| Note:<888>5/25/99
Tuesday 8:00 A.M. EDT: "Discussion on Hemp".
There seems to be a lot interest in the press about Hemp,
Marijuana, or Cannibis. I am familiar with the product
and have done a little research on some of its uses in
America over the years. I believe I first encountered the
product while a student at Lake Forest College http://www.lfc.edu
in Lake Forest, Illinois. Students from the east coast
attending the college in Illinois, use to use it in their
hippie days while on campus. It was part of the hippie
culture, so it was constantly around the campus; although
illegal. It seems that Hemp grows in the wild in
abundence in the midwest. Since hemp grows wild all over
North America, many Afro Americans use to smoke it for
medicinal relief in the southern United States up until
the 1920s when it was outlawed. It was a low cost
alternative growing in the wild to other more modern
medical remedies and it was commonly available in the
fields and forests of agricultural areas. I believe
cattlemen and sheperds use to try to erradicate the
product to prevent the live stock from eating it and
acting irratically much like loco weed. Still like many
herbs and plants, hemp was thought to have certain
theraputic and medicinal properties and like the
thousands of others home remedies it was commonly used. I
believe it was frequenly used as a home remedy for
Pollegra. I suppose the India Company, the Dutch West
Indies Company, and the British West Indies Company
commonly traded the product out of North America and
India. Hemp had one important use even today, it was used
in making Marine quality ropes. Nylon ropes and other
newer types of rope tend to deteriorate in the salt water
of the ocean. Hemp Rope has stood the test of time for
thousands of years. The earlier colonial settlers grew
hemp to be used in making rope and other products such as
jute. Jute was commonly used for carpet padding until
recently when foam rubber was substituted. Most
automobiles in the earlier days also had jute padding
which was used to dampen the sound within the automobile
between the metal shells and the interior decor. Jute
padding is still used today. Well after Marijuana smoking
was outlawed in the 1920s in preference to tabacco
smoking, World War II came along. With the German U boats
began sinking a lot of nautical transportation, there was
a shortage of hemp rope from India. Hemp rope from India
is probably the best in the World since the plants in
India in the warm damp climate grow to be about 50 feet
tall or more. When making rope from hemp, the taller the
plant, the longer the fibers that go into making the
rope, and thus the rope is stronger. Well during World
War II when there was a shortage of rope, they started
commercial farming hemp in the midwest for rope, however
the midwesterner hemp rope was not as good as the brand
from India since the plants in the midwest would only
grow to about fifteen feet during the shorter growing
season. While transporting the hemp plants during the war
for commercial rope production along the tens of
thousands of miles of railroad track in the midwest, the
seeds would obviously fall out of the box cars, and thus
along most of the railroad beds in the midwest region,
hemp tends to grow wild from all the seeds that fell
along the tracks over the years. Also commercial bird
seed products such at Hartz Mountain parakeet seed, tend
to have hemp seed in them since many birds prefer hemp
seed. Thus when the birds eat the hemp seed and and their
feces are disgarded in the wild, they tend to spread the
hemp seeds around in the wild. Thus hemp, marijuana, or
cannibis plant is as common in the wild as Johnson grass,
ragweed, dandillions, or golden rod. Thus after World War
II when Marine interests returned to using the superior
rope from India for nautical activities there was left a
large number of North American hemp farms, with surplus
capacity but with the expanding automobile industry and
the use of carpets, hemp was still heavily used within
North America for the production of jute. Well in the
1960s when farm kids started traveling around the country
as they left home, they knew about hemp, and since when
they met city kids from the city whom had available cash,
they frequently would try to sell them hemp which was
commonly available since the city kids would frequently
spend small fortunes on Virginian tabacco. Thus the hemp
product was introduced into the hippie culture and became
a part of the Peace movement. Many youth whom had never
touched tabacco were encouraged to smoke hemp. Since it
reduced one's inhibitions, there was frequently sexual
activity associated with the use of hemp as is much the
same way with alcohol. Thus all the free love movement
came out of the hippie movement. Since the use of hemp
had its origins out of agricultural america, many of the
hippie youth gathered around agricultural communes where
the product was freely available, and they worked in
various agricultural activities which the urban youth
were not familiar with originally. As the urban youth and
the agricultural youth traveled more back and forth
between the city and the country, many cities had large
numbers of users of hemp, cannibis, or marijuana as a
underground free market economy. Since the term marijuana
is a Spanish name, it would obviously pertain to the hemp
plant from the warmer hispanic regions of North America
where it would grow taller and would probably be more
useful for better marine quality rope. At the moment we
seem to have plenty of unrestricted trade with India, so
thus the superior quality marine nautical rope from India
is still available. The type of nautical rope I am
refering to is not the type that one buys in hardware
stores. You see it used around large nautical vehicles in
shipping such as aircraft carriers, tankers, tug boats,
and shipping for tow or tug lines and mooring lines.
