HEMP IN HISTORY
8000 B.C. Hemp is woven into fabric and over time grows in global popularity to eventually provide
over 80% of all textiles and fabrics, including over 50% of the fabric called linen.
2700 B.C. Cannabis, as hemp fabric and cordage, medicine, food, and sacrificial herb, has been
incorporated into virtually all cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, China, Japan, and Africa.
2300 B.C. Nomadic tribes from the East invade the Mediterranean and Europe, introducing hemp
along the way.
1000 B.C. to 1883 A.D. Hemp is the world’s largest agricultural crop, providing the materials to
support civilization’s most important industries, including fiber for fabric and rope, lamp oil for
lighting, paper, medicine and food for both humans and domestic animals.
1000 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Hemp extracts are the #1, #2, and #3 most important and most frequently
used medicine for two-thirds of the world’s peoples.
500 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Ninety percent of the sail cloth and rigging lines for all sea-going ships is made
from hemp. (Including the U.S. battleship "Constitution" better known as "Old Iron Sides.") The
word ‘canvas’ comes into use through a Latin to French to Dutch translation of the Greek word
Kannabis.
500 B.C. Ritual use of cannabis is common among Buddhists and traditional writings indicate that the
Buddha himself used and ate nothing but hemp and hemp seed for six years prior to announcing his
spiritual revelations. In Hinduism, the god Shiva is said to "have brought cannabis from the Himalayas
for human enjoyment and enlightenment." Many Eastern religions consider cannabis to be their "most
holy" plant.
450 B.C. The Greek historian Herodotus records that inhalation of cannabis smoke is part of the
Scythians’ funeral ritual and that this cultural custom has reportedly been practiced for over 150
years.
BIRTH OF CHRIST It is widely believed among today's modern Christian scholars that the Magi
who attended the birth of Christ were members of the Zoroastrian religion. It is known that
utilization of the cannabis plant as a priestly sacrament and medicine was a fundamental tenet of
Zoroastrian practice.
100 A.D. Chinese discover how to make paper from hemp.
1000 A.D. Moslem priests teach the use of cannabis for divine revelation, spiritual insight, and
oneness with God.
1000 to 1600 A.D. Approximate period of the Roman Catholic Inquisition, a time in Western Europe
when 10% to 33% of the entire population was tortured or put to death for owning a dinner fork,
taking a bath, or using cannabis as a medicine. For example, during 1430-31, Joan d’Arc was accused
of using cannabis and other herbs as a religious sacrament.
1470s Gutenberg Bible is printed on hemp paper.
1564 King Philip of Spain mandates the cultivation of hemp for food, fiber and medicine throughout
Spanish territory in Central and South America.
1600 Rembrandt paints on hemp canvas.
1611 King James Bible is printed on hemp paper.
1619 America’s first hemp law is enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, ordering all farmers to grow
hemp.
1631 ‘Must grow’ hemp laws are enacted throughout Massachusetts.
1631 to early 1800s Hemp is ‘legal tender’ and taxes may be paid with hemp throughout most of the
Americas.
1632 to mid-1700s ‘Must grow’ hemp laws enacted in Connecticut and the Chesapeake Colonies.
1700 Gainsborough paints on hemp canvas.
1740 - 1940 Russia is the world’s largest and ‘best quality’ producer of hemp, supplying 80% of
Western hemp rope.
1750s Benjamin Franklin starts one of America’s first hemp-rag paper mills.
1763 - 1767 Farmers who do NOT grow hemp can be arrested and jailed in Virginia.
1776 Patriots organize spinning bees to turn hemp fiber into clothing for General Washington’s
Continental Army.
1776 First and second drafts of the Declaration of Independence are written on hemp paper.
1777 The Stars and Stripes is endorsed as the Capitol Flag of the U.S.A. and made of hemp fabric.
1790s George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grow hemp on their plantations.
1800s Van Gogh paints on hemp canvas. Australians survive two prolonged famines by using hemp seed
for protein and leaves for roughage. Hemp seed oil, long the most popular lighting oil in the world,
falls to second place in popularity as whale oil becomes widely accessible. The use of hemp extracts
as a recreational stimulant spreads through Western culture and romantic writers expound on
individual freedom and human dignity, extolling cannabis use. Their works include: The Count of Monte
Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass.
1812 America goes to war with Great Britain over free-trade access to Russian hemp.
1837 - 1901 Queen Victoria uses cannabis resins to treat menstrual cramps, sparking enormous
interest in the uses of cannabis as a medicine in the English-speaking world.
1840 Abraham Lincoln uses hemp-seed oil to fuel his household lamps and writes: “Prohibition... goes
beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes
a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon
which our government was founded.”
1842 - 1890 Extracts and derivatives of the hemp plant are the second and third most prescribed
medicines in the U.S.A. Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Squibb, Brothers Smith and other firms produce these
medicines through 1930. During this time, not one death or severe side-effect is attributed to use.
1850 U.S. census records 8,327 hemp plantations of 2000 acres or more and an uncalculated number
of small hemp farms.
1859 Kerosene is introduced as lighting oil. (What does this have to do with hemp? Well, until the
introduction of petro-chemical fuels, hemp seed oil and whale oil were the primary fuels used for
household lighting.)
1860s to 1900 World Fairs and International Expositions feature highly popular Turkish Hashish
smoking concessions. Hashish, a derivative of cannabis, is entirely new to Americans and finds great
favor as a way to ‘enhance’ their enjoyment of the fair.
1860 The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Ohio State Medical Society Committee on Cannabis
Indica records that noted Biblical scholars of the day believe that “The gall and vinegar, or myrrhed
wine, offered to our Savior immediately before his crucifixion was, in all probability, a preparation
of Indian hemp.”
1860 The “Ganjah Wallah Hasheesh Candy Company” produces one of the most popular candies in the
U.S. It is made from cannabis derivatives and maple sugar, sold over-the-counter and in Sears-
Roebuck catalogs. It retains its popularity as a totally harmless and fun candy for over 40 years.
1865 Alice In Wonderland is published on hemp paper.
1870s The popularity of smoking female cannabis tops, to ease the back-breaking labor of working in
sugarcane fields and tolerate the hot sun, as well as to relax recreationally with no alcohol "hang-
over," begins to spread in the West Indies with the immigration of Hindus who are imported to
provide cheap labor. Gradually, this popularity makes its way into the United States through St. Louis.
1883 Hashish smoking parlors have opened in every major American city, including an estimated 500
such establishments in New York City alone.
1890s Popular American "marriage guides" recommend cannabis extracts for heightened marital
pleasures. Women’s temperance groups, lobbying for alcohol prohibition, suggest cannabis as a
suitable substitute for the "demon drink."
1893 British governor of India commissions a report on the effects of smoking “bhang” (hemp buds
and leaves) on heavy users in the subcontinent. The "Report of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission
1893-1894" concludes that smoking hemp is NOT a problem and that NO criminal penalties should
apply to recreational indulgence.
1898 Hearst newspapers denounce Spaniards, Mexican-Americans, and Latinos after the seizure by
the Mexican government of 800,000 acres of prime, Hearst-owned, timberland in Mexico by the
"marijuana smoking army of Pancho Villa." Vigorous slander of the Mexican people continues in Hearst
and other publications for three decades. Because of Hearst’s personal prejudices against African-
Americans and Hispanics and Hearst’s covert motivations to link them with the proliferation of an
"evil drug," the term "marijuana" --- a word totally unfamiliar to the average hemp-loving American
citizen --- is used exclusively to identify cannabis throughout this public disinformation campaign.
1901 - 1937 U.S. Department of Agriculture repeatedly predicts that once machinery capable of
harvesting, stripping and separating the hemp fiber from the pulp is invented, hemp will again be
America’s “Number One” crop.
1910 - 1920 Southern “officials” are alarmed because “pot smoking darkie jazz musicians” are
beginning to “think that they are as good as whites.” For example, the Jim Crow segregation laws
prohibited Black entertainers from performing in white clubs. Because these performers were so
very talented however, white club owners found a way to circumvent the law by requiring Black
performers to wear “black face”. In other words, a Black entertainer who was willing to pretend to
be a white person pretending to be Black was permitted to perform. When Blacks objected to this
lunacy they were accused, by whites, of being "no-good marijuana-smoking niggers."
1910 South Africa begins outlawing marijuana for the same “Jim Crow” reasons cited by U.S. bigots:
to stop the insolence of Blacks, and lobbies the League of Nations to have cannabis outlawed world-
wide. Many Southern U.S. states are influenced by South Africa and follow suit with prohibitions.
Note, however, that Black mine workers in South Africa were permitted to continue smoking the
herb because it increased their productivity.
1915 As a result of Hearst’s incited hysteria over “disrespectful darkies” and “lazy Chicanos,”
California and Utah pass state laws outlawing the recreational use of marijuana.
1916 U.S.D.A. publishes Bulletin No. 404, “Hemp Hurds As Paper-Making Material,” extolling and
demonstrating the outstanding qualities of paper manufactured from hemp-pulp, a new process. The
document was printed on hemp-pulp paper and explained the new technology. Previously most all paper
was made with the hemp fiber content of ‘rag’ (worn-out clothing).
1916 - 1935 The Hearst newspapers initiate and build a campaign to outlaw “marijuana.” Reporting is
slanted to generate reader bias. For example, the reader was never told that “hemp” and
“marijuana” are exactly the same plant. Nor was the reader told that the active ingredients of the
tonic they gave their baby to ease colic came from the marijuana/hemp plant, nor that the smoke
they inhaled in their ever popular hashish parlors was a derivative of marijuana. Furthermore, news
stories are manipulated to aggrandize and exaggerate the supposed “horrors” of recreational
marijuana use. The story of an auto accident where one marijuana cigarette was found dominates
front page headlines for weeks while alcohol related accidents --- which outnumbered marijuana
incidents 1000 to 1 --- are briefly mentioned and buried in the back pages. Also, the rape of white
women by "Negros," previously attributed by Hearst publications to cocaine use is, by these same
publications, suddenly attributed to the use of marijuana.
