Focus
on Hemp
by
Free
Rob Cannabis
Focus on Hemp
– At the recent 'London Hemp Fair', the main organisers of the
event, Weedworld, very kindly donated a space dedicated to Hemp
Information which they aptly named 'Focus on Hemp'. I ran this stall
with Derick Dilbey, formerly of Hemp Union. Running this stall made
me realise there is still much ignorance surrounding Hemp, so I have
decided to make my latest contribution to CC Newz a 'Focus on
Hemp'.
What is Hemp ?
- Hemp is a highly evolved plant species related to both the hop and
nettle plant, but is now placed in its own botanical group
Cannabencia.
It a dioecious plant, meaning that it has
separate male and female flowers, normally on separate plants, but
can also produce hermaphrodites. It is usually grown from seed,
growing in a wide variety of soil conditions and climates. For
temperate climates it has one grow season from spring to Autumn, but
for Tropical climates it is possible to grow it perpetually, getting
to 2 to 3 harvests per year.
The word Hemp derives from the
Greek/Latin words Kannabis/Cannabis. The name Hemp has evolved from
it's ancient Accadian (Middle Eastern) name Quanuba, within which we
find the root 'an'. From this 'an' root it traveled east into Asia
with the name Ganjah, and west with the Greek Kannabis and Latin
Cannabis and then into the Romance languages where we find Canapa in
Italian, and Canamo in Spanish. The 'an' root then tied in with the
Egyptian hieroglyph for rope, now transformed into the Roman letter
'h', forming Chanvre in French, Hanf in German, Hennep in Dutch and
then into the Old English Haenep, where it evolved into Hempe and
finally Hemp.
The name Cannabis Sativa was first listed by
Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1753 (although this name had
first been used by Dioscorides, Roman Emperor Nero's Surgeon in
70AD), categorising it as monotypic species. Since then this 'single
species' opinion has been much debated with French biologist Jean
Baptiste de Lemarck, categorizing a second species, Cannabis Indica
in 1785 and Russian biologist Janischevsky, categorizing a third
species Cannabis Ruderalis in 1924.
Cannabis Sativa is now
commonly associated with plants originating from tropical and
sub-tropical areas such as Mexico, Columbia, Africa and Thailand.
Sativas tend to grow very tall (5m +) with thin light green leaves
and wide spacing between branches. They have a long flowering period
of 14 weeks or more. As Sativas tend to grow so tall they have been
used widely for fiber production.
Cannabis Indica's name
honored it's spiritual homeland of North India. Indicas are much
shorter plants, with fat dark green leaves, short spacing between
branches and a flowering period of 8 weeks or less. Cannabis Indica
flowers tend to be more resinous than Sativas.
Cannabis
Ruderalis grows wild in Siberia and tends to be a very short plant
which auto flowers, irrespective of photo-period. This means that a
plant can go from seed to end of flowering in around about 8
weeks.
Hemp History
Hemp has been cultivated for so long that its exact origins are
uncertain. Archaeological evidence suggests it having originated in
the regions of China, North India, South and Central Asia, with the
oldest evidence of its existence being a twelve-thousand-year old
Neolithic site unearthed at Yuan-shan (in what is now Taiwan) which
contained remains of coarse, sandy pottery with Hemp cordage marks
covering the surface, along with a stone beater used to pound Hemp.
Some scientists claim that Hemp was eaten by dinosaurs.
The
longest history of Hemp cultivation comes from China, with a textiles
industry dating back to 4000 BC. Legendary Chinese Emperor Chen Nung
described Chu Ma (Female Cannabis) as the 'elixior of immortality'
within the worlds first medical text, the Pen-Ts'ao Ching compiled in
c2737 BC.
The Scythians a Nomadic tribe, originating from the
Arayans who invaded India, are credited with the spreed of Hemp into
Europe and Asia, from c1000BC to c500BC. They also developed a tool
for harvesting Hemp which still bears their name, the Scythe. Though
early uses of Hemp centered around the eating of the seeded flowers
and the use of the fiber for textiles, the Scythians were the first
to be credited with the inhaling of Hemp smoke. In 450 BC Greek
Historian Herodotus wrote about the Scythians of Central Asia
throwing Hemp flowers onto heated stones placed in a Hemp tent,
inhaling the smoke and then dancing around in an ecstatic
state.
Though Hemp may well have been grown here earlier, it
was the Romans who are are credited with introducing the cultivation
of Hemp, with the oldest recorded cultivation being at Old Buckham
Mere in 400AD.
The depth to which Hemp became integrated
within the fabric of British society is reflected in the various
place names such as Hemel Hempsted, Hampstead Heath and Hampton
Court.
Henry VIII even passed a law in 1533 stating that for
every 60 acres of land under tillage, one quarter must be Hemp, grown
for the crown. The reason for this was the large requirement of Hemp
needed for the Royal Navy which Henry VIII set up.
This Royal
Decree for Hemp cultivation was repeated by Henry VIII's daughter,
Elizabeth I, in 1563, but despite these edicts most farmers were not
keen to grow Hemp. Though Hemp is easy to cultivate, its processing
required a lot of hard work and manpower. The Royal decree was
repealed in 1593 and an increasing amount of Hemp was being imported
into Britain, so that by the late 1700s, 90% of Hemp was being
imported from Russia with its huge surf workforce. At the time
Britain was not the best of friends with France, who in 1807, signed
the Treaty of Tislet with Russia, which banned all Hemp trade from
Russia to Britain. Britain responded by press gaging American sailors
into smuggling Hemp out of Russia into Britain using American ships.
Napolian wasn't too happy about this and after some altercation with
Czar Alexander made an unsuccessful invasion on Russia. The
American's were also not very happy with the actions of the British,
which lead to the American War of Independence between June 1812 and
December 1814.
Hemp cultivation was introduced to the Americas
by the early pilgrim settlers and became such a valued crop that by
1619 Virginia became the first of many colonies to make Hemp
cultivation mandatory and by 1631 one could pay taxes in bushels of
Hemp throughout most of the Americas.
Though much of the early
use of Hemp centered around eating the seeds for food and using the
fiber for cordage, fabric and paper, it was during the reign of Queen
Victoria that the medicinal use of Cannabis extracts became more
widespread in the West. It was a Scottish Doctor, William
O'Shaunghnesey, who after studying its use in India introduced a high
potency Cannabis Tincture to the west in 1841. During the next 50
years, hundreds of medical papers were written on the benefits of
Cannabis and Cannabis Tinctures place in the top 3 most prescribed
medicines, along with opium and alcohol. Dr. Reynolds, Queen
Victoria's personal physician described Cannabis as the 'most
valuable medicine we posses'.
With the dawning of the
Industrial revolution Hemp began to fall out of favour; Steam power
replaced sails, water soluble chemical drugs replaced natural herbal
remedies, the invention of the cotton gin, made cotton into a cheap,
mass produced fabric and new chemical processes were developed for
pulping wood into paper.
The main problem facing Hemp and its
decline was the fact that it was such a hard fiber to process. This
was all set to change in the late 1930s with the invention of a
decortication machine that stripped the outer cortex of bast fibers
from the woody inner stem. Such was the potential of this machine and
the revoltionising of the Hemp industry that Popular Mechanics
magazine ran an article in February 1938 touting Hemp as the 'New
Billion Dollar Crop-The most profitable and desirable crop that can
be grown'. This article however appears to have been written before
the passing of the 'Marijuana Transfer Tax Act, in 1937.
By
the 1920's Hemp had already been subject to prohibition within many
countries, including Britain, after the second Geneva opiates
conference of 1925. This conference heard testimony from Egyptian and
Turkish delegates that the use of Hemp lead to 'the breakdown of all
bodily functions, eventually leading to insanity'. These claims,
since discredited, were unchallenged and all countries signed up to
the treaty were obliged to introduce prohibition of Cannabis, which
Britain did with amendments to the 1925 Dangerous Drugs act, which
came into force on September 28th 1928.
The United States were
however not present at this conference and Hemp was widely grown and
available within the USA, in the form of various tinctures as well as
in the form of Hashish (Hemp resin from the female flowers) openly
sold and consumed in the numerous Turkish smoking parlours (1200 in
New York alone) popularised by the 1876 Centennial expedition. This
however was all set to change.
In the early 1900s newspaper
tycoon Randolf Hearst began to run a series of sensationalist stories
about 'Marijuana-The Killer weed from Mexico'. These stories created
a state of fear and hysteria around 'Marijuana'. The Mexican
colloquialism for Hemp flowers was used as most people were familiar
with the words Hemp, Cannabis and Hashish, but 'Marijuana' was
something new and 'evil'. By the 1930's numerous states had
introduced state prohibition of 'Marijuana' and by 1937 there was
little opposition to Harry Anslinger passing his 'Marijuana Transfer
Tax Bill' through congress. Anslinger was appointed head of the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics by Andrew Mellon, Anslinger's uncle and
head of the Mellon Bank, key financial backers to DuPont. In 1937
Dupont patented processes for chemical bleaching of wood pulp (used
to feed the paper mills of Hearst's newspapers) and making plastics
from the oil refining process. Dupont were well aware of the threat
that Hemp placed on their future profits.
