The uses of hemp are an excellent reason to legalize pot

[lunatica]

A picture is worth a thousand words.



The graphic shows there's the medicinal benefits of pot. And besides that I've never heard of the recreational uses of pot leading to gunfights at parties or arrests for violence of any kind. Alcohol, on the other hand is a different story altogether.

edited to change a sentence

[lunatica]

1. Someone posting that pot is bad gets more response than this?

[Occulus]

6. Well, many of us already know the OP is true.

It's not controversial among thinking people that hemp is vastly useful. After all, Hemp for Victory, right?

I would love to see hemp become legal again. It's so useful, but we're so stupid as a nation we equate it with cannabis....

[lunatica]

7. I think we need to talk about the amazing benefits of hemp as much as possible

Which is why I started this thread. After reading all about people not wanting to legalize it because it's a drug it's time to enlighten people. Just because a few of us know about hemp isn't a reason to not sell it to those who don't know.

I think California will benefit far more if it uses hemp as the foundation of many many businesses and jobs than by using pot for recreational uses. Both are good, but the real money, the real jobs are in hemp.

[Bobbieo]

2. Paper products and construction mateials, alone, make the prouction of hemp worthwhile -

we are running out of trees and wood products

[stuntcat]

4. exactly precisely

for construction, for clothes, for all kinds of things that will last longer than the stuff we're making them out of now.

[stuntcat]

3. rec!!

ALL the many uses of it.. I swear it's like it could save the world, I'm not even kidding.

wish I could triple-rec this

[lunatica]

5. How hemp is used

Hemp can be used to make an astounding 25,000 different products. In addition to well-known products like rope, twine, nets, canvas bags and carpets, the fiber from hemp stalks can be used to make textiles for apparel, diapers, sheets, towels, tents, drapes, knapsacks and shoes. The first Levi's jeans were made of hemp fibers which are longer, stronger, more lustrous, absorbent and mildew resistant than cotton. The fibers and hurds (a pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant) can make newsprint, cardboard and stationery. Hemp fibers will also strengthen and allow paper to be recycled indefinitely.

In addition to salad oil, margarine and food supplements, hempseed oil has been used to make paint, varnish, ink, fuel, plastic resin, solvents and lubricating oils. It can also be used to make soap, shampoo, bath gels and cosmetics. Hempseed is the world's second richest plant source of protein and is cheaper to cultivate than even soybeans. Hemp protein can be added to flour and animal feed instead of more expensive crops like soy and corn.

Hemp hurds can be used to manufacture cellophane, plastic, building materials, insulation, fiberboard, cement blocks and mortar, and can even be made into a fiberglass substitute.

A hearty plant with few natural enemies, hemp requires no pesticides or fertilizers. Since it takes only 100 days to grow, several crops can be planted a year or after other crops are harvested. the leftover stalks make excellent mulch. A variety of hemp used for industrial purposes contains only minute amounts of the psychoactive chemical THC that is usually associated with hemp cultivation.

http://www.lightparty.com/Energy/Hemp2.html

[stuntcat]

9. it's mindblowingly weird that farming it is against the law

mindblowingly weird.. like a lot of things about humans, just no sense to it.

[lunatica]

11. It's not so strange when you stop to think how for generations

We've been indoctrinated about the evils of marijuana. It's the same with healthcare. Mention universal or one payer and it conjures up 'Socialism!!!'. Yet, even though the word is bandied about liberally very few people even understand what it means. They just know it's BAD!

There has definitely been a long standing effort to brainwash us. Looking around, it isn't hard to see how well it's worked.

[OneGrassRoot]

8. K&R :) n/t

[pipoman]

10. Well

while I think it is time for legalization or decriminalization too. There is a difference between the uses of hemp and the recreational use of pot...they are not synonymous. Anyone who has tried smoking wild hemp plants, which grow abundantly out here on the plains, know that hemp plants are not recreational unless you find recreation in smoking shitty flavored, headache inducing vegetation.

[lunatica]

12. Some people will try smoking anything I guess

I don't think I said anything about smoking hemp in my OP.

[pipoman]

14. Your title

The uses of hemp are an excellent reason to legalize pot


Pot is the slang name of a recreational drug. Hemp is a fiber. Hemp is not pot. Pot is not necessarily hemp.

[lunatica]

16. But the use of hemp will only come about if pot is legalized

Prop 19 is not about legalizing hemp. But since hemp is far more valuable than pot, albeit perhaps not as much fun, then legalizing pot will also allow hemp to be grown and used in California for a lot of industries.

[pipoman]

20. I hesitate to lump the 2 together

mainly because there are many who are not in favor of legalizing recreational use of pot, but may, if they understood all of the really great uses of hemp, agree that hemp production should be legal..without legalizing any mind altering substance.

I don't disagree that if pot were legalized, the byproduct, hemp, could be fully utilized.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. I macrame and I used hemp

(imported from Canada for which I paid a mint) for an artsy fartsy trellis for one of my square foot gardens. I will never use anything else for outdoor projects. This stuff is pliable yet stiff enough to hold both simple and complex knots. It's durable as hell and there's not a fray anywhere. The problem is finding it and paying for it. Because of the ban it's expensive as hell and I have two more trellises to put up.

[lunatica]

15. So now we can add art uses to the long list of hemp products

I hope your two trellises hemp material is supplied by California in the near future! And hopefully at a reasonable price.

