Why is HEMP illegal?

[Featherlocks]

We Could Put All Our Farmers Back To Work Tomorrow


The Marijuana Trick - The Real
Reason Hemp is Illegal


- Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Where did the word 'marijuana' come from? In the mid
1930s, the M-word was created to tarnish the good image and phenomenal
history of the hemp plant...as you will read. The facts cited here,
with references, are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia Britannica,
which was printed on hemp paper for 150 years:

• 
  All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s;
  Hemp Paper Reconsidered, Jack Frazier, 1974.
  
• 
  It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until
  the early 1900s; LA Times, August 12, 1981.
  
• 
  REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during
  the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You
  could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763
  to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon.
  
• 
  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers
  GREW HEMP; Washington and Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled
  hemp seeds from China to France then to America.
  
• 
  Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America
  and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp.
  Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow's export to England; Emperor Wears
  No Clothes, Jack Herer.
  
• 
  For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and rope were
  made from hemp. The word 'canvas' is Dutch for hemp; Webster's New
  World Dictionary.
  
• 
  80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets,
  etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of
  the cotton gin.
  
• 
  The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag, the first drafts
  of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made
  from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.
  
• 
  The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak
  year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash
  crop until the 20th Century; State Archives.
  
• 
  Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 8000 years in Persia.
  Hemp industrialization began 5000 years ago in Central Asia and
  North Africa, in ancient Persia, China and Egypt.
  
• 
  Rembrandts, Gainsborough's, Van Gogh's as well as most early canvas
  paintings were principally painted on hemp linen.
  
• 
  In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper
  would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down.
  Government studies report that 1 acre of
  hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works
  to implement such programs; Department of Agriculture.
  
• 
  Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until
  1937. 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were used in America for paint products
  in 1935; Sherman Williams Paint Co. testimony before Congress against
  the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.
  
• 
  Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and
  the CAR ITSELF WAS CONTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford
  was photographed among his hemp fields. The
  car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp plastic panels whose impact
  strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.
  
• 
  Hemp called 'Billion Dollar Crop.' It was the first time a cash
  crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars; Popular
  Mechanics, Feb., 1938.
  
• 
  Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938) published an article
  entitled 'The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.'
  It stated that if hemp was cultivated using 20th Century technology,
  it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and
  the rest of the world.
  

The following information comes directly from the United
States Department of Agriculture's 1942 14-minute film encouraging and
instructing 'patriotic American farmers' to grow 350,000 acres of hemp
each year for the war effort:

'...When Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service
of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been
grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For
centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that sailed the western
seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less
than the hangman, hemp was indispensable...
...Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands
of the Japanese...American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and
Navy as well as of our industries...
...The Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is gone, American
hemp will go on duty again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines;
hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship
and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas
victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory!'

Certified proof from the Library of Congress; found by
the research of Jack Herer, refuting claims of other government agencies
that the 1942 USDA film 'Hemp for Victory' did not exist.
Hemp cultivation and production
do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that hemp
produces 4 times as much pulp as wood with at least 4 to 7 times less
pollution.
From Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938:
'It has a short growing season...It can be grown in any
state...The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect
condition for the next year's crop. The dense shock of leaves, 8 to
12 feet above the ground, chokes out weeds....hemp, this new crop can
add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.'
In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have
caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp. This single resource
could have created millions of new jobs generating thousands of quality
products. Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought America out
of the Great Depression.
William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst
Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of
timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper products. Patty
Hearst's grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit,
stood to lose billions because of hemp.
In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make plastics
from oil and coal. Dupont's Annual Report urged stockholders to invest
in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane,
celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could now be made from
oil. Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80% of Dupont's
business.
Andrew Mellon became Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury
and Dupont's primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law,
Harry J. Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs.
Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons.
Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises.
For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took
an obscure Mexican slang word: 'marihuana' and pushed it into the consciousness
of America.
- Only Thing New Is History We Do not Know -


Hemp, or cannabis, or marijuana was outlawed in 1937 because it threatened
the nation-less corporate interests of - William Randolph Hearst ­ and
- DuPont. They had to get rid of the competition. - Hearst's yellow
journalism newspaper chain wrote scathing stories about "marijuana"
- a word he made up - because he knew no one would believe them about
hemp, which George Washington himself grew hemp.
The decorticator, a state of the art hemp harvester, led Popular Mechanics
to call hemp the New Billion Dollar Crop. - - Because of printing and
bindery lead time required for publication, this February 1938 article
was actually prepared in the spring of 1937, when cannabis hemp was
still legal to grow and was an incredibly fast-growing industry. - -
Newsprint could now be produced far more cheaply than any other method,
and one acre of hemp could produce as much newsprint as four acres of
forest trees. - Hearst owned vast timber acreage and competition from
the hemp industry might have driven his paper manufacturing out of business.
He stood to lose millions of dollars.
DuPont stood to lose on two fronts. DuPont owned the patent for converting
wood pulp into newsprint and supplied Hearst with the necessary chemicals.
Secondly, in the 1930s DuPont was gearing up to introduce nylon and
other man-made fibers, along with synthetic petrochemical oils, which
they hoped would replace hemp see oil used in paints and other products.
The decorticator meant that hemp fibers could be manufactured as fine
as any man-made fibers. DuPont would lose untold millions of invested
dollars, plus an estimated 80 percent of all future business, unless
hemp was outlawed.
DuPont's financial backer was Mellon Bank, owned and chaired by Andrew
Mellon. - - Andrew Mellon at the time was also Secretary of Treasury
Department, which was in charge of drug taxes - -, i.e., prohibition
- -. Harry Anslinger, commissioners of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics,
which answered to the Treasury Department, was married to Andrew Mellon's
niece. Thus they had the power and the means. - Anslinger's lies about
hemp were repeated endlessly in Hearst's newspapers. Stories about marijuana,
the killer weed from Mexico, instilled fear and completely misled the
public that the weed was, in fact, just good old hemp.
Cannabis hemp was not prohibited because it was dangerous. Indeed,
for thousands of years it was the world's largest agricultural crop
used in thousands of products and enterprises, producing the majority
of fiber, fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense, medicine and food. -
No, cannabis hemp was prohibited to protect the Hearst and DuPont corporations
from devastating competition, as well as appealing to the overt racism
stirred up by Hearst's yellow journalism.

