Gore urges civil disobedience to stop...

What's so bad about coal plants? Not only do I think we should plant more of them, I think we should also try to breed plants that produce not just coal but oil, natural gas, and even cars. That's right--cars. As everyone surely knows, that evil evil man Mr. Henry Ford succeeded in making cars out of hemp until people said: "Uh-oh, the eeevil anti-sssemitessss have discovered the benefits of hemp! It must be banned!!" Well, maybe not exactly that, but here are a few things most people don't realize about a plant that is very different from a coal plant... When will the Gorebot begin advocating for it?

http://www.rso.cornell.edu/hempsociety/why.html

Reprint of February 2005 Turn Left article by Ding Kong:

What other plant could be used to make paper, textiles, clothing, rope, fiberboard, insulation, the most complete vegetable protein, salad oil, biofuel, plastics, and at the same time use absolutely no pesticides or herbicides, while conditioning the soil with its roots, providing flood control for de-vegetated areas, survives drought, can be grown anywhere between the Arctic and Antarctic circles, and is still illegal to cultivate in the United States? HEMP! Of course!

Industrial Hemp, a distant cousin of the Marijuana plant, is capable of producing more than 20,000 products. Its long woody stem is rich with fibers that can be used to make paper and clothing. Each plant produces a liter of seeds, which contains the most balanced vegetable oil on the earth ¨C all eight essential amino acids, the perfect ratio of essential fatty acids, Omega-3's, and proteins. It's a vegan godsend. The Hemp plant has extremely fast growth, allowing 2-3 crops a year. Unlike cotton, which uses 50% of all the pesticides produced in the U.S. on 3% of the world's best arable land, Hemp has no known pests, and its tall, thick structure blocks light from the short weeds, choking them out in two rotations. It not only saves farmers money on chemicals, more importantly, it is the most environmentally sustainable plant that serves the most purposes on earth.

One hundred and twenty five years ago, fiber hemp made up 80% of the economy. It was used to make paper, lamp oil, clothing, rope, etc. It was simply the most profitable plant to grow. But as Marijuana (cannabis hemp) use became more and more prevalent and yellow journalism linked it to more and more murders, car accidents and violence (especially among minorities), cannabis and fiber hemp were both outlawed in 1937 (the same year DuPont came out with Nylon, a petroleum-based fiber). Hemp was banned from the United States until 1942, when demand for rope and fiber by the Navy grew high during WWII. The U.S.'s supply of imported hemp from Japan and Manila were now cut off, and the federal government again legalized the cultivation of hemp. In fact, they even subsidized it and made a short film called "Hemp for Victory", urging American farmers to grow it. But as the war was coming to a close, the government flip-flopped, and banned it within 5 minutes at a congressional hearing.

Fiber hemp and cannabis hemp are members of the species Cannabis Sativa. Industrial hemp is fiber hemp that contains less than 0.3% THC, the psychoactive chemical known to get people high, stoned, tripped out, and mellow yellow. Marijuana contains 3-15% THC. Although these percentages look fairly close, smoking fiber hemp will not get you high. It will only give you a headache. If the President himself and politicians like Attorney General John Ashcroft, Drug Enforcement Agency president Asa Hutchinson, or White House drug czar John Walters aren't completely denying the differences between fiber hemp and cannabis hemp, they're worried that growers could potentially grow marijuana inside a fiber hemp field. This, however, is only an excuse that protects the government from the shame of repealing the fiber hemp ban after 50 years of useless prohibition. A farmer could just as easily grow marijuana in a cornfield, in fact, since fiber hemp plants are so tall and dense, they'll likely suffocate the shorter marijuana plant from light, whereas marijuana could grow with ample light between rows of corn. And farmers aren't more likely to grow marijuana if they're growing fiber hemp, because the farmers who will be growing hemp aren't the hippies who want to enter the drug trade, but the same farmers who have been farming all their lives, who have the land and equipment, who know what to do, who are growing this miraculous plant for its economic worth and its ability to improve their land.

Keeping fiber hemp and cannabis hemp under the Schedule I controlled substances list only perpetuates the myth that they are the same plant with the same psychoactive potential. Every time I make a new hemp bracelet, I can always count on somebody saying, "Oh, after you're done wearing it, are you going to smoke it?" But this ignorance certainly cannot be blamed on them, because never, at least in my primary and secondary education, has there been one mention of fiber hemp and its many uses. While learning about American history, we were never taught that the first American flag Betsy Ross made was made on a piece of hemp canvas, that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington both grew acres of hemp, and that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both written on hemp paper. In World History, nobody ever taught that the first Gutenberg bible was printed on hemp paper, that many of the Van Gogh's and Rembrandt's were drawn on hemp canvas, that 90% of all lamp oil was hemp nut oil, and that after inventing the modern car, Henry Ford built a car completely out of hemp fiberglass. Of course people will confuse marijuana and hemp ¨C they never knew there was fiber hemp in the first place.

In a personal email to the AntiDrug.com, I asked what the policy is on hemp for textiles, paper, and hemp foods. They replied that, as ordered by the Drug Enforcement Agency, if hemp foods are to be legally consumed, they must contain 0% THC. Hemp nuts contain 0% THC, but hemp oils may contain trace amounts of it, usually 3-10 parts per million (usually from flowers that were not separated from the seeds), which makes eating salad with hemp oil dressing scandalously illegal. A very peculiar and intriguing policy indeed, because the poppy seeds on our delicious baked goods contain trace amounts of opiates, so why don't I get a life-sentence for this schedule I controlled substance? What about the food that we eat ¨C laced with mercury, pesticides, genetically engineered chicken and corn, growth hormones, and antibiotics? If the government is looking out for our health and well-being, then why aren't they cracking down on the chemicals over which we have no control, while putting a ban on one of the healthiest, most versatile, and sustainable plants in the world?

Today, Hawaii, California, North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Maryland, West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Montana, Virginia, and Vermont have passed resolutions for the cultivation of industrial fiber hemp. They are catching up to the industry with research, but their hemp crops are too small and unprofitable to be sold because of obscene levels of government scrutiny. Thirty other developed, modernized countries in the world, including Canada and China continue to lead the industry in production and cultivation. Although some hemp products are legally available in the U.S., they are still exorbitantly priced because there is little competition against cotton and wood, high import costs, and no established market. But that is only a bump in the road for the future of the miracle plant. So support the hemp market, read Jack Herer's The Emperor Wears No Clothes, and most of all, spread the word! The future of the environment, government sanity, and sustainability are all at stake!