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Why not also end federal prohibition of a crop with a byproduct ("hurds") containing more than seventy-seven percent cellulose. It also chokes out weeds and can be grown on marginal land.

The same substance that did it all before. Low carbon footprint too.

http://www.jackherer.com/thebo...

Ships & Sailors, Textiles & Fabrics, Fiber & Pulp Paper, Rope, Twine & Cordage, Art Canvas, Paints & Varnishes, Lighting Oil, Biomass Energy, Medicine, Food Oils & Protein, Building Materials & Housing, Smoking, Leisure & Creativity.

Not sure what planet your from, but nothing is banned.

So you agree with what I said, then ask me what planet I'm from. How many bowls have you smoked today?

They purposely made it seem that it was marijuana they were trying to get contolled, when it was actually hemp they wanted out of the picture.

lol. Yeah. And Larry Silverstein blew up the world trade center. Have another joint!

You an find all the info, include actual copies of official documents on how this happened here: http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/ [jackherer.com]

Sorry, don't have time to flip through another pothead conspiracy-theory book. Feel free to paste some excerpts.

Oh, and i like to point out, yes, it was Dupont.

[citation needed]

(no, not another pothead site. if you can't at least get wikipedia on your side, you should give up.)

The material they banned was industrial hemp.

Technically, no. Your pothead buddy claimed that DuPont got hemp banned - a favorite lie of hippies and other assorted idiots. Also, industrial hemp isn't technically banned, even in the US - you can get a permit to grow it (it's just really hard to get one).

They made it illegal to grow it under the guise of going after marijuana. Even though you could set an entire field of industrial hemp on fire and not get high they still managed to get it and marijuana covered under the same law and banned.

That's a bit of a red-herring. Nobody ever suggested you could smoke hemp - the issue was that hemp fields made the ideal hiding spot for pot cultivation. Right now they get hidden in corn-fields and such, but tend to be relatively easy to spot from the air; you could grow millions of dollars worth of marijuana in a hemp field, and nobody would know unless they did a detailed ground-level inspection.

Note that I'm generally in favor of legalizing marijuana - I'm just apposed to lies and distortions.

Not sure what planet your from, but nothing is banned.

It's a controlled substance, hence you can get a license to grow it. Industrial hemp, or medicial marijuana. I repeat for you, a non stoner, who don't know exactly what you are talking about, NOTHING GOT BANNED.

When they got "industrial hemp" and "medical marijuana" changed into a controlled substance, they (being the corporation who just got the chemical formula's from germany, as part of WWI reparitians.), because plastic would NOT compete with the low cost and usuablility of hemp at the time. They purposely made it seem that it was marijuana they were trying to get contolled, when it was actually hemp they wanted out of the picture.

You an find all the info, include actual copies of official documents on how this happened here: http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/

Here's online hosting of the book: http://www.onlinepot.org/grow/jackherer.htm

I have nothing to do with those sites or the book. I'm just an american who's tired of the lies and bullshit. And corporation being treated like they are the rich, since they rarely, and i mean, rarely get in trouble for the shit they do.

Oh, and i like to point out, yes, it was Dupont. So those hippies and other idiots who you think lie (probably because they are stoners), aren't. In fact, your the idiot now, but then, we knew that from your post. thanks for letting me share the real story.

LOL. You are one paranoid fruitcake. Your rant proves my point about drugs (and their users). How about you read this (obviously misinformation planted by the Greys out of Area 51, ha!):

Before you embarrass yourself further with rumors, opinions and urban legends I would suggest that you read a copy of the excellent book The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer. The link is to the online version but it's worth getting the hard copy. This way you will be much more prepared at your next prohibition debate and maybe you just might learn something!

I don't consider any of the reasons you provided as "rational". "We can't control it, we can't tell if your on it when your driving" are not good reasons to me. If a cop can't tell that you are impaired by giving you a field sobriety test then the any thought of arrest should end right there. The reason a cop can tell a raving drunk but has difficulty determining if "smiley" is high is because alcohol significantly impairs your physical coordination while marijuana does not. I don't recommend driving while intoxicated on anything but I would much rather take my chances with people who are "baked as hell" and driving then people who slam 6-10 drinks in a bar and then get behind the wheel.

I have four children; I'm much more worried about them out drinking with people then smoking. Hell, I'm more worried about them smoking tobacco then I am about them smoking marijuana.

Not to stereotype you but I would have thought a guy with a /. handle of Garcia (not to mention the low id) that runs a website called Lazy Lighting would be a little more enlightened on the relative dangers between alcohol and marijuana. Screw the "we can't keep teh childrenz from smoking" rhetoric, the only real reason they have is the trillions you mentioned at the end of your post. America needs to wake up and realize that the emperor wears no clothes.

Some links to back up your claims:

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/1775.html

Look at the bottom for some links to studies of driving while under the influence of cannabis.

