# Tell me again why hemp is illegal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 27, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700 "2009-09-27T00:50:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/21 "2009-09-27T18:30:01Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > _Blacks had been able to vote since 1870,_ Due to Jim Crow laws, many of them couldn’t vote until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/22 "2009-09-27T18:57:29Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I could post cites about the practical applications of hempiculture. I might try to trace the legal history or speculate about the social climate, etc. But I’d rather start from scratch. > > Tell me again why hemp is illegal? > > Please note, I’m not talking about pot, the drug some people like to smoke &etc. I’m talking about industrial hemp. Tell me: why does it _bother you_ that hemp is illegal? ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/23 "2009-09-27T19:01:29Z")
[http://www.lightparty.com/Energy/HEMP.html](http://www.lightparty.com/Energy/HEMP.html) " In Hemp: Lifeline to the Future (Reprint of Brain/Mind Bulletin; Los Angeles, CA; August, 1994 issue) Author Chris Conrad in his book, “In Hemp: Lifeline to the Future,” traces the history of a plant that was long a linchpin of world agriculture: fast-growing, economical and immensely versatile. Yet in this century, a conspiracy of political and industrial forces cultivated fear of just one of its products - cannabis - to chase it from the scene. . . . The promise that hemp held for the rest of the world was quickly perceived as a threat by a small core of powerful people in the elite special-interest oligarchy dominated by the DuPont petrochemical company and its major financial backer and key political ally . . . Andrew Mellon. Through careful bureaucratic control of both legislation and enforcement, the hydrocarbon interests achieved market supremacy by turning a blind eye to the poisons generated by industrial hydrocarbons while imposing extreme obstacles on natural carbohydrates, supposedly because the latter cause physical pleasure." Also, check this out. Most Americans are unaware of Henry Ford’s Hemp Mobile. [http://www.inya-face.com/hemp/08\_Ford.htm](http://www.inya-face.com/hemp/08_Ford.htm) During the 1930’s Henry Ford applied his ingenious mind to the creation of an all-organic car designed to run on hemp bio-mass fuel. The car itself was made primarily from hemp and other annual crop. Ford envisioned an automotive industry producing vehicles made from, and fueled by, organic based materials. . . . ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/24 "2009-09-27T20:31:48Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > Recent documentaries on hemp issues, such as “Billion Dollar Crop” and “the Hemp Revolution”, show archival footage of a demonstration of the unique strength of this car, in which the body of the car is repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer - amazingly there is no damage, the hammer appearing to bounce off! “It bounces off”. Seriously? As opposed to regular cars, off of which hammers don’t bounce? Pot could have been legalized a long time ago if stoners weren’t so eager to demonstrate how severely marijuana damages the brain’s bullshit detector. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/25 "2009-09-27T22:26:54Z")
Hoo-boy. This load of crap again. > [@jakesteele](#): > > [In Hemp: Lifeline to the Future](http://www.lightparty.com/Energy/HEMP.html) > > In Hemp: Lifeline to the Future > (Reprint of Brain/Mind Bulletin; Los Angeles, CA; August, 1994 issue) > > Author Chris Conrad in his book, “In Hemp: Lifeline to the Future,” traces the history of a plant that was long a linchpin of world agriculture: fast-growing, economical and immensely versatile. Yet in this century, a conspiracy of political and industrial forces cultivated fear of just one of its products - cannabis - to chase it from the scene. This already sets the stage in a rosy glory: Hemp was in definite decline in the late 19th century and before that it was not really a great crop. It was difficult to harvest and still is today with modern equipment. While it can grow fast, it is not the prize harvest that its advocates claim. > [@](#): > > Like Grinspoon and Bakalar, Conrad, a businessman and long-time hemp activist, makes convincing cases for both the medical use of marijuana and the necessity of drug-law reform. Even more pointedly, his extensively referenced book damningly documents how an alliance of oil and petro-chemical interests, including long-time Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, joined forces with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst to mount a propaganda campaign against cannabis. As Cecil has noted, this is bullcrap. There simply is no evidence for it. The claim is supported very tenuously and only works if you ignore all the other folks being