A Most Amazing Plant!
Hemp (Cannabis Sativa), because of its vigour and
adaptability, was amongst the first plants cultivated by humans and has been used
and grown by many cultures for thousands of years. It produces nature's longest,
strongest and most durable fibre and even the earliest civilizations used it to
produce cloth, rope, paper and other necessities of daily life.
It was hemp that was used to make the sails and ropes that rigged the ships of
Cook and other British maritime explorers (an average ship in those days carried
70 tons of hemp). And, with the American colonies in revolt, it was the need to
find secure land to grow more hemp that motivated much of the early drive to
colonize this land. Although its hardiness assisted its adaptation here, hemp
processing involved labour intensive methods which eventually helped caused it to
fail to become a prominent crop in sparsely populated Australia.
The advent of synthetic fibres and the development of pesticides to aid the
cotton crop, without any accompanying hemp technology development, further
marginalised its agricultural standing.
Now after a long absence, the
plant is once again being cultivated in this country. We can soon expect to see
Australian homegrown hemp being used as:
Hemp cloth is softer and warmer than cotton, has 3 times its tensile strength and
is many times more durable, does not harbour bacteria (which makes it perfect for
medical uses), and does not require anywhere near the same amount of agricultural
chemicals and pesticides needed for cotton. China and the Russias are the world's
largest hemp producing nations.
Paper made from hemp is stronger, has more wet resistance than wood pulp, is less
likely to tear, is 7 times as recyclable and is grown from an annual plant thus
saving forest resources. It can produce a wider range of papers as wood pulp
whilst only using a fraction of the dangerous chemicals used in processing wood
pulp. No dioxins are produced and less water and energy is used. Hemp fibre can
be mixed with other fibre pulp (wheat, bagasse, kenaf etc) to strengthen paper.
Hemp produces far more biomass suitable for conversion to methane than almost any
other plant. This renewable biomass fuel contains no sulphur and whilst growing
helps remove CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis. Fossil fuels can stay in
the ground.
The cannabis hemp seed is a complete source of easily accessible protein. It is
available in the form found in human blood plasma, the fluid portion of blood
that supplies nutrients to tissue. Hemp seed is lower in saturated fats than
other cooking oils and hemp seed extracts can be used to make bean like curd and
margarine. It can be ground into meal or can be sprouted and used like other
beans and seeds. It was a staple diet in many countries.
ROPE, FIBRE, CORDAGE & CANVAS
Until this century, about 80% of all rope and twine was made from hemp until
replaced by synthetic petro-chemical fibres. 90% of all sails were made from hemp
and the word canvas derives from the greek word for cannabis. In Britain in the
17th and 18th centuries it was law that farmers sow 10% of all arable land to
hemp!.
For thousands of years all good paints and varnishes were made with either hemp
or linseed oil grown specifically for that purpose. This use has been almost
totally replaced by petro-chemical derived oils. Hemp's inner hurds yield
industrial cellulose and is an excellent basis for plastics and glues.
Cannabis was one of the most prescribed medicines in the 19th century along with
the opiates and cocaine. Between 1850 and 1937 cannabis was advised as a primary
medicine in over 100 separate illnesses or diseases in the US Pharmacopeia. It
has a pertinent proven modern use as a diuretic relieving nausea in AIDS and
cancer therapy. It has been used with success in treating glaucoma, asthma,
epilepsy, mood disorders and arthritis. It increases the appetite, promotes sleep
and relaxation, and relieves stress and migraines.
Hemp produces 4 times the cellular fibre of trees and is perfect for pressed
board, particle board and concrete formwork, longer lasting and more flexible
than currently used materials. It has excellent sound and thermal insulating
qualities. It is used as a strong rot resistant backing for carpets.
Hemp is the perfect archival substance outliving all other competing materials.
The strong lustrous fibre is heat, mildew and insect resistant, and is not
damaged by light. Hemp canvasses (including Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Gainsborough)
have stayed in fine condition for centuries, whilst hemp paper far outlasts other
papers.
