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I thought this interesting, a history lesson I never heard about,   Tricia

 "Why Hemp Became Illegal, and Remains So"

Hemp is very much a danger
to the oil companies, alcohol, tobacco industries and
a large number of chemical corporations. Various big
businesses, with plenty of dollars and influence, have
suppressed the truth from the people.

The truth is if hemp was utilized for its vast
array of commercial products, it would create an
industrial atomic bomb! Entrepreneurs have not been
educated on the product potential of hemp. The super
rich have conspired to spread misinformation about an
extremely versatile plant that, if used properly,
would ruin their companies.

Where did the word 'marijuana' come from? In the mid
1930s, the M-word was created to tarnish the good
image and phenomenal history of the hemp plant...as
you will read. The facts cited here, with references,
are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia
Britannica which was printed on hemp paper for 150
years:

* All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper
until the 1880s; Hemp Paper Reconsidered, Jack
Frazier, 1974.

* It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from
1631 until the early 1800s; LA Times, Aug. 12, 1981.

* REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th and
18th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You could be
jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763
to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon.

"I grew Hemp", George Washington

* George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other
founding fathers GREW HEMP; Washington and Jefferson
Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to
France then to America.

* Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills
in America and it processed hemp. Also, the War of
1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off
Moscow's export to England; Emperor Wears No Clothes,
Jack Herer.

* For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and
rope were made from hemp. The word 'canvas' is Dutch
for cannabis; Webster's New World Dictionary.

* 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen,
drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the
1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.

* The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag,
the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S.
Government Archives.

* The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850
was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons.
Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th Century;
State Archives.

* Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000
years in China, although hemp industrialization
probably goes back to ancient Egypt.

* Rembrants, Gainsboroughs, Van Goghs as well as most
early canvas paintings were principally painted on
hemp linen.

* In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the
1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more
trees need to be cut down. Government studies report
that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans
were in the works to implement such programs;
Department of Agriculture

* Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp
seed oil until 1937. 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were
used in America for paint products in 1935; Sherman
Williams Paint Co. testimony before Congress against
the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.

* Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp
gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONTRUCTED FROM HEMP!
On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his
hemp fields. The car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp
plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times
stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.

* Hemp called 'Billion Dollar Crop.' It was the first
time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a
billion dollars; Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938.

* Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938)
published an article entitled 'The Most Profitable and
Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.' It stated that if
hemp was cultivated using 20th Century technology, it
would be the single largest agricultural crop in the
U.S. and the rest of the world.

The following information comes directly from the
United States Department of Agriculture's 1942
14-minute film encouraging and instructing 'patriotic
American farmers' to grow 350,000 acres of hemp each
year for the war effort:

'...(When) Grecian temples were new, hemp was already
old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years,
even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and
cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For
centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that
sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope
and sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman,
hemp was indispensable...

...Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp
in the hands of the Japanese...American hemp must meet
the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our
industries...

...the Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is
gone, American hemp will go on duty again; hemp for
mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and
gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and
shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed
the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen
sails. Hemp for victory!'

Certified proof from the Library of Congress; found by
the research of Jack Herer, refuting claims of other
government agencies that the 1942 USDA film 'Hemp for
Victory' did not exist.

Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the
environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that
Hemp produces 4 times as much pulp with at least 4
to 7 times less pollution. From Popular Mechanics,
Feb. 1938:

'It has a short growing season...It can be grown in
any state...The long roots penetrate and break the
soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next
year's crop. The dense shock of leaves, 8 to 12 feet
above the ground, chokes out weeds.
...hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to
American agriculture and industry.'

In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have
caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp.
This single resource could have created millions of
new jobs generating thousands of quality products.
Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought America
out of the Great Depression.

William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst
Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned
vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company
supplied most paper products. Patty Hearst's
grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own
personal profit, stood to lose billions because of
hemp.

