hey, Jay Leno, don't be a dope

[RainDog]

On a recent show, Leno responded to Barney Frank's points about legalizing cannabis with the remark that the UK manufactured things..blahblah as an argument against legalizing marijuana.

For a guy that gets paid so much money, and has such a wide audience, you would hope he wouldn't be so ill-informed.

The U.S. cannot grow hemp - or low THC cannabis - because all cannabis is illegal. Hemp is a huge market and growing larger as demonstrated in places like Canada, that recently rolled out a prototype hemp-body car. Ford made a hemp car early on with a body that was 5 times stronger than steel - and made out of this sustainable material.

a link about this here: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/08/23/cannabis-hemp-electric-car-kestrel-motive.html

Leno - why don't you buy a hemp car to help illustrate the value of hemp production and manufacturing (and if you're such a big car buff, why don't you know about this anyway?)

Link to Frank on Leno here:

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148080/note_to_jay_leno%3A_marijuana_is_not_%22essentially_legal%22_--_more_than_800%2C000_people_a_year_are_arrested_for_it/

Leno also minimized the value of legalization by saying that cannabis is essentially legal anyway because "anyone can buy it."

Really?

As the article notes, something is not essentially legal if 800,000 people a year are arrested because of it, as well. So, Leno, who's the dope when you don't even know the dope, dope?

[Beartracks]

1. 5 times stronger than steel ??

Amazing.

-------------------------

[Luminous Animal]

2. Ford claimed 10 times stronger than steel...

"The only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame on which are mounted 14 plastic panels, 3/16 inch thick. Composed of a mixture of farm crops and synthetic chemicals, the plastic is reported to withstand a blow 10 times as great as steel without denting." - Popular Mechanics, December, 1941


http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/conspiracy/facts/fordhemp.html

(Sorry about the link - it was the only site that I could find that had actual excerpt from the Popular Mechanics article rather than a mere mention of it.)

[RainDog]

5. great link! thanks

I've never seen that site tho I have seen YouTube vids of the hemp car before.



the car reminds me of a PT Cruiser.

Speaking of Popular Mechanics, after prohibition for cannabis went into effect, people didn't realize that the Hearst branded "marihuana, assassin of youth" was the same plant as hemp - and Popular Mechanics published this article a year after the cannabis smear campaign by Hearst (paper pulp), DuPont (petrol/nylon) and Anslinger (criminal profit) about the "new billion dollar industry."

oops. they didn't realize the coming billion dollar industries were going to be prison farms, deforestation and oil wars, not hemp fields.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/popmech1.htm

Popular Mechanics, 1938

Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody "hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.

Machines now in service in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and other states are producing fiber at a manufacturing cost of half a cent a pound, and are finding a profitable market for the rest of the stalk. Machine operators are making a good profit in competition with coolie-produced foreign fiber while paying farmers fifteen dollars a ton for hemp as it comes from the field.

From the farmers' point of view, hemp is an easy crop to grow and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any land that will grow corn, wheat, or oats. It has a short growing season, so that it can be planted after other crops are in. It can be grown in any state of the union. The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year's crop. The dense shock of leaves, eight to twelve feet above the ground, chokes out weeds. Two successive crops are enough to reclaim land that has been abandoned because of Canadian thistles or quack grass.

...The paper industry offers even greater possibilities. As an industry it amounts to over $1,000,000,000 a year, and of that eighty per cent is imported. But hemp will produce every grade of paper, and government figures estimate that 10,000 acres devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average pulp land.

The reason hemp is a great paper product is the same reason it's great for car bodies - the long, strong fibers and cellulose.

[Beartracks]

16. Totally impressive. Thanks for the link. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Sadly, it seems that Leno cannot help himself lately....

[tularetom]

4. Sadly, your advice is too late

Way too late. Leno has been a dope for decades.

In fact he's moved beyond dopedom. He's into annoying douchebag territory now.

He really is a loathesome excuse for a human being.

[RainDog]

6. I never watch him

I thought he was annoying before this. Now I just think he's ignorant.