hysterical about MJ. There is no need for a ‘corporate conspiracy’ when good old fashion racism fills the bill. > [@](#): > > By inflaming fears of marijuana (an obscure name promoted by Hearst), they eventually succeeded, through the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, in destroying the domestic hemp industry. Again, as Cecil notes, plenty of folks were inflaming fears. > [@](#): > > The Virginia Law Review analysis of the 1937 hearings on the Marijuana Tax Act described them as “a near comic example of dereliction of legislative responsibility” and “a case study in legislative carelessness.” It noted that “no primary empirical evidence was presented about the effects of the drug…(only) hearsay and emotional pleas from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and a few state law enforcement agents.” The law “was tied neither to scientific study nor the law enforcement need.” The legislative review concluded that Congress has been “hoodwinked.” Be that as it may, it does not make for a conspiracy. > [@](#): > > The scene: America in the early 1900’s Two powerful rivals, agriculture and industry, faced off over several multi-billion-dollar markets - This time in the form of hemp against oil. Fortunes would be made . . . and lost. When Rudolf Diesel produced his famous engine in 1896, he assumed it would be powered by a “variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils.” Like most engineers, Diesel realized that vegetable fuels, especially hemp, are superior to petroleum. Nonsense. We’ve seen how biofuels can be useful but they rarely match petroleum oil. > [@](#): > > The promise that hemp held for the rest of the world was quickly perceived as a threat by a small core of powerful people in the elite special-interest oligarchy dominated by the DuPont petrochemical company and its major financial backer and key political ally . . . Andrew Mellon. Again, no evidence for this beyond the conspiracy speculations of hemp advocates. > [@](#): > > Through careful bureaucratic control of both legislation and enforcement, the hydrocarbon interests achieved market supremacy by turning a blind eye to the poisons generated by industrial hydrocarbons :rolleyes: Because biofuels make no pollutants at all? Please. > [@](#): > > while imposing extreme obstacles on natural carbohydrates, supposedly because the latter cause physical pleasure. And ever since the release of Bulletin 404 (a research paper by the Department of Agriculture touting hemp pulp as a source of paper, plastics and other everyday goods), Bulletin 404 was ‘optimistic’ to put it mildly. > [@](#): > > the Hearst newspaper/timber interests had supported the petrochemical campaign against hemp. Sorry bucko, but there was absolutely _no_ indication that hemp papermaking was ever going to be a threat the timber papermaking. Hemp simply could not compete then, and is unlikely to gain ground now. > [@](#): > > In just a few years, the Hearst newspapers and their allies were able to whip up enough confusion and hysteria to ramrod a “marijuana” prohibition bill through Congress in less than three months. Over the decades, an entrenched “marijuana bureaucracy” used its influence to demand ever more prohibition-enforcement funds. Canada’s LeDain Commission Report of 1972 lamented that the debate on non-medical cannabis use “all too often has been based on hearsay, myth and ill-informed opinion about the effects of the drug.” This is more about MJ than Hemp. > [@](#): > > It is significant that when hemp was “controlled” by the federal government, it was outlawed for almost every use except birdseed, which was mostly imported and did not compete with DuPont, Mellon, Hearst or any of their allies’ financial interests. No. You could always import hemp products. There just was little demand beyond the hippy set. > [@](#): > > The imported seed was required to be sterilized. The regulations for use of the herb by physicians were so complicated that they were not likely to have prescribed it since, which expanded the opening for synthetic drugs to take over the cannabis market. This implies that hemp was some kind of mega-plant that would somehow overwhelm the medicines of that age and this age. I really, really, really have my doubts about that. > [@](#): > > In that same year, 1937, DuPont filed its patent on nylon, a synthetic fiber that took over many textile and cordage markets that would have gone to hemp. Nonsense. Most of Nylon as a fabric went towards women’s stockings and the demand was very high there. Hemp couldn’t be made into similar products. For those who claim that Hemp was such a wonderful and traditional textile source, please tell me where there hemp fabrics on display in colonial and folk art museums, because there aren’t. > [@](#): > > More than half the American cars on the road between 1922 and 1984 were built by General Motors, which guaranteed DuPont a captive market for paints, varnishes, plastics, rubber, etc. And? > [@](#): > > The