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Please Help Spread the Truth about Cannabis
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Why was Cannabis made illegal?
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Hemp.com News and Information
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Fuel and Fiber from Hemp
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Hemp (Cannabis Sativa) has been a valuable commodity throughout the history of man. Far more important than the intoxicant aspect of cannabis flowers which is commonly called by the Mexican slang term Marijuana is the economic and energy aspect of the cannabis plant. One acre of hemp can produce the same amount of paper pulp as 4 acres of old growth forest. Hemp fibers are already being used in Europe as a lower cost strong lightweight safer substitute for fiberglass and carbon fiber in the construction of body panels for cars and trucks. Hemp seed oil is a biodiesel, it was the original fuel used by Henry Ford. Hemp produces 40% more ethanol per acre than corn and grows on marginal lands without any pesticides or fertilizers required. Growing hemp actually improves soil conditions which if rotated properly would add millions of acres of marginal farmlands into food production. Hemp makes very good quality paper and cloth, producing twice the usable fiber for textiles as cotton which consumes much of the chemical pesticides and fertilizers used in America, only slightly less than corn and soy. We could actually move away from foreign petrochemical dependence if we ended this unrealistic prohibition on a plant that has throughout the history of man one of the most valuable commodities.
Every part of the plant is useful. The stalk produces a long strong fiber for cordage and textiles. The branches and leaves are excellent biomass for energy production. Hemp seeds are as close as you can get to a perfect sustenance food with highly nutritious complex proteins and Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids which makes hemp seed oil even healthier than extra virgin olive oil or can be used as biodiesel. Learn more by watching the Story of Jack Herer the unlikely Emperor of Hemp.
Industrial Hemp Can Save America
If we planted industrial hemp on just 6% of American lands we could regenerate our industrial base and create 100% of our energy needs here in local factories that would employ millions of Americans producing advanced biofuels, biomass electrical energy, hemp cordage and textiles, hemp fiber building materials, hemp paper and card stock, hempcrete and hemp biodegradable plastics to list of few of the 25,000 things that can be made from hemp. We don't need to use nearly the amount of petroleum as we currently consume. As hemp grows it sequesters carbon out of the atmosphere and releases it back when the hemp is burnt but petroleum carbon was sequestered millions of years ago and when it is burnt that carbon is also released into our environment. Using hemp to replace wood for paper and building materials would significantly reduce deforestation and further reduce green house gases in our atmosphere. Yes, Jack Herer was right, Cannabis can save the world.
We don't need one drop of stinking fossil fuels. Heep seed oil is an excellent biodiesel which produces far less harmful pollution into our atmosphere, 80% less carbon dioxide and almost no sulfur emissions. Hemp produces 40% more ethanol than corn per acre and it grows in marginal soils actually improving soil quality when used as a rotation crop. Hemp requires almost no fertilizer and absolutely no pesticides compared to corn which is the top consumer of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in American agriculture. Industrial hemp grows quickly, maturing in as little as 100 days and produces 3 times a year, enough biomass to produce all our surface transportation fuels and electrical generation needs with far less pollution and with industry creating additional beneficial byproducts. The University of Missouri estimates that an average-size metropolitan area production of 100 million gallons of biodiesel fuel could generate $8.34million in personal income and 6000 temporary and permanent jobs. (Ref: National Biodiesel Board)
Until 1883, 75-90% of all paper in the U.S. was made with hemp.
Hemp seed was the # 1-selling bird feed; 4 million pounds were sold in the U.S. in 1937.
In the mid-to-late 1800′s the 2nd & 3rd most commonly used medications were concentrated cannabis extracts and resins (a.k.a. hashish).
A bridge in the south of France dated at 500-700 A.D. was built with a mixture of hemp.
In 1941 Henry Ford built a car with a plastic made from hemp and wheat straw.
Until 1937 70-90% of all rope and twine was made with hemp.
Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp on their plantations.
In 1850 the U.S. Census reported 8,327 hemp plantation of at least 2000 acres in size. Not counted were thousands of smaller crops.
The original Levi Strauss jeans were made from hemp.
In 1942 the U.S. government strongly encouraged hemp cultivation to help with the war effort, going so far as to produce a film entitled “Hemp For Victory“.
The version of the Declaration of Independence released on July 4, 1776 was written on hemp. (Ref: Hemp.com)
The entire hemp plant is useful and could replace the need to deforest our nation for wood pulp to create paper and building materials. Hemp produces better quality paper than wood pulp and can be combined into recycled wood pulp to increase the strength and durability of new paper products. The long strong hemp fiber can be pressed into fiberboard and studs for construction materials that are heat, mildew, pest, light, and rot resistant. Termites will not eat durable hemp fibers. One acre of hemp produces 4 times the usable paper pulp than an acre of old growth forest which takes 50 to 100 times long to replenish. Hemp produces twice the usable fiber than cotton per acre and textiles made with hemp last longer are liter in weight and warmer than cotton.