[Featherlocks]

Hemp for Victory!

United States Deparment of Agriculture - 1942

[Featherlocks]

MEDIA MANIPULATION
A media blitz of 'yellow journalism' raged in the late
1920s and 1930s. Hearst's newspapers ran stories emphasizing the horrors
of marihuana. The menace of marihuana made headlines. Readers learned
that it was responsible for everything from car accidents to loose morality.
Films like 'Reefer Madness' (1936), 'Marihuana: Assassin of Youth' (1935)
and 'Marihuana: The Devil's Weed' (1936) were propaganda designed by
these industrialists to create an enemy. Their purpose was to gain public
support so that anti-marihuana laws could be passed.
Examine the following quotes from 'The Burning Question' AKA REEFER
MADNESS:

• 
  A violent narcotic.
  
• 
  Acts of shocking violence.
  
• 
  Incurable insanity.
  
• 
  Soul-destroying effects.
  
• 
  Under the influence of the drug he killed his entire family with
  an axe.
  
• 
  More vicious, more deadly even than these soul-destroying drugs
  (heroin, cocaine) is the menace of marihuana!
  

Reefer Madness did not end with the usual 'the end.'
The film concluded with these words plastered on the screen: TELL YOUR
CHILDREN.
In the 1930s, people were very naive; even to the point
of ignorance. The masses were like sheep waiting to be led by the few
in power. They did not challenge authority. If the news was in print
or on the radio, they believed it had to be true. They told their children
and their children grew up to be the parents of the baby-boomers.
On April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law or
the bill that outlawed hemp was directly brought to the House Ways and
Means Committee. This committee is the only one that can introduce a
bill to the House floor without it being debated by other committees.
The Chairman of the Ways and Means, Robert Doughton, was a Dupont supporter.
He insured that the bill would pass Congress.
Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney, testified
too late on behalf of the American Medical Association. He told the
committee that the reason the AMA had not denounced the Marihuana Tax
Law sooner was that the Association had just discovered that marihuana
was/is hemp.
Few people, at the time, realized that the deadly menace
they had been reading about on Hearst's front pages was in fact passive
hemp. The AMA understood hemp to be a MEDICINE found in numerous healing
products sold over the last hundred years.
In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful
crop known became a drug and our planet has been suffering ever since.

Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the most
violence-causing drug known. Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission
for 31 years, promoted the idea that marihuana made users act extremely
violent. In the 1950s, under the Communist threat of McCarthyism, Anslinger
now said the exact opposite. Marijuana will pacify you so much that
soldiers would not want to fight.
Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating
as large tracts of rain forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals
are killing people. These great problems could be reversed if we industrialized
hemp. Natural biomass could provide all of the planet's energy needs
that are currently supplied by fossil fuels. We have consumed 80% of
our oil and gas reserves. We need a renewable resource. Hemp could be
the solution to soaring gas prices.

[Featherlocks]

[b]THE WONDER PLANT
[/b]


Hemp has a higher quality fiber
than wood fiber. Far fewer caustic chemicals are required to make paper
from hemp than from trees. Hemp paper does not turn yellow and is very
durable. The plant grows quickly to maturity in a season where trees
take a lifetime.
ALL PLASTIC PRODUCTS SHOULD BE
MADE FROM HEMP SEED OIL. Hempen plastics are biodegradable!
Over time, they would break down and not harm the environment. Oil-based
plastics, the ones we are very familiar with, help ruin nature; they
do not break down and will do great harm in the future. The process
to produce the vast array of natural (hempen) plastics will not ruin
the rivers as Dupont and other petrochemical companies have done. Ecology
does not fit in with the plans of the Oil Industry and the political
machine. Hemp products are safe and natural.
MEDICINES SHOULD BE MADE FROM
HEMP. We should go back to the days when the AMA supported
hemp cures. 'Medical Marijuana' is given out legally to only a handful
of people while the rest of us are forced into a system that relies
on chemicals. Hemp is only healthy for the human body.
WORLD HUNGER COULD END.
A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The seeds
contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO: They
have two essential fatty acids that clean your body of cholesterol.
These essential fatty acids are not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming
hemp seeds is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat uncooked
hemp seeds.
CLOTHES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP.
Hemp clothing is extremely strong and durable over time.
You could hand clothing, made from hemp, down to your grandchildren.
Today, there are American companies that make hemp clothing; usually
50% hemp. Hemp fabrics should be everywhere. Instead, they are almost
underground. Superior hemp products are not allowed to advertise on
fascist television. Kentucky, once the top hemp producing state, made
it ILLEGAL TO WEAR hemp clothing! Can you imagine being thrown into
jail for wearing quality jeans?
The world is crazy...but that does not mean you have to
join the insanity. Get together. Spread the news. Tell people, and that
includes your children, the truth. Use hemp products. Eliminate the
word 'marijuana.' Realize the history that created it. Make it politically
incorrect to say or print the M-word. Fight against the propaganda (designed
to favor the agenda of the super rich) and their bullshit. We must begin
utilizing hemp now! Time is running out! We need a clean energy source
to save our lives and planet Earth. WE MUST INDUSTRIALIZE HEMP!
The liquor, tobacco and oil companies fund more than a
million dollars a day to Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other
similar agencies. We have all seen their commercials. Now, their motto
is: 'It's more dangerous than we thought.' Lies from the powerful Nation-Less
Corporations, that began with Hearst, are still alive and well today.