DuPonts were able to use their control of the entire sphere of the auto and fuel industries to keep out incompatible technologies. It made little difference to them that Henry Ford built a hemp-mobile and secretly grew fields of hemp to become independent of the oil industry. He could not keep it up long under the state and federal bans. Horseshit! Henry Ford built his car out of soy plastics, not hemp! Ford was well known as being a soy-nut. Hemp-heads have been trying to stick their product into the Henry Ford story but the simple fact is he did his work with Soy. > [@](#): > > Finally, the attitude toward the cannabis user changed overnight once he became a criminal. This activity that had been merely a pleasant pastime was now perceived to be a moral pestilence - a plague that destroyed the spirit and left the body to rot. Hispanics and the African-American blues and jazz culture soon fell under a systematic racist attack by prohibition bureaucrats, who used the cannabis ban to imprison minority community leaders and undermine the positive role models they provided. With their new police power, the marijuana bureaucrats had a clear field for their economic, political and social agendas. I won’t deny it was racism. But countering racism with lies and conspiracy theories…is that what you want to do? > [@](#): > > Also, check this out. Most Americans are unaware of Henry Ford’s Hemp Mobile. > > [http://www.inya-face.com/hemp/08\_Ford.htm](http://www.inya-face.com/hemp/08_Ford.htm) Again, this was made of Soy, not hemp. > [@](#): > > During the 1930’s Henry Ford applied his ingenious mind to the creation of an all-organic car designed to run on hemp bio-mass fuel. The car itself was made primarily from hemp and other annual crop. Wrong. It was made of soy. > [@](#): > > Ford envisioned an automotive industry producing vehicles made from, and fueled by, organic based materials. The quite European-styled car he created is pictured above, outside the Ford Factory. Ford had a lot of ideas, but he was no fool. He knew market trends and the cost of bioplastics at the time were likely just too expensive. Petroleum at the time was just too inexpensive to go trying to force any new fuels down people’s throats. That had little to do with corporate conspiracies and more to do with the nature of commodities. > [@](#): > > Recent documentaries on hemp issues, such as “Billion Dollar Crop” and “the Hemp Revolution”, show archival footage of a demonstration of the unique strength of this car, in which the body of the car is repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer - amazingly there is no damage, the hammer appearing to bounce off! That’s nice. But it ignores the fact that the car was Soy. > [@](#): > > It was also rust-proof and, being powered by a non-fossil fuel engine, it’s adoption as an industry standard could have meant huge environmental advantages over the past fifty years. That is rather speculative and ignores many possible problems with bioplastics of that era. Doesn’t rust you say? Well what keeps it from rotting? Every time someone brings up a ‘what could have been if only we’d followed this visionary’ I think of the hype surrounding the introduction of [Rolamite](http://www.boingboing.net/2006/12/07/forgotten_invention_.html) > [@](#): > > The visionary Ford was aware of the properties of hemp and saw it as a valuable, sustainable resource for the auto industry. However, the introduction of the prohibition laws in the U.S. (December,1937) put a halt to further research and development. We can only imagine where Fords vision for the hemp plant may have led. Soy. Not hemp. Stop trying to co-opt his work for your own propoganda. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/26 "2009-09-28T02:41:43Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Industrial hemp and hemp grown for its THC content don’t look all that different. It’s really next to impossible to tell the difference without testing the plant’s THC content. No really dude. Industrial hemp is about the stalks; pot is about the buds. The difference is entirely obvious. Seriously, we can launch a Tomahawk from a destroyer 1200 miles away into the barn door of some foreign shit shack but we can’t tell the difference between hemp and pot? Really?!? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/27 "2009-09-28T02:48:57Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Tell me: why does it _bother you_ that hemp is illegal? I am under the impression that hemp holds a certain amount of green potential. Ie. that it can replace petroleum or lumber for certain mass-produced products. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/28 "2009-09-28T03:10:51Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I am under the impression that hemp holds a certain amount of green potential. Ie. that it can replace petroleum or lumber for certain mass-produced products. It can’t, really. That’s basically a hemp-head myth. That being said, there is no real legitimate reason for hemp to be illegal. Canada gets along with hemp as a small cash crop with the farmers noting the locations of their hemp fields to the government. Marijuana growers really wouldn’t want to hide their plants in hemp fields as cross pollination is a pain. The only reason I would want hemp to be illegal is because it totally pisses off the lying hemp-heads. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/29 "2009-09-28T04:37:26Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > [In Hemp: Lifeline to the Future](http://www.lightparty.com/Energy/HEMP.html) > Recent documentaries on hemp issues, such as “Billion Dollar Crop” and “the Hemp Revolution”, show archival footage of a demonstration of the unique strength of this car, in which the body of the car is repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer - amazingly there is no damage, the hammer appearing to bounce off! So hemp could be a real “bumper crop”. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/30 "2009-09-28T05:40:10Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > No really dude. Industrial hemp is about the stalks; pot is about the buds. The difference is entirely obvious. These are cannabis plants being grown for industrial hemp: > **[Resource Not Found | Province of Manitoba](https://www.manitoba.ca/404.html)** This is a cannabis plant being grown for narcotic use: [http://www.marijuana-picture.com/gallery/growing\_marijuana\_outdoors/images/growing\_marijuana\_outdoors.jpg](http://www.marijuana-picture.com/gallery/growing_marijuana_outdoors/images/growing_marijuana_outdoors.jpg) Can you easily tell the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/31 "2009-09-28T09:39:19Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > These are cannabis plants being grown for industrial hemp: > > [Resource Not Found | Province of Manitoba](http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/hemp/images/bko01s00.jpg) > > This is a cannabis plant being grown for narcotic use: > > [http://www.marijuana-picture.com/gallery/growing\_marijuana\_outdoors/images/growing\_marijuana\_outdoors.jpg](http://www.marijuana-picture.com/gallery/growing_marijuana_outdoors/images/growing_marijuana_outdoors.jpg) > > Can you easily tell the difference? Hmm, I don’t know. Those pictures do look awfully similar. Most of what I know about hemp is hearsay- since it is illegal there isn’t much dependable information on it. What I’m told is that industrial hemp would be grown long and stalky, and MJ would be grown more stumpy and flowery. And that they’re only related, separate plants rather than one thing grown different ways. What about the claims people use to promote hemp? I have heard positive things about its potential for ethanol (4x better yield than corn while leaving food-crop land alone), paper (50% of the trees we cut down are for paper? So I’m told), and petroleum (neato chemicals in hemp can synthesize petroleum products). But I’m not a farmer or chemist- I just don’t know for sure. If the claims are true, hemp could be very useful. Has anyone reputable vetted these claims? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/32 "2009-09-28T12:10:05Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > What about the claims people use to promote hemp? I have heard positive things about its potential for ethanol (4x better yield than corn while leaving food-crop land alone), Simply not true. Corn’s yield for oil is potentially higher acre for acre. The only advantage hemp has is that it can grow in areas corn cannot. But corn wins out by being much, much easier to harvest and process. > [@](#): > > paper (50% of the trees we cut down are for paper? So I’m told), Total crap for the most part. Hemp paper historically was considered the worst kind. If we were to switch to hemp we would need to abandon decades of technology and pollution controls developed for wood pulp. Furthermore, the only way to get 1/2 decent hemp paper is to mix it with a decent amount of other pulp material such as linen. If we had to switch away from wood pulp, there are better choices than hemp. > [@](#): > > and petroleum (neato chemicals in hemp can synthesize petroleum products). Sorta true if you ignore all the other crops that can do much the same but better. > [@](#): > > But I’m not a farmer or chemist- I just don’t know for sure. Let me put it this way: Hemp is really only illegal in the US and maybe a few other countries. Has it set the industrial world on fire in those other countries? Germany has always been the leader in paper-making technology, hemp is legal there, and it hasn’t gone beyond specialty products. Hemp and other crops are legal in China and are/were often used for paper products. It shows that a lot of Chinese paper is crap and they have been desperately planting softwood tree farms to develop a decent paper crop. > [@](#): > > If the claims are true, hemp could be very useful. Has anyone reputable vetted these claims? Don’t know what you mean by ‘reputable’. Is Cecil reputable? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/33 "2009-09-28T13:29:29Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > These are cannabis plants being grown for industrial hemp: > > [Resource Not Found | Province of Manitoba](http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/hemp/images/bko01s00.jpg) > > This is a cannabis plant being grown for narcotic use: > > [http://www.marijuana-picture.com/gallery/growing\_marijuana\_outdoors/images/growing\_marijuana\_outdoors.jpg](http://www.marijuana-picture.com/gallery/growing_marijuana_outdoors/images/growing_marijuana_outdoors.jpg) > > Can you easily tell the difference? Sure, the hemp leaves are longer, darker, and glossier. The cannabis leaves are lighter, shorter, and duller. And I am pretty sure that if we could actually view fields of the stuff without being influenced by camera angles, lighting, and other photographic issues, a seasoned agriculturist would have no trouble making the distinctions. That said, I think marijuana should be decriminalized for two reasons: to stop the idiocy of selecting mood altering drugs on the basis of the perceived race of the users and to let the hemp proponents actually fail legitimately in the capitalist market withiout having the excuse of government oppression. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/34 "2009-09-28T14:01:23Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > That said, I think marijuana should be decriminalized for two reasons: to stop the idiocy of selecting mood altering drugs on the basis of the perceived race of the users and to let the hemp proponents actually fail legitimately in the capitalist market withiout having the excuse of government oppression. The best reason is that Jesus said to ‘be not anxious’. Practically an Rx from The Man himself. But I really am talking about hemp. Between you and Mr Miskatonic it sounds like there isn’t much to recommend it commercially. But that’s contrary to some of the glowing things people say and repeat about it. Hemp paper sucks? People _say_ it is good- I have no idea. Not good for ethanol? People _say_ it has big advantages over corn because there is more usable biomass (nearly the whole plant vs. just the ears) and requires much less care, fertilizer, grows faster, etc. Are the hemp proponents just stoned? Big Oil isn’t suppressing hemp after all? Here’s a 30-sec vid about [Ford’s hemp car](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgDyEO_8cI&feature=related) mentioned earlier. Stuff like this makes me wonder if hemp gets the short shrift. Hence the thread. I haven’t read Cecil’s column.. If there is a 'doper consensus that he’s right on this question, I’d at least take it seriously. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/35 "2009-09-28T15:28:35Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Here’s a 30-sec vid about [Ford’s hemp car](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgDyEO_8cI&feature=related) mentioned earlier. Stuff like this makes me wonder if hemp gets the short shrift. Hence the thread. > > I haven’t read Cecil’s column.. If there is a 'doper consensus that he’s right on this question, I’d at least take it seriously. So you want us to watch a 30 sec video but you can’t be bothered to read Cecil’s column? Maybe it does affect motivation. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/36 "2009-09-28T15:49:30Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > But I really am talking about hemp. Between you and Mr Miskatonic it sounds like there isn’t much to recommend it commercially. But that’s contrary to some of the glowing things people say and repeat about it. Hemp paper sucks? People _say_ it is good- I have no idea. Not good for ethanol? People _say_ it has big advantages over corn because there is more usable biomass (nearly the whole plant vs. just the ears) and requires much less care, fertilizer, grows faster, etc. Are the hemp proponents just stoned? Big Oil isn’t suppressing hemp after all? You have to be wary of any advocate who starts declaring his product to be super wondrous and invokes conspiracy theories to explain why their wondrous product hasn’t taken off. For hemp paper’s quality I only have to point out to older printings of ‘Pulp & Paper’ which refer to hemp paper as ‘the lowest quality’. Many advocates might find some decent paper made with hemp but then you realize that it is 20% linen. Kinda cheating to use a virgin pulp like that. Biomass oil could use the whole stalk of the corn as well if it decided to, but it is much more efficient and requires less cleaning of the equipment to use the ears. Hemp advocates ignore that, and they ignore the fact that Corn wins in any case. Corn would actually lose to a couple of other crops IIRC, but we grow a lot of corn and are pretty good at it. > [@](#): > > Here’s a 30-sec vid about [Ford’s hemp car](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgDyEO_8cI&feature=related) mentioned earlier. Stuff like this makes me wonder if hemp gets the short shrift. Hence the thread. Stuff like this makes me think you aren’t reading the thread. I already pointed out that Ford’s car was made with Soy plastics, not hemp. Hemp advocates have been trying to glom onto Ford’s work for ages. They are liars. > [@](#): > > I haven’t read Cecil’s column.. If there is a 'doper consensus that he’s right on this question, I’d at least take it seriously. Personally, I think Cecil was being kind. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/37 "2009-09-28T15:57:24Z")
