Tuesday September 30, 2008, 5:36 pm
"The emperors new clothes " by jack herer is a good book about this. you can search engine it.

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 6:04 pm
Yeah, and that's one of the things that happened in 1937. Cannabis Hemp was one of history's most widely used plants. Tincture of Cannabis was the basis for almost every patent medicine prior to the discovery of aspirin. Hemp was used for rope, twine, and cloth. Sailing ships were loaded with hemp. The word "canvas" is derived from "cannabis", because that's what canvas was. Sails were made of hemp because salt water deteriorated cotton. Old sails were made into wagon covers and ultimately original Levi's Jeans. And the pressed oil from hemp seeds was used for paints and varnishes. Everyone knew what hemp was. But nobody knew what marijuana was.

Basically, it came down to this. America in the 1900's saw two powerful rivals, agriculture and industry, faced off over several multi-billion dollar markets. When Rudolph Diesel produced his engine in 1896, he'd assumed it would run off of vegetable and seed oils, especially hemp, which is superior to petroleum. Just think about that for a second. A fuel that can be grown by our farmers that is superior to foreign oil. What a lot of history would have been rewritten!

Ok. So we have an elite group of special interests dominated by Du Pont petrochemical company and it's major financial backer and key political ally, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Mellon was a banker who took over Gulf Oil Corporation. In 1913, Henry Ford opened his first auto assembly line, and Gulf Oil opened its first drive-in gas station. In 1919, with ethanol fuel poised to comptete with gasoline, Alchohol Prohibition descended on the nation. Lucky Mellon. When President Harding made him Secretary of the Treasury, he was considered the richest man in America. In the 1920's, Mellon arranged for his bank to loan his buddies as Du Pont money to take over General Motors. Du Pont had developed new gasoline additives and the sulfate and sulfite process that made trees into paper.

In the 1930's, Ford Motor Company operated a successful biomass fuel conversion plant using cellulose at Iron Mountain, Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch ethyl-acetate and creosote from hemp. The same fundamental ingredients for industry were also being made from fossil fuels.

During the same period, Du Pont was developing cellophane, nylon, and dacron from from fossil fuels. Du Pont held the patents on many synthetics and became a leader in the development of paint, rayon, synthetic rubber, plastics, chemicals, photographic film, insecticides and agricultural chemicals.

From the Du Pont 1937 Annual Report we find a clue to what started to happen next: "The revenue raising power of government may be converted into an instrument for forcing acceptance of sudden new ideas of industrial and social reoganization".

Ok, enter William Randolph Hearst. Hearst's company was a major consumer of the cheap tree-pulp paper that had replaced hemp paper in the late 19th century. The Hearst Corporation was also a major logging company, and produced Du Pont's chemical-drenched tree pulp paper, which yellowed and fell apart after a short time. Fueled by the advertising sold to the petrochemical industries, Hearst Newspapers were also known for their sensationalist stories. Hearst despised poor people, black people, chinese, hindus, and all other minorities. Most of all he hated Mexicans. Pancho Villa's cannabis-smoking troops had reclaimed some 800,000 acres of prime timberland from Hearst in the name of the mexican peasants. And all of the low-quality paper the company planned to make by deforesting it's vast timber holdings were in danger of being replaced by low-cost, high quality paper made from hemp.

Hearst had always supported any kind of prohibition, and now he wanted cannabis included in every anti-narcotics bill. Never mind that cannabis wasn't a narcotic. Facts weren't important. The important thing was to have it completely removed from society, doctors, and industry.

Around 1920 or so, a new word arose - "Marihuana". Through screaming headlines and horror stories,"marihuana" was blamed for murderous rampages by blacks and mexicans. Hearst continued to use his power of the press to impress on his readers the dangers of the "marihuana" plant.