The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say:
If you buy a joint, you contribute to murders and gang wars. The latest
- anti-Hemp - commercials say: If you buy a joint...you are promoting
TERRORISM! The new enemy, (terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash
you any way THEY see fit. The untold truth is that fossil fuels consumption
is the direct link and help for maintaining, spreading and protecting
TERRORISM, all over the world! Think about this next time pumping GAS
into your SUVs at the pump!
There is only one enemy; the friendly people you pay your
taxes to; the war-makers and nature destroyers. With your funding, they
are killing the world right in front of your eyes. OVER
A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY TOBACCO CONSUMPTION. AND HALF
A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION.
Ingesting THC, hemp's active agent, has a positive effect;
relieving asthma and glaucoma. A joint tends to alleviate the nausea
caused by chemotherapy. You are able to eat on hemp. This is a healthy
state of being.
There is physical evidence that hemp plant is not like
any other plant on Earth. Hemp is the ONLY plant where the males appear one way
and the females appear very different, physically! No one ever
speaks of males and females in regard to the plant kingdom because
plants do not show their sexes; except for hemp. To determine
what sex a certain, normal, Earthly plant is, you have to look
internally, at its DNA. A male blade of grass (physically) looks
exactly like a female blade of grass. The hemp plant has an intense
sexuality.
HEMP IS ILLEGAL BECAUSE GREEDY
STUPID CRIMINAL BILLIONAIRES WANT TO REMAIN BILLIONAIRES AT ALL COSTS,
TO HUMANITY AND EVEN THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WE ALL LIVE!



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[Featherlocks]

- - Evil Will Only Triumph When Good People Do Nothing
To Stop It - -


What We, The People Can Do?


- Bahram Maskanian
Actually we can do plenty. Tiny inexpensive modifications in our self-destructive
behaviors and taking small actions could potentially protect and save
our one and only home, Planet Earth and us, the humankind whose survival
is completely depends upon the health and well being of the host, Planet
Earth.
To begin with we should review and follow the simple and easy seven
(7) step guidelines stated below. We need to learn the two key word
definitions also mentioned below. We must learn and understand that
only we, the people, have the power to make things better. We need to
learn how to obtain control, and exercise our power locally, collectively
and responsibly, inspired by the superior wisdom of common sense and
based on ethical standards.

1 - A simple low-cost action we all can take right away is to spend
a few dollars and buy a couple of canvas shopping bags and take our
own canvas bags with us when we go to the market shopping, thus stop
accepting plastic bags.
2 - A simple and money saving action we all can take right away
is to stop buying any disposable products and products made out of
plastic. We must truly and seriously recycle and reuse, remember our
one and only home, Planet Earth, is not disposable.
3 - A simple, money saving and environmentally safe action we all
can take right away is to put a minimum deposit requirement of at
least $0.25, cents for all plastic, glass and aluminum containers,
from detergent and vegetable oil, to water and wine bottles.
4 - A simple, money saving and environmentally safe action we all
can take right away is to buy a portable thermos. A 25 oz stainless
steel vacuum flask double insulated tumbler costs between 7 to 6 dollars.
Cool to touch exterior while holding our hot liquids such as coffee,
tea or soup inside. We should also get a ceramic mug for drinking
water / tea / coffee and having our soup at work. Obviously keeping
a stainless steel knife, spoon and a fork for use at work is also
a must.
5 - A simple and unifying action we all can take right away is to
talk to our friends, family and neighbors to form our own community's
action committee. We then must either force our local, city, state
and federal politicians to legalize hemp cultivation or throw them
out of office and replace them with intelligent and responsible politicians
to begin correcting the grave and stupid mistakes of the past.
6 - A simple, money saving, healthy and environmentally safe action
we all can take right away is to buy a cookbook, or simply search
the Internet where we can find thousands of recipes. We should especially
buy organic seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, naturally raised
and produced dairy, meet and eggs to ensure a healthy and happy disease
and drug free life. We must learn the joy of cooking. We should cook
as much as possible to avoid consuming the unhealthy, cancer causing,
full of chemical preservatives and chemical coloring and artificial
addictive chemical taste crap of the restaurants foods / deliveries.
7 - A simple, money saving, healthy and environmentally safe action
we all can take right away is to buy a dozen soft cotton handkerchiefs
for wiping the nose and mouth. We should also buy a dozen cotton wiping
cloth (dish towels) especially for use in the kitchen, bathroom and
generally around the house.

Definition Of Boycott:
Boycott, is an inherent right of the consuming public to come together
in unity abstaining from using, buying, and or dealing with merchants
of greed and perpetrators of destructive environmental, economic and
political practices currently plaguing the humanity.
Boycott, is an instrument of gaining political grounds and objectives.
Boycott, is an expression of non-violent and constructive means of protest
to peacefully correct and replace the destructive environmental, economic
and political practices with wide-range of all encompassing prospers
policies and procedures.
Definition of Politics:
Politics is the art and science of managing or governing one’s entire
social and economic affairs interactively in conjunction with the rest
of the community, especially the collective governing of a political
entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its
internal and external relationships. Politics is the activity and interaction
engaged in by any given society’s citizens, to build community and establish
communal services for all. Politics is the maneuvering methods and tactics
involved in managing any given society or state government. A politician
is an individual, holding an intriguing and rewarding career of public
service that honorably discharges hers or his duties in an ethical and
caring manner.
All politics are local. We, the people, must at all times think globally
but act locally. We should never forget that Reform always begins with
oneself. The spirit and inspiration of reform can only be radiated,
advanced and spread by, and through those who have already reformed
themselves.

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[Featherlocks]

In The Absence of Sustainable

And Environmentally Safe Hemp Production
- Plastic Particles Are Choking Earth's Oceans -


Plastic is creating an - Ocean Commotion - For years, the problem
of plastics in the sea has been of plastics we could see. Six-pack rings
strangled wildlife, old nets snared birds and other creatures, small
bits and pieces clogged harbors, and garbage ruined our days at the
beach. Scientists are more concerned about what is happening to these
oceans of plastic. They say it's breaking down into microscopic fragments
that are drowning the sea.
For all practical purposes plastics are permanent. Because these synthetic
materials do not occur in nature, nature never evolved a process to
biodegrade them into harmless compounds. Plastic particles don't disappear.
Instead, they simply break apart under the influence of sunlight, water,
and abrasion into smaller and smaller pieces. That piece of old Styrofoam
that looks like it is decomposing isn't at all. It's simply falling
apart into trillions and trillions of microscopic bits of Styrofoam.