1920 U.S. Government papers have been, by law, written on “hempen rag paper” until this time.
1924 The U.S. Supreme Court rules, as a result of the 1914 Harrison Act, that drug addicts are not
‘sick people’ deserving of treatment, they are criminals and must be punished.
1929 Henry Ford begins extensive research into the production of methanol (as a fuel) and the
manufacturer of plastics from renewable vegetable crops, including hemp.
1930s Mechanical hemp-fiber stripping and pulp conserving machines are invented and developed to
state-of-the-art. Timber-based paper manufacturing industries (Hearst, Kimberly Clark, St. Regis)
recognize combined technological advances (re: hemp) as a potential threat to their prosperity.
During this same timeframe, DuPont patents two new (chemically intense) processes. One to make
plastics from fossil-fuel oil and coal and another to make paper from wood-pulp.
1930 U.S. government sponsors the Siler Commission study on the effects of off-duty smoking of
“marijuana” (hemp buds & leaves) by American servicemen in Panama. The report concludes that such
recreational smoking is NOT a problem and recommends that no criminal penalties apply to its use.
During this same time, Louis Armstrong is arrested and jailed for 10 days for smoking marijuana
cigarettes.
1931 Andrew Mellon of the powerful Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh, financier of many DuPont projects
and long-time supporter of Hearst, serving as President Hoover’s Secretary of the Treasury,
appoints his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to be head of the newly re-organized Federal
Narcotics Bureau. Anslinger begins to compile a dossier of tabloid articles which sensationalize
disinformation about marijuana use and the crimes committed while supposedly under the influence
of the herb. This collection of newspaper clippings, most from Hearst newspapers, becomes known as
the Gore Files.
1935 116 million pounds of hemp seed are used commercially in America to manufacture paint and
varnish.
1935 - 1937 DuPont assures Congress through secret testimony that synthetic petro-chemical oils
(such as kerosene) can replace hemp seed oil in paints, varnishes, and other products.
1935 - 1937 U.S. Department of Treasury conducts “secret” meetings to consider the development
of “prohibitive” transfer tax laws and occupational registrations on hemp which would, in effect,
extinguish all legal trade in hemp and its by-products.
1936 - 1938 Hearst newspapers step-up the anti-marijuana campaign and newsreel clips at local
movies banner headlines like ‘Reefer Madness’ and ‘Marijuana--- Assassin of Youth.’
1937 Walter Treadway, Assistant U.S. Surgeon General, tells the Cannabis Advisory Subcommittee
of the League of Nations that extended use of cannabis derivatives is benign, both socially and
emotionally, and is no more habit forming than sugar or coffee. The DuPont Company issues its Annual
Report to stockholders which anticipates “radical changes” and the conversion of the Federal
government’s revenue raising power "into an instrument for forcing acceptance of sudden new ideas
of industrial and social reorganization." In other words, government would no longer tax citizens
solely to raise money but would used taxation to enforce the adoption (or extinction) of select ‘social
norms.’ February issue of Mechanical Engineering features a story “The Most Profitable and
Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown” which tells about the new machines being used to harvest hemp. 4
million pounds of hemp seed are sold retail as song-bird food in the U.S.A.
April 14, 1937 Marijuana Tax Law is introduced to the House Ways and Means Committee of
Congress, chaired by Robert L. Doughton, a key DuPont ally. In subsequent committee hearings Dr.
James Woodward, speaking for the American Medical Association (AMA), testifies against the
proposed legislation stating that the plant Congress intends to outlaw is a perfectly safe substance
used to treat scores of illnesses for over 100 years in America and that the ignorance of the
proposed prohibition will deny the world access to potential medical breakthroughs. Dr. Woodward is
denounced by Anslinger and the congressional committee, then curtly excused. Ralph Lorenz, general
counsel of the National Oil Seeds Institute (which represents the interests of high quality machine
lubrication producers and paint manufacturers) also lobbies against the proposed legislation,
eloquently citing the key importance of the hemp plant to American industry and reviewing the
thousands of years of benign use of hemp by millions of people world-wide.
After receiving testimony from Anslinger, who cites marijuana as “the most violence causing drug in
the history of mankind,” reviewing Anslinger’s marijuana “Gore Files” (which were later debunked by
evidentiary scholars), and hearing a false, dishonest, and intentionally misleading report from the
Ways and Means Committee that the AMA is in “complete agreement” with the proposed marijuana
legislation, the Marijuana Tax Act is adopted as law by Congress. The legislation is carefully worded
so that the great majority of American people, including many of those congress people who pass the
law, have no idea that the agricultural hemp industry is being legislated into extinction. Popularity of
DuPont’s “plastic fibers’ (like nylon) begins to dramatically increase. At this same time, an estimated
10 million acres of hemp grows wild in the U.S.A., providing an important and favorite food source for
hundreds of millions of wild birds.
1938 The February issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine runs a story, (prepared before the 1937
legislation was enacted) titled: “New Billion Dollar Crop.” It tells about the new machine for
harvesting hemp which “solves a problem more than 6,000 years old.” It further states that
increased hemp production “will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products” and
calls hemp the “standard fiber of the world.” Popular Mechanics goes on to say hemp can “produce
more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.” This is the first time ever in U.S.
history the term ‘billion-dollar’ is applied to the potential for an agricultural harvest.
1941 December issue of Popular Mechanics features a story on Henry Ford, showing a picture of the
car he “grew from the soil.“ The automobile’s “plastic panels with impact strength 10 times greater
than steel were made from flax, wheat, hemp, spruce pulp.” The auto weighs 1/3 less than its 100%
steel contemporaries.
1942 U.S. government overrides its own ban on hemp and distributes 400,000 pounds of hemp seed
to U.S. farmers who produce 42,000 tons of hemp fiber annually to support the war effort until
1946. U.S. farmers, including youthful 4-H Club members, are inundated by “Uncle Sam” with
incentives to grow hemp. The U.S.D.A. makes it mandatory for farmers to attend showings of its
“Hemp For Victory” film. Farmers and their sons who agree to grow hemp are exempt from military
service, even though America is at war.
1944 The “LaGuardia Marijuana Report,” compiled between 1938 and 1944 by the New York
Academy of Medicine at the request of Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia, is released to refute Anslinger’s
negative claims about marijuana. It reports that marijuana use has caused no violence at all and cites
numerous instances of beneficial effects. Anslinger denounces the Mayor, the report, and the
Academy, proclaiming that the involved doctors will never again do marijuana research without his
personal permission, or they will be sent to jail.
1945 With Anslinger’s’ coercive manipulation, the AMA conducts what has since been labeled a
“gutter science” study to refute the LaGuardia Report. Using biasing techniques which predetermine
the outcome of research findings, this prejudicial study, conducted with enlisted Army men,
concludes that 34 Negro males who smoked marijuana were “disrespectful” of white soldiers and
officers.
1948 - 1950 Anslinger has a sudden change of heart about the violence inducing properties of
marijuana and, in a complete about-face from his previous position, testifies before a strongly anti-
Communist Congress that marijuana causes users to become so peaceful and pacifistic that use of
the herb by soldiers will weaken their will to fight "The Great Red Communist Plague."
1950s - 1960s The U.S. Army sponsors numerous tests to determine the effects of cannabis
smoking on soldiers. The first study showed no loss of motivation or performance after two years of
continual “heavy” smoking. This study is replicated six more times by the U.S. military and dozens of
times by independent universities, always with the same basic findings.
1961 - 1962 Anslinger is forced to retire as the head of the Federal Narcotics Bureau (now the DEA)
by President Kennedy after trying to censor the publications and blackmail and harass the publishers
of Professor Alfred Lindsmith of Indiana University who wrote, among other works, “The Addict and
the Law” (Washington Post, 1961). U.S. Medical research into the beneficial properties of cannabis
resumes after nearly 3 decades of Anslinger’s prohibition. Credible sources report that President
Kennedy routinely uses marijuana to relieve his back pain and plans to have the drug legalized. These
plans are terminated by his assassination.
1964 The Himalayan region of Bangladesh (from “bhang” cannabis, “la” land, and “desh” people) signs
an anti-drug pact with the U.S. not to grow hemp. As a result, the steep slopes of this flash-flood
region which once were lush with hardy hemp, are reduced to a light covering of moss. Millions of
acres of topsoil are washed away and native peoples of the country suffer disease, starvation, and
decimation due to unrestrained flooding.
1966 - 1976 Millions of Americans illegally use marijuana daily and new Federal research (conducted
by independent university scholars) indicates a wide array of beneficial uses. Numerous and
sometimes weekly reports in medical journals tell of the positive therapeutic benefits of using
cannabis for treating epilepsy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, dystrophy and tumors, asthma,
glaucoma, and nausea. These studies conclude that crude “natural” cannabis is ‘the best and safest
medicine of choice’ for many serious health problems.
1972 U.S.D.A. finds that hemp seed oil is lower in saturated fats than any other vegetable oil
(including soybean and canola). Other studies note that until this century hemp-cake (the by-product
of pressing the seed for oil) was one of the world’s principle animal feeds. Also that hemp seed, like
soybeans, can produce a tofu-like curd and be spiced to taste like chicken, steak or pork; can be
sprouted for salads, ground into meal, and also made into margarine. Hemp seed is recommended as a
nutritionally balanced food for domestic pets and farm animals.
