Hemp can save the world
Hemp can save the world
by C.J. Keleher
The Canadian Governments Prohibition on Cannabis sativa is one of the most absurd corporate lobbied laws ever enforced. It all began in the 1930's when the word 'Marijuana' was coined to describe the female cannabis plant, whose buds were smoked: a fad inherited by Mexicans and the West Indies. Preached as deadly and dangerous by its opponents, films like Reefer Madness churned into draconian laws banning the hemp plant from competing with its synthetic competitors. All too often the complacent media and moneyed lobbyists besieged the public with a tide of fear-mongering directed at Cannabis use.People like Harry J. Aslinger from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics allowed companies such as DuPont to lead in eradicating Hemp usage from industry, clearing the way for the oil, chemical and synthetic textile industries. Prohibition laws in Canada were heavily influenced by our southern neighbours relentless prejudice toward this ancient plant. Times are changing, and we all must ask ourselves, why do we bother criminalizing it?
When most people consider pot they think of the buds, commonly smoked throughout cultures around the globe for thousands of years. In 1937 this was proclaimed an illegal drug by Canada's government, the first salvo in the war of consciousness had begun. Governments since have ignored the fact that hemp seeds are second only to soy in nutritional value, and that the oil from the seeds can be used as paint, bio-fuel, ink or made into biodegradable plastics. It all was ruled irrelevant by the scare of a cannabis high. Data was suppressed, proponents smeared or arrested, the plant tabooed. An entire generation forgot the fact hemp seeds have a 3 to 1 balance of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids, the exact balance our bodies require.
Marijuana was prohibited after competing interests in the USA realized growing it on a fraction of our arable land with mechanized harvesters, could cure the country of its oil dependence they profited from so greatly. It didn't matter that cultivating hem would save the forests, and end the prevalence of pesticides,feed the poor or cattle an heal the planet. Even its evidence in inhibiting certain cancers, as a Harvard experiment demonstrated in 2007, were disregarded by the bureaucrats in power, and their media allies. Why such a useful plant isn't in widespread use causes one to question the very direction of our society. Is the alternative to full legalization any worse? Consecutive Canadian government's prefers to subsidize the polluting oil sand industries, police budgets bulge, prisons are filled while crime drops. What would be the harm in freeing the world's best natural fiber, and a renewable energy source? Government unfortunately would rather lock up thousands than change the status quo to a more sustainable, logical direction.
Governments and powerful corporations are at war with hemp because it poses a threat to the chemical, lumber and oil conglomerates writing the laws. This is apparent to most now days. How often does one hear that Marijuana is one of the fastest growing biomasses known to man, hence the name 'weed' or that in three months one acre of hemp can provide the equivalent in fibres to four acres of ten-year-old forest. It is a plant with 50,000 uses, able to make the strongest paper, plastics and fabric nature provides. It does this with a tenth of the chemicals used by 'modern' synthetic techniques reliant on Petroleum deriatives. Cannabis is a natural fungicide and doesn't require the pesticides or chemicals fertilizers that cotton demands, or GMOs require. It provides a massive 25 tons of biomass per hectare, and is renowned for curing soils of pollutants and chemicals without the need to rotate yearly. Many forget Pot is presently cleansing containments from the ground at Chernobyl, and one day Cannabis will likely be needed in Fukushima Japan too.
It is time we end this war on nature. The cannabis plant isn't just the most common natural 'drug' on earth, it was once essential to industry, creativity and medicine; and could be again. How is it that our 'free' society would allow the sick to suffer through disease, while synthetic drugs of dubious value are pushed down our throats instead of the natural equivalent? We waste resources and billions in wealth and man-hours trying to lock up harmless users and growers,ruining families and lives for nothing more than inhaling smoke from a plant!
What happened to freedom of consciousness, written into the Charter of Rights and Freedom? What sort of society are we that incarcerates citizens for growing a single plant of cannabis? Free is it? Of what? Nature? This war on drugs is actually a war on consciousness and the federal government has overstepped its authority in trying to eradicate cannabis from existence and use. The despicable failure and corruption surrounding the war on drugs must be faced and corrected. Nature is free, and Cannabis is here to stay with or without bureaucratic bias.
The replacement of hemp usage by poisonous chemical processes has eroded and polluted the soil and air of Canada and the earth, it continues unabated. Accepting Cannabis, and ending its prohibition, will be the first steps to a sustainable economy, a permaculutre which considers the future generations and wildlife into the equation. It is not an understatement when one says hemp can save the world, but if we really let it.
We've had this discussion before, but no harm in having it again.
Note also that the flax plant isn't illegal to grow and from it you can produce a wide range of products too. Bird seed, strong fiber, linseed oil, sprouted seed in salads and industrially, lino. I suggest that people try growing it in their gardens as a way to build up to the legalization of hemp for fiber etc. I have found it to be a decent companion plant for peas. (The peas use the flax stems to climb to the light.) Flax grows about 2 to 3 ft high so it will not work for telephone peas but is a good companion for the shorter types.