...(Legalizing Hemp) Using Hemp to Boost Kentucky’s Economy It’s no secret the economy is failing. On both a state level and national level, but what Kentuckians don’t realize is how easy it would be to fix our economy. Since the decline of tobacco production in the state of Kentucky, producers have been forced to do two things. Either replace their tobacco and find a new crop to plant or get a new job and stop producing anything. However, with my solution the need to replace tobacco can be filled and the economy can grow. But how can we save a dying economy? Simple, we replace tobacco with industrial hemp. Industrial Hemp production will boost the economy, replace tobacco, and provide a stable income for Kentucky Producers. In order to be able to produce industrial hemp in Kentucky, we first must legalize it. To help legalize industrial hemp we have to be able to connect with members of the media along with lawmakers to explain why industrial hemp is necessary to re-build Kentucky. I propose that Kentuckians encourage local representatives, senators, congressmen/women etc. to vote to allow the legal production of industrial hemp in Kentucky and the United States. Recently, the Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture, James Comer, has been working hard to legalize industrial hemp. In February of 2013, the industrial hemp bill passed the Kentucky Senate and then moved to Kentucky Legislatures. In March of 2013, Kentucky Legislatures passed the regulation of industrial hemp in Kentucky...
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...The World’s Most Understood Crop: Industrial Hemp and its Economic Benefits When most people hear the word hemp the first thing that comes to mind is marijuana. While hemp and marijuana are of the same plant species, Cannabis Sativa, they are different plants with their own chemical makeup. Hemp has been known as one of the world’s greatest agricultural crops of all time with a wide variety of uses. Unfortunately the United States still sees hemp as drug and the manufacturing of hemp is still illegal today. The United States is outlawing one of the most economically beneficial and functional crops of all times because of its cousin marijuana. Hemp was the world’s greatest agricultural crop for more than 1000 years before Christ until 1883 AD (Herer). The manufacturing and cultivation of hemp has been used for thousands of products and many different industries including producing a majority of the world’s fabric, fiber, oil, paper, and even food. The earliest known fabric was made of hemp around 8000 BC (Herer). Ninety percent of all ships' sails from at least the fifth century BC until long after the invention of the steam engines in the mid- to late-19th century were made from hemp (Herer). Many of the ships’ logs, maps, and charts were made on hemp paper from the time of Columbus to the early 1900s (Herer). In the first century AD, the Chinese found that hemp paper lasted 50 to 100 times longer than most preparations of papyrus and that it was 100 times easier and cheaper...
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...Hemp: The plant that can save America COM172 May 8, 2012 Hemp: The plant that can save America Marijuana, pot, weed, grass, smoke, hemp - these are just a few of the names given to the plant known as Cannabis Sativa. Lobbyists are currently trying to repeal the federal laws making the growth, production, and possession of medicinal cannabis illegal because of the benefits to people with cancer, glaucoma, and chronic pain. If successful this will also make it legal to grow industrial hemp. Industrial hemp can be used for clothing, nutritional supplements, and paper products; building supplies, automotive construction, and alternative fuel sources. With the legalization of hemp this nation conceivably could negate its dependence on foreign oil and reverse the failing economy. From the birth of this nation up to the 1950s, hemp was grown on large farms and in small family plots. Early settlers understood the necessity of growing hemp for rope and sails used on ships, for cloth to make clothes; even the original flag was made from hemp. In fact there were mandatory grow laws in place for years that made it a crime not to grow hemp. In 1937 the government passed a law (Title 21 U.S.C. Controlled Substance Act) that made it illegal to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. In doing so, they outlawed industrial hemp as well, even though it only contains trace amounts of the substance Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that gives Cannabis its effectiveness. Most proponents of...
