CAN CANNABIS HELP THE US ECONOMY?
Federal raids on medicinal marijuana dispensaries and clubs, late-breaking news covering the latest action, like high-speed helicopter chases spanning past the Mexican border and into the United States, or drug possession arrests contributing to the highest prison population of any country in the world. These are just some common American occurrences that reflect the inability of our current drug policy specifically with regard to cannabis. The current DEA law prohibiting the possession, use, or manufacture of cannabis, which reinforces a bogus tax act that dates back to the 1930s, fails to solve the actual problems faced by societies striving to limit numbers of drug addicts, and worsens the prospects of our national economy and natural environment. In the next few paragraphs, why all these products that are derived from living and non-living resources could contribute less of a blow to the environment, if produced using hemp, will be shown on a crop to crop, issue to issue, and product or industry wise basis.
On the topic of the industrial use of hemp, and the right of individuals to responsibly control and effectively regulate their free choices to partake or reject use of the drug-producing form, the female cannabis plant, respectively, there is no differentiation in American law. In the 1930s, the federal government breached tax code by pledging to allow producers of cannabis hemp to obtain a tax card in order to produce the plant, none of which were issued following the passage of the act, thereby making the food, medicine, and essential oils, etc. components of an unnecessarily underground market, which led the government to enact subsequent laws based on propaganda with the result of re-categorizing cannabis as an illegal Schedule One drug and demonizing both sexes, cannabis hemp and cannabis sativa, indiscriminately.
The stark contrast of these two forms of the plant, male and female, respectively, would be unsaid if the science and history books withheld the little-known status of cannabis as being the only visibly dimorphic or dual-sexed plant on Earth. Outside of its potential for profit as a taxed and regulated drug derived from the female cannabis plant, which will be discussed later, we will explore the hemp plant's industrial uses as a food, medicine, textile, seed, oil, and much more. Agricultural hemp has so many benefits that not only will it positively help people affect economic change, but people can have the assurance that young people will not turn to drugs and begin to use ‘pot,' if industries bust their massively inefficient contracts with big polluters to use hemp. Considering the plant has an impressively extensive list of over twenty-five thousand uses, only the uses which would encourage freedom's re-entrance into the economy, and lift the United States out from the welfare-warfare state will be outlined in detail.
Hemp can turn unproductive, used up soil on which stable crops cannot be grown with its amazing root systems, as it actually replenishes soil, which is an important part of the water cycle, especially in Illinois which uses groundwater. The root system of hemp also prevents erosion, and decays quickly after harvest. It also has an intrinsic pesticide and crowds out weeds, making unproductive land productive again. Gone would be the days of planting on land where crops must be continually cycled. Hemp should be designated land where farms can be quickly enacted and the use of less agricultural chemicals during farming and the harvest and processing of the materials can become reality. Hemp would gradually replenish the groundwater of Illinois with its expansive root systems, which are even an ancient Chinese medicine similar to ginseng. When thinking about the water pollution problem, it is beyond sad that the government is so factually mistaken that it actually mandates that by-products from the filtration of sulfuric combustion in the production of fertilizers, be used to fluoridate the drinking water supply.
Finally, starting off the list of industries against hemp is the paper and logging industry, as the first American colonizers who famously rebelled against the crown of her majesty grew hemp so that they could have paper. The logging and paper industry is first on the list for discussion due to the high prevalence of tree killing by paper manufacturers, which does irreversible damage that takes over twenty years for a forest to recover from. In fact, one of the earliest uses of hemp was in the production of paper, with producers harnessing it all the way back in B.C. times. There is even evidence that paper derived from hemp was used in the first paintings and the first Torah, explaining how the Latin stem for "canvas" comes from the word "cannabis." Seeing as how trees will not just cut themselves down, we can hope that with a switch to hemp paper, the Earth can mend itself and our natural environment can flourish again.
