Nevada Temporarily Suspends Nick Diaz' License, Open To Medicinal Marijuana Request

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/popmech1.htm

This article was published in Popular Mechanics in 1937, hailing the invention of a machine that would process hemp far more efficiently than the cotton gin, blah blah. Seeing their dollars at risk, the cotton, logging, oil companies said, “HELL NO!” and funded a massive smear campaign that played on the racism of white america, among other things. So no, there was no massive medical industry (though such things were being studied even then) in place, but there was a large industrial hemp industry.

- Hemp is the oldest cultivated fiber plant in the world. From more than 1,000 years before the time of Christ until 1883 A.D., hemp was our planet’s largest agricultural crop and most important industry, involving thousands of products and enterprises; producing the overall majority of Earth’s fiber, fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense and medicines. In addition, it was a primary source of essential food oil and protein for humans and animals.
- Hemp fiber imprints were found in pottery shards in China and Taiwan over 7,000 years old.
- Ninety percent of all ships’ sails (since before the Phoenicians, from at least the 5th century B.C. until long after the invention and commercialization of steam ships, mid to late-19th century) were made from hemp.
- In addition to canvas sails, until this century virtually all of the rigging, anchor ropes,cargo nets, fishing nets, flags, shrouds, and oakum (the main protection for ships against salt water, used as a sealant between the outer and inner hull of ships) were made from the stalk of the marijuana plant.
- The Constitution of the United States was written on hemp paper.
- The first draft of the Declaration of Independence (June 28, 1776) was written on Dutch (hemp) paper, as was the second draft completed on July 2, 1776. This was the document actually agreed to on that day and announced and released on July 4, 1776.
- In 1776 Betsy Ross made the first American flag of hemp cloth.
- George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp on their plantations.
- Benjamin Franklin started one of America’s first paper mills with hemp. This allowed America to have a free colonial press without having to beg or justify the need for paper and books from England.
- Until about 1800, hempseed oil was the most consumed lighting oil in America and the world. From then until the 1870s, it was the second most consumed lighting oil, exceeded only by whale oil.
- Hempseed oil lit the lamps of the legendary Aladdin, Abraham the prophet, and in real life, Abraham Lincoln. It was the brightest lamp oil.
- Virtually every city and town in the world had an industry making hemp rope. Russia, however, was the world’s largest producer and best-quality manufacturer, supplying 80% of the Western world’s hemp from 1640 until 1940.
- The primary reason for the War of 1812 (fought by America against Great Britain) was access to Russian hemp. Russian hemp was also the principal reason that Napoleon (our 1812 ally) and his "Continental Systems" allies invaded Russia in 1812.
- Until the 1880s in America (and until the 20th century in most of the rest of the world), 80% of all textiles and fabrics used for clothing, tents, bed sheets and linens,* rugs, drapes, quilts, towels, diapers, etc., and even our flag, "Old Glory," were principally made from hemp fibers.
- For hundreds, if not thousands of years (until the 1830s), Ireland made the finest linens and Italy made the world’s finest cloth for clothing with hemp.
- The paintings of Van Gogh, Gainsborough, Rembrandt, etc., were primarily painted on hemp canvas, as were practically all canvas paintings.
- Until 1883, from 75-90% of all paper in the world was made with hemp fiber partly because of it’s extreme durability and color (it doesn’t yellow) including that for books, Bibles, maps, paper money, stocks and bonds, newspapers, etc.
- If the hemp pulp paper process reported by the USDA in 1916 were legal today, it would soon replace 70% of all wood paper products.
- In 1935 alone, 116 million pounds (58,000 tons*) of hempseed were used in America just for paint and varnish.
- From 70-90% of all rope, twine, and cordage was made from hemp until 1937.
- Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic.
- The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 effectively made the cultivation of hemp illegal, due largely to the efforts of businessmen Andrew Mellon, William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont family.
- In 1942, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in contradiction to the Marijuana Tax Act, produced and distributed a motion picture called “Hemp for Victory” in which the federal government not only promoted the many uses of cannabis hemp, but also detailed the most efficient cultivation and harvesting methods.
- In 1942, after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines cut off the supply of Manila (Abaca) hemp, the U.S. government distributed 400,000 pounds of cannabis seeds to American farmers from Wisconsin to Kentucky, who produced 42,000 tons of hemp fiber annually until 1946 when the war ended.
- After the War ended, the United States government once again did an about face, prohibiting the cultivation of hemp and marijuana.