And therein lies what researchers have now identified as a problem
of unknown dimension: The world's oceans are filling with invisible
bits of plastic. According to a study conducted at England's University
of Plymouth and published in the May edition of the journal Science,
the seven seas are swimming with polymer particles.
Scientists examined 20 sites around the British Isles and found microscopic
bits of plastic contaminating almost every soil sample they obtained.
From apparently clean beach sand to mud in tidal estuaries and sediments
on sea floors some 30 feet beneath the surface, unseen bits of plastic
were lurking everywhere.
The researchers looked for nine different kinds of plastic that were
easy to chemically identify in minute amounts, including polyester,
acrylic and nylon. What they found were polymer fibers as small as 20
microns in length. (- One micron is equal to 1,000,000th of one meter
-). Smaller, fragments about 75% smaller than the smallest grains of
beach sand. These fibers were embedded in sands and soils and even found
inside sea plankton. (- Sea Planktons are microscopic organisms, including
algae and protozoans, that float or drift in great numbers in fresh
or salt water, especially at or near the surface, and serve as food
for fish and other larger organisms. -)
The scientists were also able to ascertain that the flood of plastics
filling the seas has been increasing for at least 40 years. Since the
1960s, merchant ships have voluntarily trailed garbage can-sized filters
behind them as they plied the ocean's waters. By comparing the current
contents of these filters to those of archived filters, researchers
were able to show that the number of invisible plastic pieces has tripled
over the course of the last generation. Further, since the study's methods
couldn't measure plastic fragments smaller than 20 microns, experts
said the results, in all likelihood, underreported the actual amount
of plastics microscopically drifting in ocean waters.
Currently, scientists aren't sure what all this means for the world
and its wildlife, human included. The short answer might be nothing,
but that's far from a certainty. As part of the project, researchers
put some of the fragments in tanks containing tiny crustaceans, barnacles,
and lugworms and found that they were readily eaten. Whether or not
such materials accumulate in the food chain to eventually create some
type of toxic effect remains to be seen, but previous research has shown
that larger, one millimeter-sized pieces of plastic readily absorb toxins
from ocean waters and can poison animals that ingest them.
The news that microscopic pieces of plastic are polluting the oceans
is just part of a recent tide of discomforting news about the environment
that covers 71% of the Earth's surface. According to recent reports
from both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission,
the world's oceans are in poor health as a result of human pressures.
Water quality is falling; coastal development pressures are increasing
(some 37 million people have moved to U.S. shore regions in the last
30 years); populations of whales and large fish, like sharks and marlins,
have declined by 90%; only 22% of smaller fisheries are being harvested
sustainably; and invasive species are causing a number of negative effects.

To combat this, both organizations have recommended a sweeping series
of regulatory changes in the way the world's oceans are managed, and
a dramatic increase in funding. For more information about these reports
and their suggested plans for a rescue at sea, visit:
http://www.pewoceans.org/


http://www.oceancommission.gov/documents/prelimreport/welcome.html


Asthma Miasma: Have Phthalates Flung Dung At Our Kids' Lungs? Among
the more eye-opening pieces of evidence that things are out of whack
in today's world are the latest asthma statistics for kids. Between
1980 and 1994, the incidence of asthma among pre-school aged children
rose 160%, more than twice the overall rate. Today, the disease is the
leading chronic illness of childhood. Some nine million kids have the
disease, or nearly one in 13. Together, they miss 14 million school
days each year and need $3.2 billion of treatment. What's causing all
this asthma has been a bit of mystery. Now scientists think they may
have a clue. And it's a culprit called phthalates.
Dedicated Non-Toxic Times readers will recall that we've discussed
phthalates in these pages before, and never in a positive light. A group
of industrial compounds widely used in a variety of common products,
there are about 7.6 billion pounds of phthalates produced throughout
the world each year. The largest use of phthalates is as a plasticizer
in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other soft plastic products. These materials
rely on phthalates to keep them flexible. Without the addition of phthalate
plasticizers, these otherwise pliant materials would be fairly stiff
and difficult to use for their intended purposes. Consumer products
that contain phthalate plasticizers include everything from siding and
flooring to plastic food wrap and soft plastic toys.

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[Featherlocks]

TODAY'S HEMP INDUSTRY


AUSTRALIA - Tasmania research
trials began in 1995. Victoria commercial production since1998. New
South Wales has research. In 2002 Queensland began production.
AUSTRIA - has a hemp industry
including production of hempseed oil, medicinals and Hanf magazine.

CANADA - started to license research
crops in 1994 on an experimental basis. In addition to crops for fibre,
one seed crop was experimentally licensed in 1995. Many acres were planted
in 1997. Licenses for commercial agriculture saw thousands of acres
planted in 1998. 30,000 acres planted in 1999. In 2000, due to speculative
investing,12,250 acres were sown. In 2001 ninety-two farmers grew 3,250
acres. A number of Canadian farmers are now growing organically certified
hemp crops.
CHILE - has grown hemp in the
recent past for seed oil production.
CHINA - is the largest exporter
of hemp paper and textiles. The fabrics are of excellent quality. (ma)

DENMARK - planted its first modern
hemp trials in 1997. Committed to utilizing organic methods.
ENGLAND - lifted hemp prohibition
in 1993. Animal bedding, paper and textiles have been developed. A government
grant was given to develop new markets for natural fibers. 4,000 acres
were grown in 1994. Subsidies of $230 Eng. pounds per acre are given
by the govt. for growing.
FINLAND - had a resurgence of
hemp in 1995 with several small test plots. A seed variety for northern
climates was developed: Finola, previously know by the breeder code
'FIN-314'. In 2003, Finola was accepted to the EU list of subsidized
hemp cultivars. (hamppu)
FRANCE - harvested 10,000 tons
in 1994. France is the main source of low-thc producing hempseed. (chanvre)

GERMANY - only banned hemp in
1982, but research began in 1992 and many technologies and products
are being developed. Clothes and paper are being made from imported
raw materials. Germany lifted the ban on growing hemp November, 1995.
Mercedes and BMW use hemp fiber for composites. (hanf)
HUNGARY - is rebuilding their
hemp industry, and is one of the biggest exporters of hemp cordage,
rugs and hemp fabric to the U.S. They also export hemp seed and hemp
paper. Fiberboard is also made. (kender)
INDIA - has large stands of naturalized
Cannabis and uses it for cordage, textiles, and seed oil.
JAPAN - has a religious tradition
requiring the Emperor wear hemp garments, so there is a small plot maintained
for the imperial family only. They have a thriving retail market selling
a variety of hemp products. (asa)
NETHERLANDS - is conducting a
four years study to evaluate and test hemp for paper, and is developing
processing equipment. Seed breeders are developing new strains of low-thc
varieties. (hennep)
NEW ZEALAND - started hemp trials
in 2001. Various cultivars are being planted in the North and South.

