Anyone care to talk about Industrial Hemp and the US refusal to cultivate?

[EnfantTerrible]

[Catch22Dem]

1. Personally, I think

refusing to take advantage of the many uses of industrial hemp is one of the saddest situations in this (or any other) country.

Here's a fact, you CAN NOT get high from industrial hemp. The criminalization of pot was fought for by the petroleum and logging industries who saw their profits threatened.

[EnfantTerrible]

2. Industrial Hemp threatens too many industries here

because the products that are produced with it tend to last too long.

It's hard to sustain a supply side economy when there is no demand.
so we ignore this amazing resource which is good for the environment, good for us, could be cheap to cultivate (if they'd bother creating the industry for it).

I think we're the only industrialized nation that doesn't grow it... I may be wrong.
Certainly being the worlds leading industrial superpower one would think that it wouldn't be too difficult to profit from it.

Instead of paying farmers to stop growing corn perhaps they shoould grow some hemp.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

3. This used to be a big cash crop in Kentucky..

...I think KY was at one time one of the major hemp producing states in the US, and during WWII quite a bit of acreage went back into culivation via special permit.

I think its being looked at again as theres some concern about finding a cash crop to replace tobacco.

Years of activism have finally paid dividends for industrial hemp supporters in the Bluegrass State, as Kentucky Governor Paul Patton (Democrat) on March 20th signed into a law a bill that establishes a state Industrial Hemp Commission and paves the way for research on hemp to get underway at Kentucky universities.

..and

Delegates to the annual Kentucky Farm Bureau convention in Louisville voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to urge Gov. Paul Patton to seek legalization of growing industrial hemp in the state.

Roger Nesbit, director of media relations for Kentucky Farm Bureau, said Thursday the delegates passed a recommendation to "encourage the governor to include legislation in any special session regarding the legalization of low THC industrial hemp in Kentucky."

The vote passed by a two-thirds majority of the delegates attending the 77th Annual Convention of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, he said.

...this was back in the '90s, so I dont think anything has come of it.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

4. It looks like that Kentucky Hemp Commision did issue a report.

http://www.kypost.com/2001/nov/20/hemp112001.html


FRANKFORT - Another state-sponsored effort to look at industrial hemp as a cash crop has kicked off, but any chance of growing the plant in Kentucky is still a ways off.

Two views of crop
Pro-hemp activists have long touted the plant as a replacement crop for beleaguered tobacco farmers, who have seen their quotas - and incomes - shrivel the past several years.

If hemp is ever to have a place in Kentucky's economy, the commission first needs to figure out who would buy it, members said Monday.

''It would be difficult for us to go ask somebody to grow something and not have a market,'' said panel Chairman Mark Farrow, from the state Department of Agriculture.

...but it looks like this was studied before in Kentucky, with a negative recommendation:

A similar board set up by then-Gov. Brereton Jones in 1994 met twice before issuing a report that dismissed hemp's viability as a cash crop.

[proud patriot]

6. California's number 1 crop before it was outlawed was Industrial Hemp

right around the turn of the last century .

[EnfantTerrible]

8. Used to make rope for the Ship trade I believe

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

22. and also bagging..Lexington had some bag factorys based on the crop

Lexington KY was in the center of the main hemp producing area in Kentucky, so it was logical that some manufacturing based on the crop woulg take place there.

I recall the pictures of these old rope and bagging facotrys before they where torn down..

[independentpiney]

15. S.E. Missouri as well

My grandfather used to grow it.

[anarchy1999]

5. It is nothing more simple than corporate corruption at it's best.

Hemp has huge potential to devastate every industry being shoved down our collective asses. On top of that it has the potential to turn this country around. We could profit greatly from it.. Not to smoke it but to build many industries from it. Paper, clothes, fuel and the list just goes on and on and on.......

[EnfantTerrible]

9. It's MADDENING!!!

How can something that makes so much sense be treated so senslessly by our policy makers?

The arguments made for a connection between Industrial Hemp and Marijuana are as creative as the ones used to connect Saddam to Al Qaeda.