Compared to papyrus or tree-derived paper, hemp paper has many advantages. Cannabis hemp paper is made from the hurdy stalk of the plant, or woody main stem, after the valuable cellulose and high or low-lignin pulp has been extracted or separated. It does not yellow, creak, or deteriorate as easily, either. Not only is hemp a sustainable paper source but since hemp-made paper does not require bleaching or chlorides like paper from papyrus or trees, it goes through a simpler and far less chemical-using process. Furthermore, the hemp plant requires just one-twentieth of the land trees need to produce an equal amount of paper, and one-sixtieth of the time. Even more important than recycling and using biodegradables is preventing these processes, by advocating that logging should be avoided at all possible costs. Preventing logging practices from happening is the ultimate way to let Earth grow even larger trees, providing a store of resources if ever needed, as well as beauty, geodesic value, and oxygen for humans to breathe around the world. Again, this highly-recyclable paper is produced from what is otherwise leftover wastes after the bio-useable lignin and bast matter is extracted from the plant. There are no known drawbacks to using hemp stalks for paper. By making the switch from trees and papyrus, Americans could save its trees, put several thousand farmers and acres of land to good use, and cut down to the lowest levels of toxic chemical use and deforestation since the days of Jesus Christ himself.
Regardless of the welfare state and housing crisis and the governmental claims and offers to help, the costs over time to government and individuals, in the cyclical form of funds allocated to business and back to consumers, would decline in a way similar to a society with tougher cars with the production of higher-quality hemp-based biodegradable homes. With skyrocketing oil, electricity, and natural gas prices, every person could benefit from a warmer winter dwelling and an indoors that makes for cooler summertime. As long as there have been paper and books, there has been a need for buildings in which people could read them. Over nine hundred years ago, the French reinforced their bridges with mortar made from hemp. If the cannabis hemp plant were used for constructing buildings out of reinforced mortar, brick, and other materials, rather than timber or concrete, house values would increase significantly with little change in initial cost since it has many features earning the plant a high rank among green home designers and enthusiasts' top material choices.
In addition to providing materials such as boards for sturdy construction, hemp homes, made with variable pliability and levels of its valuable lignin or extracted bast fibers, require less extensive foundations as the material is much stronger, and as mentioned, they insulate better. Not only is the required amount of chemicals for processing other inferior crops greater, but the adhesives such as hemp-based mortar are naturally made of hemp resin and form superior bonds. The boards are three times stronger than boards derived from comparable processing. The demolition of hemp-based materials is less devastating to the environment as the green homes they are used in are highly biodegradable, unlike cement brick, plastics, and mortar. Most of these hemp materials have built-in breathability, fire resistance, and are water and rodent-proof, unlike wood. Furthermore, when hemp is grown nearby, transport costs can also be reduced.
However, when hemp-based material is used to build homes, the environmental impact upon the completion of construction is approximately identical. This is because the making of hemp buildings does require similar processes that non-composite based homebuilding requires, but the pollution required in the obtaining and refining process of petrol-based raw plastics, wood, and concrete is reduced. This is due the thick, woody inner core, known as the hurds, which comprise over three-quarters of the stalk and are high in lignin. The hurds are the by-product from primary and secondary bast extraction, which are lower and higher in lignin respectively. The hurds are seventy percent cellulose which is ideal for papermaking. The cellulose can also be used for the making of other products, such as cellophane. The cellulose is derived from primary bast fibers. Textiles, currency, tea bags, and specialized paper products are made from secondary bast fibers, which is high in lignin fibers. The shredded stalks also can be used for livestock, poultry, and pet bedding, or pressed into edible pellets high in fiber. If the hurdy stocks are fed to livestock, they will have a decreased risk of Mad Cow Disease and other diseases.
Hemp's ability to replace the clothes, rope, twine, sails, and rigging industries that cotton has been used for in the last century is remarkable and a no-brainer. In contrast to the cotton plant, which produces just thirty-three to fifty percent the fiber as a comparable field of hemp, hemp is more durable, stronger, more elastic, and more absorbent. Due to its need for considerably less chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides, it is also more natural, and would take pressure off the U.S. economy by relieving the need of the USDA-subsidized farmers to whine and complain until they obtain free chemicals from the government. In fact, cotton alone accounts for fifty percent of the total fertilizer and pesticide use in America, and only half of the cotton plant's fibers are actually useable for spinning. Hemp could produce longer-lasting economically-sound natural, fashionable clothing that could be recycled into paper when worn-in.