When the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was formed in 1932, Mellon's nephew Harry Anslinger was appointed its head, a job in Mellon's treasury department that was created just for him. Treasury agents were beginning to operate on their own agenda. Deep in the throes of the depression, congress began to reexamine all federal agencies. Anslinger began to fear that his department was in danger of emasculation. Although worldwide, hemp was still big business, in 1935 the Treasury Department began secretly drafting a bill called The Marihuana Tax Act. The Treasury Department's general counsul Herman Oliphant was put in charge of writing something that could get past both Congress and the Court disguised as a tax revenue bill. Congress wasn't all that interested in the matter, seeing as all the information they had to work with was what was provided to them by Anslinger. They deliberately collected horror stories on the evils of marihuana pulled primarily from the Hearst newspapers, called Anslinger's Gore Files. Crimes that had never happened at all were being attributed to marihuana.

So, in 1937, Anslinger went before a poorly attended committee hearing and called for a total ban on marihuana. He stated under oath "This drug is entirely the monster Hyde, the harmful effects of which cannot be measured". Bureaucrats planned the hearings to avoid the discussion of the full House and presented the measure in the guise of a tax revenue bill brought to the six member House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Du Pont ally Robert Doughton of North Carolina. This bypassed the House without further hearings and passed it over to the Senate Finance Committee, controlled by another ally, Prentiss Brown of Michigan, where it was rubber stamped into law. Once on the books, Anslinger would "administer" the licensing process to make sure that no more commercial hemp was ever grown in the United States. Clinton Hesterm assistant general counsel for the Department of the Treasury, explained to the House Committee " The leading newspapers of the United States have recognized the seriousness of this problem and have advocated federal legislation to control.. marihuana...The marijuana cigarette is one of the most insidious of all forms of dope, largely because of the failure of the public to understand its fatal qualities."

At the last minute, a few pro-hemp witnesses showed up. Most of the confusion came from the using of the word "marihuana". Most people had no idea that "marihuana", merely a slang word taken from a drinking song celebrating Pancho Villa's victory, "La Cucaracha", was the same thing as cannabis hemp, a plant which had been an important crop since the founding of the country. Ralph Loziers of the National Oil Seed Institute showed up representing paint manufacturers and lubrication oil processors, and stated that hempseed was an essential commodity. Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical Association spoke in defense of cannabis medicines and in protest of the way the bill was handled. Woodward complained that there was no certain data that marihuana use had increased, and stated that if it had, the "newspaper exploitation of the habit had done more to increase it than anything else". Asked point blank if he thought federal legislation was necessary, he replied "I do not .. it is not a medical addiction that is involved." Woodward went on to criticize the way the word "marihuana" had been used to deliberately confuse the medical and industrial hemp communities. "In all you have heard here thus far, no mention has been made of any excessive use of the drug or its excessive distribution by any pharmacist. And yet the burden of this bill is placed heavily on the doctors and pharmacists of the country, and may I say very heavily - most heavily, possibly of all - on the farmers of this country... We can not understand yet ... why this bill should have been prepared in secret for two years without any initiative, even to the profession, that it was being prepared ... no medical man would identify this bill with a medicine until he read it through, because marijuana is not a drug, ... simply a name given cannabis."

A few days later, Representative Fred Vinson of Kentucky was asked to summarize the AMA's position. He lied to the effect that the medical group's legislative counsul (Woodward) "Not only gave this measure full support, but also the approval from the AMA."

The act passed without a roll call vote. Now we can see why it was prepared in secret - passage of the Act put all hemp industries firmly under the control of the very special interests that most benefited from its repression over the years - prohibition police and bureaucrats working in collusion with the petrochemical companies, the timber companies, the alcohol and tobacco industries, the pharmaceutical drug companies, and today, the urine testing, property seizure, police and prison industries.

In that same year, 1937, Du Pont filed its patent on Nylon, a synthetic fiber that took over many of the textile and cordage markets that would have gone to hemp. More than half the American cars on the road were built by GM, which guaranteed Du Pont a captive market for paints, varnishes, plastics, and rubber, all which could have been made from hemp. Furthermore, all GM cars would subsequently be designed to use tetra-ethyl leaded fuel exclusively, which contained additives that Du Pont manufactured. All competition from hemp had been outlawed.

thank you walkadelic -it is a great book:)

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 7:03 pm
I knew it, I just knew hemp could replace oil as fuel, and has maybe 1001 uses or more! So the money controllers slapped Americans and the world in the face for their own gain, and a way to keep up dependent on an expensive, polluting, damaging product.