And with regard to cannabis being outlawed due to its' ability to replace not just paper but also cotton; this started in 1924 at the Opiates Conference in Geneva, where the Egyptians managed to get it on a list of dangerous drugs since it threatened its' cotton exports. In the USA this only got really going shortly after the machine described in this 1938 article in Popular Mechanics was invented:

http://www.jackherer.com/popmech.html

It's all so very very sad. Due to this, cotton is still our major source of textile while hemp, which feels like silk, is so much better. 50% of all pesticides used worldwide are used in growing cotton while hemp needs none. And have you ever seen a bible from the middle ages? Ever wondered why the paper still looks so very nice? It's hemp paper. It lasts a zillion times longer than the woodpulp-paper we use nowadays.

The world has gone mad; we've outlawed a plant that could replace cotton for textile and woodpulp for paper at the same time and then we haven't even started using it's seeds yet; they make GREAT bread (at my local mill it's now possible to legally buy hempseed flour).

Regarding the recent SSL bungle:

I'm not placing blame on anyone, but let us consider for a moment:

How long would it take a member of a rogue organization, a company such as Microsoft, or an intelligence agency to land a spot into such a role as a code monkey at Debian.org, under the guise of a pro-FOSS person? You do know all three examples above are quite savvy when it comes to infiltration, mafias, corporations, and intelligence agencies do this all of the time. So let us suppose this is what happened here, and considering the wide range of impact with this issue, I believe this is exactly what may have happened.

What checks and balances are in place to weed out potential moles? Any? And would you really know what to look for even if such a policy is in place? Perhaps this question is worthy of an "Ask Slashdot" submission?

How do you deal with the most sinister of rootkits: the human mole?

How many Tor hidden services (.onion) were taken down because of MITM attacks related to this issue? Fucking moles!

legalize marijuana - jack herer - NORML - MPP

Quit jailing non-violent marijuana smokers/growers they don't need their hineys plundered and lives ruined by poverty and disease for enjoying nature!

If smoking marijuana makes you lazy, why are a majority of sober Americans fat and apathetic, failing to do anything useful about the land of nothing for free other than posting easily forgotten content to their worthless ego-masturbatory blogs?

But why think when you can masturbate? After all, the goverMICROSOFTnment knows how to take care of us.

Regarding the recent SSL bungle:

I'm not placing blame on anyone, but let us consider for a moment:

How long would it take a member of a rogue organization, a company such as Microsoft, or an intelligence agency to land a spot into such a role as a code monkey at Debian.org, under the guise of a pro-FOSS person? You do know all three examples above are quite savvy when it comes to infiltration, mafias, corporations, and intelligence agencies do this all of the time. So let us suppose this is what happened here, and considering the wide range of impact with this issue, I believe this is exactly what may have happened.

What checks and balances are in place to weed out potential moles? Any? And would you really know what to look for even if such a policy is in place? Perhaps this question is worthy of an "Ask Slashdot" submission?

How do you deal with the most sinister of rootkits: the human mole?

How many Tor hidden services (.onion) were taken down because of MITM attacks related to this issue? Fucking moles!

legalize marijuana - jack herer - NORML - MPP

Quit jailing non-violent marijuana smokers/growers they don't need their hineys plundered and lives ruined by poverty and disease for enjoying nature!

If smoking marijuana makes you lazy, why are a majority of sober Americans fat and apathetic, failing to do anything useful about the land of nothing for free other than posting easily forgotten content to their worthless ego-masturbatory blogs?

the challenge (used to be $10,000., now at $100,000.): http://www.konformist.com/2002/herer-challenge.htm the initiative: http://www.jackherer.com/initiative.html bring your own hempen bag (canvas = cannabis). when will you ppl get smart? ;)

neither, thank you. i carry my own hempen (canvas) bag. why/by whom, rather. FOR whom, do youse think hemp was banned? answer: Dupont/nylon/petroleum. meanwhile ppl (we) die. the challenge: http://www.konformist.com/2002/herer-challenge.htm the initiative: http://www.jackherer.com/initiative.html

--- The time to legalize marijuana in California is at hand ---

Its time to collect signatures for the Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative 2008 . The signature gathering has begun and ends around April 15, 2008. We would like to collect all of the signatures in 2-1/2 months."

"This initiative will legalize Cannabis Hemp for (a) industrial products, (b) medicinal preparations, (c) nutritional products, (d) religious and spiritual products, and (e) recreational and euphoric use and products.

It will also include amnesty, immediate release from prison, jail, parole, and probation, and clearing, expungement, and deletion of all criminal records for all persons currently charged with, or convicted of any non-violent cannabis hemp marijuana offense.

