From: Robert G Halvorson <norml@henson.cc.wwu.edu>
Subject: The Weed That Would Save The Planet
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 09:15:37 GMT

Subject: Fwd: The Weed That Would Save the Planet
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
[Reposted From Various Sources]

The Weed That Would Save the Planet
Alison Bowman
This is reprinted without permission from the Santa Cruz Comic
News' "Hempicenter" foldout (June 6, 1991)
The Comic News says they've got extra copies of this foldout,
you can write to them at PO Box 8543, Santa Cruz, CA, 95061.
The phone number is (408) 426-0113.
Subscriptions are $20 yearly(24 issues), "anywhere in the US",
write to Comic News Subs, same address as above.

        Commonly known for its illicit use as smoking material,
the marijuana plant provides environmentally safe paper, fuel,
food, and health products. It may sound like some stoner's
pipedream, but advocates have a clear case that the versatile
cannabis weed may be the crop that saves the planet.
        Current timber, cotton, petroleum, pesticide and
pharmaceutical industries all have excellent reasons to keep
the hemp plant stigmatized. Because marijuana, which has been
a crop central to human civilization since 1000 BC, offers an
alternative to these industries' product that would involve less
chemicals, less pollution, and fewer health side-effects, and a
more independent US economy, say advocates.
        "Right now, people are saying they'd rather see the
planet die than see their children get high," says Jack Herer,
author of _The Emperor Wears no Clothes_, a comprehensive book
on the history of hemp. "In any sane society knowing what we
know we would reward citizens for using pot." Herer, who legally
smokes marijuana as part of a long-term research project at
UCLA, is an outspoken advocate of hemp production to cure
environmental and health ills.
        Advocates' most astounding claim is that energy from
hemp plants could replace fossil fuels and thus alleviate the
Greenhouse Effect. When fuel is burned, it creates carbon
dioxide, which scientists believe is the main gas responsible
for planetary warming. If plants are grown for conversion to
fuel, they naturally absorb much of the CO2 released in the
burning process, according to Santa Cruz Ecology Action's
Christopher Williams, a student of renewable energy. In addition
to possibly reversing the causes of planetary warming, burning
hemp fuel would release no heavy metals or sulphurs- emissions
responsible for problems like acid rain. It's no wonder that
many environmentalists and farmers support the concept of
growing cannabis for fuel.
        While several plants are candidates for "energy
farming," hemp is ideal for this use, say advocates. It is
"the number one biomass producer on planet earth," growing
several times more organic matter per acre per month than
comparable plants like sugarcane or corn stalks, according
to Lynn Osburn, a writer for _Energy Farming In America_.
        Osburn claims that if six percent of continental
America grew hemp for conversion to energy, the US could
end its dependency on fossil fuel. In addition to growing
like crazy, hemp thrives on marginal farmlands, withstands
drought and requires little if any pesticide use. Osburn
is not alone in prescribing a hemp crop for farmers in
economically-depressed dry regions.
        Hemp production has also been touted as the
environmentally correct alternative to crops like cotton
that require heavy chemical pesticides and processors.
Hemp can be harvested to make clothing, cordage, and
paper products that,in addition to being better for the
land, cost less to grow and produce than comparable crops.
        Hemp advocates see their product replacing the
recently-sensationalized timber industry's practises that
often cause irreversible damage to forest ecology and
contributes to the Greenhouse Effect by cutting down trees.
In addition to leaving wild stands of forest alone, hemp
harvesting for paper would circumvent the chlorine bleaching
process necessary to make paper from wood.
        Williams explains that wood's lignin content must be
broken down to make pulp for paper, "rendering the whole mixture
a black goop, so you have to bleach it to make coffee filters or
whatever." In addition to being released into the environment
(usually a river) around the factory, poisonous dioxin residue
often remains on the paper cups, toilet paper, milk cartons,
etc., for public consumption.
        Because hemp contains very little lignin, the above
process is avoided and its pulp can be bleached with harmless
hydrogen peroxide. Paper made from hemp pulp lasts several times
longer than wood paper and can be made at a fourth the cost,
says Herer. For these reasons, many countries print their money
on hemp paper.

Hemp-fu
-------
        As if the above environmental benefits of hemp
production weren't mind-boggling enough, cannabis blows away
all other crops in the category of nutrition except possibly
the soybean. The hemp seed has nearly the same protein content
as soybeans but is more easily digested, says Herer, who bases
this information on a 1972 US Agriculture Index report entitled
"The Marijuana Farmers". European studies have found that
marijuana's enzymes and endistins help break down food
nutrients, easing digestion for humans and allowing for higher
absorbtion of food nutrition.
        Hemp margarines, tofu-like curd (or hemp-fu), and seed
burgers are all high protein hemp seed products that Herer says
would cost less than soybean alternatives. The nutritional
benefits are most easily obtained by sprouting the seeds-
soaking them overnight and then rinsing them daily as one
would to sprout alfalfa seeds, according to No Guns, a Santa
Cruz advocate for the legalization of hemp.
        The hemp seed, which contains only trace THC (the
chemical responsible for pot's psychoactive effects), has
a remarkably high oil content, says No Guns, who wants to
experiment on developing cheeses and seed milk from hemp
seed oil.  Because the oil derived from hemp seed is very
heavy, traditionally it has not been used for cooking.
However, it has historically been used for oil-burning lamps.
        "This is a perfect food for poorer countries," says No
Guns. "If you have nothing, you have something with this plant-
food, oil, cloth, and paper. And it grows anywhere." No Guns
believes hemp's disappearance from the world's economy is a
result of the economic independence of such a crop offers to
nations like China where it has traditionally been grown.