In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make
plastics from oil and coal. Dupont's Annual Report
urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical
division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane,
celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could
now be made from oil. Natural hemp industrialization
would have ruined over 80% of Dupont's business.


THE CONSPIRACY

Andrew Mellon became Hoover's Secretary of the
Treasury and Dupont's primary investor. He appointed
his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to head
the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons.
Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their
billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to
remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took an
obscure Mexican slang word: 'marihuana' and pushed it
into the consciousness of America.

MEDIA MANIPULATION

A media blitz of 'yellow journalism' raged in the late
1920s and 1930s. Hearst's newspapers ran stories
emphasizing the horrors of marihuana. The menace of
marihuana made headlines. Readers learned that it was
responsible for everything from car accidents to loose
morality.

Films like 'Reefer Madness' (1936), 'Marihuana:
Assassin of Youth' (1935) and 'Marihuana: The Devil's
Weed' (1936) were propaganda designed by these
industrialists to create an enemy. Their purpose was
to gain public support so that anti-marihuana laws
could be passed.

Examine the following quotes from 'The Burning
Question' aka REEFER MADNESS:

*

a violent narcotic.
*

acts of shocking violence.
*

incurable insanity.
*

soul-destroying effects.
*

under the influence of the drug he killed his
entire family with an ax.
*

more vicious, more deadly even than these
soul-destroying drugs (heroin, cocaine) is the menace
of marihuana!

Reefer Madness did not end with the usual 'the end.'
The film concluded with these words plastered on the
screen: TELL YOUR CHILDREN.

In the 1930s, people were very naïve, even to the
point of ignorance. The masses were like sheep waiting
to be led by the few in power. They did not challenge
authority. If the news was in print or on the radio,
they believed it had to be true. They told their
children and their children grew up to be the parents
of the baby-boomers.

On April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law
or the bill that outlawed hemp was directly brought to
the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee is
the only one that can introduce a bill to the House
floor without it being debated by other committees.
The Chairman of the Ways and Means, Robert Doughton,
was a Dupont supporter. He insured that the bill would
pass Congress.

Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney,
testified too late on behalf of the American Medical
Association. He told the committee that the reason the
AMA had not denounced the Marihuana Tax Law sooner was
that the Association had just discovered that
marihuana was hemp.

Few people, at the time, realized that the deadly
menace they had been reading about on Hearst's front
pages was in fact passive hemp. The AMA understood
cannabis to be a MEDICINE found in numerous healing
products sold over the last hundred years.

In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most
useful crop known became a drug and our planet has
been suffering ever since.

Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the
most violence-causing drug known. Anslinger, head of
the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea
that marihuana made users act extremely violent. In
the 1950s, under the Communist threat of McCarthyism,
Anslinger now said the exact opposite. Marijuana will
pacify you so much that soldiers would not want to
fight.

Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is
suffocating as large tracts of rain forests disappear.
Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing people.
These great problems could be reversed if we
industrialized hemp. Natural biomass could provide all
of the planet's energy needs that are currently
supplied by fossil fuels. We have consumed 80% of our
oil and gas reserves. We need a renewable resource.
Hemp could be the solution to soaring gas prices.


Hemp

THE WONDER PLANT

Hemp has a higher quality fiber than wood fiber. Far
fewer caustic chemicals are required to make paper
from hemp than from trees. Hemp paper does not turn
yellow and is very durable. The plant grows quickly to
maturity in a season where trees take a lifetime.

ALL PLASTIC PRODUCTS SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP SEED
OIL. Hempen plastics are biodegradable! Over time,
they would break down and not harm the environment.
Oil-based plastics, the ones we are very familiar
with, help ruin nature; they do not break down and
will do great harm in the future. The process to
produce the vast array of natural (hempen) plastics
will not ruin the rivers as Dupont and other
petrochemical companies have done. Ecology does not
fit in with the plans of the Oil Industry and the
political machine. Hemp products are safe and natural.