Hemp seeds contain natures perfect balance of Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids and complex proteins needed by our bodies, making hemp seeds the closest to a perfect sustenance food source. Hemp seed oil has a lite nutty flavor that is an even healthier cooking choice than extra virgin olive oil. Hemp seed oil also produces excellent and healthy soaps, cosmetics, shampoos and lotions. There are many of these products already available in Americans stores but they are now mostly imported from Europe and Canada which do not have ridiculous laws prohibiting growing this most valuable commodity.
Textiles produced with hemp fiber are even softer, stronger, last longer and more absorbent than cotton. Cotton production uses only slightly less chemical fertilizers and pesticides than the top consumers corn and soy. Hemp produces twice the usable fiber per acre than cotton without the chemicals. A fine linen like cloth can easily be made with hemp fiber that wears 3 times as long as cotton with the feel of cotton fleece.
Hemp, like flax (linen) is one of the best fibers. When weaving with hemp yarns, you can treat it like a linen yarn, using similar setts. It improves and softens with age. Hemp is also mildew resistant, making it an excellent yarn for towels, bath linens and carpet warp as well as in fine table linens and clothing. I hope that you will give it a try. (source: Hemp.com)
If our congress critters were actually serious about job creation in the private sector they would remove all the arcane barriers to production of this most valuable commodity which would very easily end our dependence to foreign oil.
For those wanting links and more information on the 6% claim.
United States Fact Sheet: US agriculture
Total Land Area in the Continental United States is 2,263,994,361 acres [3,536,294 square miles] 6% of this total land area is 135,659,662 acres. Hemp yields about 10 tons per acre every 100 days to 4 months or 1,356,596,620 tons of total hemp biomass at least twice a year, 3 times a year in southern climates.
Hemp biomass conversions
There are several ways to convert biomass into usable energy including direct combustion to create steam. Assuming that most of the biomass is converted to cleaner fuels first and we subtract the weight from the total biomass for all the other uses before converting we are still talking close to a trillion and a half tons of hemp for fuel conversion. Ethanol conversion rates vary from low of 25 gallons a ton to as much as 100 gallons a ton with modern conversion techniques. Lets use 50 gallon a ton as an educated estimate, that's around 750 trillion gallons of ethanol a year which is more than all the gasoline used in 2010 which was just over 125 trillion gallons. Ethanol is not as energy concentrated as gasoline so the ethanol would require reforming and concentrating to yield fuel mileage rates like gasoline. Still enough hemp fuel could be created and still have enough hemp biomass left to produce methane for electrical generation.
Taking all the hemp seed oil which yields about 15 gallons per ton of hemp seed and hemp seeds account for 28% of the hemp total biomass weight then converting hemp oil only into biodiesel would produce about 12 trillion gallons of high quality biodiesel a year. Significant amounts indeed but hemp seed oil can also be used as heating oil without conversion into biodiesel too. The great thing about hemp is it's totally biodegradable, if you spill hemp biodiesel or heating oil, it does not become a hazardous waste indecent. It's just like spilling cooking oil.
Edited Comment to Washington Post
11/04/2011 The prohibition of cannabis is costing the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Not just from the cost of law enforcement and incarceration of users but also the loss of the high energy biomass that we could be producing domestically instead of buying foreign produced oil. Industrial Hemp, the non-intoxicating cousin of Marijuana, is four times more efficient converting solar energy through photosynthesis into usable biomass energy than any other commercially viable crop. Hemp grows very quickly, producing up to 10 tons an acre of high cellulose (85% by weight) biomass in as little as 100 days allowing up to 3 harvests a year in much of America. A ton of hemp can produce up to 100 gallons of ethanol and 15 gallons of hemp seed oil biodiesel without the sulfur and 85% less CO2 emissions than fossil fuels. Big Oil has more to lose from widespread Cannabis cultivation than Big Pharma.
The real reason Cannabis was initially taxed and regulated out of production was the major competition hemp posed against softwood fiber paper products and the moneyed interest of Wm Randolf Hearst. An acre of hemp can produce in 100 days more usable short fiber pulp than four acres of old growth forest in 15 years while requiring only a fraction of the polluting caustic chemicals to finish the pulp into superior paper products than softwood fiber. Personally, I believe it's shameful that we Americans continue to chop down trees to produce toilet tissue to only be flushed away when we could be producing a superior and much greener product from hemp. The real reason Cannabis remains banned is the valuable commodity hemp and the competition it would pose to existing economically and politically powerful interests. Cannabis does not lend itself to big centralized production models that are currently favored by big business and many in government. Cannabis or more specifically hemp would more likely produce thousands of small factories close to farmlands instead of large regional production sites and it would put millions of Americans to work in good paying living wage jobs.
Ending this ridiculous prohibition on Cannabis and allowing American farmers to grow hemp as a normal rotation crop would produce enough high energy biomass to completely replace all the foreign oil energy we currently import from countries that do not have the interests of the American people at heart. Instead of sending hundreds of billions offshore we could keep that capital circulating in the American domestic economy. This would create thousands if not millions of new business opportunities all across the nation producing the more than 25,000 known high quality products that can be made from this extremely valuable commodity. We need to ignore the needs of the corporate moneyed interests and do what is right for the American people. We need to end the prohibition of Cannabis now.
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