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The following report first went online soon after
Gozarks debut (April 19, 2000)
and to date no person, entity or organization has challenged any assertion
made herein. The only significant change to the overall scenario (beyond
the unconstitutional amplification of governmental interference in private
lives and billions more tax dollars being poured into a failed "war on
drugs") since then that I am aware of is that there is now a legal
distinction being made between "hemp" (a cannabis plant producing less
than 0.3% THC) and "marijuana (a cannabis plant producing THC in amounts
greater than 0.3%).
Hemp is a plant... nothing
more, nothing less. Yet is has, for the last 100+ years, been at the
center of a heated, complex and compounding debate which, at its core,
revolves around cornerstone issues involving common sense, free-market
enterprise and Constitutional matters of liberty, justice and peace.
Over the course of this
decades-long debate, misinformation about this plant and its many
legitimate uses has been ballyhooed from pulpits, brandished in newspaper
headlines and bannered as political slogans by dignified folks of the
finest intent -- however, much of the doctrine preached to children,
parents, law enforcement officials and legislators about this rather
benign yet tremendously beneficial herb is, at best, inaccurate and, at
worst, a foul and brazen perversion of legitimate facts.
In the interest of adding
some demystifying fuel to this fire and in the hopes of un-clouding the
much muddied waters of understanding this thorny issue, the following
report looks at hemp, its history in civilization, what science has
factually determined about its uses (and the consequences thereof) and how
our government and the corporate leaders of our society have reacted to
(and in many instances, willfully manipulated and distorted) this
information.
THE PLANT AND ITS PRODUCTS
The hemp plant produces the strongest natural fiber known. It is 3 times
stronger than cotton and is softer, warmer, more absorbent, and longer
wearing. Hemp has no natural insect enemies and is disease and drought
resistant, therefore hemp cultivation requires NO chemical pesticides,
herbicides, nor fertilizers.
One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber as 4 acres of trees.
This cellulose, in addition to producing paper, is excellent raw material
for the production of durable building materials, carpeting, PVC pipe,
paint and thousands of other consumer goods which now require the use of
highly toxic petro-chemicals and consume huge amounts of non-renewable
resources.
Throughout history, hemp seed --- which contains one of the most complete
and ‘readily available’ vegetable proteins known --- was routinely used in
porridge, soup, and gruel by virtually all the peoples of the world.
Sprouted hemp seed was used in salads and stir-fry cooking. Hemp seed was
also pressed for vegetable oil and the high-protein cake by-product
provided an excellent source of nutrition for farm animals.
Think about this in terms of burgeoning world population and the daily
hunger now faced by over half the people of the world. Also consider that
hemp, when cultivated to produce "bio-mass" and used as a fuel-source for
methane based technology, has the potential to put the oil companies out
of business and drive the cost of energy down.
Yet, in accord of laws which
began to find favor in 1937, the cultivation of hemp is currently illegal.
Why?
PROHIBITION
Our modern-day prohibition on hemp, which has -- over the past several
decades -- escalated to be a hallmark battle cry of the global “War on
Drugs,” began with (some would say an "intentionally manipulated") public
confusion about the many names worn by this one simple plant. The name
"hemp" comes from the Old English word "hanf" and identifies the natural
plant which has produced fiber, food and medicine for thousands of years.
The scientific name for the hemp plant is cannabis. In recent times
and throughout different cultures, hemp has been called by a number of
different names: Indian (India) hemp, true hemp, muggles, pot, marijuana,
reefer, grass, ganja, bhang, ‘the kind’, dagga, bud, herb, etc. All these
names and terms refer in some way to exactly the same plant. Hemp. (FYI:
The term Loco Weed identifies Jimson Weed, a plant which is unrelated to
hemp.)
Before cannabis hemp fell to disfavor, the U.S. Pharmacopoeia (a book
authorized by the federal government which lists medicinal drugs and their
uses) indicated preparations of cannabis for treating fatigue, fits of
coughing, rheumatism, asthma, delirium tremens, migraine headaches,
menstrual pain and its associated feminine complaints (now called PMS).
During the first three decades of the 1900s and again from the 1960s to
the 1970s, independent scientific research of cannabis was supported by
the federal government. In natural form, cannabis
was shown to have therapeutic value and complete safety in the
treatment of asthma, glaucoma, nausea, tumors, epilepsy, infection,
stress, migraines, anorexia, depression, rheumatism, arthritis, possibly
herpes, and even AIDS.
Keep all this in your thoughts as you mind-walk through hemp’s historic
track record. Then deduce for yourself why the cultivation of hemp has
been banned.
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
ACCLAIMER: The
foregoing is a WORK IN PROGRESS which in some instances contains
assertions and allegations about particular people and specific events for
the purpose of corroboration and verification. At the same time, this
report has been researched to the best of the author's capability, it is
sincerely believed that the sources supplying all information are credible
and that descriptions of actions and events contained herein are true.
Those wishing to further substantiate and/or disprove any claims made
herein are requested to address comments, corrections and/or additions
including citations of sources to
editor@gozarks.com
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