[Eloriel]

7. There's some good info on the internet

and I'm thinking one of them is in Tarpley's "Unauthorized Biography" of the Bushies, or a very similar source. One of the industries that ganged up against hemp was the oil industry because you can make a biodiesel out of hemp.

[EnfantTerrible]

10. Thanks

I'll hunt it down. And then I'll cry in frustration.

[anarchy1999]

11. This subject deserves a kick to the top of discussion, period!!!

N/t
El, you rock!

[AmyDeLune]

12. Kick! n/t

[underseasurveyor]

14. I remember hearing about that only fairly recently

I knew of all the other common reasons and uses for hemp but that biodiesel was a new one on me. Things that make ya go hum and ah, now it makes more sense.

[lanparty]

48. oil is just solar energy ...

Collected by plants and distilled over millions of years.

Hemp is an EXCELLENT solar collector that can be reaped quite a bit sooner.

[anarchy1999]

25. The first industry that ganged up was timber, led by none other than

w. R. Hearst, publishing mogul.

W.R. Hearst Reefer Madness Essay
Circa 1937

In the early days of our nation, the hemp plant (a.k.a. cannabis) proved a valuable resource for hundreds of years, instrumental in the making of fabric, paper and other necessities. This changed during the Industrial Revolution, which rendered tree-pulp papermaking and synthetic fibers more cost-effective through the rise of assembly line manufacturing methods. A more efficient way of utilizing hemp was a bit slower in coming. It was not until the early 1930's that a new technique for using hemp pulp for papermaking was developed by the Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with the patenting of the hemp decorticator (a machine that revolutionized the harvesting of hemp). These innovations promised to reduce the cost of producing hemp-pulp paper to less than half the cost of tree-pulp paper. Since hemp is an annually renewable source, which requires minimal chemical treatment to process, the advent of hemp pulp paper would allegedly have been better for the environment than the sulfuric acid wood-pulping process. Hemp had many champions, who predicted that its abundance and versatility would soon revitalize the American economy. William Randolph Hearst, media mogul, billionaire and real-life model for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, had different ideas. His aggressive efforts to demonize cannabis were so effective, they continue to color popular opinion today. In the early 1930's, Hearst owned a good deal of timber acreage; one might say that he had the monopoly on this market.

lots more here:

http://www.onlinepot.org/reefermadness/hearstessay1937.htm

[Nikia]

13. The only potentially valid arguement I see against it

Is that it would be easy to hide marijuana in a hemp field.
I don't think marijuana should be illegal either, but from the DEA's point of view, it would make things harder.

[MadHound]

16. And if you want to hide good dope in a hemp field, go right ahead

All you would be doing is encouraging cross pollination, and whoops, you've got ditch weed. In fact, if they wanted to put a serious dent in the marijuana cultivation, then they should encourage massive planting of hemp. It would turn all dope grown outdoors into ditch weed, and force most growers inside. Better yet, they should legalize it and make it freely available, but that's another discussion.

Hemp can save the world, or at least help. It grows in areas unsuitable for any other cash crop. It works well in crop rotation, being a deep tap root, it brings nutrients to the top of the soil. You can make biodiesel out of it, in fact it was hemp oil that was originally in mind as the fuel for the diesel engine. You can make paper, clothes, some plastics, foods, ointments, and many other products out of hemp. And yet it is allowed to languish under penalty of law. This allows other, more destructive industries to take it's place. Capitalism at its finest:eyes:

Missouri used to be the number one hemp growing state in the US. It is still ranking right up there, for in many backwater area, or just around the corner, wild hemp rears its head, and grows no matter what. Our State Highway Patrol wastes over five million dollars a year on a program of "Marijuana Irradication". In reality, if you look at their year end stats, 98% of what they're irradicating is wild hemp. I know of several state sites out in the country that have to pull wild hemp up every year, or otherwise get busted for growing dope. It is absolutely insane that we ban and try to irradicate a benificial plant that was put here for our use. When, oh when are these fools going to wake up?

[Blue Gardener]

20. It's in the cornfields now

The wild stuff grows in the Midwest cornfields. I used to detassel corn in my younger days, we would run across it on a regular basis. It's an absurd waste of time and money to try and track all of it down and burn it.