[HopeHoops]

17. That's why it is illegal in the first place. Remember "Reefer Madness"?

The entire "ooh, some kid's gonna take one puff of a marijuana cigarette and kill his girlfriend" thing was driven by and paid for by the cotton industry. There's no question that hemp is a superior fiber (and was used for all sails and rigging on every ship that fought every war prior to the 1930's), but it didn't have the money behind it that the cotton industry did. Who would have thought that Congress could be bought off? :rofl: :rofl:

Curiously, the type of hemp used to produce industrial fiber is pretty much useless for recreational drug purposes. We called that "headache weed".

[lunatica]

18. Unfortunately one has to be legalized in order to benefit from both

Not everyone will smoke pot, nor will it be available to children any more than it is now, but everyone will benefit from the uses of hemp, from the many businesses that will be started to the many jobs that it will create, to the fact that it will be a home grown industry which won't get exported to another country. Taxes will pull California out of bankruptcy and the middle class will thrive again. It's a win win.

And other states will follow suit without it hurting California at all.

[Javaman]

19. Be prepared for the corporate assault.

The reality is this: once pot/hemp (they are different strains of the same genus) become legal, they will be embraced by a broad spectrum of businesses and corporations. Do you not think that the big agra type corps won't jump on its use? I have a bridge to sell you, if you don't. I also believe that corporations like monstanto have genetically modified versions of hemp ready for sale at a moments notice.

While we are all championing it's use, just be aware that the concept of the "average guy" or the "small farmer" will be far removed from the final equation.

Where there is money there is profit to be had. So for about, maybe, 3-4 hours after the law passes, the average guy small farmer will enjoy a period of freedom, after which, the marketing execs will fall on that same average guy small farmer like a ton of madison avenue bricks.

Like everything that monstanto, agracorp and AMD do, they will put the shiny happy face on the promotion, while completely undermining the farmer. Look what they have done with GMO's and the liability of cross pollination of their various seeds?

The same will eventually happen with hemp.

[mr clean]

21. Problem is with LEO's,

they are trained to bust marijuana growers, in their eye's their is no different between Hemp and Marijuana.

[yodermon]

22. Big Business won't allow it .. duPont in the 30's got hemp banned

as a competitor to Nylon... and all the other industries represented in that graphic will not allow it either.

[felix_numinous]

23. The 'Hemp for Peace' slogan can be unearthed for use today

because hemp would literally boost this country's economy while providing a fuel source. Hemp would also heal the Earth....It is illegal because of all the uses listed in the above OP, it is the antithesis of the current corporate power structure.

Big corporations want to stay in power, and if hemp were legalized and there was enough money in it, they would try to find a way to hone in and then monopolize that market too. I think that corporations need to be knocked down to a manageable size, including agribusiness companies, in order to fully benefit from hemp farming in a totally green way. The medical establishment needs to be integrated and updated, big pharma needs an enema, ect. These companies are the obstacles in the way of domestic progress and independence, because their profits are international. Their interests are not in Americans health or welfare.

Just some thoughts.

Updated-perhaps 'Hemp for Independence' would be a more potent slogan, since we need independence from international corporate domination in order to obtain peace.

[JoeyT]

24. Even if the stuff were completely and totally useless

it would still make sense to legalize or decriminalize it. What with the country being freaking broke spending billions raiding people for weed seems like a waste of money that could be used for better things.

[RainDog]

25. it makes you wonder how stupid this govt can be and still survive

because this whole situation is about as stupid as it gets for any govt.

[Angry Dragon]

26. Just think of the benefits towards landfills

Very interesting website

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

[marmar]

27. I had lunch in a hotel in Amsterdam where everything pretty much was made of hemp.....

...... pretty awesome, resilient material.

[Canuckistanian]

28. There should be a legal distinction between pot and hemp

They are NOT the same. Hemp is a cultivar of pot, like the difference between "cattle corn" and "Peaches and Cream" eating corn.

Besides, hemp has NO appreciable amounts of THC. You couldn't get high off it if you tried.

[IDemo]

29. Thanks for pointing that out

Hemp advocacy groups try to make the distinction clear between the two.

I'm all for legalization of both personally, but hemp will (or should) face fewer obstacles if it isn't linked with pot.

[RainDog]

30. Cannabis sativa is both hemp and "marijuana"

cannabis sativa var. indica is typically identified as the type used for recreational mj. It's probably useful for purposes of identification to call this "marijuana," even tho that name is a slang term adopted by prohibitionists in the 1930s.

cannabis sativa var. sativa is hemp - and hemp contains THC, even tho it has low levels. if someone wanted to breed this plant to use for the THC it is possible - but it's not the reason this variety was bred in this way. it would take time to develop such a plant into one for recreational use, but it is possible.

cannabis sativa is the tall variety of cannabis. it can grow very close together when grown for fiber - so it's an efficient plant - lots of biomass per acre. it requires little in the way of pesticides b/c there are few insects that are problematic for the plant.

Indica is shorter. traditionally, this was the variety found in India, etc. that was used to make hashish. In the 1980s, in response to the drug war, cannabis cultivators hybidized indica and cannabis sativa b/c indica is the "stoned" variety of cannabis while sativa is the "high" variety. indica is shorter and thus easier to grow. but sativa has qualities that people prefer - energizing rather than sleep-inducing.

Ruderalis is another var. of cannabis found in Russia that contains lower levels of THC than either indica or sativa. It is a short plant and thus is not useful for hemp because one of the main values of hemp, or cannabis sativa sativa is the long stem that produces strong fiber.

[Canuckistanian]

31. Very informative, thanks

But my main point is that we shouldn't be throwing out the hemp baby with the pot bathwater.

[Mimosa]

32. Hemp can replace many petroleum based materials. n/t