MEDICINES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. We should go back
to the days when the AMA supported cannabis cures.
'Medical Marijuana' is given out legally to only a
handful of people while the rest of us are forced into
a system that relies on chemicals. Pot is only healthy
for the human body.

WORLD HUNGER COULD END. A large variety of food
products can be generated from hemp. The seeds contain
one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO:
They have two essential fatty acids that clean your
body of cholesterol. These essential fatty acids are
not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming pot seeds
is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat
uncooked hemp seeds.

CLOTHES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. Hemp clothing is
extremely strong and durable over time. You could hand
clothing, made from pot, down to your grandchildren.
Today, there are American companies that make hemp
clothing; usually 50% hemp. Hemp fabrics should be
everywhere. Instead, they are almost underground.
Superior hemp products are not allowed to advertise on
fascist television. Kentucky, once the top hemp
producing state, made it ILLEGAL TO WEAR hemp
clothing! Can you imagine being thrown into jail for
wearing quality jeans?

The world is crazy...but that does not mean you have
to join the insanity. Get together. Spread the news.
Tell people, and that includes your children, the
truth. Use hemp products. Eliminate the word
'marijuana.' Realize the history that created it. Make
it politically incorrect to say or print the M-word.
Fight against the propaganda (designed to favor the
agenda of the super rich) and the bullshit. Hemp must
be utilized in the future. We need a clean energy
source to save our planet. INDUSTRIALIZE HEMP!

The liquor, tobacco and oil companies fund more than a
million dollars a day to Partnership for a Drug-Free
America and other similar agencies. We have all seen
their commercials. Now, their motto is: ‘It's more
dangerous than we thought.’ Lies from the powerful
corporations, that began with Hearst, are still alive
and well today.

The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say:
If you buy a joint, you contribute to murders and gang
wars. The latest anti-pot commercials say: If you buy
a joint...you are promoting TERRORISM! The new enemy
(terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash you any
way THEY see fit.

There is only one enemy; the friendly people you pay
your taxes to; the war-makers and nature destroyers.
With your funding, they are killing the world right in
front of your eyes. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR
ARE CAUSED BY TOBACCO. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR
ARE CAUSED BY ALCOHOL. NO ONE HAS EVER, EVER DIED FROM
SMOKING POT!! In the entire history of the human race,
not one death can be attributed to cannabis. Our
society has outlawed grass but condones the use of the
KILLERS: TOBACCO and ALCOHOL. Hemp should be
declassified and placed in DRUG stores to relieve
stress. Hardening and constriction of the arteries are
bad; but hemp usage actually enlarges the
arteries...which is a healthy condition. We have been
so conditioned to think that: Smoking is harmful. That
is NOT the case for passive pot.

Thanks, Tricia

Pine Ridge Farmer Struggles to Grow Hemp

A

AP Photo/Chet Brokaw -- Alex White Plume sat on the back steps of his house near Manderson, S.D., June 26, near some hemp plants that grew from seeds knocked off plants confiscated by federal drug agents. White Plume sought to grow hemp, a cousin of marijuana with only a trace of marijuana's drug, on his ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

 By Chet Brokaw -- Associated Press

MANDERSON, S.D. (AP) - Alex White Plume hoped his extended family could make a good living growing hemp when he first planted seeds on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwest South Dakota, but years of fighting with federal drug officials have left him in financial trouble.

The White Plume family planted hemp for three years from 2000 through 2002, but they never harvested a crop. Federal agents conducted raids and cut down the plants each year because U.S. law considers hemp, a cousin of marijuana, to be a drug even though it contains only a trace of the drug in marijuana.

''We had all these plans of grandeur and independence, to lead the way with industrial hemp,'' White Plume said. ''None of it worked out.''

White Plume plans to sell much of his ranching operation this fall. He said he probably can keep his house and at least some of his buffalo that graze among the pine-dotted ridges that give the reservation its name. His horses, a truck with license plates reading ''HEMP'' and other equipment likely will be sold to pay off some of his debts.