[fishwax]

7. the comment about manufacturing didn't have anything to do with hemp

I think that's rather a silly critique--Frank wasn't arguing that cannabis should be legalized for the manufacturing value of hemp, he was saying that cannabis and gambling should be legalized so that we can tax them in order to increase our revenue. Leno's point about manufacturing was simply that actually producing things is ultimately a better way to increase revenue than by simply taxing "vices." (I think Frank basically agreed with that, but just said that we should do both.)

But Leno was flat wrong with his statement about how cannabis is essentially legal now--as your link points out, there are plenty of people who've been subject to the American justice system who can demonstrate otherwise.

[RainDog]

8. exactly. it didn't have anything to do with hemp

that was my point - cannabis is hemp is "marijuana."

Leno looked like an idiot for raising the issue of manufacture while pretending there is no impact on American lives b/c of the illegal status of cannabis - in more than one issue in American life... including and ESPECIALLY manufacture - while someone may grow cannabis illegally for recreational use, no farmer is going to grow hemp illegally - tho many of them do advocate for legalization b/c they recognize the value of hemp as a cash crop.

So, yeah, Leno was a dope. My point is that cannabis is illegal, therefore hemp is illegal. Hemp is the most useful plant in the world - because of its use for any product that can be made from petrol, for instance.

yes, Frank was talking about revenue from the legalization of cannabis for recreational use - then Leno talked about the need for manufacturing - without recognizing that a HUGE untapped manufacturing and farming industry in this nation is illegal because the oil and paper industries didn't want the competition.

this is why he's a dope. he doesn't know enough about the subject to recognize how prohibition of cannabis for recreational use impacts prohibition of cannabis for industrial use.

Leno's concern for manufacture, iow, demonstrates his ignorance about this subject as well as his ignorance about the damage prohibition does to millions of Americans - and this damage is also racially biased - something else that didn't seem to concern him.

While I understand what you're saying to defend Leno - the point is that by bringing up manufacturing in the first place he demonstrates his lack of knowledge to comment about cannabis and use this as any sort of counter argument to legalization.

[fishwax]

9. I don't think he looked like a dope for that reason at all

I think he looked like a dope for claiming that marijuana is basically legal, when there are thousands of people doing serious time as evidence otherwise.

It's true, to an extent, that hemp is illegal because marijuana is illegal--they are related issues, sure, but are not, alas, inseparable. Hemp could be legal without cannabis being legal for recreational purposes. It's also possible that recreational marijuana use could be decriminalized while still making it difficult to use hemp for industrial purposes.

Leno may, in fact, be ignorant about the industrial benefits of hemp, but I don't think it demonstrates that ignorance to respond to a "we should legalize internet gambling and marijuana in order to increase revenue" argument with "I think manufacturing is a more reliable way to increase revenue." I don't think the "manufacturing" turn of that conversation makes Leno a dope any more than it makes Frank (who also didn't point out the connection) a dope.

That's not to say I don't agree with the point you're making about the industrial potential of hemp, though.

[RainDog]

11. Yes, I realize you don't think that

I was making a point about hemp based upon Leno's comment.

[grantcart]

10. Not to defend Leno but dope in CA is now basically legal

There are thousands of medical marijuana dispenseries and they even have home delivery.


They have doctors on retainer and all you have to do is say you have a headache.


Its more difficult to buy Viagra now.

[RainDog]

15. No, it's not.

and 61,000 people were arrested in Cali last year for possession of small amounts - which is an INCREASE in the number of arrests (per the article.)

police may search your home if they see a bong sitting on a table.

they may search your person if they smell cannabis on your clothing.

cannabis is legal for medicinal use and has legitimate medical value.

The pretense of obtaining a card when someone isn't ill is not a way to deal with the issue because it conflates recreational use with medical use and skews public perception about those who have severe illnesses who may benefit from legalization because this action will make it possible to conduct more research in the U.S.