1975 Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discover that cannabis is incredibly successful
for reducing the size of many types of tumors, both benign and cancerous. The findings of the
Jamaican Studies (1968-74, 1975), cited as the most extensive empirical study of hemp smoking
ever conducted and sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Studies of
Narcotic and Drug Abuse, concludes that in a population where use of cannabis was pervasive, highly
frequent, continued over long periods, in heavy quantities with greater THC potency than commonly
available in the U.S., there are NO negative social or psychological effects. They find NO
relationship between the use of marijuana and the commission of crime (like theft or rape) and no
impairment of motor skills. The study goes on to identify numerous positive effects which include
lively, merry, more responsible attitudes, a general sense of well-being and healthy self-esteem, and
greater work motivation. The test subjects had smoked extensively for 6 to 31 years. Their average
age for first time use was 12 years, 6 months. And in a “matched pair” study where
tobacco/marijuana smokers were matched with tobacco-only smokers, the tobacco/marijuana
smokers consistently evidenced better overall health than their tobacco-only smoking counterparts.
In addition the study concludes that the supposed “stepping stone” effect (which alleges that
marijuana use acts as a gateway to the abuse of “hard” drugs) is invalid since none of the long-time
marijuana-smoker test subjects had ever taken any narcotic type drugs. The National Institute of
Drug Abuse convenes a conference among America’s leading researchers on marijuana at which
practically all participants conclude that the federal government should be rushing to invest tax
money into large scale cannabis research. Many of these scientists predict that cannabis will be one
of the world’s major medicines by the mid-1980s.
1976 Dr. Gabriel Nahas is discredited by Colombia University and forbidden to receive any
government funding for marijuana research after it is discovered by the National Institute of
Health that Nahas’ allegations about the “horrible” effects of smoking marijuana are scientifically
unfounded and totally fraudulent. The Ford Administration, with George Bush as the head of the CIA,
is lobbied extensively by pharmaceutical companies to obtain total jurisdiction over all medical
(marijuana) research. A “surprise” policy issued by the government forbids federally funded
research by universities into the therapeutic benefits of marijuana. The research findings of 10
years worth of federally funded marijuana research is turned over to corporate (for-profit) drug
companies who promise to “synthesize” (chemically compound) the beneficial properties of the
natural herb. (NOTE: Only synthesized compounds can be patented, hence there is little profit
motivation to research and develop the natural properties of any plant.)
1977 George Bush leaves his post as Director of the CIA and is appointed as a director of Eli Lilly by
Dan Quale’s father and family who, along with Bush, are major shareholders in Lilly. President Jimmy
Carter addresses Congress on drug abuse and states: “Penalties against possession of a drug should
not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Therefore,” Carter continues,
“I support legalization, amending federal law to eliminate all federal criminal penalties for the
possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.”
1979 Andrew Young, former U.N. Ambassador, announces to the world that due to its irrational drug
laws the United States has more political prisoners than any other nation.
1980 Through the Freedom of Information Act the research procedures of the Heath/Tulane
University “Monkey Study” (which concluded that marijuana caused brain damage and was bannered
by the Federal government as “conclusive proof” of the harmful effects of marijuana) were, after a
six year legal battle, delivered to the hands of independent researchers. Time after time these
independent researchers find that Heath’s research is erroneous and fraudulent. The Costa Rican
Study largely confirms the findings of the dramatically favorable 1975 Jamaican Study and
additionally concludes that socially approved use of cannabis largely replaces the use of alcohol.
1981 Petitions are circulated among “War on Drugs” groups calling for immediate Presidential
clemency and aggrandizement as a “national hero” of Mark Chapman for his murder of John Lennon of
the Beatles (because Lennon was an “evil man” who had “turned-on” the world to “illicit drugs”).
Other “War on Drugs” campaign propaganda calls for the jailing of people who listen to or play any
type of music that is not on an "approved" list. A covert censorship of television and radio programs
begins, keeping pro-marijuana commentary, including sit-com jokes, off the public air-waves. Drs.
Ungerlieder and Shaeffer of UCLA study 10 of America’s “heaviest” pot smokers who have each been
inhaling huge amounts of highly potent cannabis smoke daily for over 10 years. They conclude that
there are absolutely no brain differences between the study subjects and non-cannabis smokers.
1982 Vice-President George Bush is ordered by the Supreme court to stop (illegally) lobbying the
IRS on behalf of drug companies. Noted authorities attest that if marijuana were legalized it would
immediately replace 10% to 20% of all (chemical compound) prescription medicines. Omni magazine
and other sources report that Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, Pfizer, Smith, Kline & French and other drug
companies would lose hundreds of millions to billions of dollars annually if marijuana were legal in the
U.S. Omni states that the drug companies have been “totally unsuccessful” in their attempt to
synthesize the active ingredients of cannabis. Omni and concurring sources allege that the reason
the Reagan/Bush Administration refuses to allow federal funding of university research into
cannabis is that governmental permission to develop the simple crude “natural” cannabis extracts
prevents the pharmaceutical companies from making monopolized windfall profits on the patented
synthetic compound drugs they endeavor to produce.
1983 The World Health Organization conservatively estimates that 500,000 people are poisoned
each year in Third World Countries by drugs and chemicals manufactured by U.S. companies which are
banned in America. The Reagan/Bush Administration “softly” requests that every American
university destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research work, including compendiums in libraries. The Drug
Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program initiates a national program aimed at school children
which dangerously disseminates a mix of factual and disinformation about drug use. In addition to
encouraging young people to become “police informants” against their family and friends, instructors
repeatedly make fraudulent innuendoes about marijuana use, linking it with the negative health
effects associated with cocaine and other ‘hard’ drugs. Through the Freedom of Information Act, it
is learned that in 1943 Anslinger was appointed to a “top secret” committee (which evolved to
become the CIA), charged with the discovery/creation of a “truth serum” and conducted covert
experimentation with “honey oil” (a potent derivative of marijuana). Fifteen months after inception
all experiments with marijuana extracts were discontinued because the people being interrogated
giggled and laughed at their captors and got ravenously hungry. Paraquat is illegally sprayed from
airplanes by the federal government on marijuana fields in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Carlton
Turner, Drug Czar under Reagan, states that kids deserve to die as punishment from smoking
paraquat poisoned pot in order to teach them a lesson.
1985 The Supreme Court rules that the CIA has the authority to exempt itself from the provisions
of the Freedom of Information n Act. High school children in Milton Wisconsin are ordered to have
weekly urine tests to discover if they smoke marijuana. Carlton Turner calls for the death penalty
for all drug users.
1987 Fifteenth Edition of Merick Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (the U.S. Military’s Official Field
Manual) says about cannabis (in part): "Chronic or periodic (use) of cannabis... produces... no physical
dependence... (or) social... dysfunction... there is little evidence of biologic damage even among
relatively heavy users... the chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and political... foundation."
Harvard Medical School’s Mental Health Letter (November) describes the intoxicating psychological
‘high’ of marijuana as a ‘calm, mildly euphoric state in which time slows and sensitivity to sights,
sounds, and touch is enhanced.’
1988 The DEA’s administrative law judge, Francis Young, takes medical testimony for 15 days and
reviews hundreds of documents to conclude that ‘marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to man.’
1989 DEA Director John Lawn decides (contrary to Young’s findings) that cannabis has “no known
medical use” and that it must remain on the Schedule One narcotic list. “Crimestoppers” billboards
and TV ads in Ventura, California, encourage citizens in Orwellian (some would say Nazis-like)
neighbor-against-neighbor fashion to “help a friend, send him to jail” and “earn a thousand dollars” for
enforcing drug laws that make felonies of a victim-less crime. The California Advisory Panel, a
committee made up of university professors and researchers which counsels state legislators and
the attorney general on scientific issues calls for the re-legalization of cannabis.
September 5, 1989 President Bush promises to double the federal prison population (it had already
doubled under the Reagan Administration) as part of his tough drug enforcement policy. When asked
why the Smithsonian (U.S.A. national archives) exhibits of early life in America and at sea identifies
by name all the ‘minor’ fibers used during the period to make fabric, cordage and paper while making
no mention of the significant role played by the ‘major’ use of hemp, the Smithsonian replies that it
is NOT a fiber museum and that mention of hemp would only confuse young children.
November 1989, Dr. Donald Blum, researcher from the UCLA neurological studies center,
vehemently complains that the Partnership for a Drug Free America (PFDA) television commercials
are false and misleading. Citing years of research which document the effects of cannabis on the
brain, Dr. Blum points out that the brain waves identified as those of someone “high on pot” in a PDFA
spot actually identify someone in a deep sleep or coma. Another PDFA spot blaming marijuana smoking
for a train wreck is challenged by the sworn testimony of the engineer who himself caused the
disaster. Under oath the engineer states that the wreck was NOT caused by smoking marijuana, it
was caused by his own negligence, drinking, snacking, watching TV, and generally failing to pay
adequate attention to his job. Although eventually both ads were pulled from TV, no public apology or
correction of the misleading information has yet to be forthcoming.
1989 - 1990 The Iran-Contra scandal morally (if not legally) convicts the U.S. government of
participation with and orchestration of a drug smuggling ring that traded “hard drugs’ for military
weapons. Omni magazine, the Washington Post and the New York Times each publish articles
announcing that new scientific studies prove that the human brain has unique receptor sites for THC
and its natural cannabis cousins which no other known compound will bind to. Garments containing
hemp fiber are available to the American public for the first time in over 50 years, however this
clothing must be imported to the U .S. from China (via Hong Kong) and carries a huge protective
tariff. 18 states have established “Special Alternative Incarceration” boot camps for non-violent,
first time drug offenders and 17 more states are considering the program. The inmates confined to
these camps, most of whom are marijuana users or distributors, are verbally abused and “brain
washed” to break down their “dissident attitudes.”
1990 Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates testifies before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
that cannabis smokers should be “taken out and shot.” Gates holds this position for a week until
public outcry calling for his dismissal forces him to modify his attitude. A few months later Rodney
King is savagely beaten by officers of the L.A.P.D.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Since 1990, new studies have been done by research groups at the University of California, the
University of Michigan, Brown University and others. These studies conclusively show that the active
properties of cannabis have the direct and beneficial effect of safely and significantly reducing
chronic pain and that unlike prescription painkillers and opiates, cannabis is not addictive nor does it
carry the risk of developing “tolerance” which requires continually increasing the dose of
manufactured drugs.
