# cecil adams is ignorant maybe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 5, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436 "2006-04-05T17:39:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blehblehbleh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@blehblehbleh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blehblehbleh)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/1 "2006-04-05T17:39:26Z")
is marijuana was never a popular crop, then why was there an article written about it in _Popular Mechanics_ in the 30’s? :smack: get your facts straight before running your mouth! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/2 "2006-04-05T17:41:34Z")
Do you have a link to that report? Or a link to the column you’re talking about? And are you talking recreational marijuana, or hemp, which has been in cultivation for making rope (as a cash crop) for centuries? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/3 "2006-04-05T17:50:16Z")
I’m guessing the column is [Is hemp (nonpharmacological marijuana) the answer to our environmental problems?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_131.html). ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/4 "2006-04-05T18:09:48Z")
Do you have the exact date of the magazine article, or can you tell us in which issue it appeared? Better yet, can you direct us to the text of the article? The fact that “an article” was written “in the 30’s” does not necessarily indicate that hemp was “a popular crop.” ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/5 "2006-04-05T18:57:38Z")
Two observations: 1. I may be new here, but I think the life expectancy (on this board) of an non-subscribing guest whose first post is an attack on Cecil would be fairly short. 2. I’ve heard this “Marijuana Was Featured In _Popular Mechanics_ In The 1930s” story for years, usually from pro-legal-pot duuuuudes. I’ve never seen the actual article, or even anything purporting to be a direct quote from it. That screams “urban legend!” to me. If the article were real, after all, you’d think it would be extensively quoted by the people who love to mention it. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/6 "2006-04-05T19:01:50Z")
[Here’s a link to the article in question…](http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/pmpage1.shtml) However, if I may be permitted two more observations: 1. It could still be a fake, considering the source. 2. Even if it’s real, it’s hardly an indicator that hemp was a major crop in America. In fact, the article practically refutes that; its tone is more one of convincing American farmers to try a _new_ (to them) crop. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/7 "2006-04-05T19:29:40Z")
Here’s an article from the [LA Times](http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-hemp03jan18,1,1658290.story?coll=la-headlines-magazine&ctrack=1&cset=true) which looks be reasonably balanced > [@](#): > > Prejudiced by nearly 70 years of government and media propaganda against all things cannabis, most Americans have no idea that hemp crops once flourished from Virginia to California. Prized for thousands of years for its fiber, the plant rode commerce from Asia to Europe in the first millennium and sailed to the New World in the second. American colonists grew it in the early 1600s. Two centuries later, hemp was the nation’s third-largest agricultural commodity. The U.S. census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp plantations, and those were just the largest ones. California farmers cultivated it at least into the 1930s. But by 1937, as Unca Cecil says, it had more or less vanished. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/8 "2006-04-05T22:25:29Z")
[QUOTE=blehblehbleh] is marijuana was never a popular crop, then why was there an article written about it in _Popular Mechanics_ in the 30’s? :smack: get your facts straight before running your mouth! [/QUOTE] There’s also the minor point that Cecil never said anywhere in the column that marijuana was “never a popular crop”. He said that it had many uses, that the 1937 production was at low levels, and that the US government even encouraged its growth during WWII. But at no point is anything remotely like the OP’s words ever used. Heh. I love appropriate user names. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/9 "2006-04-06T01:07:53Z")
You guys know better. Those who hide under bridges and are green and ugly do NOT need food. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/10 "2006-04-06T04:06:38Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] You guys know better. Those who hide under bridges and are green and ugly do NOT need food. :smack: [/QUOTE] Oh, please. Everyone knows that they have grey, rocky skin. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/11 "2006-04-06T05:08:04Z")
I don’t think there’s anything particularly trollish about the guest (and I don’t understand this odd compulsion to just hint at it, as though the mods won’t figure it out). I don’t find his position particularly sound, though. _Popular Mechanics_ has always had articles on interesting technologies and applications that were never put to practical use. I could easily believe they ran a highly positive article on hemp in the thirties. The probably also ran articles saying the Zeppelin would define air travel for decades to come. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/12 "2006-04-06T07:30:17Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] You guys know better. Those who hide under bridges and are green and ugly do NOT need food. :smack: [/QUOTE] Believe it or not, not all stupid kids are trolls. All trolls are stupid kids, however. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/13 "2006-04-06T09:07:33Z")
[QUOTE=Skammer] Do you have the exact date of the magazine article, or can you tell us in which issue it appeared? Better yet, can you direct us to the text of the article? The fact that “an article” was written “in the 30’s” does not necessarily indicate that hemp was “a popular crop.” [/QUOTE] No, no, no. The article ran once. In the 19_6_0s. For twenty minutes. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/14 "2006-04-06T12:00:33Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] the US government even encouraged its growth during WWII. [/QUOTE] For anyone curious, [here](http://www.archive.org/details/Hemp_for_victory_1942) is a link to the 1942 U.S. Government-produced film “Hemp For Victory,” courtesy of The Internet Archive. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/15 "2006-04-06T12:37:21Z")
I see nothing in the cited article to contradict Cecil: [QUOTE=Cecil Adams] Hemp wasn’t a mighty industry in the U.S. prior to passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Only about 1,300 acres of hemp–about two square miles–were under cultivation. It was cheaper to import the stuff than grow it. Even so, total U.S. consumption was only about 2,000 tons, and most of that was used for rope and such. Textile manufacturers had long since abandoned hemp for cotton, which was easier to process. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Cecil Adams] What exactly motivated Anslinger is a matter of debate, but it seems silly to blame a fat-cat conspiracy–as I said earlier, hemp was a minor crop in the 1930s and posed no competitive threat. [/QUOTE] The article cited no production figures or sales figures that would refute Cecil’s statements. The OP should get \*his \* facts straight before running \*his \* mouth! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/16 "2006-04-06T13:53:19Z")
The O-poster posted **once**. My Spidey Sense tells me we shall not cross paths again. ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/17 "2006-04-06T15:35:23Z")
I’m more interested in the bona fides of the PM article. “Billion Dollar Crop” in 1937 sets off my urban legend detector. Remember, in those days, a millionaire was stinking rich. Billion sounds like a modernism. A quick spin around the usual UL sites finds nothing going either way. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/18 "2006-04-06T16:12:10Z")
OTOH, maybe legit. [Here’s](http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/hemp/history/conspiracy.htm) what purports (and appears) to be a Pepperdine master’s thesis. See discussion of PM article immediately after note [327](http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/hemp/history/conspiracy.htm#_ftnref327). ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/19 "2006-04-06T16:27:23Z")
And [here’s](http://www.jackherer.com/popmech.html) what appears to be an actual reprint (photocopy) of the article. Short of some industrious doper huning down an original copy of the February 1938 edition of Popular Mechanics, it looks pretty legit to me. ---
**Author:** ![blehblehbleh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@blehblehbleh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blehblehbleh)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436/20 "2006-04-06T17:27:15Z")
Here is the article online : [http://www.jackherer.com/popmech.html<P><P>](http://www.jackherer.com/popmech.html<P><P>); _popular mechanics_ isn’t a freakin tabloid. It’s a reliable source for information about what technology was like in the past. The article calls hemp a “billion dollar crop”. A billion dollars is a lot now, think of how much it was back then. The article also talks about “thousands of tons of hemp” being used, which means that a lot of hemp was being grown. I’m out now to toke it… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-adams-is-ignorant-maybe/351436.md?page=2)