Were going to need 434,000 good signatures from registered California voters. This means that well need 700,000 to 750,000 signatures all together. The money you spend on our products will go to pay for printing petitions and renting offices around California. Well need lots of trained volunteers to help collect signatures. We have a training video that we used in the 1994 and 1996 initiatives in California. Here are the links for it:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four"

"The war on drugs to me is absolutely phoney; it's so obviously phoney, okay? It's a war against our civil rights, that's all it is. They're using it to make us afraid to go out at night, afraid of each other, so that we lock ourselves in our homes and they get to suspend our rights one by one." - Bill Hicks

If you want pot to be legal in California, here's your chance:

From Jack Herer's site:

"Jack Herer's Signature Collection

Its time to collect signatures for the Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative 2008. The signature gathering has begun and ends around April 15, 2008. We would like to collect all of the signatures in 2-1/2 months."

"This initiative will legalize Cannabis Hemp for (a) industrial products, (b) medicinal preparations, (c) nutritional products, (d) religious and spiritual products, and (e) recreational and euphoric use and products.

It will also include amnesty, immediate release from prison, jail, parole, and probation, and clearing, expungement, and deletion of all criminal records for all persons currently charged with, or convicted of any non-violent cannabis hemp marijuana offense.

Were going to need 434,000 good signatures from registered California voters. This means that well need 700,000 to 750,000 signatures all together. The money you spend on our products will go to pay for printing petitions and renting offices around California. Well need lots of trained volunteers to help collect signatures. We have a training video that we used in the 1994 and 1996 initiatives in California. Here are the links for it:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four"

Spread the word!

More:
http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/herer_jack/herer_jack.shtml

Official reasons that sound like crap usually are crap. And crap is generally used to hide economic motives. I, for one, think it's really coincidental that marijuana was prohibited in the entire US in exactly the same year that the decorticator for hemp was invented - a device that sped up the processing of hemp a tenfold, thereby making it far superior to cotton for textile and far superior to woodpulp for paper.

http://www.jackherer.com/popmech.html

Or we could just grow lots of hemp so that we can make as much methanol as we want for infinite renewable fuel. Gee, do you think marijuana's banning in the US in 1939 had anything at all to do with this 1938 Popular Mechanics article? Methinks corporations with large timber holdings, oil holdings, and tobacco holdings had a vested interest in lobbying marijuana out of existence in the guise of public safety despite the fact that legal drugs were less dangerous.

But hey, what do I know. It's not as if America and those who emulate us have been blindly and needlessly wasting oil for the last near seven decades or anything thanks to organized corporate greed, right? I mean, that would just be a silly thing that the people wouldn't stand for, right? Think about it.

i heard about this laptop quite sometime ago great idea..

its not JUST for spread of aids information ya dorks (the negative comments iv read.. bill?)
some of you people sounded like you were profiling them as "oh they will just sell the lap top for blah blah"
you know who you are, i dont need to point my finger out..

the world is full of tricky bullshit, were goin down the hole and people who are oblivious should also have the freedom to also know how the world is going down the hole....
they should have the right to know that/how mainly western civilisation is destroying our ozone and water and bloating the worlds economical balance..
give them unlimited access to the internet and there will be the people who want to learn more..
possibly even help to make the world a better place...
opposed to christian charities brainwashing them with religious anus excrement's, like abstinence and fear.. and spending 60%+ of donations on their own luxurious "needs" like new office space and celebrity guests....

if they want TRUE Independence, laptops a good idea but i think they (like us) need endless supplies of hemp seed and clean REAL water,
well for i, that is pretty much my utopia..

but hemp is the opensource plant..
easy to grow, grows faster and denser than forests in pretty much any climate plants can grow in, and faster than many types of vegetables or fruits, naturally repels insects, and prevents other non nutrient rich weeds from growing
grow your own, use the net as resources on how to cultivate hemp more efficiently and make things from it
from hemp clothing to hemp breads, milk, and soaps,shelter,many different types of food and 1000's other simple uses from one plant.. (hemp is more compatible for different humans then soy beans, and contains more protein)
roughly 25,000 types of products so far can be made from hemp and growing with our present technology and knowledge of the plant..

excellent reading material i think ;) http://www.jackherer.com/

now that i got your attention..

probably the best insulation for the lowest resource burning cost is hemp..

http://www.greens.org.nz/campaigns/cannabis/020915 hemp-photos.htm

not to mention bio-plastics, bio-fuel, bread, cereal, milk, tofu (its all safer to eat than soy beans and grows faster)

and as you all know 25,000 and more other products..

imagine how many jobs could be created globally to grow hemp..
poor countries can actually learn about this weed which they can build a utopia upon instead of starving or relying on money... what do they care what money is... its fake.. piece of paper with some cotton and plastic coating on it made from oil, the 3 things humans love to consume..
anyways

a small list

http://torontohemp.com/hempuses.htm

what other plant can do that...