A 1994 study, which documented that THC may protect against malignant cancers, was buried by the
US government. The $2 million study, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services' national toxicology program, sought to show that large doses of THC produced cancer.
Instead, researchers found that massive doses of THC retarded certain types of stomach cancer in
rats. The rats given THC lived longer than their non-exposed counterparts.
A study by Italian scientists, published in the July 1998 Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, found that anandamide inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells. Anandamide is the
naturally occurring body chemical which is mimicked by THC cannabinoids.
Late in 1999, federal researchers at the National Institutes of Mental Health stated that THC, the
key active agent in cannabis, along with other naturally occurring compounds in the herb, act as
powerful antioxidants which protect brain cells from the glutamate damage that often occurs during
a stroke.
In the March 2000 issue of Nature Medicine, researchers in Spain reported that THC kills
“incurable” cancer cells while leaving normal/healthy tissues unaffected. In addition, a study
published in the July 2002 edition of the medical journal Blood found that THC and its related
cannabinoids produce "programmed cell death" in different varieties of human leukemia and
lymphoma cell lines, thereby destroying the cancerous cells but leaving other cells unharmed.
As of October, 2002, nine states -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada,
Oregon, and Washington -- have laws allowing people to receive, possess, grow, or smoke marijuana
for medical purposes without fear of state prosecution. However, these laws and the people they
serve have fallen to increased (and Constitutionally illegal) attack by the Federal Government.
In addition, Canada and Great Britain stand on the brink of dramatically decriminalizing marijuana
and other forward thinking nations around the world are not far behind.
THE BIG PICTURE
Experts conservatively estimate that the legalization of hemp as a food, fiber, cellulose, biomass
crop and medicine has the potential to be the world’s largest industry, generating 500 billion to one
trillion dollars annually. This industry would be agriculturally based, breathing new life into small-
scale farms (not to mention our sagging U.S. economy), and would be much more environmentally
friendly than petro-chemical based resource exploitation.
Also, as ozone depletion threatens the cultivation of many food crops (soy bean production, for
example, could be reduced by 30% to 50% due to higher ultra-violet radiation), hemp is the one
known crop that is ultra-violet light tolerant and actually thrives with higher levels of this radiation.
Modern day science has conducted over 10,000 studies into the effects of cannabis. Over 4,000 of
these were done in the U.S.A. Of all these studies only about a dozen showed any negative effects of
cannabis use and other scientists, endeavoring to replicate these studies, have been unable to draw
the same negative conclusions.
Documented therapeutic use of cannabis has shown benefit to 80% of asthmatics, 90% of glaucoma
patients, 60% of epileptics, and could safely substitute for 50% of all sleeping pills, muscle
relaxers, headache treatments and stress reducing medication. Cannabis is a complex, highly evolved
plant. There are some 400 compounds in its smoke. Of these, at least 60 are known to have
therapeutic value and the others, due to prohibiting regulations, are fundamentally un-researched.
In all of history there has never been one death conclusively attributual to cannabis overdose, nor
(as of December 1990) to any form of lung cancer from cannabis smoking. Cannabis smoke, as with
any smoke, does contain carcinogens, virtually all of which are removed when smoke is inhaled through
a water pipe. However water pipes – even for tobacco use -- are currently illegal in the U.S.A.
Hemp has the highest cellulose content (77%) of any known plant. This fact, combined with hemp’s
natural drought and disease tolerance, makes it ideal as an environmental stabilization and
enhancement crop. It reclaims agricultural lands that have been infested with thistle. Its deep, fast
growing roots stabilize eroding topsoil. It can be grown productively in soil where other food crops
fail (without chemical inputs), consequently it increases land values.
Hemp has the ability to feed, clothe and shelter people inexpensively, an essential consideration in
the face of world population growth. It is capable to produce environmentally compatible fuel (non-
sulfur biomass for charcoal & methane) and paper products in abundance.
Chemical companies are the major owners of seed companies and have saturated agriculture with
strains of food crops (like wheat, corn and soybeans) which grow only with (increasingly heavy)
applications of their “patented” petro-chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Also,
approximately 50% of all agri-chemicals used today are applied to cotton production, a crop which
hemp could almost immediately replace.
Fossil fuel use is responsible for approximately 80% of all airborne pollution. Petro-chemicals (for
paper production, synthetic fibers, plastics, etc.) contribute dramatically to environmental decay.
Hemp-pulp paper uses no trees and is 75% to 85% less polluting than wood-pulp paper production due
to lower chemical inputs. The methane fuel resulting from biomass conversion of hemp is also
environmentally compatible because, like all photosynthesizing plants, hemp ‘harvests’ CO2 from the
atmosphere as it grows and then releases this same amount of CO2 when it is burned.
Fossil fuels also release CO2 when burned, however since fossil fuel use has accelerated
dramatically during the same period of time when huge tracts of forest have been cleared, this
coupling has resulted in climbing levels of atmospheric CO2. In other words, for the last 100 years
we have been putting tremendously more CO2 into the atmosphere than nature has been able to take
out, resulting in the “greenhouse effect” which is now widely understood to be a root cause of
environmental degradation world wide.
All of Nahas’ (negative) marijuana research has been discredited (and Colombia University formally
disassociated from Nahas and his findings), however until 1983 (when he somewhat renounced his
previous research) Nahas’ was repeatedly invited as a highly paid guest lecturer by such
organizations as Parents for a Drug Free Youth.
In spite of this, Nahas’ discredited allegations along with the debunked reports of Heath are stated
even today as facts in numerous anti-marijuana literature (such as “Just Say No”), some of which are
published by the DEA, used as the basis of “Drug War” propaganda (such as misleading and patently
false television and radio commercials), widely distributed to concerned parent groups and paid for
with citizen tax dollars.
An estimated aggregate total of 12 million years has been served in prison terms over the last 50
years resulting from the sale, possession or use of “soft” drugs, such as marijuana. Currently 70% to
80% of the prison population is made up of people who are locked-up for drug-related offenses that
were legal when many of us and our parents were born.
Hemp-related issues of health and addiction, benefits and consequences, “bad” & “good” have been
scientifically researched, vocally debated, and legislated for over 70 years. Lines in the sand have
been drawn by staunch supporters of both sides. Proofs for each adversarial case have been touted
with such vigor that even the most factual accounts against or for legalization fall subject to “hidden
agenda” suspicions.
At stake, however, is something far greater than a definitive opinion on whether or not it would be
safe, profitable, or prudent to remove prohibitions from the cultivation, commerce, and medicinal or
recreational use of this plant. What’s really at stake is the right of flesh-and-blood adults to
determine for self what is proper, enjoyable, and the best course of action to pursue with their
personal lives.
In a day and age when nearly all of the mainstream is clamoring for a downsized reinvention of
government; at a time when most Americans say they want government “out” of their private and
professional life, we have allowed for government to make criminal the solitary act of growing or
using a "God given" and 100% natural herb. A plant which has been around --- growing wild and free all
across the face of this planet --- nearly forever. A plant which, by scientific standards, is more
‘highly evolved’ than we are. Is this the action of a sane, mature, responsible, adult civilization?
Statisticians confirm that about 10% of the population is responsible for 90% of social distress. This
10% suffers from sociopathic, dysfunctional and/or addictive psychological disorders. Intervention in
the lives of these people is absolutely necessary, both in the interest of their own well being and for
the sake of community health.
Yet the interdiction based interventions that we as a society have instituted with regard to drugs in
general and marijuana specifically do nothing to solve this core psychological problem and in fact
make every social dis-ease worse. Moreover, the prohibitions we have enacted deprive the 90%
majority of the economic, environmental, medicinal, and recreational benefits inherent to the
exploitation of this useful agricultural crop.
In retrospect, based on this long-term historical review, it becomes evident that society functioned
productively in predominantly peaceful coexistence with the hemp/marijuana plant for thousands of
years. Throughout all these centuries, all serious problems with “pot” have come to the fore only
recently and strictly because a (small but powerful) group of people decided -- contrary to redundant
scientific proofs -- that others should be forbidden to cultivate and utilize this plant.
Extrapolating from this history and assimilating the costly negative consequences wrought by recent
decades of intensified penalization, we must ask ourselves and each other what the most practical
course of future actions truly are regarding this hempen herb.
Then we must ask if we are truly brave enough to enact the tremendous change that must be made.
To read what others are saying on this subject, click this link.
Need to search for facts on drug policy related websites? Check out the
search tool at the bottom of the Drug Policy Links database.
SPECIAL UPDATE, June 2005:
On June 23rd (2005), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce the first-ever federal industrial hemp bill,
the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Industrial Hemp
Farming Act would bring federal law into agreement with the consensus among five U.S. states and
more than 30 countries, that industrial hemp, defined as cannabis with 0.3% THC, is distinct from
marijuana.
If the bill passes, states that have hemp laws on the books (Hawaii,
Montana, North Dakota, West Virginia, Maine, and Kentucky) will be able to allow hemp to be grown
under state law without Drug Enforcement permits.
Please contact your U.S. Representative to ask him to become an
original cosponsor. Attached is a sample letter that you can send to your congressperson -- Marion
Berry in Arkansas (find your representative and contact info here). The best way to reach Rep.
Berry is through his legislative assistant for agriculture issues, Nathan Read. Please send the
attached letter to Rep. Berry, attention Nathan Read, via fax at 202-225-5602 or e-mail at Nathan.
Read@mail.house.gov.
I have also attached a copy of the bill as PDF well as a fact sheet about the bill and a fact sheet on
industrial hemp. If you have any questions or comments feel free to write or call me.
Thank you,
Dorothy Baden-Mayer
Government Relations Assistant
Vote Hemp
http://www.votehemp.com
1858 Mintwood Place, NW #4
Washington, DC 20009
work: 202-986-6186
cell: 703-328-5660
8000 B.C. Hemp is woven into fabric and over time grows in global popularity to eventually provide
over 80% of all textiles and fabrics, including over 50% of the fabric called linen.