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...Abstract: The prohibition of marijuana has been a heated debate for years. This paper will examine the question of whether or not it will be beneficial to the population as a whole, smokers and non-smokers to legalize marijuana. This paper will begin by giving a historical overview of marijuana and how it became illegal. Then, it will attempt to examine and illustrate the many valuable, and beneficial qualities that marijuana has. Relying on the facts found to ultimately come to a conclusion on whether or not legalization would positively effect our country. Introduction Background Information The legalizing of marijuana for both recreational and medical purposes will have significant benefits for smokers and non-smokers, the economy, and the population. Currently any production, sale, distribution, or consumption of the drug marijuana is illegal in forty-eight states in the nation. Legalizing marijuana in this situation would mean executing the same or similar laws as are imposed on to alcohol. “On November 6, 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize the sale and possession of cannabis for recreational use since the Marijuana Tax act of 1937 when they passed Colorado Amendment 64 and Washington Initiative 502” (Szalavitz). The few states that have legalized marijuana are instituting practices to integrate the substance into society. To continue, consumption of marijuana would be illegal as well as the purchase of the substance by minors...
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...gateway drug that will lead to the use of harder drugs like heroin or LSD, I believe it should be legalized because medical marijuana has helped sick people where no other pharmaceutical drug could. Cannabis has been used for thousands of years. The oldest known uses have been recorded as far back as 2737 B.C. as medicine by Emperor Shen Neng of China (Advanced Holistich Health, 2013). The Chinese would later use hemp as to make clothes, shoes and rope and even paper. By the sixteenth century hemp was widely distributed in Europe where it was cultivated for fiber and the seeds were cooked with barley or other grains and eaten. In 1537 Discorides named the plant Cannabis sativa and wrote of its use for cordage as well as its medicinal properties [ (Ehrensing, 1998) ]. Back in 1619, the King of England ordered famers to grow cannabis to meet the obligations of a growing economy that used hemp as a product. This was the first law that incorporated cannabis and it was for the good of it. There were several other laws allowing the growth of cannabis over the next 200 years. Hemp was introduced to the United States in 1645 by the Puritans in New England as a fiber...
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...out more money than it takes in” (Advise Men, 2008). Through the legalization of Industrial hemp and female marijuana growth, the government could add trillions of dollars to our debt and eliminate it within five years. First, legalizing industrial hemp would alleviate our national debt by trillions of dollars. Second, female Hemp growth in America would gross 43 billion dollars a year. Third, by taxing more harmful drugs, using our own oil and higher taxes we could cut our deficit but not nearly what legalizing all forms of marijuana growth would do. Legalizing the growth of industrial hemp in America would create a new gross national product (GNP). By legalizing hemp we would create a new GNP, which in turn would eliminate our debt. With the ability to make roads, highways, and foundations out of hemp concrete that would last for centuries, we could eliminate road taxes and costly repairs. Bio-diesel made from hemp seed oil creates oxygen when consumed by motor vehicles, instead of producing acid rain and smog clouds. According to Meints, America could eliminate non-biodegradable plastics and cars by reintroducing Henry Ford's 100-year-old dream of building cars made from hemp with a plastic hemp car body that can withstand a blow 10 times greater than steel without denting, weighs one thousand pounds less than steel, hence improving gas mileage, can run on a vegetable oil-based all natural hemp fuel, and is completely biodegradable (Meints, 2007). According to Herer, Randolph...
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...The Beneficial Uses of Hemp Following my father's death, I felt there was some unfinished business that we had not discussed. I searched to find some of my father's thoughts and feeling that I could justify our relationship through. Ironically, I came across a manila envelope, which had contained some of his prized possessions. As I searched through it, I developed a new opinion of the bio mass plant called "Hemp." There were articles showing a hemp bills being passed and farmers wanting to cultivate it within Delta County. There was also a book called "The Emperor Wears No Clothes." It was a book stating compelling facts about the miracle crop Hemp." An article struck me. It told of, Woody Harrison, a well-known actor stating, "He would pick up the tab for Colorado's first hemp crop if state legislators approve the crop." He also stated that you could smoke a pound of it and not get high. (Rice)" In addition 4.6 million members of the American Farm Bureau Federation support Hemp 100 percent. Hemp could be the most abundant natural resource, it can replace 80% of our fossil fuels, and be used for many major medicinal purposes (Kriho). It is essential that we stop the use of all fossil fuels, and deforestation to save Mother Earth. This can be accomplished with the cannabis plant hemp seizing pollution and provide the world with more than enough of its energy needs. According to Jack Herer, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, we're not only the founders of our...