In addition to all of the ecological benefits to humans, farms, and animals of using hemp-based paper, hemp's cellulose (an even more valuable compound) accounts for the other two thirds of the plant matter that are actually set aside, used for other purposes, or sold before making paper. The cellulose is a highly pliable and sturdy material extracted easily from the pulp which can be used to make methanol for diesel and airplane fuel, charcoal fuel, tar, and more. Since it does not produce sulfur when burned, it could lower the greenhouse effect considerably by emitting sulfur-free and low-carbon exhaust. Corn, being the more popular form of ethanol used in the U.S., requires more land as it produces four times less ethanol per acre with the same equipment. The uses of the hemp plant to make biofuel and as a cellulose to replace petrol in plastics, could provide both and economic and environmental advantage. The blunders of the U.S. government, such as its failed attempts to import South American sugar cane for ethanol extraction for petrol engines would be made irrelevant in addition to the notion of using corn to fuel vehicles. Additionally, hemp contains a higher grade ethanol that is cleaner for machinery and when burned, it pollutes less. Less pollution means having to spend less money appeasing those combating global warming and the liberal believers in associated schemes. Hemp is a clean, green, and sustainable way for car manufacturers to cheaply run the cars they build.
Not only would using hemp-derived fuel reduce emissions, it also makes great composites with which car builders can make cars safer, just like hemp-based homes. The increased quality of plastics that are made from hemp oil as compared to petrol has been demonstrated as early as the 1930s in Henry Ford's composite-based T-car and plastics produced with the biodegradable/recyclable hemp biomass. The end result of using hemp composites in automobiles is a reduction in costs of operation due to fewer cases where litigation, hospital stays, health and car insurance claims, and auto repairs arise. Companies such as Ford, Cadillac, and other European automakers, such as Mercedes, and BMW, have already used hemp for not only reinforcing exterior body work, but also as part of the interior trim. It can be molded or pressed in small parts, and also is used for tough cellophane for window shelving, trunk lining, airbag parts, and door panels on some new automobiles. The hemp-based oil is a great high or low duty fuel. If used in conjunction with manufacturing currently in progress involving molding or pressing of textiles by car manufacturers, home makers, and plastic producers, a mixture hemp and plastic could reduce the oil allocation toward these production ends and instead supply the hopefully declining number of cars burning petrol. Hemp is the most direct solution for making cars run cleaner and tougher.
Not only does the hemp seed provide us with this excellent paper, natural oil, and tough plastic composite, the uses of hemp extend far beyond making fuel from the oil, and boards or paper from the stalk. People who use hemp meal, seed, flour or oil for cooking benefit from the fact that hemp contains the highest concentration of total protein in the entire plant kingdom, second to soybeans. However, hemp's protein is easier to digest and has a higher biological value. Not to mention, it contains many important vitamins and minerals, including carotene, zinc, iron, sulfur, magnesium, calcium, potassium, which are also important for a healthy metabolism, are contained in hemp seeds. Furthermore, soybeans are "pasteurized" by a process that uses petroleum, which is toxic. The hemp has many opponents to crush yet in its many practical uses for upkeep of your home and body.
Hemp legalization and industrialization is important for human livelihood, to the extent that the hungry should become able to eat surplus hemp production modestly quickly if industrialization of hemp becomes written into law. Basically, hemp can also be used to fight world hunger. The high protein and fiber content of the hemp seed, coupled with a short growing season make it the ideal sustainable feed. Its hulled or shelled forms can be used to make excellent fibrous feed with the perfect nutrient biousability profile for both humans and animals. In other words, the correct proportion of nutrients that humans need, specifically one quarter protein, one quarter to one third carbohydrate, and ten to fifteen percent insoluble fiber is present in hemp. Considering obesity is responsible for the most hospitalizations leading to death, first only to tobacco, the need for sustainable, healthy oil and seed is clear. Without even getting into the tobacco issue, hemp could quiet the irresponsible voices of any fat people who blame the effects of poverty and a sinking economy for their poor dietary habits, convenience-driven eating schedule, and nutrient intake.
Whole hemp seeds, which differ from the meal used for animals, are shelled. They are used to make protein powder, and in brewing beer. They are used in the making of snacks, coffee, and other baked confections. The seed is a very complete nutrient source in that it contains all eight essential amino acids, but it also has properties which make it a good source of carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Some other foods derived from cannabis include plant seed meal, hulled hemp seeds, cheese, beer, nut butter, and dietary supplements such as omega 9-containing oil capsules and protein powder. The hulls of the seeds can also be used to make mulch for landscaping, which by the way, if eaten by animals, would merely provide dietary fiber!
