecological disaster, replaced natural fibres and new chemical processes were developed for pulping wood into paper. The repercussions of each of these transformations have been tumultuous and the reverberations they set of will continue to be felt for generations. The challenge for processing cannabis was its labour intensity. In 1937, at the same time as the ‘decorticator’ was invented for separating the hemp fibres from the remainder of the plant, DuPont, one of the main rogues in the gallery, invented a new bleaching process for wood pulp paper. At the same time, they also patented the process of making man-made fibres from fossil fuels. These two factors rang the death knell for cannabis. To eliminate cannabis from the marketplace, DuPont conspired with media moguls and corrupt US politicians. The method used was to demonise cannabis. The first step was to replace the words hemp and cannabis with the word marijuana, a Mexican colloquialism, then, using Randolph Hearst’s massive media empire, set about claiming marijuana caused the greatest violence known to humanity. Furthermore, they tarred the great jazz players as degenerates, claiming their music sexualised and scandalised those that heard it because they were all ‘high’ on marijuana.

Reefer Madness

Some infamous films such as ‘Reefer Madness’ were made and shown on general release to a gullible public. The ‘Killer Weed from Mexico’ was on the hit list. “A Puff, a Party, a tragedy” was the film’s tagline. All the history of cannabis and man’s ancient and wonderful dance through the ages was rapidly expunged. The corruption was legion. The head of the Federal Bureau of narcotics, Harry Anslinger, was appointed the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics by Andrew Mellon, Anslinger’s uncle and head of the Mellon bank, was also DuPont’s financier. Anslinger was virtually unopposed when the Marijuana Transfer Tax Bill was introduced in 1938, taxing the plant into oblivion. Trees, the lungs of the planet and repository for the most numerous and specialised flora and fauna on earth, continue to be felled in alarming and unsustainable quantities for paper and building materials. Concurrently, fuels are still being mined and burned with devastating environmental consequences. Developing countries are encouraged to grow hybridised and GMO crops such as cotton and soya which consume huge amounts of water and chemicals, in the case of cotton, and in the case of soy to feed greater numbers of farm animals, a hopeless and unhealthy way to provide protein, and the resultant environmental challenges this form of agriculture causes. It is estimated cotton uses 30% of the total input of chemicals and fertilisers in all agriculture. This effluent ends up in the oceans, cetaceans, in all other sea-life and in our bodies. The petro-chemical industry controls the global production of fibre. The petro-chemical industry controls the global production of food. Mass produced food is poisonous to us and poisonous to the planet. Since the agricultural revolution, land has been the engine of wealth and the measure, as it is still today behind all the bluster, of a country’s true wealth. This wealth has now however, be vested in the hands of individuals hiding behind multinational corporations, whose motivation is solely profit, to the detriment of all life on earth.

Cannabis Can Save The Planet

Cannabis is without equal the most versatile and beneficial plant resource for humanity. It has been in service to the world for millennia, pre-dating the Pyramids and recorded in ancient China since 4000BC. The plant provides food, fibre, construction materials, clothing, fuel and medicine. Hemp can replace every product presently produced by fossil fuels without the concomitant problems and challenges the world now faces because of rampant overuse of crude oil. Food The cannabis seed is one of the most perfectly balanced foods known to man. Its ratio of Omega 3, 6 & 9 match the human brain, boosts the immune system, rebuts illness. The seed contains all 8 essential amino acids and easily digestible protein. Fibre The ‘bast’ hemp fibres produce the strongest, most durable long lasting fibres in the plant kingdom. They can be spun into twine, woven into cloth or fine paper. The high cellulose content of the ‘hurds’ can be mixed with lime to make a building material, brick or ‘hempcrete’ which is stronger, lighter and more durable than concrete. It also releases considerably less CO2 than normal concrete which at it’s worse releases tonne for tonne. Strong, durable, chemical free plastic can be made from hemp. Fuel The rapid growth and annual harvest of hemp provides one of the highest yields of biomass. The biomass is easily converted into solid, liquid or gas fuels. Medicine The flowers of the cannabis plant produce resins with numerous therapeutic applications. This is at the forefront of modern medicine, particularly as the recent discovery of the Endocannabinoid system in the human body has been isolated as being as vital as breathing, the lymphatic system, the vascular system and nervous system. The nervous system depends on THC for its efficient function and it is synthesised in the body. There are over 400 cannabinoids in cannabis, of which very few have yet to be explored for their therapeutic uses. In short, cannabis replaces EVERYTHING presently produced using fossil fuels, and more. Cannabis sequesters more than 4 times the amount of CO2 per acre than vigorously growing trees and is grown annually. In short, cannabis can save us, and the earth and oceans from our rapacious behaviour if we turn to it in abundance NOW. This whole sorry saga begs the questions:

• Why is a plant which grows naturally all over the world, and has been of such benefit to mankind, including smoking thereof for pain relief and seeing the world in another way, proscribed?
• On whose authority is such a birth right consigned to the courthouse and prison?
• Who has a continued interest in this state of affairs?
• If only for the benefit of the oceans, it is essential petrochemical based plastics are eradicated and replaced with cannabis resin plastics immediately. If governments, the UN and other global entities such as the WWF are serious in their endeavours to clean up the oceans.

The Solution - Start Growing Cannabis Again In Huge Quantities

• Hempen materials have been found in tombs dating back 8000 BCE
• Columbus sailed to America with hemp sails
• George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp
• Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag from hemp
• Levi Strauss made the first pair of jeans in CA from hemp
• Denim derives from de Nimes, a town in France where hemp was used for clothing
• The 1st draught Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper, 28th June 1776
• The 2nd draught Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper, 2nd July 1776
• The Guttenberg Bible, King James Bible, Alice In Wonderland all written on hemp paper
• Petrochemicals to maturity - millions of years
• Trees to maturity - hundreds of years
• Hemp to maturity – 3-6 months
• 1 acre of hemp for paper production is the equivalent, per tonne than 5 acres of trees
• Hemp is cultivated without the use of chemicals and fertilisers
• Hemp conditions the soil in preparation for the next crop