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...Hemp: A Truly Green Solution By Dave Evans One of the biggest and longest-running debates amongst the people of the United States has been related to marijuana. In the eyes of some, the plant is a harmful drug that belongs on the controlled substances list, being responsible for not only general teenage laziness and apathy, but also found in correlation with car accidents and deaths across the nation. To others, the plant is as sane a recreational substance as alcohol, made illegal due to political leaders’ interests in the lumber industry, and also a taxable commodity that can add exponential revenue to our economy. The outlawed drug is finding its way into hospitals and head shops in numerous states, some citing medicinal purposes, while others continue pushing for blanket legalization of the substance. However, catching a buzz isn’t the only thing the cannabis sativa plant has to offer our economy. According to the North American Industrial Hemp Council, hemp, the natural fiber product of the cannabis sativa plant, is a renewable and eco-friendly crop. It grows quickly, and doesn’t need herbicides or pesticides to develop. Hemp is not psychoactive; that is, you can’t get high off of it. The NAIHC cites that in order to induce even mild intoxication from hemp, one would have to ingest an amount equal to 2 or 3 doses of a high-fiber laxative. However, the United States remains to be the only industrialized nation in which growing industrial hemp is illegal, as are all...
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...lethal you could die with a single use. Why is it socially acceptable to use substances, which kill thousands a year while a plant that is practically a miracle drug remains portrayed as one of the most dangerous substances, known to man? In this paper, we will look at the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana the financial impact as well as the effects it would have on industry. We will also look at social impact caused by legalizing marijuana can it be socially acceptable. Alcohol and tobacco continually kill people by the thousands and yet remain legal, why then is marijuana, a drug that has never killed a single person still illegal. The declaration of independence and the constitution of the United States of America are written on hemp paper there were even laws on the subject of marijuana before that. America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619 it ordered all farmers to grow Indian hempseed there were several other must grow laws over the next 200 years. You would be imprisoned for not...
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...Legalization of Marijuana One of the primary focuses of America’s War on Drugs in the controversial drug Marijuana. Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug and stirs up a debate everywhere. Could you imagine a world where Marijuana was legal in all states? Sure it would have its pros and cons on the side effects that could occur when smoking it, but I don't think that it would enable us from working or doing other things. For many years people have attempted to find ways to get passed the struggles of everyday life. With the pain of the world stopping people from enjoying simple pleasures, sometimes there is a need for help. Marijuana brings millions of people relief from pain on a day-to-day basis. This completely natural plant, which previously helped so many people, puzzled the leaders of our nation for a long time. Using marijuana for medicinal purposes is not a recent discovery. In fact, written references to use medical marijuana date back nearly 5,000 years. Western medicine embraced marijuana’s medical properties in the mid-1800s, and by the beginning of the 20th century, physicians had published more than 100 papers in the Western medical literature recommending its use for a variety of disorders (Introduction to Medical Use). These disorders include pain relief, nausea, glaucoma, and movement disorders. It is also used as a powerful appetite stimulant which helps patients that had HIV/AIDS or cancer patients going through chemotherapy. Today, thousands of...
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...Should marijuana be legalized for medicinal use? Cierra Cook Medical Ethics April 12, 2014 Marijuana has been hailed as a prescription for many ills and physicians once used it to stimulate appetite, relieve chronic pain, and treat asthma and migraines. But is marijuana really a medical miracle? If so, do its clinical benefits outweigh its drawbacks? Should we legalize marijuana? Is medical marijuana really worth the risks? These are the issues one needs to think about before making the decision to legalize marijuana. Marijuana is a drug that is derived from the dried and cut leaves of the hemp plant known as "cannabis sativa". Marijuana has a variety of street names such as "grass", "Mary Jane", "pot", "smoke", "reefer", "herb", and "weed". The active ingredient in marijuana is delta tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (3). Marijuana has been used throughout history and in many different cultures to change mood, perception, and consciousness (to get "high"). Its effects range from increasing creativity to provoking mystical experiences, to heightening the capacity to feel, sense and share. After alcohol, it is the most popular of what are called "recreational drugs." It has been used around the world for other purposes. In some primitive tribes of South America, Africa, and India, "cannabis" is used in religious ceremonies and for medical purposes. African mine workers have used it to ease the drudgery of their work and many Jamaicans use it at the end of the day to relieve...