ps: it doesn't need pesticides because its a natural pesticide it grows fast (like a weed, in pretty much any climate), grows denser than any forest can (we're still cutting down trees for lumber which eventually gets recycled then we wipe our asses on it... there doesnt take a fuckin scientist to figure that one out) hemp has been used for recorded 10,000 years, but there was a religious war *cough cough* that sought out for hemp to be the devil weed... why?

read the Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer http://www.jackherer.com/
if you dont like reading
Magic.Weed.-.History.Of.Marijuana - documentary has a summarized rendition of what happened to the worlds most useful and renewable resource

i can rant on and on about how the oil,pharmaceutical pills ,alcohol, tobacco, and many other big industries which are killing us make roughly $1,000,000,000,000 yearly but ill leave the rest to you imagination

the cannabis plant family can do all of this, food,fuel,medicine,entertainment,housing..
some governments dont like it because, we can grow our own.. fuel, food, medicine, entertainment, housing...

if you like it or not, hemp is already getting bigger everyday
in bc canada we just got a new 200 acre hemp farm that will first produce enough dietary supplements and hemp yarn to be shiped globally, followed by hemp oils for plastics, soaps and fuel =)

so yes

we are floating on a rock in space.. with a thin layer of fungus growing on the crust.. there that sums it up.. imo i believe anything which is alive does have some sort of invisible complex energy which isnt always consistent.

actually the funniest scientific "solution to fight nature" i heard i think it was here on slashdot was sending little robots into the atmosphere with panels on them to reflect away the suns harmful rays mimicking a fake controllable ozone layer... that was my favorite

" Are you high right now?" -LittleLebowskiUrbanA (619114)

no im proposing to use hemp.. you cant get high off of hemp.. http://www.jackherer.com/

Hemp is extremely high in cellulose. It grows from the desert to the mountains. Hemp is nature's #1 photosynthesizer producing more per acre, faster than possibly anything.

LOOK IT UP. (USDA Bulletin 404)

As far as the one poster who mentioned "plastics" --you'll find through study that that is EXACTLY (at least partially) how we got into this mess of dependence on such rude resource as oil.

Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose - a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics and fibers. Depending on which U.S. agricultural report is correct, an acre of full grown hemp plants can sustainably provide from four to 50 or even 100 times the cellulose found in cornstalks, kenaf, or sugar cane - the planet's next highest annual cellulose plants.

On plastics: look up what Henry Ford did for the war effort when the military needed all the steel --Hemp produced automobile panels are lighter and 10x the strength. Search Popular Mechanics magazine archives.

Look up the HempCar, or better yet read about in full Hemp here.

Read what Hugh Downs said before America's desert brinksmanship.

So remember the challenge:
Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong!
We hereby extend our $100,000 challenge to prove us wrong!

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the greenhouse effect and stop deforestation; then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time... and that substance is the same one that has done it before . . . CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA!

GO BIO!

(Those laughing are probably the same ones laughing before 9 American states approved medical use.)

Hemp is extremely high in cellulose. It grows from the desert to the mountains. Hemp is nature's #1 photosynthesizer producing more per acre, faster than possibly anything.

LOOK IT UP. (USDA Bulletin 404)

As far as the one poster who mentioned "plastics" --you'll find through study that that is EXACTLY (at least partially) how we got into this mess of dependence on such rude resource as oil.

Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose - a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics and fibers. Depending on which U.S. agricultural report is correct, an acre of full grown hemp plants can sustainably provide from four to 50 or even 100 times the cellulose found in cornstalks, kenaf, or sugar cane - the planet's next highest annual cellulose plants.

On plastics: look up what Henry Ford did for the war effort when the military needed all the steel --Hemp produced automobile panels are lighter and 10x the strength. Search Popular Mechanics magazine archives.

Look up the HempCar, or better yet read about in full Hemp here.

Read what Hugh Downs said before America's desert brinksmanship.

So remember the challenge:
Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong!
We hereby extend our $100,000 challenge to prove us wrong!

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the greenhouse effect and stop deforestation; then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time... and that substance is the same one that has done it before . . . CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA!

GO BIO!

(Those laughing are probably the same ones laughing before 9 American states approved medical use.)

I suspect similar reasoning is why medical cannabis is has been an issue between the DEA and alternative medicine anecdotes.

Hemp, aka cannabis wasn't always considered "alternative medicine", at one tyme it was very much excepted by the AMA:

"Did Anyone Consult the AMA?"

However, even within his controlled Committee hearings, many expert witnesses spoke out against the passage of these unusual tax laws.

Dr. William G. Woodward, for instance, who was both a physician and an attorney for the American Medical Association, testified on behalf of the AMA.

He said, in effect, the entire fabric of federal testimony was tabloid sensationalism! No real testimony had been heard! This law, passed in ignorance, could possibly deny the world a potential medicine, especially now that the medical world was just beginning to find which ingredients in cannabis were active.

Woodward told the committee that the only reason the AMA hadn't come out against the marijuana tax law sooner was that marijuana had been described in the press for 20 years as "killer weed from Mexico."