Its oil, in addition to all of its industrial uses or great nutty taste on salads, makes a great body cleanser and moisturizer when the seeds are pressed and it is extracted. It is cheaply produced in this way, and has been used for this purpose for thousands of years. Unlike the outrageously expensive facial creams and cleansers which are increasingly difficult to afford, and replenish little or none of the fatty acids in the skin, the hemp plant nourishes as it is absorbed, which leaves the skin glowing healthily, and reduces the impulse decision to visit the beautician for a ninety dollar hour. Back when people had no lamp oil or wood to burn for heat, the seeds and stalk were traditionally burnt in the home for purposes of cooking food and as a form of light and heating.
When used to make candles, or lamp oil, they last longer because the oil burns at a lower temperature than wax or other burnable, light-producing oils. The melted candle can even be applied to your skin to soothe and nourish it. This is why hemp oil is even the base ingredient of many non-cosmetic healing salves used in traditional and modern practical medicine. It has been shown to alleviate inflammation and even has antimicrobial properties, sparing medical visits, and an antibiotic is recommended for use on more infectious cuts and scrapes.
Hemp can be used to produce many other industrially important compounds such as creosote, pitch, ethyl acetate, flour, detergents, and so on. Simply put, the oil has numerous other industrial uses which output a greatly reduced cost to Mother Nature. The special interests: the plastic, cotton, and chemical manufacturers, unfortunately are the distributors earning contracts with current technology and oil companies. Hemp oil also produces nontoxic paint. When children or animals are playing with toys that are coated with non-toxic hemp paint, they are not only giving their parents peace of mind regarding their health, but since it is of a higher biodegradability, it also benefits Mother Nature.
In the industrial hemp battle are organizations such as the BACH (Business Alliance for Commerce for Hemp) that have been rallying together a handful of fellow organizations for sensible laws to restore the control of the market in the hands of individuals. On the drug front, there are several lobbyist groups such as NORML who are devoted to the legitimization of responsible use by individuals who want to experiment with their consciousness by using cannabis. Regarding those who smoke the dried buds of the cannabis sativa plant, it should not even be necessary to get into the health-related costs to society of smoking tobacco. As mentioned, approximately 400,000 people die each year from tobacco-related causes. Out of the millennia that the drug THC, produced in the buds of the female plant has been used, there have been a grand total of zero related deaths, because it is physically impossible to inhale enough to overdose on the compound. Crop after crop, hemp still holds its own whether it is being compared to cotton, trees, soybeans, petroleum, papyrus, or when used practically as an alternative to milk-based cheese or barley-based beer. The degree of economical soundness in this argument should stress the need for every informed individual whether they are sector-dependent or not to break the chains that hold cannabis's use down.
Many service-based organizations such as homebuilders, restaurants, and salons as well as companies who manufacture food and other goods could use the aforementioned products derived from cannabis hemp. However, with such a productive boost to the free market, institutions such as the government, who also happens to be the issuer of currency, would need to change their philosophy.
When the government is convinced that it is time to use natural alternatives to the mucky appeasement program for cotton companies and farmers, fertilizer and chemical giants, and large oil giants are running, the world will see true change. To be rid of the collusion that drives those producing plastics and paint with fifty percent of the oil they pump out of the ground and bestowing us with unfathomable toxic pollution, there needs to be a change in governmental policy in America. In the early days of the USA, in addition to making all of the aforementioned goods from cannabis hemp, you could also pay taxes with hemp, but just try asking the authoritarian crooks currently working for us in government if you could, today! Interestingly, the French still continue to print their central bank notes on hemp to this day. The writing is on the wall, but the question is, is the government going to make the choice to step aside for once in their pitiful existence?
Source:
http://www.harbay.net
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Showing comments 1—1 of 1
Posted 06/17/09
 rightsman Las Vegas,, NV | Hazballs4rp,
Hemp alone can revitalize the economy of the United States of America.
But with the new farm bill coming down the pike the big "O" is making good on his campaign promise that we are not going to be able to eat what we want any more, nor is he going to allow us to eat as much as we want any more.
Information on the farm bill was posted yesterday on this website by Lydia Scott. Take a look at that article, then call, write, and email your elected representative to prevent passage of this onerous legislation.
Thank you,
Robert Walker |
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