My Soapbox

Based on my reading:
Many of people's attitudes are based on preconceptions about Cannabis that are grossly inaccurate. The majority of this misinformation comes straight from the Federal Government. Think about it. The Federal Government takes the tobacco companies to court, proving they have purposefully engineered a harmful product with an amazingly addictive substance. This product KILLS an estimated 3 MILLION people a year worldwide. Yet at the same time the Federal Government subsidizes the tobacco industry instead of allowing tobacco farmers to grow industrial hemp.
What I'm trying to illustrate is that as much as we would like to think government always makes sound, scientific decisions, that is definitely not the case with regards to

Cannabis. The Federal Government does not even make a distinction between the two "versions" of Cannabis, marijuana the plant with both medicinal and psychoactive properties and industrial hemp with no psychoactive properties. Yes, industrial hemp does contain detectable amounts of THC but you would probably pass out from smoke inhalation before you got "high". The NORML Foundation is trying to get the truth out there.
Pharmacologically speaking, marijuana is less addictive then Caffeine yet it is scheduled as one of the most addictive substances and listed as having no medical use which is a bald face lie. Search the internet for medical marijuana or look at it right from Norml's site. The Government has vehemently refused to even hear evidence as to why it's position as a schedule 1 drug

should be changed. Never mind that the "legal" version of THC prescribed under the brand name Marinol has been moved from a schedule 1 drug to a schedule 3 drug, meaning less "dangerous". Making it easier for doctors to prescribe the expensive and side effect laden (but patented) Marinol and keeping the natural source illegal even though Cannabis has less side effects and is easer for patients to find the dose that works for them.
If you are interested in more facts about marijuana and how marijuana prohibition started check out the book Why Marijuana Should Be Legal by Ed Rosenthal and Steve Kubby. This is available at most bookstores and has an invaluable reference list chapter by chapter.

Welcome to my Soapbox of Marijuana Law Reform.

Wait!

Before you tune me out at least read the next two paragraphs. After all, you were curious enough to come here so you may as well read for 30 seconds.

Odd as it may seem, tobacco got me interested in marijuana law reform. It struck me as odd that the Federal Government charged, prosecuted, and won a landmark lawsuit against the tobacco industry while at the same time continuing more then 70 years of subsidizing that very same industry.

I couldn't figure out why the government would say that tobacco products are deadly and addictive while at the same time

supporting the tobacco industry's product. Why didn't the government help farmer's transition to another crop that could be more useful such as industrial hemp? It turns out that while the U.S. State Department recognizes the differences between industrial hemp and pot while negotiating treaties with other countries, the rest of the U.S. Government does not allow the distinction between the plant that gets people high and the plant that produces raw material for thousands of products.

Do I have your attention now?

Unfortunately, the plant that gets people high and the plant that has a thousand and one uses are, technically speaking, the same plant Cannabis Sativa. Enter good old-fashioned genetic engineering, the selective breeding of plants for certain properties. It's my guess that the varieties currently used for

pot were bred for medicines while the varieties we use for hemp were bred for fiber, seeds and oil production. Both varieties are still technically the same plant, which is why the Federal Government makes it almost impossible to grow industrial hemp in the United States.

As an up and coming business owner and human being I feel I should give back something to the community. It doesn't have to be much, but what ever it is I would like to maximize the bang for my buck so I looked around and thought that if we as a nation dumped less pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers into the environment while growing something to replace tobacco for the cigarette companies we could kill two birds with one stone. The more I learned about industrial hemp the more I liked it so I chose to donate a portion of my sales to NORML.

Why I donate to NORML

First, I give to the NORML Foundation, they are tax deductible. Hey, I'm honest.

Second, it's a way to support a group of people that are doing something that I feel is very important for many different reasons. Reforming current marijuana laws has many possible positive affects. We spend nearly 3 times as much money locking up a non-violent pot smoker as we spend educating our children. It is absolutely horrible that incarcerating non-violent people is a higher priority then educating the children of this country.

Industrial hemp production can help save one of America's fastest disappearing icons,

small family owned farms. You can not hide "Pot" in a field of industrial hemp.
You can not get "high" off of industrial hemp. The United States is the only industrial nation that currently outlaws the farming of industrial hemp. A crop that does not need herbacides or pesticides and can leave a field in better condition for the next rotated crop.

Our Federal Government would rather waste money preventing terminally ill patients from getting their medical marijuana (made legal by the voters of various states) then promote research into how and why the plant's chemicals work better and have less negative side effects then many of our current medicines. The NORML Foundation is working to change those things.

Taken from their web site at norml.org:

The NORML Foundation sponsors public advertising campaigns designed to inform the public about the costs of marijuana prohibition and the benefits of alternative policies; distributes a weekly press release to the national media and citizen activists focusing on recent developments pertaining to marijuana research and policy; publishes a regular newsletter; provides legal assistance and support to victims of the current marijuana laws; undertakes relevant research; and hosts, with NORML, an informative web site and an annual conference.