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...smoking marijuana does not cause the same amount of problems that smoking cigarettes might cause. In this paper, there will be few topics touched on concerning marijuana. There are ample cases of people using drugs because of their curiosity, individual freedom and choice, cultural characteristics, or relaxation activities and the substitute for modern medicine. Modern hemp and cannabis are distinctive assortments of the same species, Cannabis sativa. Weed generally contains 3 to 15 percent of the psychoactive fixing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on a dry-weight premise, while mechanical hemp contains 1 percent. Be that as it may, the two mixtures are unclear by appearance. In the United States, Cannabis sativa is delegated a Timetable I controlled substance, paying little respect to its opiate content, under the Controlled Substances Go about as changed. Since 1990, mixtures containing under 0.3 percent THC have been sanctioned in Incredible Austria, England, Switzerland, and Germany. Canada and Australia authorized hemp generation in 1998. In different nations, for example, Hungary, China, and Russia, hemp production was never prohibited (Clark, 2011) Curiosity In my experience, for some people who try marijuana, it is out of curiosity. They may have seen their friends, family members, or even just some random people on the street smoking and wanted to know what it felt like to smoke marijuana. Most try and stay far away from weed because they hear of all...
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...greater service than recreational use. Industrial hemp is extremely useful and unlike marijuana it contains very low amounts of THC, which cannot be used as a drug. Both marijuana and hemp come from a similar strain of cannabis. Before the 1950’s, hemp was completely legal throughout the United States, and saw its glory days during World War 2. Afterwards, cannabis was criminalized in the United States, in the early 1950’s after people discovered a different use for the plant. Since then hemp has been masked by marijuana...
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...legalization is possible and even necessary in today’s world of free morality. It is obvious that the advantages of legal marijuana overweight its harm. 1. The short story of marijuana prohibition Since early times people cultivated marijuana, or cannabis, or hemp, and used it for food. The fiber of young plants was the good raw material for clothes and paper. Cannabis also has a long history of medicinal usage, with evidence dating back to 4,000 B.C. In 19th century tincture of cannabis was the popular medicine. After the prohibition of alcohol beverages in 1919 young people in the USA began to smoke marijuana instead of liquor. In 1937 Harry J. Anslinger, the first Commissioner of the Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), inspired the “Marihuana Tax Act”. This act made possession or transfer of hemp illegal. At the USA hemp could be used for medical and industrial purposes only. However some critics noticed that Anslinger’s activity was supported by paper and plastic manufacturers who wanted to exclude hemp from the market. It is interesting, that due to Anslinger’s campaign many people believed that marijuana and hemp are different plants. “Mr. Dingell: I want to be certain what this is. Is this (Indian hemp) the same weed that grows wild in some of our Western States which is sometimes called the loco weed? Mr. Anslinger: No, sir, that is another family.” (Anslinger, 1937) However if we look in the “GRIN Taxonomy for Plants” by the United States...
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...Hemp, Hemp, Hemp. By: Andy Boustany. Lebanese American University. Hemp, Hemp, Hemp. For many years, Hemp served as an industrial sourcing of filament and oilseed. It has been utilized everywhere on the planet to make a mixture of modern and customer like items. Starting today, around 30 nations develop mechanical hemp as an agrarian product, and for exceptional reason for why it does. It is then sold on the planet’s business sector. However in the states, the handling of hemp is strictly viewed by pill authorization laws. Consequently there is no proper viable domestic production and the states, more often, import it instead of processing it on its own ground. Yet there has been an act called the mechanical Hemp Farming Act of 2013 that picked up major consideration in the past couple of months starting this paper, which might prompt the entryway opening of business growth of hemp in the states. Hemp is a greatly flexible plant and is apparently the most adaptable farming product in the known universe. It ought to be learned about fittingly, completely lawful and developed all over the place. Hemp is a subordinate of the old English word “hænep”. The produces and limbs of the plant are all usually termed hemp, some of which incorporate the produces of strand, oil and even seed. Hemp has experienced phases of refinement to make items like hemp seed nourishments, hemp oil, wax, sap, rope, material, mash and even fuel. Historically speaking, Hemp is one of the oldest...
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