2700 B.C. Cannabis, as hemp fabric and cordage, medicine, food, and sacrificial herb, has been
incorporated into virtually all cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, China, Japan, and Africa.
2300 B.C. Nomadic tribes from the East invade the Mediterranean and Europe, introducing hemp
along the way.
1000 B.C. to 1883 A.D. Hemp is the world’s largest agricultural crop, providing the materials to
support civilization’s most important industries, including fiber for fabric and rope, lamp oil for
lighting, paper, medicine and food for both humans and domestic animals.
1000 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Hemp extracts are the #1, #2, and #3 most important and most frequently
used medicine for two-thirds of the world’s peoples.
500 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Ninety percent of the sail cloth and rigging lines for all sea-going ships is made
from hemp. (Including the U.S. battleship "Constitution" better known as "Old Iron Sides.") The
word ‘canvas’ comes into use through a Latin to French to Dutch translation of the Greek word
Kannabis.
500 B.C. Ritual use of cannabis is common among Buddhists and traditional writings indicate that the
Buddha himself used and ate nothing but hemp and hemp seed for six years prior to announcing his
spiritual revelations. In Hinduism, the god Shiva is said to "have brought cannabis from the Himalayas
for human enjoyment and enlightenment." Many Eastern religions consider cannabis to be their "most
holy" plant.
450 B.C. The Greek historian Herodotus records that inhalation of cannabis smoke is part of the
Scythians’ funeral ritual and that this cultural custom has reportedly been practiced for over 150
years.
BIRTH OF CHRIST It is widely believed among today's modern Christian scholars that the Magi
who attended the birth of Christ were members of the Zoroastrian religion. It is known that
utilization of the cannabis plant as a priestly sacrament and medicine was a fundamental tenet of
Zoroastrian practice.
100 A.D. Chinese discover how to make paper from hemp.
1000 A.D. Moslem priests teach the use of cannabis for divine revelation, spiritual insight, and
oneness with God.
1000 to 1600 A.D. Approximate period of the Roman Catholic Inquisition, a time in Western Europe
when 10% to 33% of the entire population was tortured or put to death for owning a dinner fork,
taking a bath, or using cannabis as a medicine. For example, during 1430-31, Joan d’Arc was accused
of using cannabis and other herbs as a religious sacrament.
1470s Gutenberg Bible is printed on hemp paper.
1564 King Philip of Spain mandates the cultivation of hemp for food, fiber and medicine throughout
Spanish territory in Central and South America.
1600 Rembrandt paints on hemp canvas.
1611 King James Bible is printed on hemp paper.
1619 America’s first hemp law is enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, ordering all farmers to grow
hemp.
1631 ‘Must grow’ hemp laws are enacted throughout Massachusetts.
1631 to early 1800s Hemp is ‘legal tender’ and taxes may be paid with hemp throughout most of the
Americas.
1632 to mid-1700s ‘Must grow’ hemp laws enacted in Connecticut and the Chesapeake Colonies.
1700 Gainsborough paints on hemp canvas.
1740 - 1940 Russia is the world’s largest and ‘best quality’ producer of hemp, supplying 80% of
Western hemp rope.
1750s Benjamin Franklin starts one of America’s first hemp-rag paper mills.
1763 - 1767 Farmers who do NOT grow hemp can be arrested and jailed in Virginia.
1776 Patriots organize spinning bees to turn hemp fiber into clothing for General Washington’s
Continental Army.
1776 First and second drafts of the Declaration of Independence are written on hemp paper.
1777 The Stars and Stripes is endorsed as the Capitol Flag of the U.S.A. and made of hemp fabric.
1790s George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grow hemp on their plantations.
1800s Van Gogh paints on hemp canvas. Australians survive two prolonged famines by using hemp seed
for protein and leaves for roughage. Hemp seed oil, long the most popular lighting oil in the world,
falls to second place in popularity as whale oil becomes widely accessible. The use of hemp extracts
as a recreational stimulant spreads through Western culture and romantic writers expound on
individual freedom and human dignity, extolling cannabis use. Their works include: The Count of Monte
Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass.
1812 America goes to war with Great Britain over free-trade access to Russian hemp.
1837 - 1901 Queen Victoria uses cannabis resins to treat menstrual cramps, sparking enormous
interest in the uses of cannabis as a medicine in the English-speaking world.
1840 Abraham Lincoln uses hemp-seed oil to fuel his household lamps and writes: “Prohibition... goes
beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes
a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon
which our government was founded.”
1842 - 1890 Extracts and derivatives of the hemp plant are the second and third most prescribed
medicines in the U.S.A. Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Squibb, Brothers Smith and other firms produce these
medicines through 1930. During this time, not one death or severe side-effect is attributed to use.
1850 U.S. census records 8,327 hemp plantations of 2000 acres or more and an uncalculated number
of small hemp farms.
1859 Kerosene is introduced as lighting oil. (What does this have to do with hemp? Well, until the
introduction of petro-chemical fuels, hemp seed oil and whale oil were the primary fuels used for
household lighting.)
1860s to 1900 World Fairs and International Expositions feature highly popular Turkish Hashish
smoking concessions. Hashish, a derivative of cannabis, is entirely new to Americans and finds great
favor as a way to ‘enhance’ their enjoyment of the fair.
1860 The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Ohio State Medical Society Committee on Cannabis
Indica records that noted Biblical scholars of the day believe that “The gall and vinegar, or myrrhed
wine, offered to our Savior immediately before his crucifixion was, in all probability, a preparation
of Indian hemp.”
1860 The “Ganjah Wallah Hasheesh Candy Company” produces one of the most popular candies in the
U.S. It is made from cannabis derivatives and maple sugar, sold over-the-counter and in Sears-
Roebuck catalogs. It retains its popularity as a totally harmless and fun candy for over 40 years.
1865 Alice In Wonderland is published on hemp paper.
1870s The popularity of smoking female cannabis tops, to ease the back-breaking labor of working in
sugarcane fields and tolerate the hot sun, as well as to relax recreationally with no alcohol "hang-
over," begins to spread in the West Indies with the immigration of Hindus who are imported to
provide cheap labor. Gradually, this popularity makes its way into the United States through St. Louis.
1883 Hashish smoking parlors have opened in every major American city, including an estimated 500
such establishments in New York City alone.
1890s Popular American "marriage guides" recommend cannabis extracts for heightened marital
pleasures. Women’s temperance groups, lobbying for alcohol prohibition, suggest cannabis as a
suitable substitute for the "demon drink."
1893 British governor of India commissions a report on the effects of smoking “bhang” (hemp buds
and leaves) on heavy users in the subcontinent. The "Report of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission
1893-1894" concludes that smoking hemp is NOT a problem and that NO criminal penalties should
apply to recreational indulgence.
1898 Hearst newspapers denounce Spaniards, Mexican-Americans, and Latinos after the seizure by
the Mexican government of 800,000 acres of prime, Hearst-owned, timberland in Mexico by the
"marijuana smoking army of Pancho Villa." Vigorous slander of the Mexican people continues in Hearst
and other publications for three decades. Because of Hearst’s personal prejudices against African-
Americans and Hispanics and Hearst’s covert motivations to link them with the proliferation of an
"evil drug," the term "marijuana" --- a word totally unfamiliar to the average hemp-loving American
citizen --- is used exclusively to identify cannabis throughout this public disinformation campaign.
1901 - 1937 U.S. Department of Agriculture repeatedly predicts that once machinery capable of
harvesting, stripping and separating the hemp fiber from the pulp is invented, hemp will again be
America’s “Number One” crop.
1910 - 1920 Southern “officials” are alarmed because “pot smoking darkie jazz musicians” are
beginning to “think that they are as good as whites.” For example, the Jim Crow segregation laws
prohibited Black entertainers from performing in white clubs. Because these performers were so
very talented however, white club owners found a way to circumvent the law by requiring Black
performers to wear “black face”. In other words, a Black entertainer who was willing to pretend to
be a white person pretending to be Black was permitted to perform. When Blacks objected to this
lunacy they were accused, by whites, of being "no-good marijuana-smoking niggers."
1910 South Africa begins outlawing marijuana for the same “Jim Crow” reasons cited by U.S. bigots:
to stop the insolence of Blacks, and lobbies the League of Nations to have cannabis outlawed world-
wide. Many Southern U.S. states are influenced by South Africa and follow suit with prohibitions.
Note, however, that Black mine workers in South Africa were permitted to continue smoking the
herb because it increased their productivity.
1915 As a result of Hearst’s incited hysteria over “disrespectful darkies” and “lazy Chicanos,”
California and Utah pass state laws outlawing the recreational use of marijuana.
1916 U.S.D.A. publishes Bulletin No. 404, “Hemp Hurds As Paper-Making Material,” extolling and
demonstrating the outstanding qualities of paper manufactured from hemp-pulp, a new process. The
document was printed on hemp-pulp paper and explained the new technology. Previously most all paper
was made with the hemp fiber content of ‘rag’ (worn-out clothing).
1916 - 1935 The Hearst newspapers initiate and build a campaign to outlaw “marijuana.” Reporting is
slanted to generate reader bias. For example, the reader was never told that “hemp” and
“marijuana” are exactly the same plant. Nor was the reader told that the active ingredients of the
tonic they gave their baby to ease colic came from the marijuana/hemp plant, nor that the smoke
they inhaled in their ever popular hashish parlors was a derivative of marijuana. Furthermore, news
stories are manipulated to aggrandize and exaggerate the supposed “horrors” of recreational
marijuana use. The story of an auto accident where one marijuana cigarette was found dominates
front page headlines for weeks while alcohol related accidents --- which outnumbered marijuana
incidents 1000 to 1 --- are briefly mentioned and buried in the back pages. Also, the rape of white
women by "Negros," previously attributed by Hearst publications to cocaine use is, by these same
publications, suddenly attributed to the use of marijuana.
