Farmers across the nation, primarily along the west coast, are dealing with some form of financial decline due to soil erosion, drought, and costs to income ratios. The cultivation of hemp will restore our economy and environment. In the article titled “The Forgotten History of Hemp,” author Jack Herer claims that: Farming only six percent of continental US acreage with hemp could end America’s dependence on fossil fuels. Capable of producing ten tons of biomass per acre in four months without chemical fertilizers, hemp-energy farms could return billions of dollars’ worth of natural resource potential back to the farmers and bring millions of jobs back to America’s heartland. (Herer)
The cultivation itself helps farmers, as no chemicals …show more content…
Many of the opposing teammates of hemp legalization reveal their defense as being the legalization of one, is only to become a slippery slope to the road of the legalization of marijuana. The legalization of marijuana has been a hot topic recently with a handful of states having already passed bills for the recreational uses of marijuana. Although there are many beneficial uses for the drug, hemp cultivation has no correlation with the legalization of marijuana, as hemp is already legal in some states and has fewer federal restrictions than marijuana. The opposing side also argues that hemp cultivation will cause an increase in crime. The general idea of this concern is since hemp and marijuana have similar features, farmers and citizens alike, will use hemp farms to hide their marijuana cultivations. In turn it falls to robberies of another’s “field” which leads to fighting and possible shootings. Essentially, creating a snowball effect until the problem is so big citizens are crushed under it or it cannot be repaired. Such concerns arise due to the wars of marijuana farms across the nation. The farms are fueled by a supply and demand and since it is illegal the supply is high sought for resulting in more crime. The greatest example in American history this can be compared to, is the era of prohibition, it essentially created the mafia systems. If people or farmers are allowed to grow and cultivate hemp, this may actually cause a decline in crime because although taxed, it’s free to distribute. People would see the financial opportunity there is, and take advantage of it by not committing the crimes and taking part in helping boost our economy by purchasing. So the fear of crime is mostly