Q. Is it true that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson used to grow hemp?
A. Yes! In fact, both grew hemp on their plantations. Thomas Jefferson once remarked that hemp's economic value and capacity for outfitting the Navy made hemp "of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country". George Washington once wrote "make the most of the hemp seed and sow it everywhere". For more than 200 years in Early America, it was legal to pay your taxes with hemp. During critical material shortage periods, it became illegal not to grow hemp, with a penalty of jail.
Q. Can you smoke hemp?
A. No. The THC level in hemp is too low to provide any effect. Hemp products are made from the fibrous stalk and seed, whereas marijuana is made from the flowering tops. Even hemp’s flowering tops are so low in THC that to obtain the amount of THC found in marijuana, one would have to smoke a ‘joint’ the size of a telephone pole and then only get a headache!
Q. Can you get high from eating hemp oil or putting it on your skin?
A. Absolutely not. The amount of THC in hemp oil is too low to have any effect on the body or mind.
Q. Can you fail a drug test by eating hemp oil or putting it on your skin?
A. No. You would have to drink 1/2 cup of pure hemp oil per day for several days, just to register near the cutoff level of 50 ppb THC in urine testing. As for putting it on your skin, even it you took a bath in pure hemp oil, it would have no effect. For the science on this, please visit www.Votehemp.com and ckick on "the issues."
Q. Is there a market for hemp?
A. Yes, a fast growing one at that! In 1993 worldwide retail sales for hemp products were $5 million. In 2000, worldwide retail sales were $150 million, including $80-90 million in the U.S. alone. Nevertheless, this is a tiny market compared to its potential and these statistics do not account for the widespread use of hemp as a raw material for industrial applications such as purchases by auto makers. As the world’s population grows, increasing strain will be put on non-renewable resources such as forests and mineral deposits. The demand for renewable materials by consumers, industry and government will grow out of necessity. Hemp is as good or better than any other alternative for a given application and its quality, durability, efficiency or healthfulness speaks for itself.
Today’s hemp market is constrained by legal restrictions, transporation costs and inefficient machinery. However, the main problem confronting hemp is the lack of public awareness of its myriad benefits. Naturally, this is tied to economics and incentive for investment in campaigns to educate the public. This website seeks to help fill the gap in public awareness. If you have read this far, you are one of the messengers; please email the address for this site to everyone you know: www.hemp.co.uk. For more information, contact us.
A brief rundown of hemp markets at the begining of the millenium:
Textiles: This is a very promising market. A significant number of entrepreneurial hemp clothing companies have already succeeded in the natural and organic boutique markets, while major designers like Armani, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren have been using hemp fabric in their collections for department stores and signature collections. As well, hemp fabrics have begun to invade the home furnishings market. Currently, the cotton industry is experiencing serious problems with crop insect infestation and increasing use of expensive and harmful chemicals to fight such threats. Processing technologies for bast fibers such as hemp are not as advanced as those for cotton, so the markets are smaller at the moment. However, research on improving this situation is being conducted around the world and an advance in the technology could spell a surge in global demand for hemp textiles.
Food: Hemp's success in the marketplace is visible in the human and animal feed sectors. Hemp oil, vegetable burgers, chutneys, pastas, salad dressings, flours etc. can be found on natural and organic as well as exclusive supermarket shelves. In addition, hemp has been used as a high protein feed supplement for cows and chickens. There is even a hemp-fed organic beef ranch in Kentucky. Consumers have already sent the message to food companies; they want better nutrition and cleaner ingredients. This market is growing rapidly and hemp is succeeding as this market flourishes.
Plastics: Hemp is used to re-inforce regular plastics. The hemp content of such materials is approximately 20%. Hemp's long fibre and specialised matrix ensure the resultant material is stronger and lighter than regular materials. Of course the 20% hemp fibres are a replacement for some 20% of the oil based plastics used today. They are also a first step as 100% biodegradeable hemp plastics are now available in various forms. The first hemp plastic product to be commercially produced was a high fly, leading to a CD and DVD tray produced in 2004. More information at www.hempplastic.com. You may also purchase a relaxation music CD based on 100% hemp (biodegradeable) didgeridoo, harp and flute, packed in a hemp cd tray holder using a hemp paper insert direct from www.hempmusic.com.
Cosmetics: Hemp oil used in cosmetics is another bright spot for market potential. Hemp's essential fatty acid profile is key to hemp oil working well in a variety of cosmetic applications. Well known companies like Revlon, Dr. Bronners, Jason's, Kiss My Face, Supre, The Body Shop, Higher Nature and Alterna have been successful with their lines of hemp oil based cosmetics and hair care products, while smaller, entrepreneurial concerns have flourished with soaps, lip balms, moisturizers and more. There is no end to the personal care products that can be made with hemp seed oil which is competitive with other high grade oils.
