THE BOWL OF KNOWLEDGE ON HEMP
by Chris Olson
OUTLINE
Thesis: Hemp should be re-legalized to help solve environmental problems and to provide a natural medicine and safe alternative to the harmful drugs which are socially acceptable.
I. Hemp, for thousands of years, has been utilized for its natural, unprocessed medicinal value.
A) Marijuana, as a drug, has effectively served as a treatment for Glaucoma and Asthma, has reduced nausea which results from Cancer and AIDS treatment, and has many more known, medical uses.
B) Marijuana could replace ten to twenty percent of over-the-counter prescription drugs, providing a natural and free therapy for thousands of people, this being the first step in reducing the skyrocketing cost of pharmaceutical drugs.
II. Hempseed is a food with amazing health values.
A) The oil in hemp seed contains LA, and LNA amino acids which, rarely found in the present day fast food diet, are the essential building blocks of life. The seed itself contains a high amount of protein, making Hempseed an excellent food for healthy living.
B) The large biomass of the hemp plant could provide enough hempseed food to feed starving people throughout the country.
III. The large biomass of hemp can be used to make fuel.
A) This fuel will be a major step in reducing pollution.
IV. The woody stalk of the hemp plant provides a superior fiber that is natures version of petro-chemical synthetics such as nylon, and will make top grade paper without all the pollutants.
A) Utilizing the biomass of the hemp plant to make paper, clear cutting of forests will be sharply reduced.
B) If used for paper, the hemp plant will reduce the amount of hazardous chemicals used in wood pulp paper manufacturing, such as Dioxin, by ninety percent.
C) The fiber can be used to make other products
V) Marijuana is a drug.
A) Any drug has its dangers, but those associated with marijuana pale in comparison to the legal, lethal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.
B) The "Drug War" is eroding the constitution which we live under, threatening the foundation of our individual rights.
VI. A law which takes away so many positive things from society has no function, and should be removed.
A) Legalize hemp for the package of benefits.
The Bowl of Knowledge on Hemp
For thousands of years, the plant cannabis sativa, otherwise known as hemp, or marijuana, has been harvested by people and utilized in many different ways. It has been grown to provide food for villages and towns, clothes for winter travelers, and rope and sails for armadas. The bible was written on hemp paper, as well as the first draft of the US Constitution. Marijuana has been utilized for its medicinal value since four to five hundred BC. Not until a half century ago did the hemp plant become illegal as it still is today. In 1938, marijuana began to threaten the interests of influential Americans. William Randolph Hearst and the Dupont corporation, had just patented a sulfuric acid process for making paper out of wood pulp. Hearst used his own newspapers to save his paper making industry, scaring the public into believing that the drug marijuana led users to murderous actions. Based heavily upon these sensational headlines, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937, ensuring that American investments would be secure.
The American Medical Association (AMA), represented by Dr. James Woodward MD, stood before a congressional hearing to protest. Refuting the newspapers evidence, Woodward stated, "there is no evidence, however, that the medicinal use of these drugs[Cannabis and its preparations] has caused or is causing cannabis addiction" (33). Despite the conflict between scientific evidence, and evidence taken from the pages of Hearsts newspapers, the bill was passed, beginning the prohibition of marijuana. This prohibition has barred, to the present day, the utilization of a valuable resource. Hemp, therefore, should be re-legalized to provide a natural medicine, ecologically safe industry, and a legal, safe alternative to the harmful drugs which are socially acceptable.
The propaganda that led to the prohibition of the hemp plant continued ever since. Government funded studies turned up horrifying results which, when used in anti-marijuana literature, effectively scared the public and perpetuated the unjustified prohibition of the hemp plant and its myriad of resourceful uses. An excellent example is a study funded by the government, done in 1974 by Dr. Heath. He found marijuana inhalation to cause brain damage and death in Rhesus monkeys. Playboy Magazine, utilizing the Freedom of Information Act and the US courts, discredited Dr. Heath by obtaining the method of his research. What those who read this propaganda do not know, as Jack Herer, a hemp activist states, is that the Rhesus monkeys were suffocated, for several minutes a day, by approximately sixty three marijuana cigarettes along with carbon monoxide gas.(78) These monkeys were killed to produce invalid information to further the prohibition of hemp. Another government study found just one marijuana cigarette to be dangerous because the metabolites of the drug attached to fatty cells and stayed in the BODY for thirty days, producing unimaginable [emphasis added] side effects.(78) This process is the natural way for the human BODY to dispose of extra substances, and in no way brings harm to a person who smokes marijuana. Studies like these terrify the public into supporting the prohibition of hemp.
One of the greatest losses through prohibition, as Dr. Woodward and the AMA feared, is the medicinal properties of the hemp plant. The New York Times quotes Francis Young, administrative law judge of the Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA), "marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man"(A21). Marijuana needs to be available because it can be used, in many different forms and preparations, to treat a multitude of modern ailments. Roger A. Roffman, a writer on the subject of marijuana, states marijuana "...is an effective anti emetic for patients receiving cancer chemotherapy"(86), and S. Cohen and R.C. Stillman write, if "...administered as a microaerosal, [marijuana] produces a significant and prolonged bronchodialation [in asthma patients] without adverse side effects"(119). And for those who suffer from Glaucoma, promising results show marijuana to "...[lower] normal intraocular pressures 15% to 50% in all subjects..."(86). These findings support the knowledge which, until the last few decades, has primarily existed in the form of folk remedies, passed from generation to generation. An example of this transfer of knowledge is found in the statement made by David Simental, who has lived and worked in Mexico for seventeen years. "My Grandmother told me to put marijuana leaves and alcohol[isopropyl] into a jar. Let it sit for a few days to a week, then use the mixture as an ointment to relieve arthritis and back pains." These traditional curing methods have been replaced in America, by high-tech, and high cost modern medicine. However, it cannot be forgotten that synthetic drugs are based on chemicals found in herbs and plants from all over the world, marijuana being just one example of a plant with excellent therapeutic properties.
It is not surprising that, under the guise of bad marijuana publicity, the pharmaceutical industry has not made serious efforts to research the medicinal use of hemp. After all, marijuana is a plant, a product of nature which cannot be patented. Herer claims, "...if marijuana were legal, it would immediately replace 10% to 20% of all pharmaceutical prescription medicines..."(31). The availability of free, unpatentable medicine to millions of people has long been suppressed by pharmaceutical drug manufacturers. Marijuana needs to be legalized as a first step in reducing the over-inflated cost of prescription drugs, as well as a reintroduction to natural medication. Proposition P, an initiative passed in San Francisco, encourages the freedom for doctors to prescribe marijuana, or any part of the hemp plant, or any preparation or herbal therapy intended for treatment of asthma, glaucoma, migraine, nausea, arthritis, anorexia, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, or as a substance with healing properties, also used as an additive to the treatments of AIDS, as well as cancer (Peron 47). It is time to repeal this senseless law, and allow those sufferers that which they can benefit from.
The seed of hemp, or hempseed, is a health food which provides essential oils that have been lacking in our fast food lives. This oil is an effective nutritional supplement which will keep people healthy, and will aid in the recovery of those who are ill. Herer states, "the marijuana seed's combination of amino acids, enzymes and edistines make more food protein and nutrients available to the human BODY than any other food on Earth"(42). Hempseed oil contains linoleic(LA) and linolenic(LNA) fatty acids which are essential to health. Lynn Osborne writes about a treatment utilizing the oils found in hempseed:
Dr. Budwig has used her oil-protein combination therapy to successfully treat cancers of the brain, breast, liver, lymph and stomach; leukemia; melanoma; CVD; diabetes; acne; and other skin conditions; weak vision and hearing; dry skin; menstrual problems like cramps and breast pain; glandular atrophy; fatty liver; gall stones; pancreas malfunction; kidney degeneration; immune deficiency; low vitality and many other ailments including arthritic conditions. (55)
It is not unreasonable to assume the core of health problems in our fast paced society be rooted in our shabby diets. Udo Erasmus, a nutrition expert reports that Dr. Budwig believes the consumption of essential fatty acids with protein is not a unique eating habit, rather a re-establishment of the way people should eat to stay healthy, and to be an alimentary source of food to help restore lost health and vitality. Upon attaining this vitality, health will be maintained (275). Udo considers the oil of hemp seed to be the second best source for both LA and LNA acids...and remembers the seeds use to make hemp butter in Russia (231-232).
The hemp plant, as one of its slang names infers, grows like a weed. It is not uncommon for the hemp plant to reach ten to twenty feet tall in one growing season. The yield of one acre of hemp is four times that of forest. The plant can grow in most climates and regions, and can be safely rotated with farm crops, actually enriching the soil it grows from. If utilized properly, a cross breed of the plant could be made to produce mass quantities of seeds, enough to feed starving people throughout the country. This food would not only feed needy people, it would give them health. Hemp needs to be utilized to provide a stable food source capable of sustaining health in our nation. Here are two examples of Hemp health food, American style:
HEMPSEED TOFU BURGERS
Soak 1/2 cup toasted ground Hempseed in 1/2 cup soy milk for 15 minutes
mix 1/2 # mashed tofu, 1/2 cup beans, grains or potato, 1/2 cup chopped vegetables, 2 cloves garlic(mashed), 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, T. Tamari or Soy Sauce, Black or Red pepper, 2 T. tomato paste or ketchup
Form into patties, sauté in olive oil, add Hemp Cheese..
HEMPSEED CHEESE
1 cup ground hempseed with enough water to moisten, 2 cloves pressed garlic, Acidopholus culture
Ferment 1 day at room temperature and refrigerate
(From personal interview with employee of hempery)
The hemp plant will provide our nation with a multitude of ecologically safe products and industrial applications. One prime example is it's use for fuel. With energy reserves declining, oil prices climbing, and pollution resulting from the burning of fossil fuels, a definite alternative needs to be found. Lyster H Dewey and Jason Merril write in 1916, "Hemp hurds are used... in rare instances, for fuel"(4). The cellulose material of plants can be broken down through a variety of processes such as pyrolosis or by using a special bacteria to biologically break down the material. Ethanol, Methanol, or methane fuel made from plant material will not pollute the air with lead, sulfur, or CO2. Although the clean-burning fuel will emit only CO2, this emission will be adding to the atmosphere the net amount which is used in the plants photosynthesis, creating a CO2 balance which does not add to the green house effect. Jeffrey M Lenorovitz reports about a Soviet airplane which "operates on liquid hydrogen/liquid methane"(112). The problem with fuel from biomass applied in large scale as fuel for automobiles is finding a plant which can provide enough fuel. Brazil used ethanol derived from sugar cane for several years. The program is, as Brian Homewood reports, "faced with a growing shortage of the sugar-cane ethanol that powers about one third of Brazil's 13 million cars..."(26). The biomass of hemp is large enough to be the major bulk of a renewable fuel source. If hemp is used in correlation with other crops such as sugar-cane or corn, enough non-polluting, renewable fuel can be made to compete with oil. As Herer states:
The early Oil Barons (Rockefeller of Standard; Rothschild of shell; et al), paranoically aware in the Twenties of the possibilities of Ford's Methanol scheme and its cheapness, dropped and kept oil prices incredibly low, between $1 to $4 per barrel (there are 42 gallons in an oil barrel) for almost 50 years until 1970. So low, in fact, that no other energy source could compete with them...(43)
The price of oil is now high enough that fuel derived from plants can economically compete, and once firmly established as an industry, the price will drop. The hemp plant needs to be legalized to propel the biomass fuel industry into a competitive position, at the same time helping to reduce pollution.
This paper is made of seventy percent hemp and thirty percent straw. Tom Cluck, a distributor of hemp paper claims, "Our paper is 80% to 90% less harmful to the earth in its production than any other brand of paper." Paper made from wood pulp requires processing which creates many hazardous chemicals harmful to the earth and people. Dioxin, a carcinogenic waste product of chlorine bleaching of wood pulp paper, is not produced by paper made of hemp because hydrogen peroxide is used for bleaching, its byproduct being CO2.
Using hemp to make paper would sharply reduce the amount of forests cut down for paper. The preservation of our forests and the low pollution resulting from the production of hemp paper make it imperative that hemp be legalized to create an ecological paper making industry. It is possible to create a strain of the hemp plant which will provide paper, as well as fuel (hemp hurds are a byproduct of retting the plant for its fiber), and seeds. Other strains could be made specifically for clothing, or for synthetic plastics made of cellulose. The seeds' oil can be used to make paints and varnishes which will be of the same quality a petrochemical paints, and considerably less harmful to the environment.
The flower of the hemp plant contains a chemical known as Tetrahydrocannabinol(THC), which has intoxicating effects upon humans. Many people believe that marijuana is a drug with dangerous side effects. This is true. Herer points out that there is a small percentage of people who will experience higher heart rates and anxiety. These people should avoid using marijuana(35). Although marijuana does not cause physical addiction, like the addiction found in users of alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine, there is a mental addiction which can occur. This form of addiction is the same type experienced by people who watch too much television, or eat too much food. These minor problems pale in comparison to the dangers of legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol.
NUMBER OF AMERICAN DEATHS PER YEAR that result directly or primarily from the following (selected) causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 18 years of the U.S. Surgeon General's Reports.
(Figures are for 1987 from the federal governments Bureau of Mortality Statistics and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, et al.-the last complete year at the time of this writing.)
TOBACCO........................................................................340,000 to 395,000
ALCOHOL (not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) 125,000+
ASPIRIN (including deliberate overdose)............................................180 to 1,000+
CAFFEINE (from stress, ulcers and triggering irregular heartbeats)......1,000 to 10,000
'LEGAL DRUG OVERDOSE' (deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed, or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol ..............................................14,000 to 27,000
ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs ........3,800 to 5,200
MARIJUANA (including overdose) ...................................................................0
Herer (back cover)
The drug marijuana is a safe substance. Rhea L. Dornbush, et al writes, clinical observations "do not support the opinion that chronic use of cannabis leads to physical deterioration"(172). The grounds for marijuana prohibition have been based on its supposed dangers, although the real dangers exist in the legal drugs of our society. Marijuana should be legalized to provide a safe alternative to using damaging drugs like alcohol and tobacco.
Throughout human existence, man-kind has used chemicals to induce altered states of consciousness, and this practice will continue. The drug war cannot triumph over human nature, as professors Morris J Blachman and Kenneth E. Sharpe write, "...an expansion of the criminal-justice system would not deter those who are addicted to drugs from seeking to feed their habits"(153). The drug "war" will continue to erode constitutional rights, without gaining any good for society. "Basic liberties are further imperiled because of the tendency to view drug-law enforcement in terms of war. For during war, the legal, constitutional, and moral restraints on governmental misuse of power tend to be weakened"(139).
The misuse of power is evident in the disregard, by DEA, of the statements made by Francis Young, their own law administrative judge who claims, as quoted by Michael Isikoff, "in strict medical terms, marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume"(42). "The long awaited ruling was immediately criticized by DEA lawyers and anti drug groups who said it would send a confusing message at a time the federal government is attempting to wage a war on drugs"(42). The message is clear, however, that DEA will continue to disregard facts while the war on drugs quickly erodes the foundation of the constitution. DEA can "raid" houses without search warrants, based on probable cause, and can seize property and assets for simple possession of a harmless drug. The war effort has resulted in loss of constitutional protections. It is time to take a stand against government ignorance. The drug marijuana should be legalized to recapture the freedom to consume an intoxicant which is safer than the lethal drugs which are legal today.
Mike Sager quotes the Pope of Pot, regarding the illegality of marijuana. "If you follow an insane law, you must be insane yourself"(77). A law which denies medicine to suffering people, prohibits the industrial use of a plant capable of significantly improving the environment, and forces people to risk being thrown in jail to consume an intoxicant far safer than those presently legal, constitutes an insane law which must be repealed. Legalizing hemp will make clean burning fuel available to free our nation from its dependence upon oil while ridding the environment of the pollution resulting from burning fossil fuels. Legalizing hemp will reduce deforestation by providing a renewable paper source which will convert fiber into paper, without releasing the harmful chemicals that are a byproduct of paper made from wood.
Francis Young states, "it would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance..."(42). When hemp is legalized, a free medicine will be available to the millions who can benefit from the plants healing properties, as well as a nutritional food source which can supply enough food to feed starving people throughout the nation. Hemp needs to be legalized to re-establish a national product which will positively change many aspects of our lives.
WORKS CITED
Blachman, Morris J., and Kenneth E. Sharpe. "The War ON Drugs: American Democracy Under Assault." World Policy Journal. vol. 7(1): 1990. 135-163
Cluck, Tom. Conversation with representative of American Hemp Mercantile, Seattle WA.
Cohen, S., and Richard C. Stillman. The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana. New York: Plenum, 1976
Dewey, Lester, and Jason Merril. United States Department of Agriculture. Bulletin # 404, 1916
Dornbush, Rhea L., et al. Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences. Chronic Cannabis Use. v. 282. New York: NY Academy of Sciences
Erasmus, Udo. Fats and Oils: The Complete guide to Fats and Oils in Health and Nutrition. Vancouver, BC: Alive Books, 1986
Hempery, Ohio The. Distributor of hemp products. Telephone conversation with employee.
Herer, Jack. The Emperor Wears No Clothes. 2nd ed. ed. Chris Conrad. California: Hemp Pub., 1990
Homewood, Brian. "Methanol use in Brazilian Cars 'Would Endanger Health'". New Scientist. Feb. 10, 1990 26
Isikoff, Michael. "Administrative Judge Urges Medicinal Use of Marijuana". Washington Post. Sept. 7, 1988 42
Lenorovitz, Jeffery M. "Soviets Seek International Interest in Alternative-Fuel Powered Transport". Aviation Week and Space Technology. May 28, 1990 112
New York Times. "Judge Urges Allowing Medicinal Use of Marijuana". Sept. 7, 1988 A21
Osborne, Lynn. "Hempseed: Natures Perfect Health Food?" High Times. April, 1992 36+
Peron, Dennis. High Times. June, 1992. 47
Roffman, Roger A. Marijuana as Medicine. Seattle: Madrona Pub. 1982
Sager, Mike. "The High Life and Strange Times of the Pope of Pot." Rolling Stone. June 13, 1991 77
Woodward, James MD Hearing Before A Subcommittee of the Committee of Finance, US Senate. HR 6906, 1937
Young, Francis. qtd, in Washington Post. Sept. 7, 1988. 42
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