	Here are some hemp facts from the North American Industrial Hemp Council or NAIHC. They can be found at naihc.org: HISTORY FACTS Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food. It has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. When US sources of "Manila hemp" (not true hemp) was cut off by the Japanese in WWII, the US Army and US Department of Agriculture promoted the "hemp for Victory" campaign to grow hemp in the US. Because of its importance for sails (the word "canvass" is rooted in "cannabis") and rope for ships, hemp was a required crop in the American colonies. INDUSTRY FACTS Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products. BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable. Much of the bird seed sold in the US has hemp seed (it's sterilized before importation), the hulls of which contain about 25% protein. Hemp oil once lubricated machines. Most paints, resins, shellacs, and varnishes used to be made out of linseed (from flax) and hemp oils. Rudolph Diesel, creator of the diesel engine, designed his engine to run on hemp oil. Kimberly Clark (on the Fortune 500) has a mill in France which produces hemp paper preferred for bibles because it lasts a very long time and doesn't yellow. Construction products such as medium density fiber board, oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts could be made out of hemp. Because of hemp's long fibers, the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood. The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000. SCIENTIFIC FACTS Industrial hemp and marijuana are both classified by taxonomists as Cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of varieties. C. sativa is a member of the mulberry family. industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while marijuana varieties seek to maximize THC (delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana). While industrial hemp and marijuana may look somewhat alike to an untrained eye, an easily trained eye can easily distinguish the difference. Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time. The large volume and high temperature of vapor, gas and smoke would be almost impossible for a person to withstand. If hemp does pollinate any nearby marijuana, genetically, the result will always be lower-THC marijuana, not higher-THC hemp. If hemp is grown outdoors, marijuana will not be grown close by to avoid producing lower-grade marijuana. Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more absorbent and more mildew-resistant than cotton. Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block the sun's UV rays more effectively than other fabrics. Many of the varieties of hemp that were grown in North America have been lost. Seed banks weren't maintained. New genetic breeding will be necessary using both foreign and domestic "ditch weed," strains of hemp that went feral after cultivation ended. Various state national guard units often spend their weekends trying to eradicate this hemp, in the mistaken belief they are helping stop drug use. A 1938 Popular Mechanics described hemp as a "New Billion Dollar Crop." That's back when a billion was real money. *Hemp can be made in to a variety of fabrics, including linen quality.
			LEGAL FACTS The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa varieties as "marijuana." While it is theoretically possible to get permission from the government to grow hemp, DEA would require that the field be secured by fence, razor wire, dogs, guards, and lights, making it cost-prohibitive. The US State Department must certify each year that a foreign nation is cooperating in the war on drugs. The European Union subsidizes its farmers to grow industrial hemp. Those nations are not on this list, because the State Department can tell the difference between hemp and marijuana. Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp. While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana, as it's successor the US Drug Enforcement Administration, does to this day. Over 30 industrialized democracies do distinguish hemp from marijuana. International treaties regarding marijuana make an exception for industrial hemp. Canada now again allows the growing of hemp. ECOLOGICAL FACTS Hemp growers can not hide marijuana plants in their fields. marijuana is grown widely spaced to maximize leaves. hemp is grown in tightly-spaced rows to maximize stalk and is usually harvested before it goes to seed. Hemp can be made into fine quality paper. The long fibers in hemp allow such paper to be recycled several times more than wood-based paper. Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dioxide is possible with hemp fibers. Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop. Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton. Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values. Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield. HEALTH FACTS If one tried to ingest enough industrial hemp to get 'a buzz', it would be the equivalent of taking 2-3 doses of a high-fiber laxative. At a volume level of 81%, hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the "good" fats). It's quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother's milk. *While the original "gruel" was made of hemp seed meal, hemp oil and seed can be made into tasty and nutritional products. Prepared by the North American Industrial Hemp Council, October 1997 Our Federal Government spends approximately 40 BILLION a year fighting a loosing battle, mostly against Cannabis- marijuana AND industrial hemp. We spend more on housing a prisoner per year (about $24,500) then we do on educating a child per year (about $8,600). Why do we house a nonviolent pot smoker and let violent bad-guys out? Why are we doing this? Better question: Why do we allow this to happen?

We have better ways to spend our limited resources, better ways to keep children safe, better ways to reduce our dependency on foriegn oil and better ways to utilize our natural resources.
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As a friend of mine likes to say, "Legalize, regulate, educate and medicate."

These numbers are approximately 4 years old. Hopefully I'll get time to update them to the most current numbers soon.

Thanks for reading.

I'll get off my soapbox now.