Building Materials: The market potential for hemp in building materials for home, industry and automotive is gigantic. Proof of this is the established and rapidly growing market for alternative fibers such as kenaf, straw and other natural materials used by industry. Once hemp can be grown on a large, economically competitive scale, manufacturers will see that it outperforms other natural fibers due to its length and strength. The number of industrial applications for non-wood fibers is growing every day and hemp is the premier alternative source. To date, niche markets have been successfully developed in England and France for hemp to act as a replacement or additive to packaging, fiberboard, cement and even animal bedding.
Solvents/Cleaners: The market for natural cleaners has been in evidence for many years. Now industry is realizing what consumers have known all along; that a good cleaning job does not necessarily require chemicals. That means a rapidly growing natural cleaning market. Currently, some European companies are producing hemp oil based cleaners. Hemp oil detergents can be used in commercial grade laundries and dishwashers, as well as to clean engines and bodies of trains, automobiles and airplanes. Hemp based general purpose cleaners are effective alternatives for all household cleaning applications.
Paper: Currently, hemp paper, along with all non-wood based paper, is confined to the specialty and environmental niches. Low wood prices, subsidized by our government, and economies of scale issues prevent a low-cost hemp paper alternative. Hemp competes well in these niches and its use will grow as alternative paper markets begin to overtake the conventional ones over the next decade or two.
Fuel: Currently, existing structures for energy delivery are so cost efficient that biomass conversion to fuel is not economically feasible. However, this is expected to change as the world rethinks its energy policies and energy shortages continue. At the moment, there are a number of companies worldwide who are researching and doing test applications of biomass fuel who have taken an interest in hemp. The use of hemp in biomass will parallel the use of other biomass crops as we discover the huge potential of our farms to deliver our energy needs.
CLICK HERE FOR A HEMP AND FLAX MARKET COMPARISON
CLICK HERE FOR A CHART SHOWING THE EVOLUTION OF HEMP OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS
Q. What are the U.S. restrictions governing hemp?
A. U.S. laws effectively prohibit the growing of industrial hemp and have done so since 1937. While it is not illegal to grow per se, federally imposed logistical restrictions such as high walls, barbed wire fences, armed guards, alarms, etc. make hemp growing economically unfeasible. On the other hand, importation of hemp raw materials and products such as fiber, oil, apparel and paper are legal. At the time of this writing, hemp bills are pending or have passed in several state legislatures. If signed into law by the governors of these states, the only impediment to growing hemp in the U.S. will be the strong protests of the federal government- a classic states vs. federal rights case. Hemp is now grown legally in Canada in a similar way to that of Europe.
Q. What are the Australian restrictions governing hemp?
A. Australian laws allow growing of industrial hemp in most states, including Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and to a limited extent in NSW, SA and WA. Licenses are generally required to grow hemp that must be of a low THC (drug) variety. At present (end of 2004) most hemp is being grown in conjunction with Ecofibre Industries Limited.
Q. What are the European restrictions governing hemp?
A. In the UK and mainland Europe it has been legal to grow industrial hemp now for many years. In fact, the European hemp industry has had a head start on the rest of the world. Licenses are still required to grow hemp of a low THC (drug) variety. Hemp is mainly being grown to supply Automotive industries and horse bedding markets, though seed for industrial oil and cosmetics is also growing, as is food, plastics and garden mulch.
Q. What exactly happened to make hemp illegal?
A. In short, hemp was seen as a threat to entrenched business interests and was targeted for prohibition via taxation.
The history of how hemp became prohibited is an interesting and sobering case of powerful business-government-media alliances. Essentially, U.S. Government restrictions placed on hemp cultivation were a direct result of a sustained lobbying effort by influential petroleum and timber interests who saw hemp as a threat to their business. Combined with a massive media campaign to discredit hemp by associating it with marijuana and demonizing the latter, the effort was a success, altering the course of U.S. industry for the balance of the century.
Here’s the story:
In the mid 1930’s, technology for hemp fiber was reaching a technical and economical apex. The recent invention of the hemp decorticator, a machine akin to the cotton gin, would strip the outer fibers quickly and easily, allowing hemp to be processed more efficiently and on a larger scale than ever before.
At this time, DuPont Corporation had just patented processes for making plastics from oil and coal, as well as a new sulfate process for making paper from wood pulp- processes that sixty years hence would account for 80% of the company’s products. Vertically integrated Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division, Kimberly Clark, St. Regis and other large timber, paper and newspaper holding companies had ties to vast forest resources. Hemp rope, hemp paper, hemp cellulose (plastics), hemp fiberboard, etc. was clearly a threat to these interests.
Twenty years earlier, William Randolph Hearst, who owned large tracts of timber for his newspaper operations, was angry at the seizure of 800,000 acres of prime Mexican timberland by Pancho Villa’s army. Hearst engaged his newspaper resources to paint the image of the lazy, marijuana smoking Mexican, later extending the unflattering imagery to Negroes. For two decades, the public was exposed to sensationalist journalism that called marijuana "the devil’s weed" and "assassin of youth", attributing to the plant an array of violent crimes as well as flaunting of white authority. Up until that time, the Northern Mexican colloquialism, marijuana, was not in common use. "Hemp" for industrial use, "cannabis" for medicinal use. After years of printing stories about "marijuana", the distinction between the two as well as the benefits of each had been effectively erased in the public’s mind.