1920 U.S. Government papers have been, by law, written on “hempen rag paper” until this time.
1924 The U.S. Supreme Court rules, as a result of the 1914 Harrison Act, that drug addicts are not
‘sick people’ deserving of treatment, they are criminals and must be punished.
1929 Henry Ford begins extensive research into the production of methanol (as a fuel) and the
manufacturer of plastics from renewable vegetable crops, including hemp.
1930s Mechanical hemp-fiber stripping and pulp conserving machines are invented and developed to
state-of-the-art. Timber-based paper manufacturing industries (Hearst, Kimberly Clark, St. Regis)
recognize combined technological advances (re: hemp) as a potential threat to their prosperity.
During this same timeframe, DuPont patents two new (chemically intense) processes. One to make
plastics from fossil-fuel oil and coal and another to make paper from wood-pulp.
1930 U.S. government sponsors the Siler Commission study on the effects of off-duty smoking of
“marijuana” (hemp buds & leaves) by American servicemen in Panama. The report concludes that such
recreational smoking is NOT a problem and recommends that no criminal penalties apply to its use.
During this same time, Louis Armstrong is arrested and jailed for 10 days for smoking marijuana
cigarettes.
1931 Andrew Mellon of the powerful Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh, financier of many DuPont projects
and long-time supporter of Hearst, serving as President Hoover’s Secretary of the Treasury,
appoints his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to be head of the newly re-organized Federal
Narcotics Bureau. Anslinger begins to compile a dossier of tabloid articles which sensationalize
disinformation about marijuana use and the crimes committed while supposedly under the influence
of the herb. This collection of newspaper clippings, most from Hearst newspapers, becomes known as
the Gore Files.
1935 116 million pounds of hemp seed are used commercially in America to manufacture paint and
varnish.
1935 - 1937 DuPont assures Congress through secret testimony that synthetic petro-chemical oils
(such as kerosene) can replace hemp seed oil in paints, varnishes, and other products.
1935 - 1937 U.S. Department of Treasury conducts “secret” meetings to consider the development
of “prohibitive” transfer tax laws and occupational registrations on hemp which would, in effect,
extinguish all legal trade in hemp and its by-products.
1936 - 1938 Hearst newspapers step-up the anti-marijuana campaign and newsreel clips at local
movies banner headlines like ‘Reefer Madness’ and ‘Marijuana--- Assassin of Youth.’
1937 Walter Treadway, Assistant U.S. Surgeon General, tells the Cannabis Advisory Subcommittee
of the League of Nations that extended use of cannabis derivatives is benign, both socially and
emotionally, and is no more habit forming than sugar or coffee. The DuPont Company issues its Annual
Report to stockholders which anticipates “radical changes” and the conversion of the Federal
government’s revenue raising power "into an instrument for forcing acceptance of sudden new ideas
of industrial and social reorganization." In other words, government would no longer tax citizens
solely to raise money but would used taxation to enforce the adoption (or extinction) of select ‘social
norms.’ February issue of Mechanical Engineering features a story “The Most Profitable and
Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown” which tells about the new machines being used to harvest hemp. 4
million pounds of hemp seed are sold retail as song-bird food in the U.S.A.
April 14, 1937 Marijuana Tax Law is introduced to the House Ways and Means Committee of
Congress, chaired by Robert L. Doughton, a key DuPont ally. In subsequent committee hearings Dr.
James Woodward, speaking for the American Medical Association (AMA), testifies against the
proposed legislation stating that the plant Congress intends to outlaw is a perfectly safe substance
used to treat scores of illnesses for over 100 years in America and that the ignorance of the
proposed prohibition will deny the world access to potential medical breakthroughs. Dr. Woodward is
denounced by Anslinger and the congressional committee, then curtly excused. Ralph Lorenz, general
counsel of the National Oil Seeds Institute (which represents the interests of high quality machine
lubrication producers and paint manufacturers) also lobbies against the proposed legislation,
eloquently citing the key importance of the hemp plant to American industry and reviewing the
thousands of years of benign use of hemp by millions of people world-wide.
After receiving testimony from Anslinger, who cites marijuana as “the most violence causing drug in
the history of mankind,” reviewing Anslinger’s marijuana “Gore Files” (which were later debunked by
evidentiary scholars), and hearing a false, dishonest, and intentionally misleading report from the
Ways and Means Committee that the AMA is in “complete agreement” with the proposed marijuana
legislation, the Marijuana Tax Act is adopted as law by Congress. The legislation is carefully worded
so that the great majority of American people, including many of those congress people who pass the
law, have no idea that the agricultural hemp industry is being legislated into extinction. Popularity of
DuPont’s “plastic fibers’ (like nylon) begins to dramatically increase. At this same time, an estimated
10 million acres of hemp grows wild in the U.S.A., providing an important and favorite food source for
hundreds of millions of wild birds.
1938 The February issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine runs a story, (prepared before the 1937
legislation was enacted) titled: “New Billion Dollar Crop.” It tells about the new machine for
harvesting hemp which “solves a problem more than 6,000 years old.” It further states that
increased hemp production “will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products” and
calls hemp the “standard fiber of the world.” Popular Mechanics goes on to say hemp can “produce
more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.” This is the first time ever in U.S.
history the term ‘billion-dollar’ is applied to the potential for an agricultural harvest.
1941 December issue of Popular Mechanics features a story on Henry Ford, showing a picture of the
car he “grew from the soil.“ The automobile’s “plastic panels with impact strength 10 times greater
than steel were made from flax, wheat, hemp, spruce pulp.” The auto weighs 1/3 less than its 100%
steel contemporaries.
1942 U.S. government overrides its own ban on hemp and distributes 400,000 pounds of hemp seed
to U.S. farmers who produce 42,000 tons of hemp fiber annually to support the war effort until
1946. U.S. farmers, including youthful 4-H Club members, are inundated by “Uncle Sam” with
incentives to grow hemp. The U.S.D.A. makes it mandatory for farmers to attend showings of its
“Hemp For Victory” film. Farmers and their sons who agree to grow hemp are exempt from military
service, even though America is at war.
1944 The “LaGuardia Marijuana Report,” compiled between 1938 and 1944 by the New York
Academy of Medicine at the request of Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia, is released to refute Anslinger’s
negative claims about marijuana. It reports that marijuana use has caused no violence at all and cites
numerous instances of beneficial effects. Anslinger denounces the Mayor, the report, and the
Academy, proclaiming that the involved doctors will never again do marijuana research without his
personal permission, or they will be sent to jail.
1945 With Anslinger’s’ coercive manipulation, the AMA conducts what has since been labeled a
“gutter science” study to refute the LaGuardia Report. Using biasing techniques which predetermine
the outcome of research findings, this prejudicial study, conducted with enlisted Army men,
concludes that 34 Negro males who smoked marijuana were “disrespectful” of white soldiers and
officers.
1948 - 1950 Anslinger has a sudden change of heart about the violence inducing properties of
marijuana and, in a complete about-face from his previous position, testifies before a strongly anti-
Communist Congress that marijuana causes users to become so peaceful and pacifistic that use of
the herb by soldiers will weaken their will to fight "The Great Red Communist Plague."
1950s - 1960s The U.S. Army sponsors numerous tests to determine the effects of cannabis
smoking on soldiers. The first study showed no loss of motivation or performance after two years of
continual “heavy” smoking. This study is replicated six more times by the U.S. military and dozens of
times by independent universities, always with the same basic findings.
1961 - 1962 Anslinger is forced to retire as the head of the Federal Narcotics Bureau (now the DEA)
by President Kennedy after trying to censor the publications and blackmail and harass the publishers
of Professor Alfred Lindsmith of Indiana University who wrote, among other works, “The Addict and
the Law” (Washington Post, 1961). U.S. Medical research into the beneficial properties of cannabis
resumes after nearly 3 decades of Anslinger’s prohibition. Credible sources report that President
Kennedy routinely uses marijuana to relieve his back pain and plans to have the drug legalized. These
plans are terminated by his assassination.
1964 The Himalayan region of Bangladesh (from “bhang” cannabis, “la” land, and “desh” people) signs
an anti-drug pact with the U.S. not to grow hemp. As a result, the steep slopes of this flash-flood
region which once were lush with hardy hemp, are reduced to a light covering of moss. Millions of
acres of topsoil are washed away and native peoples of the country suffer disease, starvation, and
decimation due to unrestrained flooding.
1966 - 1976 Millions of Americans illegally use marijuana daily and new Federal research (conducted
by independent university scholars) indicates a wide array of beneficial uses. Numerous and
sometimes weekly reports in medical journals tell of the positive therapeutic benefits of using
cannabis for treating epilepsy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, dystrophy and tumors, asthma,
glaucoma, and nausea. These studies conclude that crude “natural” cannabis is ‘the best and safest
medicine of choice’ for many serious health problems.
1972 U.S.D.A. finds that hemp seed oil is lower in saturated fats than any other vegetable oil
(including soybean and canola). Other studies note that until this century hemp-cake (the by-product
of pressing the seed for oil) was one of the world’s principle animal feeds. Also that hemp seed, like
soybeans, can produce a tofu-like curd and be spiced to taste like chicken, steak or pork; can be
sprouted for salads, ground into meal, and also made into margarine. Hemp seed is recommended as a
nutritionally balanced food for domestic pets and farm animals.