[LTR]

37. Not true at all

You can plant the most potent marijuana plant in a field of hemp, and it's potency will be gone when it mixes with the other plants.

The strongest pot comes from strictly high-THC fields or indoor terrariums. You can't grow potent pot in a field of industrial hemp.

[dbt]

17. The only drawback I can see is that you can't get HIGH from it!

I call upon the soul of Luther Burbank!

:smoke:
dbt

Seriously: biodiesel from Hemp? There's our ticket!

[EnfantTerrible]

21. BioDeisel from hemp is too expensive to refine...

or so they'd like us to believe. Any new industry is expensive to get off the ground as the Repug's know all too well... especially industries that threaten our reliance on fossil fuels.

Not to mention timber and textiles

[Pushed To The Left]

18. Damn social conservatives

They have to have their drug war. It doesn't matter if hemp has many other uses and doesn't even get people that high. It's a drug, so they feel they must stop it!! Of course, some of its other uses might cause some powerful industries to lose money due to the competition, so that could be their real motivation. These are the same morons that think it's good policy for the DEA to raid medical marijuana patients and handcuff sick people to their bedposts! Personally, I think drugs should be decriminalized and treated as a health issue, not a legal one. The hemp and medical marijuana issues show the true colors of the drug warriors and social conservatives.

[sweetheart]

19. Its more sinister than that

The drugs war was ramped up by nixon to screw over the liberal
people who opposed republican criminality, as liberal people are
more likely to experiment with drugs... so the war has served to
put liberal voters in jail disenfranchising them from voting against
the puke. The drugs war, is entirely political, to imprison the
opposition.

To call it a way of ending drugs addiction is entirely cynical, as
it has done nothing of the sort... and is not designed to. You are
right for treating addiction, and the theory that big drugs companies
are purely the reason, sounds more benign.

However, the real nazi republicans who want to imprison every person
who disagree with them, are the core behind the banal drugs war.

[Pushed To The Left]

41. If that's the case

If that's the case, then I wish that more Democrats would take a stronger position against drug war policies. One of the major reasons I voted for John Kerry in the primaries was because he received an "A" from "Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana" for saying that he would support an end to DEA raids on medical marijuana patients. I was disappointed by how many Democrats got bad marks from the group. Of course, a politician wanting to decriminalize drugs would probably have the same problem as a politician who supported gay marriage: There are too many stupid voters that would be scared away by anything too "liberal". I rarely vote third party because my goal is to kick the social conservatives out, and Democrats are in the best position to do that. However, I have crossed party lines when a Republican was more socially liberal than the Democrat.

[EnfantTerrible]

23. It's classification as DRUG makes me insane...

not that I'm alone.

Here's a link to some good info about the war against MaryJane

:smoke:



http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v04/n939/a04.html

[MrPrax]

24. Kicked...and Always Amazed

The lack of industrial hemp production is a prima facie case that we DON'T live in a capitalist system.

Who wouldn't promote and produce this 'better mouse trap' unless it was made practically illegal by government fiat, discredited by 'law enforcement', ignored by trade unions as a replacement for job loss, ridiculed by the subsized farmers and attacked by the 'usual vested interests' ...

Toss out seeds, grows in a few weeks virtually anywhere in the Northern hemisphere, cut it down and use it for a variety of things...
Toss out the seeds, grow and use...
Toss out the seeds, grow and use...
Toss out the seeds, grow and use...
ad infinitum

[EnfantTerrible]

26. It's in it's simplicity that they get confused!!!

:smoke:

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

27. Its NOT ridiculed by subsidized farmers...

...if you read my links/posts on the Kentucky situation, you will see that the Kentucky Farm Bureau supports this concept....

The issue I think is the THC content, and that can probably be bread out/lowered by developing new varietys, which is probably what the Univerisity of Kentucky wants to do as it applied for a permit to do test/research crops....UKs College of Agriculture does alot of R&D on famer stuff...

