What people do not realize about Cannabis/Hemp is that this super plant is one of the cornerstones of civilization. For centuries, this plant was used for many things like oil to light homes and cook foods. Fibers to weave what was called homespun for clothing, make ropes and sail cloth. Seeds for animal fodder and I can imagine, even consumed by people. As for medicinal purposes, cannabis was likely used as a main ingredient for a great many poultices. Sounds like a pretty useful weed that helped people to be self sufficient to me.
Let’s skip to more modern times to briefly relate a few more interesting tidbits about every old wives’ favorite and beloved garden staple, hemp. The period just before the prohibition on Cannabis/Hemp.
Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine allegedly used to hemp oil to run his engines in the late 1800’s and it kind of makes sense when you think about it. He had to invent the engine before perfecting its fuel and hemp oil was it. Now I am no mechanic and therefore I have never verified this for myself but I am told that all diesel engines, to this day, will run on hemp oil with zero conversions first.
This bring us to the first reason why cannabis/hemp is illegal; the hemp plant, depending upon the strain, produces among the highest counts of oil from plants ratio. I don’t know actual numbers here but I have read that 1 acre of hemp plants will produce around 300 gallons of oil every 3 to 4 months. Cannabis/hemp threatens petrol interests.
Up into the late 1930’s cannabis was included in the American Pharmacopoeia, listing the application for various remedies. Around this time there was some breakthrough regarding the administration of opiates and cocaine which could be administered using a hypodermic syringe. These products also had reliable dosage control where cannabis did not. Not only that but, being oil based, not administrable via the hypodermic syringe. Not only did this make cannabis less desirable for treatment but, the pharmaceutical companies had no interest in people growing their own medicines and treating themselves. Reason number two, threatens chemical companies’ patents on pain medicines.
I am going to have to back up a bit here to talk about the third reason why hemp is illegal. There has been a rivalry between hemp and cotton for a very long time. Hemp is the superior fibre but cotton was slightly easier to work with. Up until the late 1700’s both plants were used for various fabrics and ropes but around 1794 Eli Whitney created the cotton gin giving cotton the advantage in production. In 1862, the Flax and Hemp Gin entered the scene but by then the cotton gin had been perfected. Fast-forward a few years and something changed with the Flax and Hemp Gin making it more competitive cost wise. Given the fact that hemp was also the superior fibre, hemp was a threat to the cotton industry.
Sticking to the fiber side of cannabis/hemp brings us to the fourth reason, and probably the catalyst to the prohibition. William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate, was in the business of selling newspapers, a lot of them. As a shrewd businessman, and important member of the ruling class, owned huge tracts of forested lands from which he produced his paper. Not wanting to suffer the loss of his pulp and paper interests to the now cheaper to produce hemp fibres, took it upon himself to use the power of his newspapers to misinform the people about the evils of marijuana.
Through yellow journalism tactics he changed the name of the beloved cannabis/hemp plant that grew in most gardens – up until the 1930’s farmers in the US could pay part of their taxes through hemp production, navies need ropes after all – to something else to fool people into voting his pulp and paper competition out of production. In his newspapers, he would print stories about the latest scourge to god fearing white America…those crazy marijuana smoking Mexicans! Replacing the word cannabis with the word marijuana from the popular Mexican folk song La Cucaracha, Hearst turned public opinions on the subject without them realizing it was an attack on hemp; the animal fodder, oil, medicine and clothing material producing super plant.
Sadly, Hearst’s involvement doesn’t just end there but he also has an interest in reason number five. Again, in the late 1930’s one of the chemical companies developed a process or chemical that aided in the process for bleaching pulp that makes paper white or whiter. The pulp and paper industries use a lot of chemicals in the production of paper and as such the chemical companies were natural allies for Hearst in his prohibition of hemp.
The sixth reason directly pulls in the local and federal governments. The great depression, 1929 to 1939, also suffered through the Volstead Act, the prohibition of alcohol. Given the problems associated with these two events the prison industry flourished. Lots of other jobs in law enforcement did quite well too, policemen, lawyers and judges all getting stimulated by government jobs during the depression years. Prior to the end of the depression, 1933 to be precise, the Volstead Act was repealed. Suddenly these jobs were in jeopardy. To keep the wheels from falling off the cart the government needed a new offence to keep these people working. After all you don’t need police if there are no criminals.
William Randolph Hearst’s plan provided solutions to a lot of problems that hemp posed to established interests. By changing the status of cannabis/hemp to a dangerous narcotic the government could keep these judges, lawyers and police agencies busy by arresting the degenerate lowlife scum who smoke marijuana. Hell, as a bonus the prisons even get slave labour provided on the backs pf the blacks and Mexicans.
By changing the status of cannabis to that of a dangerous narcotic it prevents the cultivation of hemp for industrial purposes thus protecting the following industries; petrol/chemical, cotton, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper along with law enforcement. The continued prohibition keeps the prison industry booming while providing more and more legal slavery to the government.
Don’t be fooled people, pot isn’t the dangerous drug they tell us it is. Sugar is far more damaging to humanity than cannabis ever will be. The reason cannabis is illegal is because of the threat to the above listed industries. You need more proof than what should be obvious? No problem.
By the summer of 2018 Canada will be the first G7 country to legalize the recreational consumption of marijuana. While it will be legal to have an ounce or so of pot and each person can grow up to four 3ft plants, it remains illegal to produce quantities of hemp. The reason marijuana was criminalized in the first place was because it was a dangerous narcotic but that is the very thing they are now going to legalize. Hemp on the other hand, does not get you high regardless of how much you smoke. The thing that gets you stoned is legal but the stuff that doesn’t is still prohibited!
As for the rest of the world, America is responsible for the treatises that keeps marijuana prohibited in other countries. Any country that breaks those treaties will have their status changed to that of a source country and most countries can’t afford that label. How is Canada avoiding those concerns? If I had to guess it probably has to do with the real reasons why cannabis was prohibited in the first place, hemp production is still prohibited and no threat to American industrial concerns.
Image By Cannabis Training University (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons