US waves white flag in disastrous ‘war on drugs’

After 40 years, Washington is quietly giving up on a futile battle that has spread corruption and destroyed thousands of lives Read the full story

Marijuana’s addiction potential may be no big deal, but it’s certainly big business.

According to a widely publicized 1999 Institute of Medicine report, fewer than 10 percent of those who try cannabis ever meet the clinical criteria for a diagnosis of “drug dependence” (based on DSM-III-R criteria). By contrast, 32 percent of tobacco users and 15 percent of alcohol users meet the criteria for “drug dependence.”

Nevertheless, it is pot — not booze or cigarettes — that has the federal government seeing red and clinical investigators seeing green. As I reported for AlterNet last year, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which overseas more than 85 percent of the world’s research on controlled substances, recently appropriated some $4 million in taxpayers’ dollars to establish the nation’s first-ever Center for Cannabis Addiction. Its mission: to “develop novel approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of marijuana addiction.” Read the full story

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.–(Business Wire)–
Cannabis Science Inc. (NASD OTCBB: CBIS) an emerging pharmaceutical cannabis
company, is pleased to report progress for its phytocannabinoid pharmaceutical
products to help reduce ARDS-associated deaths from both the Avian and Swine
Influenza infections.

Read the full story

It can be used to make clothing. The paper made by it would save trees from being cut down. It can even be used to build houses that have better resistance to fire. All these characteristics, and then you find out this mystery product has nutritional value and can be used for fuel. So in the current global economic crisis we are in, why aren’t we using hemp and why is marijuana still illegal? Throughout this post, I have taken the time to insert numerous videos, articles, and websites that list the benefits of hemp. Commonly mistaken as “weed”, “pot”, or marijuana, hemp actually contains very little THC and does not produce the same intoxicating effects as marijuana. Knowledge is power. Do your own research and see what you can find as well, it’s interesting to learn that a plant that can do so little harm has been lumped in the same category that cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs have been placed.

I’ve also included historical facts and videos that illustrate how marijuana went from a commonly used plant, to a drug that sparks much debate and controversy today.

Google Search’s time line of hemp from 4000BC through 2009AD:

http://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+hemp&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS338&tbo=p&ei=lFaMStuNBYKgsgPSwp3ECQ&sa=X&oi=timeline_other_dates&ct=timeline-other-dates&tbs=tl:1,tlul:4000BC,tluh:2009

Google lists articles and websites found online that reference hemp’s use as far back as 4000BC

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http://www.hemphousemaui.com/resources/history.php

Hemp History

8000 BC – Present

Hemp is the ancient, eco-friendly fiber of the future. For over 5,000 years, hemp has been used for textiles, paper, building materials, fuel, food and personal care products. Hemp can be grown with little or no toxic chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Today hemp is grown all over the world. The crop is used to make over 25,000 consumer products. From hemp apparel and accessories to housewares and hempseed oil cosmetics, hemp is an eco-shopper’s dream.

8000BC

Civilization, agriculture and hemp textile industries begin in Europe and Asia.

3727BC

Cannabis called a “superior” herb in the world’s first medical text, Shen Nung’s Pen Ts’ao, in China.

1500BC

Cannabis-using Scythians sweep through Europe and Asia, settle down everywhere, and invent the scythe.

500BC

Gautama Buddah survives by eating hempseed.

450BC

Herodotus records Scythians and Thracians as consuming cannabis and making fine linens of hemp.

300BC

Carthage and Rome struggle for political and commercial power over hemp and spice trade routes in Mediterranean.

100BC

Paper made from hemp and mulberry is invented in China.

100AD

Roman surgeon Dioscorides names the plant cannabis sativa and describes various medicinal uses. Pliny tells of industrial uses and writes a manual on farming hemp.

500AD

First botanical drawing of hemp in Constantinopolitanus

600AD

Germans, Franks, Vikings, etc. all use hemp fibre.

1000AD

The English word ‘hempe’ first listed in a dictionary.

1150AD

Moslems use hemp to start Europe’s first paper mill. Most paper is made from hemp for the next 700 years.

1492AD

Hempen sails, caulking and rigging ignite age of discovery and help Columbus and his ships reach America.

1545

Hemp agriculture crosses the continent overland to Chile.

1564

King Phillip of Spain orders hemp grown throughout his empire, from modern-day Argentina to Oregon.

16th-17th Century

Dutch achieve Golden Age through hemp commerce. Explorers find ‘wilde hempe’ in North America.

1619

Virginia colony makes hemp cultivation mandatory, followed by most other colonies. Europe pays hemp bounties.

1631

Hemp used as money throughout American colonies.

1776

American ‘Declaration of Independence’ drafted on hemp paper.

1791

President Washington sets duties on hemp to encourage domestic industry; Jefferson calls hemp “a necessity”, and urges farmers to grow hemp instead of tobacco.

1801

Certain premiums offered to encourage the cultivation of hemp in Upper and Lower Canada.

1800’s

Australia survives two prolonged famines by eating virtually nothing but hemp seed for protein and hemp leaves for roughage.

1850’s

Petrochemical age begins. Toxic sulfite and chlorine processes make paper from trees, steamships replace sails, tropical fibres introduced.

1930’s

New machines invented to break hemp, process the fibre, and convert pulp or hurds into paper, plastics, etc. – Racist fears of Mexicans, Asians, and African Americans leads to outcry for cannabis to be outlawed.

1935

Compressed agricultural fibreboard invented in Sweden.

1937

Marijuana Tax Act forbids hemp farming in the US. -Dupont files patent for nylon.

1938

Canada prohibits production of hemp under Opium And Narcotics Control Act.

1941

Henry Ford makes car fabricated and fueled by hemp.

1943

Hemp For Victory program urges farmers to grow hemp.

1955

Hemp farming again banned.

1961

The Canadian Narcotics Control Act(CNCA) allowed Cannabis to be grown, at the discretion ofthe Health Minister, for research purposes only.

1992

Australia licences hemp farming.

1993

England eases restriction on hemp farming. News media declare hemp clothes and cannabis leaf logo hottest new fashion.

1994

Under the CNCA, one license was granted to a Canadian company, Hempline Inc., to grow hemp experimentally in Canada under the strict supervision of the authorities.

1996

The Canadian federal government passed Bill C8 stating that mature hemp stalks are exemptfrom the list of controlled substances.

1998

The Canadian government legalizes the commercial growth of industrial hemp.

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Magic Weed – History Of Marijuana

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SHOWTIME aired two short videos that illustrated the history of weed recently. SHOWTIME is home to the show Weeds, which is a comedy about selling marijuana illegally in America.

PART 1

PART 2

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Schaffer Library of Drug Policy

Like the name says, it truely is a library of knowledge regarding drug policy. Even if you think you know a lot about hemp and marijuana history, I still suggest reading this. You’d be surprised at the new information you find in this massive library.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm

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If you’re not familiar with NORML, they are one of the most well known pro-marijuana law reform organizations to date.

http://norml.org/

State-by-state laws, historical information, myths, and anything else you need can be found through NORML.

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Stephen Baldwin and Ron Paul debate legalization of marijuana on CNN:

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The Union: The Business Behind Getting High

If you have never heard of, or seen, this video, I recommend watching this before any of the other videos I have posted.

This is just a start to the vault of information I have taken the time to find and save online. If further reading, videos, and information is desired, simply leave feedback and I would be more than happy to continue posting information regarding hemp and marijuana.

Have a great day!

-C. Kent