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Hemp-FAQ-part 1
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<h3>Part1: What’s all this fuss about
hemp?</h3>
<dl><dl>
<dt>
<a
href="#1a">1a)</a> What is hemp?<br>
<a
href="#1b">1b)</a> What is cannabis?<br>
<a
href="#1c">1c)</a> Where did the word `marijuana’ come from?<br>
<a href="#2a">2a)</a> How can hemp be used as a food?<br>
<a
href="#2b">2b)</a> What are the benefits of hemp compared to other food
crops?<br>
<a href="#2c">2c)</a> How about soy?
Is hemp
competitive as a world source of protein?<br>
<a
href="#3a">3a)</a> How can hemp be used for cloth?<br>
<a
href="#3b">3b)</a> Why is it better than cotton?<br>
<a
href="#4a">4a)</a> How can hemp be used to make paper?<br>
<a
href="#4b">4b)</a> Why can’t we just keep using trees?<br>
<a
href="#5a">5a)</a> How can hemp be used as a fuel?<br>
<a
href="#5b">5b)</a> Why is it better than petroleum?<br>
<a
href="#6a">6a)</a> How can hemp be used as a medicine?<br>
<a
href="#6b">6b)</a> What’s wrong with all the prescription drugs we
have?<br>
<a href="#7"> 7) </a> What other uses
for hemp are there?<br>
<br><br>
<a
name="1a"><h4>What is hemp</h4></a>
For our purposes, hemp is
the plant called `cannabis
sativa.’ There are other plants that are called hemp, but
cannabis hemp is the most useful of these plants. In fact,
`cannabis sativa’ means `useful
(sativa) hemp (cannabis)’.<p>
`Hemp’ is any durable plant that has been used
since
pre-history for many purposes. Fiber is the most well known
product, and the word
`hemp’ can mean the rope or twine
which is made from the hemp plant, as well as just the
stalk
of the plant which produced it.<p>
<a
name="1b"><h4>1b) What is cannabis?
</h4></a>
Cannabis is
the most durable of the hemp plants, and it
produces the toughest cloth, called `canvass.’
(Canvass was
widely used as sails in the early shipping industry, as it
was the only
cloth which would not rot on contact with sea
spray.) The cannabis plant also produces three
other very
important products which the other hemp plants do not (in
usable form, that
is): seed, pulp, and medicine.<p>
The pulp is used as fuel, and to make paper.
The seed is
suitable for both human and animal foods. The oil from the
seed can be used
in as a base for paints and varnishes. The
medicine is a tincture or admixture of the sticky
resin in
the blossoms and leaves of the hemp plant, and is used for a
variety of
purposes.<p>
<a name="1c"><h4>1c)
Where did the word `marijuana’ come from?</h4></a>
The word `marijuana’ is
a Mexican slang term which became
popular in the late 1930’s in America, during a series of
`Reefer Madness Movement.’ It
refers specifically to the
medicine part of cannabis, which Mexican soldiers used to
smoke.<p>
Today in the U.S., hemp (meaning the roots, stalk, and stems
of
the cannabis plant) is legal to possess. No one can
arrest you for wearing a hemp shirt, or
using hemp paper.
Marijuana (The flowers, buds, or leaves of the cannabis
plant) is not
legal to possess, and there are stiff fines
and possible jail terms for having any marijuana
in your
possession. The seeds are legal to possess and eat, but
only if they are
sterilized (will not grow to maturity.)<p>
Since it is not possible to grow the
hemp plant without
being in possession of marijuana, the United States does not
produce
any industrial hemp products, and must import them
or, more often, substitute others. (There
is a way to grow
hemp legally, but it involves filing an application with the
Drug
Enforcement Administration and the DEA very rarely ever
gives its permission.) This does not
seem to have stopped
people from producing and using marijuana, though. In many
of the
United States, marijuana is the number one cash crop,
mostly because it fetches a very high
price on the black
market.<p>
<h4><a
name="2a">2a) How can hemp be used as a food?</a></h4>
Hemp
seed is a highly nutritious source of protein and
essential fatty oils. Many populations have
grown hemp for
its seed — most of them eat it as `gruel’ which is a lot
like oatmeal.
The leaves can be used as roughage, but not
without slight psycho-active side-effects. Hemp
seeds do
not contain any marijuana and they do not get you `high.’<p>
Hemp
seed protein closely resembles protein as it is found
in the human blood. It is fantastically
easy to digest, and
many patients who have trouble digesting food are given hemp
seed by
their doctors. Hemp seed was once called `edestine’
and was used by scientists as the model
for vegetable
protein.<p>
Hemp seed oil provides the human body with
essential fatty
acids. Hemp seed is the only seed which contains these oils
with almost
no saturated fat. As a supplement to the diet,
these oils can reduce the risk of heart
disease. It is
because of these oils that birds will live much longer if
they eat hemp
seed.<p>
With hemp seed, a vegan or vegetarian can survive and eat
virtually no saturated fats. One handful of hemp seed per
day will supply adequate protein and
essential oils for an
adult.<p>
<a
name="2b"><h4>2b) What are the benefits of hemp compared to other food
crops?</h4></a>
Hemp requires little fertilizer, and grows well almost
pesticides. Hemp puts down deep roots,
which is good for
the soil, and when the leaves drop off the hemp plant,
minerals and
nitrogen are returned to the soil. Hemp has
been grown on the same soil for twenty years in a
row
without any noticeable depletion of the soil.<p>
Using less fertilizer
and agricultural chemicals is good for
two reasons. First, it costs less and requires less
effort.