Until the 19th century hemp seed oil was the most used form of lighting oil. It
was replaced by whale oil until the latter part of the century when it was
totally replaced by petroleum based fuels
Hemp has been used as a soil conditioner of overworked and compacted soils. It
sends a 12 inch root in 30 days compared with a 1 inch root on most grasses. This
breaks up pan development and helps restore soil structure and aeration. It is an
ideal farm rotation crop, and has been used to bind topsoil against floods.
It is estimated that if just 6% of all our arable land was planted in hemp (or
other biomass plants) it could supply us with all our fuel, gas and oil needs.
This is a plant that could save the world!
The problem is- its illegal.
For thousands of years the hemp plant has also been used as a euphoriant and a
means of changing consciousness. We know of it most popularly as marijuana, a
name given to it by the US Narcotics Bureau earlier this century in order to
emphasize its connections with the mexican/latino population. Officially illegal
in Australia since 1926 (Australia had signed an international Opium restriction
treaty which had included a ban on "Indian Hemp" inserted by request of
South Africa's colonial government of the time) though it was not until the
1950's and the post-war pressures being applied by the US Drug Enforcement
Agencies that the laws were actively prosecuted in Australia.
In the USA in 1937, the Congress there, in what amounted to a virtual
prohibition, made commerce in hemp impossible by the imposition of a massive tax.
It was a decision that had been engineered almost entirely by US Drug Enforcement
Czar Harry Ainslinger, backed by companies and individuals with interests in
opposition to the hemp industry: synthetic fibres and chemicals (du Pont) and in
paper processing and publishing (William Randolph Hearst). Ainslinger had
extolled the "menace of reefer madness- the assassin of youth" by way
of outrageously untrue horror stories which were spread by the gullible press
throughout the country.
This law was based in the prejudice of the times and provided the authorities
with another way of harassing and controlling the Mexicans and other latino
immigrants, the American blacks and the white jazz musicians who consorted with
them and who just happened to smoke the flowers of the hemp plant. In the same
way the turn-of-the-century Australian laws against smoking opium were based more
on fear of the heathen Chinese than on any opposition to the use of opium- white
Australia consumed gallons in patent medicines which were still widely available
despite the ban on smoking opium
Prohibition and the drug laws provided the perfect moral justification for
punishing "bad" attitudes. Use of a restricted substance indicated both
a sign of the devil in the drug and a moral bankruptcy on the part of the user
and thus a total discrediting of them as individuals with civil rights. From the
opium smoking chinese on to drunk "abos" and the pot smoking hippies of
the '60's, such groups were reviled, marginalised and discredited as much because
of their attitudes and potential threat to the dominant society as due to the use
of "dangerous drugs" of their choice. Prohibition became the big stick
in the totalitarian armoury. It remains so today.
Power building bureaucrats fought for control of the "drug trade".
Emotionalism, fear and political expediency dominated the debates on Prohibition.
The drug laws became self-justifying. Any increased use of prohibited substances
only led to harsher and harsher penalties. This caused prices to go up and a
ruthless organised element to dominate the trade. The trade in illegal drugs
finances terrorist wars and arms purchases, and amounts in cash terms to the
second largest item in international trade.
Over the years the only research funded by governments and health agencies
were those that sought to find the health disadvantages of illegal substance use
in order to provide vindication for the laws. Much research was tainted and
limited by official preconceptions as to render it useless. It has infected drug
education with useless platitudes. Its become hard for ordinary people to know
what to believe. The old maxim, "In war the first casualty is always
truth" holds true as regards the Drug Wars as well.
Hemp has been used over the centuries by countless tribal societies and
cultures as a means of changing and heightening ordinary consciousness. In many
it is used as a religious or spiritual enhancement. It is a comparatively safe
substance with little likelihood of anything approaching overdose and there are
no verified deaths reported from hemp use alone.