Thank you for this information, Mae. It's enlightening and a keeper!

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 7:14 pm
honestly, my sweet dear friend marion, i posted this just for you:) i am so glad you enjoyed it. many hugs -mae

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 7:31 pm
Somehow, someway we must get power and control of the country out of the hands of the corrupt thieves. They have used and abused Americans and the world for too long. I'm sure they would have exploited hemp and the sale of it to consumers as well, but to deprive us of a far better quality product is scandalous, unethical and wrong.

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 7:49 pm
And the rest is history, it's such a shame. But, someday, it will all be made right again, especially since all us potheads are getting older.

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 7:59 pm
You are the BEST, Mae!! Thank you! Although I gave up smoking the stuff years ago, I know the benefits of it. It deeply saddens me how the government penalizes heavily and even incarcerates for marijuana use. It's criminal and downright sinful the innocent lives they have ruined. To add salt to the wound, we've been deprived for YEARS and still to this day the benefits of this wonderful product.

What a monstrous society of money controllers, big business and leadership we have. Washington is nothing more than a sophisticated, well-oiled racketeering operation, lording over our citizens like sheep to a slaughter.

It's interesting that these crooks don't change their tactics over the years. The same way Du Pont swindled the hemp farmers is the same way today's Big Pharma tries to control nutrients and herbs, offering us toxic medicines instead; pesticides and GMOs over natural pest control and natural foods; trees (lumber industry) instead of hemp for paper; and countless other deceptions all designed to keep the monopoly in the hands of certain money families - and we know who they are.

I believe we will see marijuana legalized within 5 years or so. With the neocon scandals breaking right and left, the economy in the gutter and citizens roaring mad, people are more engaged than ever and will be looking at everything Washington has been and is currently doing with their mismanaged leadership and corruption. I also think Christians will be looking at their empty pockets and rethinking many of their rigid rules influenced by the manipulative preachers that make no sense. There may be a renaissance in this country that will tear down many senseless and manipulative rules, opening the way for opportunity and progress. Gotta keep those letters, emails, calls and petitions going. Thanks again.

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 8:01 pm
Deborah...Well then we better hurry and legalize it for your sake, as time is running out, LOL!

Tuesday September 30, 2008, 8:14 pm
All of nature's gifts should be free and abundant to everyone. The problem is greed as it always has been.

Wednesday October 1, 2008, 5:33 am
I agree Catman. Thanks for sending to me Charles. Noted with thanks Mae.

Wednesday October 1, 2008, 8:09 am
yes marion we are in need of a revolution:) it is the number one cash surplus in the u.s. and our government only wants a piece through "the war on drugs" absurd isn't it? i don't smoke it so much anymore. i drink it -i make tea -saves my lungs and from depriving oxygen to what little brain i have left, lol. one thing it didn't mention is that hemp crops do not need to be rotated annually. so it takes half the land or produces a double crop yearly. it is no where as acidic as most your common veges.

Wednesday October 1, 2008, 8:31 am
It's always about money. It's never been about people, unless there was money to be gained.

We are going to turn this madness around.

Wednesday October 1, 2008, 11:19 am
I remember the first time I told my friends I thought pot should be legal. They were shocked that I thought drugs should be legal. They have no idea what marijuana is. Two of us in the room spoke up at the same time and told them it was not a drug. That is the trouble. Most people don't know that. They believe it is that monsterous thing that makes people go out of their minds and do terrible things. I smoked it twice in my life. I am a boomer and the smoking took place when I was in my late fifties. There are so many things that can be improved invironmentaly with hemp. We would not be in this mess with gas and oil and our forests being depleted if they would get off the greedy kick and look past their pockets. It all comes down to M O N E Y. You are right when you say there may be another renaissance. Something has to get things back on track.

Wednesday October 1, 2008, 5:29 pm
I'll say it again: it is absurd to make a life form illegal.
It is cruel to deny chemo patients this relief.
It's a shame to ignore the potential of hemp.
All for rotten, narrow-minded politics !