These lines depending on the size of the vessle are
frequently up to two feet in diameter, and the superior
quality India hemp rope, seems to withstand the ravages
of the salt water exposure which nylon or rag rope does
not. Moreover after prolonged periods of India hemp rope
use, when the rope begins to deteriorate; they frequently
send it back to India to be dryed out and rewoven back
into other rope products. Since the used rope might not
have the original long strands, they use it for other
rope products like jute. Thus if your nautical vessle
ever disappears from its mooring and floats off to sea,
it is probably because your Nylon rope deteriorated and
you did not use superior quality rope from India. I dare
say in English if you went into more scholarly achives in
British English speaking libraries in England, you would
find more detailed information on the various subjects
described above along with the accumulated knowlege of
various botanical groups and other agriculturally
orientated organizations around the world whom have
cultivated and developed the Hemp, Cannibis or Marijuana
product for thousands of years. Thus although marijuana
is still illegal to smoke in the United States of
America, except by certain small medical research groups,
the growth and production of the hemp plant is still
commonly practiced for its other useful purposes. Well so
much for all the confusion about hemp, marijuana, or
cannibis. Myself I still prefer good Virginian tabacco.
Also I believe the Hemp plant was used in certain
religious practices by the American Indian. Also I was
once told by a Royal Norwegian Guard outside the palace
in Norway, that the Royal Norwegian Navy frequently
smoked rope when they ran out of good Virginian tabacco.
Also there might be some Bengal Tigers lurkng around
those fifty foot tall hemp plants in India. I was advised
by a Dutch official that their official viewpoint in
Amsterdam is tolerance, so the friendly growers in
Jamaica fly the product directly from Jamaica to
Amsterdam without bothering to stop in other countries. I
would imagine much would be the case with other countries
flying into Amsterdam or where smoking of hemp is not
illegal. Thus it would seem the 1920s United States
marijuana satutes were established to prevent certain
groups of rurual individuals from selling a commonly
available commodity product to naive city folks, and to
encourage a much more lucrative trade in the tabacco
industry or other similar substances. It has been
commonly published the active ingredient in Hemp,
Cannibis or Marijuana is "THC" which is
available over the counter from any pharmacy with a
prescription from a license medical practitioner and it
does not have the added side effect of causing lung
cancer which heavy hemp smokers might encounter.
Basically individuals whom look at a Physician's Desk
Reference would find tens of thousands of such drugs
which are in use through out the world for various
ailments. It would seem that certain law enforcement
officials have tried to curtail the use of hemp, since
usage would threaten the citizens in their work a day
activities or using mechanized machinery since their
judgement would be impaired. Thus like many laws, the
Hemp, Cannibis, Marijuana laws were established for the
general welfare of the public at large, and not meant to
curtail the more specialized usage of the product in
particular. I would imagine a great many cultures have
used it for other purposes, and perhaps more research
should be done on the historical usages of the contraband
substance, and not use the laws as a random way of
enforcing a political morality against certain groups
that might be judged to be a threat to the American way
of life or sensability. It is my personal viewpoint that
everything in its own time and space in the order of the
nature of the planet has its own purpose, or it would not
have evolved on the planet. This a personal viewpoint and
not a legal viewpoint. Michael Louis Scott 5/25/99 |