The AMA doctors had just realized "two days before" these spring 1937 hearings, that the plant Congress intended to outlaw was known medically as cannabis, the benign substance used in America with perfect safety in scores of illnesses for over one hundred years.

"We cannot understand yet, Mr. Chairman," Woodward protested, "why this bill should have been prepared in secret for two years without any intimation, even to the profession, that it was being prepared." He and the AMA" were quickly denounced by Anslinger and the entire congressional committee, and curtly excused.3

*The AMA and the Roosevelt Administration were strong antagonists in 1937.

When the Marijuana Tax Act bill came up for oral report, discussion, and vote on the floor of Congress, only one pertinent question was asked from the floor: "Did anyone consult with the AMA and get their opinion?"

Representative Vinson, answering for the Ways and Means Committee replied, "Yes, we have. A Dr. Wharton [mistaken pronunciation of Woodward?] and {the AMA} are in complete agreement!"

With this memorable lie, the bill passed, and became law in December 1937. Federal and state police forces were created, which have incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Americans, adding up to more than 14 million wasted years in jails and prisons - even contributing to their deaths - all for the sake of poisonous, polluting industries, prison guard unions and to reinforce some white politicians' policies of racial hatred.

(Mikuriya, Tod, M.C., Marijuana Medical Papers, 1972; Sloman, Larry, Reefer Madness, Grove Press, 1979; Lindsmith, Alfred, The Addict and the Law, Indiana U. Press; Bonnie & Whitebread; The Marijuana Conviction, U. of VA Press; U.S. Cong. Records; et al.)
The Last Days of Legal Cannabis

Falcon

I know it is off topic but felt it still needed to be answered.

Hemp (yes, cannabis) is absolutely the best plant for this application, and without peer in the overall output of biomass gasses. Jack Herer wrote the book on hemp as a source of biomass fuel and offers a $100,000 chllenge to prove him wrong!

Grass for fuel! yeah, but not that kind, man!

Hemp (yes, cannabis) is absolutely the best plant for this application, and without peer in the overall output of biomass gasses. Jack Herer wrote the book on hemp as a source of biomass fuel and offers a $100,000 chllenge to prove him wrong!

Grass for fuel! yeah, but not that kind, man!

Farming only 6% of continential U.S. acreage with biomass crops would provide all of America's gas and oil energy needs, ending dependence upon fossil fuels.

Manahan, Stanley E., Environmental Chemistry, 4th edition.

The tales of marijuana's health risks, like tales of Mark Twain's death in 1897, are greatly exaggerated.

The relationship between cancer and marijuana seems to be a myth. Consider that the lung effects apply only if you smoke it instead of eat it (people smoke it for maximum affect because of the inflated cost due to prohibition. Also, unlike tobacco, marijuana enlarges rather than restricts passages so the airways don't become clogged. It is particles that stick in the lungs for very long periods of time that cause cancer. And while it was reported that marijuana was more carcinogenic than tobacco, people smoke less of it. Also, the claims of its carcinogenic properties are falsified. Marijuana was shown to be less irritating than tobacco to 28 out of 29 areas of the lung. The one area where it appeared more irritating (irritating != cancerous) was an area where tobacco has little effect (so, you have a division by zero problem here). After that, government funding was cut to all studies of those 28 areas of the lung. Oh, and pot doesn't need all the radioactive fertilizer used on tobacco (you did know that one of the ways of disposing of certain types of radioactive waste is to scatter them by incorporating them into fertilizer). "[...] not one single case of lung cancer in someone who only smoked cannabis, has ever been reported." . On the contrary, marijuana smoking has actually been shown to be benificial for emphysema, cancer patients with nausea, glacoma patients. And it has been shown that cigarette smokers are healthier if they also smoke pot. And one study that was commissioned to show immunosuppression actually showed that marijuanna reduced tumers.

The DEA administration must have shit bricks sideways when their own agency Judge concluded:

In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. [...] Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.

Study after study commissioned by the government has come out in favor of marijuana. The government has taken to commissioning bogus studies that do not specify the test methods used and it has taken years to sue for that information which once released is immediately ripped to shreds. For example a study that showed that marijuana destroyed brain cells in monkeys actually proved that suffocation destroyed brain cells (equivalent of 63 joints administered in 15 minutes through a facemask). They still also like to quote studies by Dr. Nahas who has 1) been renounced by his own university, 2) been declared ineligable for NIH funding, 3) 3) been subject to ridicule by other scientists, and 5) renounced his own studies in 1983. "Study Finds No Association Between Marijuana Use And Incidence Of Oral Cancer" . This study refutes a previous study that had shown a cancer link. However, the prior studies "control" group, which the marijuana smokers were compared to, consisted of blood doners; blood doners are a lower risk population than the population at large.