Second, many agricultural chemicals are dangerous and
contaminate the
environment — the less we have to use, the
better.<p>
<a name="2c"><h4>2c) How about soy? </h4></a>
Is hemp
competitive as a world source of protein?
Hemp does not produce quite as much protein
as soy, but
hemp seed protein is of a higher quality than soy.
Agricultural
considerations may make hemp the food crop of
the future. In addition to the fact that hemp is
an easy
crop to grow, it also resists UV-B light, which is a kind of
sunlight blocked by
the ozone layer. Soy beans do not take
UV-B light very well. If the ozone layer were to
deplete by
16%, which by some estimates is very possible, soy
production would fall by
25-30%.<p>
We may have to grow hemp or starve — and it won’t be the
first
time that this has happened. Hemp has been used to
`bail out’ many populations in time of
famine.
Unfortunately, because of various political factors,
starving people in today’s
underdeveloped countries are not
taking advantage of this crop. In some places, this is
because government officials would call it `marijuana’ and
pull up the crop. In other
countries, it is because the
farmers are busy growing coca and poppies to produce cocaine
state of affairs. Hopefully someday
the Peace Corps will be
able to teach modern hemp seed farming techniques and end
the
world’s protein shortage.<p>
<a
name="3a"><h4>3a) How can hemp be used for cloth?</h4></a>
bast and the hurd. The fiber (bast)
of the hemp plant can
be woven into almost any kind of cloth. It is very durable.
In
fact, the first Levi’s blue jeans were made out of hemp
for just this reason. Compared to all
the other natural
fibers available, hemp is more suitable for a large number
of
applications.<p>
Here is how hemp is harvested for fiber: A field of closely
The hemp is then cut down and it
lies in the field for some
time washed by the rain. It is turned over once to expose
both sides of the stalk evenly. During this time, the hurd
softens up and many minerals are
returned to the soil. This
is called `retting,’ and after this step is complete, the
stalks are brought to a machine which separates the bast and
the hurd. We are lucky to have
machines today — men used
to do this last part by hand with hours of back-breaking
labor.<p>
<a name="3b"><h4>3b)
Why is it better than cotton?</h4>
</a>
The cloth that hemp makes may be a
little less soft than
cotton, (though there are also special kinds of hemp, or
ways to
grow or treat hemp, that can produce a soft cloth)
but it is much stronger and longer lasting.
(It does not
stretch out.) Environmentally, hemp is a better crop to
grow than cotton,
especially the way cotton is grown
nowadays. In the United States, the cotton crop uses
half
of the total pesticides. (Yes, you heard right, one half of
the pesticides used in
the entire U.S. are used on cotton.)
Cotton is a soil damaging crop and needs a lot of
fertilizer.<p>
<a name="4a"><h4>4a)
How can hemp be used to make paper?</h4>
</a>
Both the fiber (bast) and pulp
(hurd) of the hemp plant
can be used to make paper. Fiber paper was the first kind
of
paper, and the first batch was made out of hemp in
ancient China. Fiber paper is thin, tough,
brittle, and a
bit rough. Pulp paper is not as strong as fiber paper, but
it is easier
to make, softer, thicker, and preferable for
most everyday purposes. The paper we use most
today is a
`chemical pulp’ paper made from trees. Hemp pulp paper can
be made without
chemicals from the hemp hurd. Most hemp
paper made today uses the entire hemp stalk, bast and
hurd.
High-strength fiber paper can be made from the hemp baste,
also without
chemicals.<p>
The problem with today’s paper is that so many chemicals are
used to make it. High strength acids are needed to make
quality (smooth, strong, and white)
paper out of trees.
These acids produce chemicals which are very dangerous to
the
environment. Paper companies do their best to clean
these chemicals up (we hope.) Hemp offers
us an opportunity
to make affordable and environmentally safe paper for all of
our
needs, since it does not need much chemical treatment.