POLAND - currently grows hemp
for fabric and cordage and manufactures hemp particle board. They have
demonstrated the benefits of using hemp to cleanse soils contaminated
by heavy metals. (konopij)
ROMANIA - was the largest commercial
producer of hemp in Europe in the late 80's and early 90's. Total acreage
in 1993 was 40,000 acres. Some of it is exported to Hungary for processing.
They also export to Western Europe and the United States. (cinepa)
RUSSIA - maintains the largest
hemp germ plasm collection in the world at the N.I. Vavilov Scientific
Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in Saint Petersburg. They
are in need of funds. (konoplya)
SLOVENIA - grows hemp and manufactures
currency paper.
SPAIN - grows and exports hemp
pulp for paper and produces rope and textiles. (cañamo)
SWITZERLAND - is a producer of
hemp and hosts one of the largest hemp events: Cannatrade.
EGYPT, KOREA, PORTUGAL, THAILAND, and the
UKRAINE also produce hemp.
USA - The United States - granted
the first hemp permit in over 40 years to Hawaii for an experimental
quarter acre plot in 1999. The license has been renewed since. Importers
and manufacturers have thrived using imported raw materials. Twenty-two
states in the United States have introduced legislation. VT, HI, ND,
MT, MN, IL, VA, NM, CA, AR, KY, MD, WV have passed legislation for support,
research, or cultivation. The National Conference of State Legislators
has endorsed industrial hemp production for years.
Get on the - HEMP WAGON - and
support the idea by forcing your local, state and federal government
officials to do the right thing for a change, and legalize HEMP.

[Featherlocks]

More Facts About Hemp Hemp is among the oldest industries on the planet, going back more than 10,000 years to the beginnings of pottery. The Columbia History of the World states that the oldest relic of human industry is a bit of hemp fabric dating back to approximately 8,000 BC. Presidents Washington and Jefferson both grew hemp. Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic. The federal government subsidized hemp during the Second World War and US farmers grew about a million acres of hemp as part of that program. Hemp Seed is far more nutritious than even soybean, contains more essential fatty acids than any other source, is second only to soybeans in complete protein (but is more digestible by humans), is high in B-vitamins, and is 35% dietary fiber. Hemp seed is not psychoactive and cannot be used as a drug. See TestPledge.com The bark of the hemp stalk contains bast fibers, which are among the Earth's longest natural soft fibers and are also rich in cellulose; the cellulose and hemi-cellulose in its inner woody core are called hurds. Hemp stalk is not psychoactive. Hemp fiber is longer, stronger, more absorbent and more insulative than cotton fiber. According to the Department of Energy, hemp as a biomass fuel producer requires the least specialized growing and processing procedures of all hemp products. The hydrocarbons in hemp can be processed into a wide range of biomass energy sources, from fuel pellets to liquid fuels and gas. Development of biofuels could significantly reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Hemp grows well without herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides. Almost half of the agricultural chemicals used on US crops are applied to cotton. Hemp produces more pulp per acre than timber on a sustainable basis, and can be used for every quality of paper. Hemp paper manufacturing can reduce wastewater contamination. Hemp's low lignin content reduces the need for acids used in pulping, and it's creamy color lends itself to environmentally friendly bleaching instead of harsh chlorine compounds. Less bleaching results in less dioxin and fewer chemical byproducts. pHemp fiber paper resists decomposition, and does not yellow with age when an acid-free process is used. Hemp paper more than 1,500 years old has been found. It can also be recycled more times. Hemp fiberboard produced by Washington State University was found to be twice as strong as wood-based fiberboard. Eco-friendly hemp can replace most toxic petrochemical products. Research is being done to use hemp in manufacturing biodegradable plastic products: plant-based cellophane, recycled plastic mixed with hemp for injection-molded products, and resins made from the oil, to name just a very few examples. - http://www.thehia.org/ - http://www.votehemp.com/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * - Marijuana Prohibition - War On A Miraculous Gift - By Stephen Young - June 2, 2006 If a miracle suddenly appeared, would we try to learn from it or try to destroy it? A common plant can relieve pain and muscle spasticity. The plant's components show promise to inhibit tumor growth and control diabetes. The plant contains remarkable substances identical to substances which already flow through human bodies and are thought to regulate critical functions from memory to mood. A close relative of the plant also offers profitable but Environmentally Friendly alternative fiber and food crops. Research continues on the plant in the United States, but most studies focus on allegedly negative effects. The plant is cannabis - more commonly known as marijuana -, and the government does not see it as a miracle. The government denies that marijuana and similar plants - like the very useful buy wholly non-intoxicating hemp - can ever be good. But that denial took another hit from the facts recently. Marijuana prohibitionists have long argued that since cannabis smoke contains more tars than tobacco, it must cause cancer. A thorough study presented recently at The American Thoracic Society's annual conference showed that even heavy marijuana smoking did not increase the risk for lung cancer. Indeed, in the study by Donald Tashkin of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, marijuana smokers showed slightly lower cancer rates than non-smokers. This is not an entirely new finding, as a review of the literature on lung cancer and marijuana smoke by Dr. Robert Melamede suggested last year. Tashkin's study results should have been on the front page of every newspaper in the nation. Why? Because we have been wasting lives and resources on a war based on faulty intelligence, only this war has been going on for close to 70 years. And because the media has helped to disseminate this faulty intelligence for an even longer time, it bears the responsibility of correcting the record fully. The initial reasons given for marijuana prohibition included its supposed propensity to turn users violent. That misconception finally got cleared up as the drug became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s despite prohibition. That era had its own litany of false stories about cannabis, including the absurdity that it made teenage boys sprout breasts. More recently we heard that marijuana smoking will lead to lung, head and neck cancer. It's a lie that is especially damaging considering the reality. In other places in the world, marijuana is being studied medically, and not only for the relief from cancer treatments like chemotherapy. Research suggests cannabis might actually be an anti-cancer agent, - which would explain why Tashkin's study showed marijuana smokers with lower lung cancer rates than non-smokers. - Italian researchers last week seemed to show anti-cancer properties in substances found in cannabis. This hasn't been widely publicized, similar to other promising research released in 2003, as well as research that goes back to the early 1970s. If any other substance were involved, this would have been on the cover of major U.S. News magazines, but unfortunately most US Media have missed most of the amazing new science related to cannabis and human health. Substances called cannabinoids found in cannabis plants also occur naturally human bodies. Special receptors exist around the body specifically to interact with the cannabinoids that we make or that cannabis makes. The cannabinoids don't appear in any other plant. Kind of, well, miraculous, isn't it? More research needs to be done on how cannabis and cannabinoids can be used beneficially. For now, that research won't take place in the United States. All U.S. Government funded research starts with the presumption that marijuana is bad. Researchers trying to learn about possible benefits report being denied a legal supply of the plant. This notion that sending a wholly negative message about marijuana - - even devoting a multi-billion dollar taxpayer financed ad campaign equating the plant with badness - - will somehow keep our young people away from marijuana has also been exposed as a lie. For the past several years teenagers surveyed on drug use say it's easy to get marijuana if they want it. There are reasons for young people not to use marijuana. Hearing over hyped scare stories about the substance isn't one of them. A recent study of that multi-billion dollar taxpayer financed ad campaign showed many teenagers who viewed the ads became more interested in marijuana, not less. The rationale for the war on marijuana, and the tactics used to fight that war, have been exposed as false and counterproductive. Each year police arrest more than 700,000 Americans for marijuana. This summer, police across the nation will be out cutting down wild hemp plants that can't intoxicate anyone. Certainly all that police time could be spent on more pressing issues, and otherwise law-abiding citizens don't need to get drawn into the criminal justice system. As it stands, we are wasting vast resources to destroy another beneficial resource and to ensure that our country stays behind the curve in terms of scientific research. The next medical breakthroughs related to this easily available plant won't occur in our country solely due to ingrained political myopia and cowardice. We must take off the ideological blinders that decades of drug war have forced on us. We could have new medicine, new crops for farmers, even new revenue streams for government through legitimate taxation, along with regulation schemes to better keep young people out of the market. In fact, these things will happen one day. It's all coming, and we could all save ourselves a lot of shame and misery by trying to learn from the miracle now, instead of wasting billings trying - but failing - to destroy it. The miracle itself does not suffer for our actions, but we do. Stephen Young is an editor with DrugSense Weekly and a member of the Board of Directors for Illinois NORML. http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm

[Featherlocks]

Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of
process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it
was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous
drug.The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the
legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on
information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive
lawmakers. You'll see below that the very first federal vote to
prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor
of the Senate.
You'll also see that the history of marijuana's criminalization is filled with:

• Racism
  
• Fear
  
• Protection of Corporate Profits
  
• Yellow Journalism
  
• Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators
  
• Personal Career Advancement and Greed
  

These are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal.

BackgroundFor most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It's
not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law.
Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it's been
in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal
as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of
uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over
the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and
much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in
the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600's,
but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the
early 1900's.America's first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia
in 1619. It was a law "ordering" all farmers to grow Indian hempseed.
There were several other "must grow" laws over the next 200 years (you
could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in
Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was
legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp -- try that
today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes
(including essential war requirements - rope, etc.) that the government
went out of its way to encourage growth.The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp "plantations"
(minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and
even the cordage used for baling cotton.
The Mexican ConnectionIn the early 1900s, the western states developed significant tensions
regarding the influx of Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico in
1910 spilled over the border, with General Pershing's army clashing
with bandit Pancho Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings developed
between the small farmer and the large farms that used cheaper Mexican
labor. Then, the depression came and increased tensions, as jobs and
welfare resources became scarce.One of the "differences" seized upon during this time was the fact that
many Mexicans smoked marijuana and had brought the plant with them, and
it was through this that California apparently passed the first state
marijuana law, outlawing "preparations of hemp, or loco weed."However, one of the first state laws outlawing marijuana may have been
influenced, not just by Mexicans using the drug, but, oddly enough,
because of Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910
came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church's reaction to
this may have contributed to the state's marijuana law. (Note:
the source for this speculation is from articles by Charles Whitebread,
Professor of Law at USC Law School in a paper for the Virginia Law
Review, and a speech to the California Judges Association (sourced
below). Mormon blogger Ardis Parshall disputes this.)Other states quickly followed suit with marijuana prohibition laws,
including Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Iowa (1923), Nevada (1923),
Oregon (1923), Washington (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927).
These laws tended to be specifically targeted against the
Mexican-American population.When Montana outlawed marijuana in 1927, the Butte Montana Standard
reported a legislator's comment: "When some beet field peon takes a few
traces of this stuff... he thinks he has just been elected president of
Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies." In
Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: "All Mexicans are
crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy."
Jazz and AssassinsIn the eastern states, the "problem" was attributed to a combination of
Latin Americans and black jazz musicians. Marijuana and jazz traveled
from New Orleans to Chicago, and then to Harlem, where marijuana became
an indispensable part of the music scene, even entering the language of
the black hits of the time (Louis Armstrong's "Muggles", Cab Calloway's
"That Funny Reefer Man", Fats Waller's "Viper's Drag").Again, racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers
in 1934 editorialized: "Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white
people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white
woman twice." Two other fear-tactic rumors started to spread: one, that Mexicans,
Blacks and other foreigners were snaring white children with marijuana;
and two, the story of the "assassins." Early stories of Marco Polo had
told of "hasheesh-eaters" or hashashin, from which derived the term
"assassin." In the original stories, these professional killers were
given large doses of hashish and brought to the ruler's garden (to give
them a glimpse of the paradise that awaited them upon successful
completion of their mission). Then, after the effects of the drug
disappeared, the assassin would fulfill his ruler's wishes with cool,
calculating loyalty.By the 1930s, the story had changed. Dr. A. E. Fossier wrote in the
1931 New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal: "Under the influence of
hashish those fanatics would madly rush at their enemies, and
ruthlessly massacre every one within their grasp." Within a very short
time, marijuana started being linked to violent behavior.
Alcohol Prohibition and Federal Approaches to Drug ProhibitionDuring this time, the United States was also dealing with alcohol
prohibition, which lasted from 1919 to 1933. Alcohol prohibition was
extremely visible and debated at all levels, while drug laws were
passed without the general public's knowledge. National alcohol
prohibition happened through the mechanism of an amendment to the
constitution.
Earlier (1914), the Harrison Act was passed, which provided federal tax penalties for opiates and cocaine.The federal approach is important. It was considered at the time that
the federal government did not have the constitutional power to outlaw
alcohol or drugs. It is because of this that alcohol prohibition
required a constitutional amendment.At that time in our country's history, the judiciary regularly placed
the tenth amendment in the path of congressional regulation of "local"
affairs, and direct regulation of medical practice was considered
beyond congressional power under the commerce clause (since then, both
provisions have been weakened so far as to have almost no meaning).Since drugs could not be outlawed at the federal level, the decision
was made to use federal taxes as a way around the restriction. In the
Harrison Act, legal uses of opiates and cocaine were taxed (supposedly
as a revenue need by the federal government, which is the only way it
would hold up in the courts), and those who didn't follow the law found
themselves in trouble with the treasury department.In 1930, a new division in the Treasury Department was established --
the Federal Bureau of Narcotics -- and Harry J. Anslinger was named
director. This, if anything, marked the beginning of the all-out war
against marijuana.