Next time you see a study mentioned in the press about marijuana, get a copy of it and see who funded it, if its conclusions were accurately reported, if the conclusions were supported by the results, and if the methodology is sound.

Most of the health information cited comes from the first link, since that is the source I read most recently. Sometimes I really do wonder why I don't use the stuff myself.

That doesn't make any sense. You're saying that the government just decided to ban drugs because it was a way of oppressing minorities. Why would they do that? How do they stand to gain from preventing minorities from using their 'drug of choice'?

Blacks under the influence of marijuana committed such "heinous crimes" as stepping on a white mans shadow (which was actually prohibited), looking at a white woman twice (also prohibited), and laughing at white people. By outlawing activities people you don't like engage in, you have the ability to have them thrown in jail, you discourage them from living where you do, reduce competition from jobs, open them to exploitation via blackmail, etc. In other words, you create significant power to be exploited against those people.

Read the History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States (written by a law professor) and The Emperer Wears no Clothes .

According to the second source, banning hemp under the guise of banning marijuana also elimintated competition for 80% of DuPont's products (by number of rail cars of product: plastic fibers and paper processing chemicals) and the owner of the bank that financed dupont also appointed the head of the federal bureau of narcotics and dangerous drugs. Hemp also threatened to compete with the timber industry and Mr. Yellow Journalism himself, William Randolf Hearst, had substantial timber holdings and a substantial financial stake in a new cheaper paper making process that could not have competed with hemp since a new machine had been introduced that drastically reduced labor costs associated with hemp. Also, hemp lended itself to decentralized economies whereas patented paper and plastic manufacturing processes were more profitable for Robber Barrons. It also competes with the oil industry and the pharmaceutical industry. When marijuana was outlawed most Americans (even in the unlikely event they new it was up for vote), thought it was some dangerous exotic substance from mexico that Hearsts newspapers railed about and had no idea it was a form of the hemp plant that had been a vital part of human civilization for 10,000 years. At the time it was outlawed, however, hemp agriculture was at a low point in the US because it was very labor expensive and rope was being imported from asia where labor was cheaper. But a new decorticator had been invented that reduced labor costs 100:1, just as the cotton gin had done for cotton, and the same month the federal law banning hemp went into effect, Popular Mechanics ran a story on the new machine calling hemp a billion dollar crop.

1 acre of hemp, which is 4 times as efficient as other forms of biomass, can produce 1000 gallons of fuel for motor vehicles or other uses. Biomass fuel does not contribute to global warming since the carbon produced on burning came from the air in the first place.

Hemp products are making a comeback even though you still can't legally grow hemp in the US.

> In fact, why aren't we trying to replace 3rd world drug crops with biomass fuel crops?

Time out! The hemp plant may be the optimal plant for biomass.

From The Emporer Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer:
www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

In most places, hemp can be harvested twice a year and, in warmer areas such as Southern California, Texas, Florida and the like, it could be a year-round crop. Hemp has a short growing season and can be planted after food crops have been harvested.

... and ...

Each acre of hemp would yield 1,000 gallons of methanol. Fuels from hemp, along with the recyclingof paper, etc., would be enough to run American virtually without oil.

... and ...

Hemp is Earth's number one biomass resource; it is capable of producing 10 tons per acre in four months. Hemp is easy on the soil,* sheds its lush foliage throughout the season, adding mulch to the soil and helping retain moisture. Hemp is an ideal crop for the semi-arid West and open range land.

Oh, just go read the whole page - I'm getting tired of cutting and pasting ...

Chapter 9: Economics: Energy, Environment and Commerce
www.jackherer.com/book/ch09.html

> In fact, why aren't we trying to replace 3rd world drug crops with biomass fuel crops?

Time out! The hemp plant may be the optimal plant for biomass.

From The Emporer Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer:
www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

In most places, hemp can be harvested twice a year and, in warmer areas such as Southern California, Texas, Florida and the like, it could be a year-round crop. Hemp has a short growing season and can be planted after food crops have been harvested.

... and ...

Each acre of hemp would yield 1,000 gallons of methanol. Fuels from hemp, along with the recyclingof paper, etc., would be enough to run American virtually without oil.

... and ...

Hemp is Earth's number one biomass resource; it is capable of producing 10 tons per acre in four months. Hemp is easy on the soil,* sheds its lush foliage throughout the season, adding mulch to the soil and helping retain moisture. Hemp is an ideal crop for the semi-arid West and open range land.

Oh, just go read the whole page - I'm getting tired of cutting and pasting ...

Chapter 9: Economics: Energy, Environment and Commerce
www.jackherer.com/book/ch09.html

Marijuana is a powerful drug. It makes people behave really irrationally even when they don't smoke it!

The facts about cannabis hemp are not widely acknowledged, because it's illegal. There has been some literature, most famously The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer. This book points out the coincidence {?} between hemp prohibition and the development of industrial competitors -- but is it attributing to malice what could be explained by stupidity?