1975 Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discover that cannabis is incredibly successful
for reducing the size of many types of tumors, both benign and cancerous. The findings of the
Jamaican Studies (1968-74, 1975), cited as the most extensive empirical study of hemp smoking
ever conducted and sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Studies of
Narcotic and Drug Abuse, concludes that in a population where use of cannabis was pervasive, highly
frequent, continued over long periods, in heavy quantities with greater THC potency than commonly
available in the U.S., there are NO negative social or psychological effects. They find NO
relationship between the use of marijuana and the commission of crime (like theft or rape) and no
impairment of motor skills. The study goes on to identify numerous positive effects which include
lively, merry, more responsible attitudes, a general sense of well-being and healthy self-esteem, and
greater work motivation. The test subjects had smoked extensively for 6 to 31 years. Their average
age for first time use was 12 years, 6 months. And in a “matched pair” study where
tobacco/marijuana smokers were matched with tobacco-only smokers, the tobacco/marijuana
smokers consistently evidenced better overall health than their tobacco-only smoking counterparts.
In addition the study concludes that the supposed “stepping stone” effect (which alleges that
marijuana use acts as a gateway to the abuse of “hard” drugs) is invalid since none of the long-time
marijuana-smoker test subjects had ever taken any narcotic type drugs. The National Institute of
Drug Abuse convenes a conference among America’s leading researchers on marijuana at which
practically all participants conclude that the federal government should be rushing to invest tax
money into large scale cannabis research. Many of these scientists predict that cannabis will be one
of the world’s major medicines by the mid-1980s.
1976 Dr. Gabriel Nahas is discredited by Colombia University and forbidden to receive any
government funding for marijuana research after it is discovered by the National Institute of
Health that Nahas’ allegations about the “horrible” effects of smoking marijuana are scientifically
unfounded and totally fraudulent. The Ford Administration, with George Bush as the head of the CIA,
is lobbied extensively by pharmaceutical companies to obtain total jurisdiction over all medical
(marijuana) research. A “surprise” policy issued by the government forbids federally funded
research by universities into the therapeutic benefits of marijuana. The research findings of 10
years worth of federally funded marijuana research is turned over to corporate (for-profit) drug
companies who promise to “synthesize” (chemically compound) the beneficial properties of the
natural herb. (NOTE: Only synthesized compounds can be patented, hence there is little profit
motivation to research and develop the natural properties of any plant.)
1977 George Bush leaves his post as Director of the CIA and is appointed as a director of Eli Lilly by
Dan Quale’s father and family who, along with Bush, are major shareholders in Lilly. President Jimmy
Carter addresses Congress on drug abuse and states: “Penalties against possession of a drug should
not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Therefore,” Carter continues,
“I support legalization, amending federal law to eliminate all federal criminal penalties for the
possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.”
1979 Andrew Young, former U.N. Ambassador, announces to the world that due to its irrational drug
laws the United States has more political prisoners than any other nation.
1980 Through the Freedom of Information Act the research procedures of the Heath/Tulane
University “Monkey Study” (which concluded that marijuana caused brain damage and was bannered
by the Federal government as “conclusive proof” of the harmful effects of marijuana) were, after a
six year legal battle, delivered to the hands of independent researchers. Time after time these
independent researchers find that Heath’s research is erroneous and fraudulent. The Costa Rican
Study largely confirms the findings of the dramatically favorable 1975 Jamaican Study and
additionally concludes that socially approved use of cannabis largely replaces the use of alcohol.
1981 Petitions are circulated among “War on Drugs” groups calling for immediate Presidential
clemency and aggrandizement as a “national hero” of Mark Chapman for his murder of John Lennon of
the Beatles (because Lennon was an “evil man” who had “turned-on” the world to “illicit drugs”).
Other “War on Drugs” campaign propaganda calls for the jailing of people who listen to or play any
type of music that is not on an "approved" list. A covert censorship of television and radio programs
begins, keeping pro-marijuana commentary, including sit-com jokes, off the public air-waves. Drs.
Ungerlieder and Shaeffer of UCLA study 10 of America’s “heaviest” pot smokers who have each been
inhaling huge amounts of highly potent cannabis smoke daily for over 10 years. They conclude that
there are absolutely no brain differences between the study subjects and non-cannabis smokers.
1982 Vice-President George Bush is ordered by the Supreme court to stop (illegally) lobbying the
IRS on behalf of drug companies. Noted authorities attest that if marijuana were legalized it would
immediately replace 10% to 20% of all (chemical compound) prescription medicines. Omni magazine
and other sources report that Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, Pfizer, Smith, Kline & French and other drug
companies would lose hundreds of millions to billions of dollars annually if marijuana were legal in the
U.S. Omni states that the drug companies have been “totally unsuccessful” in their attempt to
synthesize the active ingredients of cannabis. Omni and concurring sources allege that the reason
the Reagan/Bush Administration refuses to allow federal funding of university research into
cannabis is that governmental permission to develop the simple crude “natural” cannabis extracts
prevents the pharmaceutical companies from making monopolized windfall profits on the patented
synthetic compound drugs they endeavor to produce.
1983 The World Health Organization conservatively estimates that 500,000 people are poisoned
each year in Third World Countries by drugs and chemicals manufactured by U.S. companies which are
banned in America. The Reagan/Bush Administration “softly” requests that every American
university destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research work, including compendiums in libraries. The Drug
Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program initiates a national program aimed at school children
which dangerously disseminates a mix of factual and disinformation about drug use. In addition to
encouraging young people to become “police informants” against their family and friends, instructors
repeatedly make fraudulent innuendoes about marijuana use, linking it with the negative health
effects associated with cocaine and other ‘hard’ drugs. Through the Freedom of Information Act, it
is learned that in 1943 Anslinger was appointed to a “top secret” committee (which evolved to
become the CIA), charged with the discovery/creation of a “truth serum” and conducted covert
experimentation with “honey oil” (a potent derivative of marijuana). Fifteen months after inception
all experiments with marijuana extracts were discontinued because the people being interrogated
giggled and laughed at their captors and got ravenously hungry. Paraquat is illegally sprayed from
airplanes by the federal government on marijuana fields in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Carlton
Turner, Drug Czar under Reagan, states that kids deserve to die as punishment from smoking
paraquat poisoned pot in order to teach them a lesson.
1985 The Supreme Court rules that the CIA has the authority to exempt itself from the provisions
of the Freedom of Information n Act. High school children in Milton Wisconsin are ordered to have
weekly urine tests to discover if they smoke marijuana. Carlton Turner calls for the death penalty
for all drug users.
1987 Fifteenth Edition of Merick Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (the U.S. Military’s Official Field
Manual) says about cannabis (in part): "Chronic or periodic (use) of cannabis... produces... no physical
dependence... (or) social... dysfunction... there is little evidence of biologic damage even among
relatively heavy users... the chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and political... foundation."
Harvard Medical School’s Mental Health Letter (November) describes the intoxicating psychological
‘high’ of marijuana as a ‘calm, mildly euphoric state in which time slows and sensitivity to sights,
sounds, and touch is enhanced.’
1988 The DEA’s administrative law judge, Francis Young, takes medical testimony for 15 days and
reviews hundreds of documents to conclude that ‘marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to man.’
1989 DEA Director John Lawn decides (contrary to Young’s findings) that cannabis has “no known
medical use” and that it must remain on the Schedule One narcotic list. “Crimestoppers” billboards
and TV ads in Ventura, California, encourage citizens in Orwellian (some would say Nazis-like)
neighbor-against-neighbor fashion to “help a friend, send him to jail” and “earn a thousand dollars” for
enforcing drug laws that make felonies of a victim-less crime. The California Advisory Panel, a
committee made up of university professors and researchers which counsels state legislators and
the attorney general on scientific issues calls for the re-legalization of cannabis.
September 5, 1989 President Bush promises to double the federal prison population (it had already
doubled under the Reagan Administration) as part of his tough drug enforcement policy. When asked
why the Smithsonian (U.S.A. national archives) exhibits of early life in America and at sea identifies
by name all the ‘minor’ fibers used during the period to make fabric, cordage and paper while making
no mention of the significant role played by the ‘major’ use of hemp, the Smithsonian replies that it
is NOT a fiber museum and that mention of hemp would only confuse young children.
November 1989, Dr. Donald Blum, researcher from the UCLA neurological studies center,
vehemently complains that the Partnership for a Drug Free America (PFDA) television commercials
are false and misleading. Citing years of research which document the effects of cannabis on the
brain, Dr. Blum points out that the brain waves identified as those of someone “high on pot” in a PDFA
spot actually identify someone in a deep sleep or coma. Another PDFA spot blaming marijuana smoking
for a train wreck is challenged by the sworn testimony of the engineer who himself caused the
disaster. Under oath the engineer states that the wreck was NOT caused by smoking marijuana, it
was caused by his own negligence, drinking, snacking, watching TV, and generally failing to pay
adequate attention to his job. Although eventually both ads were pulled from TV, no public apology or
correction of the misleading information has yet to be forthcoming.
1989 - 1990 The Iran-Contra scandal morally (if not legally) convicts the U.S. government of
participation with and orchestration of a drug smuggling ring that traded “hard drugs’ for military
weapons. Omni magazine, the Washington Post and the New York Times each publish articles
announcing that new scientific studies prove that the human brain has unique receptor sites for THC
and its natural cannabis cousins which no other known compound will bind to. Garments containing
hemp fiber are available to the American public for the first time in over 50 years, however this
clothing must be imported to the U .S. from China (via Hong Kong) and carries a huge protective
tariff. 18 states have established “Special Alternative Incarceration” boot camps for non-violent,
first time drug offenders and 17 more states are considering the program. The inmates confined to
these camps, most of whom are marijuana users or distributors, are verbally abused and “brain
washed” to break down their “dissident attitudes.”
1990 Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates testifies before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
that cannabis smokers should be “taken out and shot.” Gates holds this position for a week until
public outcry calling for his dismissal forces him to modify his attitude. A few months later Rodney
King is savagely beaten by officers of the L.A.P.D.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Since 1990, new studies have been done by research groups at the University of California, the
University of Michigan, Brown University and others. These studies conclusively show that the active
properties of cannabis have the direct and beneficial effect of safely and significantly reducing
chronic pain and that unlike prescription painkillers and opiates, cannabis is not addictive nor does it
carry the risk of developing “tolerance” which requires continually increasing the dose of
manufactured drugs.