The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the 1930’s was Andrew Mellon. Mellon, the owner of Mellon bank, happened to be the banker to DuPont Corporation, a company considered, even then, to be a prime client. In 1931, Andrew Mellon appointed Harry Anslinger, who would later marry Mellon’s niece, to head the newly reorganized Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs or FBN (later evolving into the Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA).
Anslinger, once Assistant U.S. Commissioner on Prohibition, spent two years in secret drafting "Marijuana Tax Act", a bill that sought to establish prohibition through taxation. The bill, which made no distinction between hemp and cannabis, referring only to "marijuana", would not ban hemp or cannabis outright, but instead seek to prohibit its production by levying a tax on producers, distributors and manufacturers.
In 1937, the bill was submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee —the only committee that can send bills to the House floor without being subject to debate by other committees such as food and drug, agriculture, textiles, etc. The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee at the time was Robert L. Doughton, a DuPont ally.
The federal testimony entered into record by Anslinger and the FBN was based primarily on the same press clippings from the sensationalist journalism promulgated by Hearst’s newspapers. Opposition from the American Medical Association, the National Oil Seed Institute and various hemp producers came too late because the bill had been prepared in secret.
DuPont’s 1937 Annual Report urged continued investment in new, but not yet accepted petrochemical products. The report anticipated "radical changes" from the "revenue raising power of government…converted into an instrument for forcing acceptance of sudden new ideas of industrial and social reorganization", an allusion to using taxation as a tool to influence social and industrial policy.
Q. Is it true that U.S. farmers were encouraged to grow hemp in World War II after hemp had been prohibited in 1937?
A. Interestingly enough, in 1942 the U.S. Government did a complete reversal of policy when the Japanese took over the U.S. hemp supply in the Phillipines. Uncle Sam produced a movie called "Hemp for Victory" which instructed the farmer how to grow and harvest hemp (including how to become certified as a "Producer of Marihuana") and played on patriotic sentiments. After the war, the program was eliminated and never discussed again.
Q. What other countries grow hemp?
A. Hemp is grown today in 31 different countries. Almost every major industrialized nation permits hemp farming: Canada, Britain, France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, South Africa, to name a few. In Eastern Europe, former Soviet Union and China, they never stopped growing hemp. These countries produce the supply of hemp imported into the U.S.
Q. Do those countries have laws against marijuana?
A. Yes. All the aforementioned countries make a distinction between hemp and marijuana. They have not experienced problems with enforcement due to hemp cultivation.
Q. Why don’t we simply make the same distinction in the U.S.?
A. Because our state and local law enforcement agencies have lobbied the Office of National Drug Control Policy with complaints that they would have too much trouble distinguishing the fields of hemp from the fields of marijuana. Also, perhaps, because these same law enforcement agencies receive $9,000,000 in federal funds to eradicate marijuana under the Cannabis Eradication Program. According to the government’s own records, the Cannabis Eradication Program is ineffective in eradicating marijuana: 95 to 98 percent of what is destroyed is low THC "feral" or wild hemp.
Q. Could a marijuana grower disguise his crop by planting in a hemp field?
A. No. Any marijuana grower knows that the hemp would cross-pollinate with the marijuana plant and the marijuana’s street value would be severely diminished. In fact, hemp pollen is so airborne that it would be unwise to plant marijuana within many miles of a hemp field. Also, since hemp stalks are grown close together to maximize fiber and seed production and marijuana stalks grow two feet apart to maximize flowers, any marijuana plant would be crushed or suffocated by the hemp leaf cover.
Q. Can hemp be used in medicine?
A. Hemp oil contains many healing and regenerative properties and may be eaten or applied topically to restore vital organs as well as heal various skin conditions. The essential fatty acids in hemp oil are critical in warding off various age related diseases. The therapeutic uses of hemp oil should not be confused with the therapeutic uses of medical marijuana. Currently, marijuana for medical purposes such as treatment or relief for asthma, glaucoma, nausea, anorexia, tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclorosis, muscular dystrophy, migraines, etc. is now legal in seven U.S. States, deepening the absurdity of laws that prohibit growing hemp seed for oil in those same states.
Q. Can hemp really save the world?
A. Nature has provided tools to enable us to live better. We must shift our perspective, change our industrial processes, alter our consumption habits and learn to live sustainably. Hemp can help effect this change better than any other renewable resource. Judging by history, dramatic shifts in thinking have been rare or unsuccessful. At the dawn of the third millenium, the stakes could not get much higher; the survival of the human race and our way of life as we know it. Only if we get the facts and act on our knowledge can nature help humans save ourselves from ourselves.
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