[EnfantTerrible]

28. What I don't understand

Is there conclusion that there is no market for hemp derived products when it's potential is so enormous. Is it really about THC? With all that we know about bio-engineering THC is the problem?

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

31. Well,.,the real problem is the Feds...but

from one of the articles the KY State Police are on the panel, and it was said their concern was about making sure the crop was not psychoactive, thus a low THC content would be an issue...this is a poltical thing here, too,,,and the various intrest groups in KY need to be on-board.

[MrPrax]

29. Yeah I did...

Great...008% of farmers figure it is more honest to earn a living rather than wear down the pathway between their farmhouse and the mailbox...In Canada we call them Triple AAA farmers...April to August to Arizona...

We got a hemp test field just outside of town...I guess to test if the stuff will grow, since there is a very very restrictive market for it's end sale


But hope springs eternal for agribiz...

[Gold Metal Flake]

30. The THC content is virtually nil.

Industrial hemp does not look like pot. It's much thinner (less bushy), has fewer leaves and no colas. It's paler. It successfully grows in rows closer to each other then pot. If you wanna grow a pot plant in the middle of a field of IH, you will have to make a small clearing for it, and it's density in foliage and color will give it away immediately. We pay millions of tax dollars for squadrons of flying Barney Fifes to swoop down and yank out any and every single IH plant growing wild in ditches and fallow fields all across this "great" nation. They can spot a single pale IH plant amongst all other weeds, think real pot does not stand out like a punker at a Yanni concert? Please!

ALL of the arguements against IH are as valid as the Kerry flip-flop claims. 100% lies.

Now, repeat that to yourself until all of the RW and corporate lies about IH are purged from your brain.

This is one of the first threads on IH on DU that has NOT been infused and thus rendered useless by a lot of stupid drug jokes. The drug comedy punchlines of the 1960s and 1970s, much of which is repeated automatically like some hypnotically implanted message, is the most effective tool against a reasoned discourse on IH or drugs in general. Bring up IH in a conversation and watch people start to snigger like Beavis and Butthead. It's automatic! And, it's supposed to be.

Nothing will derail a discussion on IH or drugs like some asshat autonomically blurting out "Yeeeaaaahhhh" or some line from Cheech & Chong or SNL. Face it, on this issue, from every direction, you've been 0wn3d, sheeple.



{edit: not this but thus}

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

32. this is actually not a big issue for me, but as a former Kentuckian...

...I still keep up a bit with news down in the Commonwealth, and knew this issue was kicking around down there.....
..and was a big part of the states agricultural history too (im a big history buff), as illustrated by this historical marker (there are actually quite a few of these around the state)

[EnfantTerrible]

40. Not Profitable? 40K tons reaps $5 million in 1850

according to the sign in the bottom pic. What would that be in 2004 dollars I wonder?

Any economists out there?

[EnfantTerrible]

34. I've been guilty of it myself at one time or another

before I actually learned abit about it and began to see the potential.I totally agree that until it's no longer marginalized as a DRUG issue there will never be serious progress made on the IH issue.

IH is another casuality of the campaign of misinformation in the failed "War on Drugs".

Does Kerry/Edwards have a position on this?

[Gold Metal Flake]

36. I am not sure it would be safe for K/E to have a position on it right now!

I don't think we wanna add "potheads" to the ammo can of slurs the Rightards load their lying shotgun mouths with each morning.

Election first. Reasonable IH policy after. That's my humble suggestion.

[Radio-Active]

33. this is one factor that could save our economy and environment

It would certainly shake up and change certain industries... but it would really help small farmers, since there is NO PROBLEM with an excess of industrial hemp - especially since you can create just about any product with it. Any struggling farmer could easily grow it, and restore their topsoil at the same time. New industries would grow to replace or change old industries like logging, oil drilling, paper pulp processing, oil refining and coal mining

In the long run, this plant is the key to preserving our economy, and eliminating our dependence on foreign oil. I remember reading that Henry Ford made a car entirely out of hemp, that ran on hemp oil! Not sure if that's true though.

Hemp doesn't require pesticides, while cotton requires some of the most pesticides of any plant.

Hemp also makes great building materials, paper, cardboard, plastics, and foods.