Harry J. AnslingerAnslinger was an extremely ambitious man, and he recognized the Bureau
of Narcotics as an amazing career opportunity -- a new government
agency with the opportunity to define both the problem and the
solution. He immediately realized that opiates and cocaine wouldn't be
enough to help build his agency, so he latched on to marijuana and
started to work on making it illegal at the federal level.Anslinger immediately drew upon the themes of racism and violence to
draw national attention to the problem he wanted to create. He also
promoted and frequently read from "Gore Files" -- wild
reefer-madness-style exploitation tales of ax murderers on marijuana
and sex and... Negroes. Here are some quotes that have been widely
attributed to Anslinger and his Gore Files:

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the
US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their
Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This
marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes,
entertainers, and any others."


"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."


"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."


"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."


"Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing"


"You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother."


"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

And he loved to pull out his own version of the "assassin" definition:

"In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the
religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of
cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were
confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs'
'hashashin' that we have the English word 'assassin.'"

Yellow JournalismHarry Anslinger got some additional help from William Randolf Hearst,
owner of a huge chain of newspapers. Hearst had lots of reasons to
help. First, he hated Mexicans. Second, he had invested heavily in the
timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn't want to see
the development of hemp paper in competition. Third, he had lost
800,000 acres of timberland to Pancho Villa, so he hated Mexicans.
Fourth, telling lurid lies about Mexicans (and the devil marijuana weed
causing violence) sold newspapers, making him rich.
Some samples from the San Francisco Examiner:

"Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days -- Hashish goads users to bloodlust."


"By the tons it is coming into this country -- the deadly, dreadful
poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and
soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its
cruel and devastating forms.... Marihuana is a short cut to the insane
asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your
brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh
makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest
mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get
him...."

And other nationwide columns...

"Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale
the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this
section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that
drug."

"Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm
of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim's life in Los
Angeles?... THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country
today are committed by DOPE SLAVES -- that is a matter of cold record."

Hearst and Anslinger were then supported by Dupont chemical company and
various pharmaceutical companies in the effort to outlaw cannabis.
Dupont had patented nylon, and wanted hemp removed as competition. The
pharmaceutical companies could neither identify nor standardize
cannabis dosages, and besides, with cannabis, folks could grow their
own medicine and not have to purchase it from large companies.

[Featherlocks]

This all set the stage for...
The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.After two years of secret planning, Anslinger brought his plan to
Congress -- complete with a scrapbook full of sensational Hearst
editorials, stories of ax murderers who had supposedly smoked
marijuana, and racial slurs.
It was a remarkably short set of hearings.The one fly in Anslinger's ointment was the appearance by Dr. William
C.
Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical
Association.Woodward started by slamming Harry Anslinger and the Bureau
of
Narcotics for distorting earlier AMA statements that had nothing to do
with marijuana and making them appear to be AMA endorsement for
Anslinger's view.He also reproached the legislature and the Bureau for using the term
marijuana in the legislation and not publicizing it as a bill about
cannabis or hemp. At this point, marijuana (or marihuana) was a
sensationalist word used to refer to Mexicans smoking a drug and had
not been connected in most people's minds to the existing cannabis/hemp
plant. Thus, many who had legitimate reasons to oppose the bill weren't
even aware of it.Woodward went on to state that the AMA was opposed to the legislation
and further questioned the approach of the hearings, coming close to
outright accusation of misconduct by Anslinger and the committee:

"That there is a certain amount of narcotic
addiction of an objectionable character no one will deny. The
newspapers have called attention to it so prominently that there must
be some grounds for [their] statements [even Woodward was partially taken in by Hearst's propaganda]. It
has surprised me, however, that the facts on which these statements
have been based have not been brought before this committee by
competent primary evidence. We are referred to newspaper publications
concerning the prevalence of marihuana addiction. We are told that the
use of marihuana causes crime.

But yet no one has been produced from the Bureau of Prisons to show the
number of prisoners who have been found addicted to the marihuana
habit. An informed inquiry shows that the Bureau of Prisons has no
evidence on that point.

You have been told that school children are great users of marihuana
cigarettes. No one has been summoned from the Children's Bureau to show
the nature and extent of the habit, among children.

Inquiry of the Children's Bureau shows that they have had no occasion to investigate it and know nothing particularly of it.


Inquiry of the Office of Education--- and they certainly should know
something of the prevalence of the habit among the school children of
the country, if there is a prevalent habit--- indicates that they have
had no occasion to investigate and know nothing of it.

Moreover, there is in the Treasury Department itself, the Public Health
Service, with its Division of Mental Hygiene. The Division of Mental
Hygiene was, in the first place, the Division of Narcotics. It was
converted into the Division of Mental Hygiene, I think, about 1930.
That particular Bureau has control at the present time of the narcotics
farms that were created about 1929 or 1930 and came into operation a
few years later. No one has been summoned from that Bureau to give
evidence on that point.