Why are people so afraid of marrywanna. Give a teen 10 bucks and ask him to get a bag and he can. It is everywhere. Want it you can get it. So thinking keeping it against the law is limiting it is a joke. All we do is waste tons of money enforcing it. We jail people for smoking and dealing weed. Then while you are taking them away, someone else is stepping up to sell. It is a huge waste of time and money. Lets grow up . There are supposed to be a lot of uses for hemp. What does it hurt to go after them. It may result in eco friendly replacements for petroleum plastics. Why are we always so afraid? ---
**Author:** ![pan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@pan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pan1)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/38 "2009-09-28T16:03:57Z")
Pro-Hemp is a culture that chooses to argue with it’s blinders on. Hemp, as a plant is not the wonder cure for the planet. There is no plant, ever, that puts more nutrients in the soil than it takes out - unless you till the whole plant back into the soil (in which case you’re adding sugars created from water and carbon dioxide) - but we can get the same effect, with better nutrients, by fertlization. The most efficient paper agriculture is wood pulp from pine farming. We can use the by products of 2x4s for paper and pine trees grow really darned fast the the southeast. - Granted we often use the whole tree for paper. Then again, paper use is at the end of it’s heyday. The drug effects are not harmless. There are significant alterations in brain function. Any particulate inhalent can cause cancer. Lungs handle air, not solid matter. Back to how Hemp is the wonderplant. If it were, businesses would have found a way to grow it legally. Businesses are big on making money and if hemp were all that and more, The corporations in america would be all over finding ways to grow it legally. Of course there are million things you can do with hemp. There are a million and one things you can do with soy. The biggest problem. It may be versatile, but there is absolutely nothing that hemp is best for. In every end product that hemp would be a candidate material, there is something better and cheaper to use. If there weren’t, we’d be using hemp. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/39 "2009-09-28T16:05:28Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > . And that they’re only related, separate plants rather than one thing grown different ways. That’s not entirely true, although it depends on what you mean by “related, separate plants”. There’s only one species…_Cannabis sativa_. There are separate strains and varieties, though; some of the plants being bred for fiber use, and others for drug production. Some biologists have considered splitting the two different kinds into different subspecies, _C. sativa sativa_, and _C. sativa indica_, but not usually accepted. It’s the same plant, it’s just in the one case, it’s been bred for high quantities of THC, and in others, for low quantities of THC. > [@](#): > > What about the claims people use to promote hemp? I have heard positive things about its potential for ethanol (4x better yield than corn while leaving food-crop land alone), paper (50% of the trees we cut down are for paper? So I’m told), and petroleum (neato chemicals in hemp can synthesize petroleum products). But I’m not a farmer or chemist- I just don’t know for sure. Well, like I showed before, here’s a study about the economic feasibility of hemp as a crop. It doesn’t deal with any of those specific questions, , but I’d assume the ethanol and paper needs could as easily be met with linen production, and there isn’t any real linen farming in this country. [http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/AGES001e/](http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/AGES001e/) ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700/40 "2009-09-28T17:17:09Z")
It would take a talented drug dealer to prevent the microscopic pollen from cross pollinating their plants. Simply put: Drug plants hidden inside industrial plants will become industrial plants. Or at the least, become very weak drug plants. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-again-why-hemp-is-illegal/511700.md?page=3)