I firmly believe that hemp prohibition is evil. But every anti-druggie seems to think that I only want it legalised {for non-smoking uses} just so I can get stoned! Duh - I already get stoned, and it took the slamming of a cell door to remind me it was illegal! But there is no way I am going to eschew the wonders of getting stoned just so I can promote the virtues of the other things this plant is useful for.

It would be entirely possible to drive a hemp-based-bodied car to a supermarket built from hemp-based bricks, stock up with hemp burgers and sausages, fill the tank up with hemp fuel on the way home and pay for it with money printed on hemp paper. Before drawing the hemp curtains, stripping off your hemp clothes and climbing into bed between hemp sheets, turning off the light in its hemp shade and easing the load on the hemp-fuelled power stations just a little.

And if I want to have a chuff on a funny-fag every now and again, how does that make any of the above any less valid?


Maybe what is needed is a technological solution to the problem of getting high ..... a machine that produces the same sort of effects on the mind and body as dope. It's got to really work, obviously ..... because then the playing field will be level again, once hemp is competing against technology on all levels. If people prefer the "artificial joint" to real ones, nobody is going to care about hemp getting you off your tits anymore ..... and it can be seriously evaluated once again.

After the 1937 Marijuana Tax law, new DuPont "plastic fibers," under license since 1936 from the German company I.G. Farben (patent surrenders were part of Germany's World War I reparation payments to America), replaced natural hempen fibers. (Some 30% of I.G. Farben, under Hitler, was owned and financed by America's DuPont.) DuPont also introduced Nylon (invented in 1935) to the market after they'd patented it in 1938.

By using 100% hemp or mixing hemp with cotton, you will be able to pass on your shirts, pants and other clothing to your grandchildren. Intelligent spending could essentially replace the use of petrochemical synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester with tougher, cheaper, cool, absorbent, breathing, biodegradable, natural fibers.

It's interesting to note that on April 29, 1937, two weeks after the Marihuana Tax Act was introduced, DuPont's foremost scientist, Wallace Hume Carothers, the inventor of nylon for DuPont, the world's number one organic chemist, committed suicide by drinking cyanide. Carothers was dead at age 41. . .

An almost unlimited tonnage of natural fiber and cellulose would have become available to the American farmer in 1937, the year DuPont patented nylon and the polluting wood-pulp paper sulfide process. All of hemp's potential value was lost.

Nylon fibers were developed between 1926-1937 by the noted Harvard chemist Wallace Carothers, working from German patents. These polyamides are long fibers based on observed natural products. Carothers, supplied with an open-ended research grant from DuPont, made a comprehensive study of natural cellulose fibers. He duplicated natural fibers in his labs and polyamides - long fibers of a specific chemical process - were developed. (Curiously, Wallace Carothers committed suicide one week after the House Ways and Means Committee, in April of 1937, had the hearings on cannabis and created the bill that would eventually outlaw hemp.)

Ah, yes. The Tattered Cover has a special place in my heart because that's where I got my first copy of Linux.

Same feeling here (special place in my heart) but instead of Linux, I was surprised to find that they STOCK the book The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer.

yeah, the world would just suck if the soviets had invaded saudi arabia... why exactly?

This didn't occur to me while mulling over RM101's post, but your post reminded me that a lot of the battling over the Middle East can be summed up in one word: "oil." A Soviet invasion of Saudi Arabia (assuming they made it through Iran and Afghanistan) would give them control over massive oilfields, also assuming they managed to win.

This would either have triggered an all-out, direct U.S.-Soviet conflict, or pushed the U.S. to find alternative sources of fuel and raw materials. In fact, there's an easily-available one that can be grown in the U.S. right now... but it's illegal, thanks to Will Hearst, DuPont, the Mellon Bank, et al.

Back to the Soviets... I'm not a fan of their regime either. I don't like imperialist nations, whether they claim to be socialist or democratic. The true colors of a nation come out in their treatment of smaller populations - and neither the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. did great in that regard during the Cold War. Arguably, the U.S. has tried to rebuild some bridges since... but those darn intelligence and military arms manage to keep futzing things up for everyone, under the guise of "national interests."

More later, once I feel like writing a direct reply to RM101.

I did a little research, and it seems only 5 white, rich men care about the civil rights that everyone deserves. On the other hand, there are all of those whiney minority "people" blathering on about civil rights. I suppose they think that if they had the same rights as the rest of us, they'd just have an easier time abusing the welfare system!

It has nothing to do with legalizing drugs. Hemp has been a valuable plant of many uses for hundreds of years. Skim The Emperor Wears No Clothes. It lists all of the accepted uses of Hemp prior to criminalization. It is still used extensively worldwide. Can you think of an argument against industrial hemp other than some company's profit margin?