Since the passing of
the Marijuana transfer tax act in 1937, Anslinger went on to head the
US delegation at the 1961 UN drugs convention. Here he managed to
pass the 1961 Single Convention on Drugs, which banned Cannabis
virtually worldwide. Though some countries interpret the wording of
the convention in different ways and are less stringent with its
enforcement, most notably Holland, by the letter of the Law, Cannabis
Hemp remains illegal in virtually every country in the world. My
opinion is that Hemp prohibition is illegal as it is a direct
violation of Human Rights legislation and the primary reason that
governments continue to get away with this criminal activity is that
they control people through fear; the fear of arrest, the fear of
court and ultimately the fear of prison. If enough people stood up
for their rights, prohibition would end very soon.
Hemp
Today Though laws exist
within virtually every country prohibiting Hemp, these laws are
focused primarily against the recreational and in some counties, such
as the USA, the medicinal uses of Hemp flowers and resin. The
cultivation of Hemp for industrial purposes is not subject to
prohibition within the wording of the 1961 UN convention. This has
meant that certain countries have continued to grew and process Hemp
for hundreds and in some cases thousands of years. China remains the
biggest cultivator and producer of Hemp fiber. Many East European
countries such as Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungry also have well
established Hemp industries. Licenses for the cultivation of Hemp
were first issued by the UK Home office back in 1994 after lobbying
by Hemcore. Hemcore remains the biggest cultivator of Hemp within
Britain and franchises many farmers to grow for them. Unfortunately
most of this Hemp ends up being used as Horse bedding made from the
inner hurds. The long bast fibers are sold as a commodity to
countries like Spain were there made into cigarette papers or to
countries like France, where apparently one company makes 90% of the
worlds currency. Suffolk county council however are being a little
bit more enterprising with Hemp and are building council homes out of
Hemp.
The Many uses of
Hemp Though Popular
Mechanic magazine claimed that Hemp 'can be used to make 25.000
products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane' , there are four
primary uses of Hemp:
Hemp
Fiber- The stem of the Hemp
plant consists of a woody inner hurd surrounded by an outer cortex of
Bast Fibers. The hurds are very high in cellulose and can be
compressed into fiber board or solid fuel, mixed with lime and water
to produce Hempcrete that can be cast like concrete, but as it cures
it absorbs carbon dioxide and petrifies the vegetable cellulose into
solid stone. The high cellulose content also enables Hemp plastics to
be made from it. Henry Ford actually built a Hemp plastic car back in
1941 and ran it on Hemp Ethanol.
The bast fibers of the Hemp
plant are the strongest most durable fibers in the plant
kingdom.
They can be spun into various twines, ropes and
cordage, woven into very durable, hard wearing fabrics or paper. With
modern processing techniques it is possible to make pure Hemp fabrics
as soft as silk.
Hemp
Fuel- Any plant matter can
be fermented into ethanol, a very efficient and clean burning fuel.
Hemp is one of the highest yielders of Biomass and could potentially
replace our dependence on fossil fuels.
Hemp
Nutrition- The seed of the
Hemp plant contains a near perfect balance of Essential Fatty Acids
(The building blocks of our cellular structure), complete easily
digestible protein as well as the most complete profile of vitamins
and minerals of any seed. The flowers and leaves are highly
alkanizing and rich in minerals. What is unique however to the Hemp
plant is the presence of the Cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are highly
electron charged and can eliminate free radical damage, such as
tumors and cancers from within the body. Hemp is quite possibly the
most nutritionally perfect food available and as Hypocraties so
rightfully said 'let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy
food'. Unfortunately many people have become very sick due to years
of unhealthy eating and lifestyles. Many of these illnesses can be
linked to recreational food and drug abuse and due to the addictive
nature of this abuse are unwilling to change their lifestyles. For
these sick people concentrated extracts of Hemp have often been
popular.
Hemp
Medicine- Though eating
Hemp flowers is quite possibly the best medicine for a wide range of
illnesses, many people are not willing to do this. We have become a
'quick fix' drug culture wanting almost instant results available in
pill form. Though high strength Hemp extracts were available on the
NHS up until 1974, it is only recently that Hemp is becoming
available again on the NHS. GW Pharmaceuticals have developed
'Savitex' a sub-lingual spray made from a naturally grown THC
extract. Though it is available in Canada and Holland, the British
Medical Controls Agency (Agents for the pharmaceutical drugs
companies) continue to refuse to give a license for Savitex making
its availability on the NHS a complex procedure that many doctors
refuse to engage in.
Hemp
Horizons- The Future of
Hemp- Through all the years that I have been researching, studying
and most importantly growing and consuming Hemp, I have come to this
conclusion. Hemp is the Tree of Life, the most evolved and perfect
plant on the planet. The systems of World governments will try and
continue to maintain its prohibition as they are the puppets of the
secret government, an organisation hell bent on creating a global
economy based on the exploitation of both planet and people. This
whole system is just an illusion created from left-brain fire
technology. This system can not last as it is not sustainable.
Growing and then eating Hemp allows us to see this illusion for what
it is.
Eat Hemp and live forever !