Wonder Drug
------ ----
        Marijuana's medicinal property is another traditional
use suppressed since the plant's criminalization. Relief of
headaches, nausea, pain, and anxiety remains the most common
medical use of cannabis, a function that has been replaced by
more marketable and chemical-laden products like aspirin.
        Self-medicators swear by marijuana to relieve pain. No
Guns has smoked s mall doses to relieve menstrual cramps and
headaches for years. "You only take the tiniest toke, too much
can make your headache worse," she told The Epicenter.  She
began taking regular doses of marijuana cookies instead of
Tylenol after a serious injury in a car accident.
        What people like No Guns know from experience,
researchers explain as marijuana's effect on the brain's cover.
"Marijuana causes a very curious localized dilation of blood
vessels," says Dr. Tod Mikuriya, MD, a Berkeley psychiatrist and
author of the book _Marijuana Medical Paper_. This effect causes
the red eyes associated with marijuana smoking and makes the
plant especially good for reliving migraine headaches.
        Pain relief only tops the list of cannabis' medical
uses. The herb is kn own to alleviate nausea, especially that
has been associated with chemotherapy. It has been found to calm
patients experiencing asthma, epilepsy, multiples sclerosis,
and many other diseases. Many doctors believe it can slow the
irreversible blinding effects of glaucoma. Although a federal
judge in 1988 acknowledged the valid medical uses of cannabis,
marijuana remains categorized under the Drug Enforcement
Agency's Schedule One- the most strict level of control. In
one significant counterattack on the war on drugs, an appeal
has been filed on DEA commissioner John Lawn's decision to
keep marijuana unavailable to US citizens with medical needs.
Only two people in the US can legally obtain maryjane for
medical reasons, according to Herer. Meanwhile, doctors
across the country quietly prescribe expensive street-bought
pot to patients who need it.
        In any list of hemp plant uses, one must not forget the
psychoactive effects of marijuana. Although the culturally-
condemned "high" associated with the plant is used to justify
its criminal status, advocates say getting stoned is as valid
a use for the plant as any other.
        Stress and tension disperse when one smokes hemp leaves
or bud. "I use it when I'm angry to calm down and be more
human," says No Guns. "People have always used it this way."
Herer believes that reduced stress helps the immune system and
contributes to a longer life span. He attributes the outlawing
of positive research on marijuana-a result of a 1976 federal
law-to a fear by some in the government that marijuana would be
found to be a "miracle drug."
        Pharmaceutical companies have tried for decade to
isolate the marijuana bud's pain-killing and tension-relieving
effects from its euphoria-causing property with limited success
and profit. Unfortunately for an industry in which profits
depend on processing of raw materials, marijuana is best smoked
whole and unadulterated, says Herer.

Future Research
------ --------
        Whether marijuana actually extends one's life span must
be answered by future research(which has been all but stopped
in the US). What can be said definitely is that alcohol and
cigarettes, substances that fill similar needs for humans as
recreational pot smoking, are no less harmful than cannabis and
in many ways are far more destructive. For example, alcohol
often aggravates anger and stress and it is notorious for
wreaking havoc on the digestive tract and brain cells. Today's
cigarettes include a waste-dump's worth of chemical additives-
including radioactive particles, according to a March 1986
_Reader's Digest_ article.
        Marijuana, on the other hand, doesn't require pesticides
or processing chemicals. Contrary to popular knowledge, pot was
found not to damage brain cells by a St. Louis Medical School
research group, according to an _Omni Magazine_ August 1989
article. In his recommendation to make marijuana available for
medical use, Federal Administrative Judge Francis Young said pot
"is far safer than many foods we commonly consume," and noted
that not a single death caused by the drug's effect has ever
been documented.
        In spite of all this, many officials still believe the
drug's bad effects overwhelm its good ones. "I'd have to be a
jerk to believe the politicians and a nasty person not to tell
people to self-medicate themselves," says Herer. He says
marijuana has been smoked for some 6000 years by humans-
including many religious users seeking enlightenment. As the
war on drugs rages on, legalization seems like a hazy and
vague possibility. But Herer, who travels around the nation
spreading the word of hemp, thinks "it's only a matter of
time before reefer madness becomes reefer gladness."

End of newsgroup alt.save.the.earth.

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