Prohibition is simply stupid and the federal govt. makes itself look even more corrupt and worthless when people know it is lying about medical value (even with medically legal cannabis) and every other rationale for maintaining the fiction that cannabis is any more dangerous than alcohol - when, in fact, it is less dangerous.

[Swamp Rat]

12. Jay Leno is still on TV?!?

:eyes:

[Dennis Donovan]

13. Leno's untalented, lazy and has a face that, by his own admission, scares children...

[SidDithers]

14. That's like asking water to not be wet...nt

Sid

[Beartracks]

17. Should "legalize marijuana" become "legalize hemp"?

Seems that hemp is where it's at. A strong could be made for freeing restrictions on hemp production so it can fulfill its promise in manufacturing and other industries.

"Leagalize marijuana" too easily lends itself to being derided as a social issue by opponents (who have the MSM megaphone).

"Legalize hemp," however, could easily be built into an ECONOMIC argument, couldn't it -- especially in a climate ripe for environmental industries and getting off of "foreign oil"?

--------------

[RainDog]

18. both are economic arguments

the prohibition of cannabis means that lawmakers spend money and man hours (more money) on prohibiting adults' free exercise of their will on a substance that is, on every measure, less harmful than alcohol. it is impossible to od on cannabis, for instance, in its natural form (I cannot speak about forms that are processed - tho I don't know of any deaths in that way, either.)

Prohibition of alcohol provides an historical demonstration of the value of ending prohibition b/c of the cost, crime and waste of human lives in a useless attempt to force adults to conform to someone else's view of how others should live. Tea totalers may choose not to drink - but that doesn't mean they should be able to force others not to have a glass of wine with dinner - this is the example that we know from our own political history that demonstrates the worthlessness of prohibition.

Prohibition of cannabis (or "marijuana" - which isn't even a botanical term, btw) for recreational use is a violation of the bill of rights. The scheduling of cannabis as it currently exists is a demonstrable lie (i.e. that cannabis has no medicinal value - while Canada is currently marketing liquid cannabis, Sativex, for MS.)

Medicines made from cannabis are most definitely an economic argument - from R&D to targeted methods of treatment for things like cancer - because some studies have indicated cannabis' efficacy in treating forms of cancer, as well - this is something that has been in the medical literature for decades and, recently, more studies have been made available that back up these earlier studies.

Therefore, it's not just hemp that deserves to be made legal.

However, the hysteria around cannabis in general is what keeps hemp illegal - tho, as I've noted before, during the Revolutionary War, Americans were required to grow hemp because of its industrial uses (sails, rope, paper, oil...) During World War II, even after the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, farmers grew hemp for the war effort (again, for the very reasons they did in the Revolutionary War.)

here's a film about the patriotism of growing hemp in World War II - to overcome the propaganda from Anslinger, etc. over the previous decade.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jokV8xlJTNE

When the state's interest, iow, is seen as more overwhelming that certain favored corporations' interest in engaging in unfair trade, hemp is okay with the state. This, in itself, demonstrates how ridiculous and CORRUPT the illegal status of cannabis really is for this nation.

But, absolutely, in terms of a crop that is both useful and effective as a substitute for the ecological devastation of petrol industries - hemp is far better, more cost effective and less harmful to the environment.

As a way to keep forests intact (to allow for absorption of CO2 and ameliorate planetary warming) as a crop that is carbon neutral or friendly - hemp is FAR superior to the wood pulp industry.

As a way to fuel cars, heat homes, and supply our nation with an alternative fuel supply - hemp should be seen as a necessity for anyone who cares about our future.

http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/hemp_facts.html

hemp is also useful as a food and nutritional crop - for oil (non-psychotropic), EFAs, seeds.

It is a great source of fiber for fabrics for clothes, as well.

So, yes, it's obvious that hemp is an economic plus for Americans because of the industries that would arise from its legality. The sad thing is, again, as with health care, with a social safety net, etc. the U.S. is the only western democracy that prohibits the production of hemp. The only reason this is the case is because a very few are allowed to obstruct the economic liberty of the many.