The U.S. war on non-smokable hemp hurts the environment and the economy, according to a new report from the free-market-promoting Reason Foundation. To wit: Hemp fiber requires six times less manufacturing energy on average than polyester fiber, and requires less pesticides and water than cotton. Hemp can be used to make paper, fiberglass, and cement, generally with less energy use than alternative materials. It could make a lovely cellulosic biofuel, were cellulosic ever ready for the big time. And in case you needed a reminder, says the report: "Marijuana cultivated for drug value contains between 3 and 10 percent of the active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Industrial hemp typically contains 0.3 percent or less of this active ingredient -- as a result, it has no value as a drug."
source: The Reason Foundation
source: Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition
see also, in Grist:Umbra on hemp fabric
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Comments
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Wolverine Posted 8:46 am
13 Mar 2008
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JakobFabian01 Posted 2:03 pm
13 Mar 2008
I really don't think most of the anti-marijuana establishment ever had a better argument than this, though I believe Wolverine has found a meaningful money trail.
Another reason why the so-called Drug War refuses to die is that it's a great excuse for federal funds. A friend of mine from a small town in Wisconsin said that they used Drug War money their to pay for the city to clear snow off the sidewalks. I don't know how they explained that this would somehow reduce drug abuse, but I guess they got the money.
It's a myth that the Republicans are opposed to government spending. They love spending as much as Democrats do and more, but they always have to find some macho excuse, like fighting crime or bombing people in some foreign country. Spending money on real human needs is rejected as too "feminine." This is why they condemn social spending as the "nanny state," while failing to see that the Big Brother state that they are funding (which now incarcerates more people per capita than China) is far, far worse.
One more thing. I remember during my early grad school days (in the early 1990s), a young student of something like "timber economics" visited our local group of Campus Greens to talk about how important tree farms were to provide us with the fiber we all need for paper. When somebody suggested that hemp be used instead, he just sort of blinked and returned to his message.
Don't believe the corporate types who tell you that they value people who think outside the box. They want you inside that box, and they want to keep on selling you boxes made of the stuff that they know how to use. The oil barons want to sell more oil, and the timber barons want so sell more timber. To them, the outside of the box just doesn't exist.
I do know that some articles made from hemp can be imported. Does somebody know some other good sources? We need to support people who CAN think outside the box!
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BobG Posted 1:57 am
14 Mar 2008
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Delay And Deny Posted 2:17 am
14 Mar 2008
Even if it were true, since I can go to stores in Capitol Hill and buy hemp clothes (in fact, for bicycling, I own a small hemp satchel that I use to carry my wallet and cell phone around in...oh, ok, it's a man purse) why not invest in these companies so that they can "take over" and make whatever it is you want.
Or figure out a way to get a majority share of Weyerhauser and make them lobby for hemp.
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amazingdrx Posted 4:34 am
14 Mar 2008
They stopped a grandmother with her young grandkids. Just a few idiotic quota driven incidents like this sour the public image of local police.
Lobby your local friends in law enforcement to go after meth cookers/purveyors to get their quota. That's the way to get this drug war back on track. Police officers know how dangerous meth users are compared to pot smokers.
They deal with the meth afficted personally on the job at risk of life and limb.
A big propaganda campaign is continuing that blames pot growers for making wilderness land dangerous with booby traps and guns, guarding their crops. Grist even repeats this stuff.
The dangers of the "all american drug", meth, are astronomically greater. From the dangerous chemical creation to the drug toting distribution to the days long, drunken (often driving!) manic binges. Long haul trucking is deadly dangerous with the help of meth and booze and prescription pills.
Every other truck that passes you on the highway is most likely being driven by a meth user.
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RueClerk Posted 5:16 am
14 Mar 2008
As a former farmer, I am well aware that my midwest region could grow really good hemp, with ideal conditions for a excellent product, and possible industrial manufacture of the yarns and fabrics in an area that need employment opportunities.
I hope the time is coming when politicians can resist vested interests and gives us another cash crop that is renewable, fast growing. If our land grant universities had the will they could find endless green uses for it. It certainly is easier to grow than corn, isn't as resource depleting.
And, it doesn't require the use of the most productive ground to produce it.
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GreyFlcn Posted 7:35 am
14 Mar 2008
(Or any biofuel for that matter)
http://greyfalcon.net/hemp.png
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/13/64820/6921
Hemp for replacement of Wood Pulp and Cotton is a great idea.
Marijuana is less harmful than Alcohol. You can't overdose on Marijuana. The same issues about inebriation apply the same as being intoxicated by alcohol.
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GreyFlcn Posted 7:38 am
14 Mar 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaHoIhjUsxM
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BobG Posted 9:52 am
14 Mar 2008
Do a little research where the hemp comes from. Hint: It isn't the US. Try understanding "better process" instead of just blathering on. Another hint: Have a look at why the US restarted growing hemp during WW II and why it once again banned it again later. Try looking at a little science yourself.
Not that it will matter to you, but welcome to my ignore list! Posts from you add nothing to honest discussion.
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Delay And Deny Posted 7:17 am
15 Mar 2008
Yep.
You can't find that hemp paper anywhere...
http://www.rawganique.com/HempPaperProducts.htm
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Delay And Deny Posted 7:34 am
15 Mar 2008
I'm flummoxed -- can't find that hemp paper...still looking...
GREEN FIELD PAPER HEMP ART PACK SKETCH
http://www.islandblue.com/store/product/7948/GREEN-FIELD- ...
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Des Emery Posted 2:30 pm
15 Mar 2008
It would return actual cash to the farmer rather than to the company selling him the seed. It grows too well, requiring low irrigation, no fertilizer, no pesticide, no Chemical Company's expensive treatment. It would be easily harvested, needing only simple machinery for baling, hauling and storing it, no Big Ag company's eternal mortgage. It would be a multi-use product, making rope, clothing, yarn, paper, oil, etc., making the farmer into an independent entrepeneur.
All of which reasons the government would rather not license its production - consider all the giant companies which would 'suffer' immeasurable hardship!
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Biodiversivist Posted 1:35 am
16 Mar 2008
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Colin Wright Posted 7:25 am
16 Mar 2008
But as bioD suggests it should only be used for fiber replacement and in industrial applications. Menawhile the diversion of crops to biofuels is creating a disaster around the world.
Last week, in a speech to the European Parliament Development Committee, Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Program, said her agency now faces a $500 million shortfall "just due to soaring food and fuel costs -- up more than 40 percent since (last) June -- which will lead to ration cuts unless we receive additional help soon."
She added that "high food prices have created an urgent situation throughout many developing countries and have directly hit WFP's ability to respond to those needs."
Sheeran noted that in some countries food was available, but cost too much for the poor to buy it, or, as she put it "markets full of food with scores of people simply unable to afford it. These conditions have triggered food riots from Cameroon to Burkina Faso to Indonesia to Mexico and beyond."
Food, she reminded the European Parliament, is a geostrategic issue, just as oil is. "This challenge may be one of the most critical peace and security issues of our time. Fragile democracies are feeling the pressure of food insecurity; food riots have erupted throughout the globe," she said.
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
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wiscidea Posted 9:23 am
27 Jun 2008
Anyway... I heard that the nylon rope industry was behind the demise of the U.S. hemp industry. They stirred up the whole anti-drug frenzy to get rid of their primary competitor. I'll bet the petrochemical companies were in on it. Until then, the U.S. government promoted, subsidized, studied, and encouraged growing hemp because our military needed it.
Do you know whether this is true?
So much for free markets. Seems too many capitalists are all for greasing the wheels of commerce, except when it effects their own pocket book. Then they absolutely adore big government.
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