We would never need to fell another tree again, except possibly for the carpenters!

Turning hemp into paper is much less pollutive than turning trees into paper.

It is just so obvious! I hope Kerry supports legalization, but that probably is just wishful thinking.

[Gold Metal Flake]

35. When Kerry is elected, we must force the issue.

Also, the issue of IH MUST be separate from Pot or drugs, otherwise it will be immediately defeated by the rabid anti-druggers, the outragious potheads (video visuals used against them just like always), the asshats sniggering "yeeeeeaaaahhhh!" and the corporatists fueling the emotions of logger labor.

Move the debate far away from pot and hit solely on the economic and environmental advantages. Any mention of pot, and you have to start all over again.

Got nothing against pot, but the linkage kills IH discussion dead.

[lanparty]

49. SAVE FORESTS using HEMP !!!

Hemp would literally decimate the logging industry. It fibers are longer and stronger than arborial sources. Hemp board is stronger than cut lumber and naturally fire retardent.

A handful of companies have most of the logging rights. You bet your ass they will protect the value of those rights.

[LTR]

38. Kicked, bookmarked and nominated

This is a great discussion. I've known about the positives of industrial hemp for a long time, and it's history.

It is a travesty that a cash crop with so many industrial uses, and one that many of our founding fathers actually grew, is so demonized. Our country was practically built on hemp, for cryin' out loud!

[anarchy1999]

39. Seconding the nomination!

n/t

[LTR]

42. Kick for the evening crowd

:kick:

[Sailorman]

43. Those Dirty Filthy Bastards

Kick



I think this topic can do some good..we have to keep it at the top

[Raiden]

44. IIRC, Kentucky was the largest producer

of hemp from the late 1800s up until WWI. Hemp could greatly benifit our state's tobacco farmers who are losing out because of the decline in demand for tobacco and could greatly increase state revenue. It's a shame that such a beneficial plant is outlawed solely because it resembles marijuana. Growing it on a large scale could also decrease the potency of marijuana plants through cross-pollination. I really can't see anything but positives coming from its legalization.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

45. Ive actually posted a few links to the Kentucky angle upthread...

Im really trying to find out the current status of this, though, as most of the stuff I'm finding is somewhat "old news"....apparently they are studying it again.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

46. A favorable 1998 study from some University of Kentucky folks

http://www.kltprc.net/foresight/Chpt_20.htm

"Kentucky appears suited to benefit from the re-establishment of an industrial hemp industry in the United States. Our analysis indicates that Kentucky farmers, and U.S. farmers overall, could profitably cultivate industrial hemp. Initially, profits could exceed those from most other Kentucky crops besides tobacco for those entrepreneurial farmers who enter the market first. Profits in the long run, however, are not expected to exceed those of other crops, with the exception of farmers’ cultivating industrial hemp seed for replanting, an historically important crop in Kentucky.

[EnfantTerrible]

50. I've done some very inaccurate calculations...

...and could only convert to 1991 dollars ( the only info I could find) and it looks like the 40K tons worth $5mil in 1850 would be worth upwards of $68-$70mil in 1991 dollars. Seems kinda profitable.

[lanparty]

47. BIG OIL, BIG TIMBER, BIG COTTON ...

All three industries would be threatened by industrial hemp.

1) Oil
Hemp can be used for the production of hemp diesel. It produces several crops a year with little or no fertilization or irrigation and could be an alternative to the energy monopoly once peak oil hits.

It also threatens material oil by-products like plastic, nylon and polyester.

2) Timber
Hemp fibers are longer and stronger than those of woods. Hemp board is stronger than cut lumber and would provide an alternative to logging.

3) Cotton
Hemp is easier to grow than cotton. It produces superior fabric that is stronger and more breathable. I look forward to wearing hemp jeans.


This has absolutly NOTHING to do with marijauna. It's a red herring and the advocates all know it. The trick is getting the rubes in tobacco growing regions who would benefit from hemp to believe that it can get you high. It cant.

[SHRED]

51. Here is "The Book" on it

The HEMP bible if you will:

http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html