But even though White Plume, a former Oglala Sioux Tribe vice president, lost a court case last year, he is ready to resume the cultivation of hemp if the federal government ever allows it. The plant could help boost the economy of the OST's poverty-stricken reservation, where unemployment is estimated to be as high as 85 percent, he said.

''I could never climb back up to where I was, but I still believe in hemp, so we're going to continue to struggle,'' White Plume said.

The family's attempt to grow hemp, which is used to make rope, oils, skin lotion, cloth and a variety of other products, is featured in a ''Point of View'' documentary that aired July 3 on Public Broadcasting Service stations nationwide. The film started as a look at hemp growing, but it grew to include a look at Indian treaties and the Lakota culture and tradition, according to filmmakers Suree Towfighnia and Courtney Hermann.

An important part of the story, filmed periodically over a five-year period, deals with the emphasis on extended family among the Lakota, Towfighnia said during a recent visit to White Plume's home.

White Plume said he used to run a successful trail ride business that faltered after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because fewer European tourists visited the United States.

He said he became interested in growing hemp in 1998 after seeing country star Willie Nelson promote it. The OST also passed a measure legalizing the growing of hemp on the reservation.

The tribal law should have been enough to allow hemp farming because of the sovereignty granted to the Lakota by treaties, White Plume said.

White Plume planted hemp on his land in 2000, planning to make money by selling the seed to others, but U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents cut down his plants a few days before he intended to harvest them. The DEA also seized similar plantings by his brother and sister in the next two years.

''All that left us in debt and demoralized, trying to figure out what to do because our sovereignty was directly attacked,'' White Plume said.

But he laughs when he talks about the hemp plants that still grow on his land, even right outside the back door of his house. The plants spread from seeds knocked off during the DEA raid, he said.

White Plume never was charged with a crime, but the DEA sued him and got a court order to bar him from growing hemp. He argued that the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 gave the Sioux the right to grow hemp.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled against White Plume, saying the treaty did not give tribal members the right to grow the plant. Hemp is also subject to federal drug laws, which require a DEA permit to grow the plant in both its marijuana and hemp forms, the appeals judges said.

''We are not unmindful of the challenges faced by members of the Tribe to engage in sustainable farming on federal trust lands. It may be that the growing of hemp for industrial uses is the most viable agricultural commodity for that region,'' the appeals judges wrote.

The appeals court also noted that hemp is used to make many useful products, and the DEA registration process imposes a burden on anyone seeking to grow hemp legally.

''But these are policy arguments better suited for the congressional hearing room than the courtroom,'' the appeals judges wrote.

White Plume's lawyer, Bruce Ellison of Rapid City, said courts have consistently declined to give much consideration to Indian treaties. And the hemp law should be struck down because it is not rational, he said.

''The only argument against it is fears based upon misleading information or misinformation that it can somehow be used as a drug or to hide drugs or something like that, which it can't,'' Ellison said.

Those who oppose legalizing hemp have argued that law officers could have difficulty determining whether plants are drug-laden marijuana or hemp that has only a trace of the drug.

The best hopes for the White Plume family and other farmers who want to grow hemp are measures in Congress and North Dakota's effort to get the DEA to issue licenses for the production of hemp, Ellison said.

White Plume said he and his family have gone through some tough times, particularly when they were uncertain whether federal officials would charge them with drug crimes for growing hemp.

White Plume now intends to spend time working on environmental protection and treaty issues, such as an effort to regain the Black Hills that were taken from the Lakota more than 125 years ago.

And if farmers ever are allowed to grow hemp, he's ready to plant another crop.

''We didn't give up our struggle. We still want to grow hemp and we still got all our plans in shape,'' White Plume said.

''It's not a drug plant,'' he said.                Source, Indian Country Today.

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