The point is, hemp is a solution we have now, and have had for thousands of years. It's cheap, it's incredibly useful, it's been proven safe over and over again, and is available now. Can you think of one thing that is wrong with that? Or would you rather be eating more pesticidal residues, drinking water with more impurities, and breathing dirtier air?

If you're going to bring drugs into this, that would be a whole different bucket of fish. America is wasting it's money on fighting the "War on Drugs," achieving no real progress, and doing nothing but harming a lot of people who didn't commit any serious crime. 90% of all marijuana related arrests are for possession, not intent to sell or anything above that.

So it's stronger than cotton. Is it stronger than flax or jute or nylon and as soft as cotton? Because maybe that's why it's not in demand as a fiber. As-scrungy alternatives may exist.

It's stronger than flax and jute (I have no data re: nylon), and softer than cotton.

First of all, trying something once isn't definitive. Anyone who has any semblence of rational or scientific thought in their head knows that. All FUD.

Aside that, Hempseed is one of the most complete foodstuffs known to humanity. From The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Chapter 2:

"Hempseed can be pressed for its highly nutritious vegetable oil, which contains the highest amount of essential fatty acids in trhe plant kingdom. These essential oils are responsible for our immune responses and clear the arteries of cholesterol and plaque. "

Hemp has no natural enemies, other than the DEA and the US government. It has no insect pests, and thus needs no pesticides. Not only that, hemp probably requires less resources (fertilizer and space) than corn, be it a biotech or non-biotech strain.

Let me remind/educate those that do not know: industrial hemp does not contain enough cannaboids to produce a high. So, no, people could not smoke their t-shirt.

Yet, the DEA itself as admitted that 94-97% of all Cannabis plants it has siezed since the 1960s were of wild or industrial strains that had no value as a recreational drug!

It's actually quite curious that it's DuPont coming forth with these "innovative" life forms, when they had something to do with the illegalization of industrial hemp, promoting it, to expand and support their own business.

I suggest those of you interested in truly sustainable food, fuel, building products, paper, and medicine have a look at Jack Herer's Book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes. The most relevant chapter in this context is Chapter 2.

So, biotech may not be "all that bad," as far as we know now. But why bother pouring so much money into problems where we already have a completely natural, safe, agriculturally, economically, and environmentally wise solution in Hemp? So companies like DuPont can make money. At the expense of both consumers and non-consumers. It's disgusting.

Hemp already can replace petroleum. Hemp is renewable. But as long as our minds see naught but the vision of totalitarian agriculture and capitalism, we will not utilize any truly renewable resources. Think of it like open source- with biotech crop crops, they own the rights to the plants, which often produce sterile seeds. It is against the license to distribute seeds. Whereas, with Hemp, it's basically open source- you grow a plant, reuse it's seed. It renews itself, and makes sure that we don't rely on one patent holding company who decides what and when to sell us.

Hemp has no natural enemies, other than the DEA and the US government. It has no insect pests, and thus needs no pesticides. Not only that, hemp probably requires less resources (fertilizer and space) than corn, be it a biotech or non-biotech strain.

Let me remind/educate those that do not know: industrial hemp does not contain enough cannaboids to produce a high. So, no, people could not smoke their t-shirt.

Yet, the DEA itself as admitted that 94-97% of all Cannabis plants it has siezed since the 1960s were of wild or industrial strains that had no value as a recreational drug!

It's actually quite curious that it's DuPont coming forth with these "innovative" life forms, when they had something to do with the illegalization of industrial hemp, promoting it, to expand and support their own business.

I suggest those of you interested in truly sustainable food, fuel, building products, paper, and medicine have a look at Jack Herer's Book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes. The most relevant chapter in this context is Chapter 2.

So, biotech may not be "all that bad," as far as we know now. But why bother pouring so much money into problems where we already have a completely natural, safe, agriculturally, economically, and environmentally wise solution in Hemp? So companies like DuPont can make money. At the expense of both consumers and non-consumers. It's disgusting.

Hemp already can replace petroleum. Hemp is renewable. But as long as our minds see naught but the vision of totalitarian agriculture and capitalism, we will not utilize any truly renewable resources. Think of it like open source- with biotech crop crops, they own the rights to the plants, which often produce sterile seeds. It is against the license to distribute seeds. Whereas, with Hemp, it's basically open source- you grow a plant, reuse it's seed. It renews itself, and makes sure that we don't rely on one patent holding company who decides what and when to sell us.

Most of the cancer-causing chemicals are created by _burning_ plant materials (toboacco, or others).

for proof that legalizing marihuana look at the netherlands: marihuana is easy to get in legal places. the netherlands has a lower percentage of hemp-smokers (NOT users, I wouldn't know.. but under users would also fall people who wear e.g. t-shirts made from hemp fibre) than the US. I very recently read 'the emperor wears no clothes' (the title you are referring to). a lot of it is available online at Jack Herer's site

//rdj