HEMP should be reconsidered for industrial purposes! People need to educate themselves, and research hemp effectively as to not dismiss it because of political myths.


Industrial hemp contains less than 1% of THC the psychoactive component of marijuana. Trying to get high on industrial hemp is akin to trying to get drunk on non alcohol beer.
Hemp is the world's strongest natural fiber. It has been used to make cloth and rope for over 10,000 years. Hemp was the first crop ever cultivated for textile production.
Hemp cloth is stronger, longer lasting, more resistant to mildew, and cheaper to produce than cloth made of cotton. Hemp ropes are known for their strength and durability. The original Levi Strauss jeans were made from a hempen canvas. Even Old Glory was made from hemp fiber. A 44 gun frigate like “Old Ironsides” took over 60 tons of hemp for rigging, including an anchor cable 25 inches in circumference.
Hemp can be used to make virtually anything that is currently made of cotton, timber, or petroleum. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. Until 1883, more than 75% of the world's paper was made with hemp fiber.
In 1937 Popular Science magazine called hemp "The New Billion Dollar Crop."
Then the big money people struck out to protect their interests. Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst led the crusade to ban hemp. Hearst owned millions of acres of prime timber land and a machine that simplified the process of making paper from hemp had just been invented. Hearst used his power as a publisher to create public panic about the evils of hemp and marijuana. Another big money player Pierre DuPont held patent rights to the sulfuric acid wood pulp paper process. In 1937 DuPont patented nylon rope made from synthetic petrochemicals. Along with Duponts backer Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon the big money people prevailed and near the end of 1937 Congress passed the marijuana Tax Act. By placing a prohibitively high tax on hemp production it destroyed the industry. This was done to protect these big money interests of the timber, petrochemical, and cotton industries. Hemp was briefly re-legalized during W.W.II. The U.S. government produced the movie Hemp for Victory to encourage farmers to grow hemp. Even 4H clubs were asked to grow hemp to help their country in wartime. The parachute that saved George Bush's life in World War II was made of hemp fiber.
Henry Ford dreamed that someday automobiles would be grown from the soil. In 1941 the Ford motor company produced an experimental automobile with a plastic body composed of 70% cellulose fibers from hemp. The car body could absorb blows 10 times as great as steel without denting. The car was designed to run on hemp fuel. Because of the ban on both hemp and alcohol the car was never mass produced.
Industrial hemp can replace cotton. Cotton is typically grown with large amounts of chemicals that are harmful to people, wildlife and the entire environment. Close to 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton. Hemp grows well in a wide variety of climates and soils. It requires far less fertilizer and pesticides than most commercial crops.
All parts of the hemp plant are useful. Hemp can be used to produce everything from fuel to soap. The oil from hemp seeds has the highest percentage of essential fatty acids and the lowest percentage of saturated fats.
Industrial hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield. It can replace wood fiber and help save our forests. Trees take approximately 20 years to mature - hemp takes 4 months. Paper made from hemp lasts for centuries, compared to 25-80 years for paper made from wood pulp.
Hemp is the perfect source for fuel. It produces more biomass than any other plant. If we had to pay at the pump for all the military costs to keep the oil flowing clean burning alcohol fuel produced from hemp would be a bargain.
Today industrial hemp is cultivated in Canada, China, Russia, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, England, Poland and many other Eastern European countries.
We at Shirt Magic support the re-legalization of industrial hemp farming in the United States and the rest of the world...

Peace & Love

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I open my eyes, each morning I rise
to find the truth I know that is there.
I'm lucky to breathe, I'm lucky to feel,
I'm glad to wake up, I'm glad to be here.
With all of this world, and all of it's pain,
all of it's lies, and all of its let downs...
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I know it won't change
But, we need some understanding,
I know we'll be alright...

Hemp is illegal because it threatens entrenched businesses. It's also illegal because the DEA says so...goes all the way back to that bastard Harry Anslinger etc.

There is no logical reasoning, only force, extortion and control. Nobody in ths country is free until victmless "crimes"
cease to be a source of revenue and a jobs program for thugs.

Ever notice that hemp is only Illegal to cultivate? Its legal to own, legal to import, but you just can't grow any.

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It is far easier to ignorantly control others than it is to wisely control yourself.

hemp is illegal to cultivate because it would be to easy to hide marijuana in a hemp field, therefore it will probly never be relegalized unless marijuna is. the dea/police/whoever do not have the resources to go around and check what would be thousands of hemp plants to tell if they are high in thc nd actually marijuana or not.

Nobody is going to plant a crop of marijuana in a hemp field.

The hemp will pollinate the other plants and basically ruin the whole crop. Not to mention that the two are strikingly different in appearance, and hemp is typically planted so close together that there isn't any ROOM for marijuana, even if some dumbass wanted to plant some there.

The only reason hemp is still illegal to grow is because our drug scheduling laws don't differentiate between cannabis grown for smoking and cannabis grown for industrial hemp.

Why don't they differentiate? Well, kind of the whole reason it's illegal in the first place. Too much competition for "big textile".

EDIT: attached pics to show the difference.

First pic is industrial hemp field

Second pic is cannabis grown for recreational use.

Attached Images

	hemp-cult.jpg (33.5 KB, 9 views)
	cannabis_field1.jpg (130.8 KB, 8 views)

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