Informal inquiry by me indicates that they have had no record of any
marihuana of Cannabis addicts who have ever been committed to those
farms.

The bureau of Public Health Service has also a division of
pharmacology. If you desire evidence as to the pharmacology of
Cannabis, that obviously is the place where you can get direct and
primary evidence, rather than the indirect hearsay evidence."

Committee members then proceeded to attack Dr. Woodward, questioning
his motives in opposing the legislation. Even the Chairman joined in:

The Chairman: If you want to advise us on
legislation, you ought to come here with some constructive proposals,
rather than criticism, rather than trying to throw obstacles in the way
of something that the Federal Government is trying to do. It has not
only an unselfish motive in this, but they have a serious
responsibility.


Dr. Woodward: We cannot understand yet, Mr. Chairman, why
this bill should have been prepared in secret for 2 years without any
intimation, even, to the profession, that it was being prepared.

After some further bantering...

The Chairman: I would like to read a quotation from a recent editorial in the Washington Times:

The marihuana 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.

The Nation is almost defenseless against it, having no Federal laws to
cope with it and virtually no organized campaign for combating it.

The result is tragic.


School children are the prey of peddlers who infest school neighborhoods.


High school boys and girls buy the destructive weed without knowledge
of its capacity of harm, and conscienceless dealers sell it with
impunity.

This is a national problem, and it must have national attention.


The fatal marihuana cigarette must be recognized as a deadly drug, and American children must be protected against it.

That is a pretty severe indictment. They say it is a national
question and that it requires effective legislation. Of course, in a
general way, you have responded to all of these statements; but that
indicates very clearly that it is an evil of such magnitude that it is
recognized by the press of the country as such.

And that was basically it. Yellow journalism won over medical science.
The committee passed the legislation on. And on the floor of the house, the entire discussion was:

Member from upstate New York: "Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?"


Speaker Rayburn: "I don't know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it's a narcotic of some kind."


"Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?"


Member on the committee jumps up and says: "Their Doctor Wentworth[sic] came down here. They support this bill 100 percent."

And
on the basis of that lie, on August 2, 1937, marijuana became illegal
at the federal level.The entire coverage in the New York Times:
"President Roosevelt signed
today a bill to curb traffic in the narcotic, marihuana, through heavy
taxes on transactions."
Anslinger as precursor to the Drug CzarsAnslinger was essentially the first Drug Czar. Even though the term
didn't exist until William Bennett's position as director of the White
House Office of National Drug Policy, Anslinger acted in a similar
fashion. In fact, there are some amazing parallels between Anslinger
and the current Drug Czar John Walters. Both had kind of a carte
blanche to go around demonizing drugs and drug users. Both had
resources and a large public podium for their voice to be heard and to
promote their personal agenda. Both lied constantly, often when it was
unnecessary. Both were racists. Both had the ear of lawmakers, and both
realized that they could persuade legislators and others based on lies,
particularly if they could co-opt the media into squelching or
downplaying any opposition views.Anslinger even had the ability to circumvent the First Amendment. He
banned the Canadian movie "Drug Addict," a 1946 documentary that
realistically depicted the drug addicts and law enforcement efforts. He
even tried to get Canada to ban the movie in their own country, or
failing that, to prevent U.S. citizens from seeing the movie in Canada.
Canada refused. (Today, Drug Czar John Walters is trying to bully
Canada into keeping harsh marijuana laws.)Anslinger had 37 years to solidify the propaganda and stifle
opposition. The lies continued the entire time (although the stories
would adjust -- the 21 year old Florida boy who killed his family of
five got younger each time he told it). In 1961, he looked back at his
efforts:

"Much of the most irrational juvenile violence and
that has written a new chapter of shame and tragedy is traceable
directly to this hemp intoxication. A gang of boys tear the clothes
from two school girls and rape the screaming girls, one boy after the
other. A sixteen-year-old kills his entire family of five in Florida, a
man in Minnesota puts a bullet through the head of a stranger on the
road; in Colorado husband tries to shoot his wife, kills her
grandmother instead and then kills himself. Every one of these crimes
had been proceeded [sic] by the smoking of one or more marijuana
"reefers." As the marijuana situation grew worse, I knew action had to
be taken to get the proper legislation passed. By 1937 under my
direction, the Bureau launched two important steps First, a legislative
plan to seek from Congress a new law that would place marijuana and its
distribution directly under federal control. Second, on radio and at
major forums, such that presented annually by the New York Herald
Tribune, I told the story of this evil weed of the fields and river
beds and roadsides. I wrote articles for magazines; our agents gave
hundreds of lectures to parents, educators, social and civic leaders.
In network broadcasts I reported on the growing list of crimes,
including murder and rape. I described the nature of marijuana and its
close kinship to hashish. I continued to hammer at the facts.

I believe we did a thorough job, for the public was alerted and the
laws to protect them were passed, both nationally and at the state
level. We also brought under control the wild growing marijuana in this
country. Working with local authorities, we cleaned up hundreds of
acres of marijuana and we uprooted plants sprouting along the
roadsides."

After AnslingerOn a break from college in the 70s, I was visiting a church in rural
Illinois. There in the literature racks in the back of the church was a
lurid pamphlet about the evils of marijuana -- all the old reefer
madness propaganda about how it caused insanity and murder. I
approached the minister and said "You can't have this in your church.
It's all lies, and the church shouldn't be about promoting lies."
Fortunately, my dad believed me, and he had the material removed. He
didn't even know how it got there. But without me speaking up, neither
he nor the other members of the church had any reason NOT to believe
what the pamphlet said. The propaganda machine had been that effective.
The narrative since then has been a continual litany of:

• Politicians wanting to appear tough on crime and passing tougher penalties
  
• Constant increases in spending on law enforcement and prisons
  
• Racist application of drug laws
  
• Taxpayer funded propaganda
  
• Stifling of opposition speech
  
• Political contributions from corporations that profit from marijuana being illegal (pharmaceuticals, alcohol, etc.)
  

... but that's another whole story.