From: Ben Masel <bmasel@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections
Date: 30 Sep 92 22:21 PDT
Subject: HEMP flyer I gave Al Gore
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1640500022:000:6773
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!bmasel    Sep 30 22:21:00 1992



I passed an earlier version of this at a Clinton-Gore appearance
in LaCrosse a month ago. Went over well with older folks, farmers.
Feel free to reprint, give your address
_____________________________________________________

HOW THE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN SAVE THE FARM ECONOMY
(and balance the budget) (and protect the environment)

America cannot return to prosperity without restoring prosperity
to its farmers. Subsidies are not the answer, as they only lead to
further overproduction of food crops the market doesn't want. We
must move toward high yielding agricultural crops as primary
feedstocks for industry.

PROTECTIONISM IN REVERSE
Hemp, the single most prolific and versatile plant for these uses
is off limits to the American farmer. Russian farmers typically
yield 5 tons of hemp stalk per acre per year. They lack modern
factories for turning hemp into useful products. The Dutch
government has invested $20 million in a research project to
develop improved strains and machinery. Unless a similar effort is
undertaken here we will find ourselves once again aced out of huge
markets.

PAPER
Hemp outyields trees at least 3 to 1. Because of its higher
cellulose content, hemp requires less chemical processing, and
thus has lower costs and pollution, according to the Dutch
Studies.* Last year the first shiploads of Brazilian eucalyptus
pulp unloaded at the Port of Green Bay. The US Department of
Agriculture has promoted kenaf, a traditional African fiber plant
as a paper alternative. Two years ago Pat LeMahieu, a former
agronomy researcher at the UW-Madison now director of operations
with Agrecol, achieved an impressive 6 ton per acre yield of
kenaf.  In the Feb 8, 1991 Isthmus, (Madison's weekly,) LeMahieu
said hemp has higher quality fiber, more potential uses, the
ability to withstand cold better, and possibly higher yields. "If
it weren't for the alkaloids [psychoactive ingredients] in hemp,
we wouldn't even be talking about kenaf." Hemp is also far more
drought resistant than Kenaf.

FIBER
Historically hemp supplied fabrics from the finest linens to the
sails for seagoing ships. (Canvass is the Old Dutch word for
cannabis.) Cotton, with only 1/3 the fiber yield,  is the most
chemical intensive crop in production. Hemp chokes out competing
weeds, and has few insect pests, so hemp farmers have little use
for pesticides. While hemp likes a rich soil, most of the
nutrients migrate to the leaves and eventually flowers, which are
returned to the soil when growing hemp for stalk, so with
appropriate rotation fertilizers are unneccessary. Hemp's long
taproot brings minerals from deep soil layers, leaving them
accessible to the following crop. Unlike cotton, hemp can be grown
throughout the United States, and its lower cost makes it
competitive with synthetic fibres. Fabric used to be the most
recycled item in commerce. Now it is the least because no one has
discovered a way to seperate the cotton from the polyester.

FUEL
Like any biomass (plant derived) fuel, burning hemp releases into
the atmosphere only as much Carbon Dioxide as was removed in
photosynthesis, with no net contribution to the Greenhouse Effect.
Hemp's low Sulfur content contributes little to Acid Rain. Recent
advances in Biomass Gasification technologies suggest hemp
replacing coal in our electric power stations.  Technology for
conversion to liquid fuels is farther behind, and still expensive
when compared to current oil prices as subsidised by our military
presence in the Persian Gulf.  Shifting more of the tax burden to
environmentally destructive use of fossil fuels would stimulate
research, and hasten the inevitable changeover to clean biomass.

FOOD and MEDECINE Cultivation of hemp seed for food and livestock
feed dates at least to the ancient Sumerians.  While it is second
to soybeans in total protein content, hemp seed has a more
complete balance of amino acids. More importantly, hemp seed oil
is the top plant source for linoleic and linolenic acids, the
essential fatty acids for which fish oil is touted to lower blood
colesterol and strengthen the immune system. Of course pressing
the oil from hemp seed makes these nutrients available at a tiny
fraction of the cost of fish oil. Hemp flowers provide a medecine
useful for the treatment of such diverse problems as Muscular
Sclerosis, Anorexia, Glaucoma, and the Nausea associated with
Chemotherapy and AIDS.

ONE OBSTACLE REMAINS.
The flowers of the hemp plant, when smoked or otherwise ingested,
produce a mild euphoria, which we have culturally and legally
labeled as inherently evil. The law defines any part of the plant
other than stalk, fiber, or sterilized seed as marijuana, and
there is no way to raise stalks without leaves. While low potency
fiber strains are available in Europe, and fiber crops are
harvested before the flowers form, (much more potent than leaves,)
US law makes no distinction.

No-one has ever died from using marijuana. Indeed, in a review of
its medical use, US Administative Law Judge Francis Young found it
to be "among the safest therapeutically active substances known to
man." The sole remaining argument against it is the so-called
"Gateway Effect.," which states that its use leads to hard drugs.
In fact, it is the prohibition of the plant which puts it in the
same marketplace as heroin or cocaine.  When the supply of
marijuana is interrupted retailers find themselves without any
income, and some shift to selling whatever they can get, luring
their customers to truly dangerous drugs. In a  legal cannabis
market, supply would be continuous and regulated.

DOES GEORGE BUSH REALLY CARE ABOUT DRUG ABUSE?
As Vice President he headed the South Florida Drug Interdiction
Task Force, and simultaneously oversaw Ollie North's Contra supply
operation, whose planes returned from Cental America loaded with
Cocaine. The Task Force decided which drug smugglers would be
targeted by law enforcement, and consequently which would not. If
he was really "out of the loop" on contra supply, why did he
protect their illicit fundraising? Is the government's war on
marijuana a cover for continuing intelligence agency involvement
in the importation of hard drugs? Can you fool all of the people
all of the time? To find out, tune in in November.

	 Ben Masel,  Wiscsconsin State Director
		     National Organization to Reform the Marijuana
		     Laws 911 Williamson St, Madison, WI 53703
		     (608) 257-5456

*  Characterization and Processing of Annual Crops (Esp. Hemp) for
Pulp and Paper by  Marie-Jose de Smet,  Agrotechnical Research
Institute, ATO- DLO, Haagsteeg 6, 6700AA  Wageningen, The
Netherlands,  as presented at the First European Conference on
Industrial Uses for Agricultural Crops, Maastricht, the
Netherlands, November 1991.

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