A 1994 study, which documented that THC may protect against malignant cancers, was buried by the
US government. The $2 million study, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services' national toxicology program, sought to show that large doses of THC produced cancer.
Instead, researchers found that massive doses of THC retarded certain types of stomach cancer in
rats. The rats given THC lived longer than their non-exposed counterparts.
A study by Italian scientists, published in the July 1998 Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, found that anandamide inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells. Anandamide is the
naturally occurring body chemical which is mimicked by THC cannabinoids.
Late in 1999, federal researchers at the National Institutes of Mental Health stated that THC, the
key active agent in cannabis, along with other naturally occurring compounds in the herb, act as
powerful antioxidants which protect brain cells from the glutamate damage that often occurs during
a stroke.
In the March 2000 issue of Nature Medicine, researchers in Spain reported that THC kills
“incurable” cancer cells while leaving normal/healthy tissues unaffected. In addition, a study
published in the July 2002 edition of the medical journal Blood found that THC and its related
cannabinoids produce "programmed cell death" in different varieties of human leukemia and
lymphoma cell lines, thereby destroying the cancerous cells but leaving other cells unharmed.
As of October, 2002, nine states -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada,
Oregon, and Washington -- have laws allowing people to receive, possess, grow, or smoke marijuana
for medical purposes without fear of state prosecution. However, these laws and the people they
serve have fallen to increased (and Constitutionally illegal) attack by the Federal Government.
In addition, Canada and Great Britain stand on the brink of dramatically decriminalizing marijuana
and other forward thinking nations around the world are not far behind.
THE BIG PICTURE
Experts conservatively estimate that the legalization of hemp as a food, fiber, cellulose, biomass
crop and medicine has the potential to be the world’s largest industry, generating 500 billion to one
trillion dollars annually. This industry would be agriculturally based, breathing new life into small-
scale farms (not to mention our sagging U.S. economy), and would be much more environmentally
friendly than petro-chemical based resource exploitation.
Also, as ozone depletion threatens the cultivation of many food crops (soy bean production, for
example, could be reduced by 30% to 50% due to higher ultra-violet radiation), hemp is the one
known crop that is ultra-violet light tolerant and actually thrives with higher levels of this radiation.
Modern day science has conducted over 10,000 studies into the effects of cannabis. Over 4,000 of
these were done in the U.S.A. Of all these studies only about a dozen showed any negative effects of
cannabis use and other scientists, endeavoring to replicate these studies, have been unable to draw
the same negative conclusions.
Documented therapeutic use of cannabis has shown benefit to 80% of asthmatics, 90% of glaucoma
patients, 60% of epileptics, and could safely substitute for 50% of all sleeping pills, muscle
relaxers, headache treatments and stress reducing medication. Cannabis is a complex, highly evolved
plant. There are some 400 compounds in its smoke. Of these, at least 60 are known to have
therapeutic value and the others, due to prohibiting regulations, are fundamentally un-researched.
In all of history there has never been one death conclusively attributual to cannabis overdose, nor
(as of December 1990) to any form of lung cancer from cannabis smoking. Cannabis smoke, as with
any smoke, does contain carcinogens, virtually all of which are removed when smoke is inhaled through
a water pipe. However water pipes – even for tobacco use -- are currently illegal in the U.S.A.
Hemp has the highest cellulose content (77%) of any known plant. This fact, combined with hemp’s
natural drought and disease tolerance, makes it ideal as an environmental stabilization and
enhancement crop. It reclaims agricultural lands that have been infested with thistle. Its deep, fast
growing roots stabilize eroding topsoil. It can be grown productively in soil where other food crops
fail (without chemical inputs), consequently it increases land values.
Hemp has the ability to feed, clothe and shelter people inexpensively, an essential consideration in
the face of world population growth. It is capable to produce environmentally compatible fuel (non-
sulfur biomass for charcoal & methane) and paper products in abundance.
Chemical companies are the major owners of seed companies and have saturated agriculture with
strains of food crops (like wheat, corn and soybeans) which grow only with (increasingly heavy)
applications of their “patented” petro-chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Also,
approximately 50% of all agri-chemicals used today are applied to cotton production, a crop which
hemp could almost immediately replace.
Fossil fuel use is responsible for approximately 80% of all airborne pollution. Petro-chemicals (for
paper production, synthetic fibers, plastics, etc.) contribute dramatically to environmental decay.
Hemp-pulp paper uses no trees and is 75% to 85% less polluting than wood-pulp paper production due
to lower chemical inputs. The methane fuel resulting from biomass conversion of hemp is also
environmentally compatible because, like all photosynthesizing plants, hemp ‘harvests’ CO2 from the
atmosphere as it grows and then releases this same amount of CO2 when it is burned.
Fossil fuels also release CO2 when burned, however since fossil fuel use has accelerated
dramatically during the same period of time when huge tracts of forest have been cleared, this
coupling has resulted in climbing levels of atmospheric CO2. In other words, for the last 100 years
we have been putting tremendously more CO2 into the atmosphere than nature has been able to take
out, resulting in the “greenhouse effect” which is now widely understood to be a root cause of
environmental degradation world wide.
All of Nahas’ (negative) marijuana research has been discredited (and Colombia University formally
disassociated from Nahas and his findings), however until 1983 (when he somewhat renounced his
previous research) Nahas’ was repeatedly invited as a highly paid guest lecturer by such
organizations as Parents for a Drug Free Youth.
In spite of this, Nahas’ discredited allegations along with the debunked reports of Heath are stated
even today as facts in numerous anti-marijuana literature (such as “Just Say No”), some of which are
published by the DEA, used as the basis of “Drug War” propaganda (such as misleading and patently
false television and radio commercials), widely distributed to concerned parent groups and paid for
with citizen tax dollars.
An estimated aggregate total of 12 million years has been served in prison terms over the last 50
years resulting from the sale, possession or use of “soft” drugs, such as marijuana. Currently 70% to
80% of the prison population is made up of people who are locked-up for drug-related offenses that
were legal when many of us and our parents were born.
Hemp-related issues of health and addiction, benefits and consequences, “bad” & “good” have been
scientifically researched, vocally debated, and legislated for over 70 years. Lines in the sand have
been drawn by staunch supporters of both sides. Proofs for each adversarial case have been touted
with such vigor that even the most factual accounts against or for legalization fall subject to “hidden
agenda” suspicions.
At stake, however, is something far greater than a definitive opinion on whether or not it would be
safe, profitable, or prudent to remove prohibitions from the cultivation, commerce, and medicinal or
recreational use of this plant. What’s really at stake is the right of flesh-and-blood adults to
determine for self what is proper, enjoyable, and the best course of action to pursue with their
personal lives.
In a day and age when nearly all of the mainstream is clamoring for a downsized reinvention of
government; at a time when most Americans say they want government “out” of their private and
professional life, we have allowed for government to make criminal the solitary act of growing or
using a "God given" and 100% natural herb. A plant which has been around --- growing wild and free all
across the face of this planet --- nearly forever. A plant which, by scientific standards, is more
‘highly evolved’ than we are. Is this the action of a sane, mature, responsible, adult civilization?
Statisticians confirm that about 10% of the population is responsible for 90% of social distress. This
10% suffers from sociopathic, dysfunctional and/or addictive psychological disorders. Intervention in
the lives of these people is absolutely necessary, both in the interest of their own well being and for
the sake of community health.
Yet the interdiction based interventions that we as a society have instituted with regard to drugs in
general and marijuana specifically do nothing to solve this core psychological problem and in fact
make every social dis-ease worse. Moreover, the prohibitions we have enacted deprive the 90%
majority of the economic, environmental, medicinal, and recreational benefits inherent to the
exploitation of this useful agricultural crop.
In retrospect, based on this long-term historical review, it becomes evident that society functioned
productively in predominantly peaceful coexistence with the hemp/marijuana plant for thousands of
years. Throughout all these centuries, all serious problems with “pot” have come to the fore only
recently and strictly because a (small but powerful) group of people decided -- contrary to redundant
scientific proofs -- that others should be forbidden to cultivate and utilize this plant.
Extrapolating from this history and assimilating the costly negative consequences wrought by recent
decades of intensified penalization, we must ask ourselves and each other what the most practical
course of future actions truly are regarding this hempen herb.
Then we must ask if we are truly brave enough to enact the tremendous change that must be made.
To read what others are saying on this subject, click this link.
Need to search for facts on drug policy related websites? Check out the
search tool at the bottom of the Drug Policy Links database.
SPECIAL UPDATE, June 2005:
On June 23rd (2005), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce the first-ever federal industrial hemp bill,
the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Industrial Hemp
Farming Act would bring federal law into agreement with the consensus among five U.S. states and
more than 30 countries, that industrial hemp, defined as cannabis with 0.3% THC, is distinct from
marijuana.
If the bill passes, states that have hemp laws on the books (Hawaii,
Montana, North Dakota, West Virginia, Maine, and Kentucky) will be able to allow hemp to be grown
under state law without Drug Enforcement permits.
Please contact your U.S. Representative to ask him to become an
original cosponsor. Attached is a sample letter that you can send to your congressperson -- Marion
Berry in Arkansas (find your representative and contact info here). The best way to reach Rep.
Berry is through his legislative assistant for agriculture issues, Nathan Read. Please send the
attached letter to Rep. Berry, attention Nathan Read, via fax at 202-225-5602 or e-mail at Nathan.
Read@mail.house.gov.
I have also attached a copy of the bill as PDF well as a fact sheet about the bill and a fact sheet on
industrial hemp. If you have any questions or comments feel free to write or call me.
Thank you,
Dorothy Baden-Mayer
Government Relations Assistant
Vote Hemp
http://www.votehemp.com
1858 Mintwood Place, NW #4
Washington, DC 20009
work: 202-986-6186
cell: 703-328-5660
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HEMP