It is up to consumers, though, to make
the right choice –
these dangerous chemicals can also be used on hemp to make a
slightly more attractive product. Instead of buying the
whiter, brighter role of toilet paper,
we will need to think
about what we are doing to the planet.<p>
Because of
the chemicals in today’s paper, it will turn
yellow and fall apart as acids eat away at the
pulp. This
takes several decades, but because of this publishers,
libraries and archives
have to order specially processed
acid free paper, which is much more expensive, in order
to
keep records. Paper made naturally from hemp is acid free
and will last for
centuries.<p>
<a name="4b"><h4>4b) Why
can’t we just keep using trees?</h4></a>
The chemicals used to make wood
chemical pulp paper today
could cause us a lot of trouble tomorrow. Environmentalists
have long been concerned about the effects of dioxin and
other compounds on wildlife and even
people. Beyond the
chemical pollution, there are agricultural reasons why we
should use
cannabis hemp instead. When trees are harvested,
minerals are taken with them. Hemp is much
less damaging to
the land where it is grown because it leaves these minerals
behind.<p>
A simpler answer to the above question is:<br>
Because we are running out! It was once said that a
squirrel could climb from New England to
the banks of the
Mississippi River without touching the ground once. The
European
settler’s appetite for firewood and farmland put an
end to this. When the first wood paper
became a huge
industry, the United States Department of Agriculture began
to worry about
the `tree supply.’ That is why they went in
search of plant pulp to replace wood. Today
some
`conservatives’ argue that there are more forests now than
there ever were. This is
neither true, realistic nor
conservative: these statistics do not reflect the real
world. Once trees have been removed from a plot of land, it
takes many decades before
biological diversity and natural
cycles return to the forest, and commercial tree farms
simply do not count as forest — they are farm land.<p>
As just mentioned, many
plant fibers were investigated by
the USDA — some, like kenaf, were even better suited
than
cannabis hemp for making some qualities of paper, but hemp
had one huge advantage:
robust vitality. Hemp generates
immense amounts of plant matter in a three month growing
season. When it came down to producing the deluge of paper
used by Americans, only hemp could
compete with trees. In
fact, according to the 1916 calculations of the USDA, one
acre of
hemp would replace an entire four acres of forest.
And, at the same time, this acre would be
producing textiles
and rope.<p>
Today, only 4% of America’s old-growth
forest remains
standing — and there is talk about building roads into that
for logging
purposes! Will our policy makers realize in
time how easy it would be to save
them?<p>
<a name="5a"><h4>5a) How can
hemp be used as a fuel?</h4>
</a>
The pulp (hurd) of the hemp plant can be
burned as is or
processed into charcoal, methanol, methane, or gasoline.
The process for
doing this is called destructive
distillation, or `pyrolysis.’ Fuels made out of plants
like
this are called `biomass’ fuels. This charcoal may be
burned in today’s
coal-powered electric generators.
Methanol makes a good automobile fuel, in fact it is used
in
professional automobile races. It may someday replace
gasoline.<p>
Hemp may also be used to produce ethanol (grain alcohol.)
The United States government has
developed a way to make
this automobile fuel additive from cellulosic biomass. Hemp
is
an excellent source of high quality cellulosic biomass.
One other way to use hemp as fuel is
to use the oil from the
hemp seed — some diesel engines can run on pure pressed
hemp
seed oil. However, the oil is more useful for other
purposes, even if we could produce and
press enough hemp
seed to power many millions of cars.<p>
</a>
Biomass fuels are clean and virtually free from metals
and sulfur, so they do
not cause nearly as much air
pollution as fossil fuels. Even more importantly, burning
biomass fuels does not increase the total amount of carbon
dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere.
When petroleum products
are burned, carbon that has been stored underground for
millions
of years is added to the air; this may contribute
to global warming through the `Greenhouse
Effect’, (a
popular theory which says that certain gases will act like a
wool blanket
over the entire Earth, preventing heat from
escaping into space.) In order to make biomass
fuels, this
carbon dioxide has to be taken out of the air to begin with
— when they are
burned it is just being put back where it
started.<p>
Another advantage
over fossil fuels is that biomass fuels
can be made right here in the United States, instead
of
buying them from other countries. Instead of paying oil
drillers, super-tanker
captains, and soldiers to get our
fuel to us, we could pay local farmers and delivery
drivers
instead. Of course, it is possible to chop down trees and
use them as biomass.
This would not be as beneficial to the
environment as using hemp, especially since trees that
are
cut down for burning are `whole tree harvested.’ This means
the entire tree is
ripped up and burned, not just the wood.
Since most of the minerals which trees use are in
the
leaves, this practice could ruin the soil where the trees
are grown. In several
places in the United States, power
companies are starting to do this — burning the trees
in
order to produce electricity, because that is cheaper than
using coal. They should be
using hemp, like researchers in
Australia started doing a few years ago. (Besides, hemp
provides a higher quality and quantity of biomass than trees
do.)<p>
<a name="6a"><h4>6a) How can hemp be used as a
medicine?</h4>
</a>
Marijuana has thousands of possible uses in medicine.
medicine legally in this country
until 1937, and was sold as
a nerve tonic — but mankind has been using cannabis
medicines much longer than that. Marijuana appears in
almost every known book of medicine
written by ancient
scholars and wise men. It is usually ranked among the top
medicines,
called `panaceas’, a word which means `cure-all’.
The list of diseases which cannabis can be
used for
includes: multiple sclerosis, cancer treatment, AIDS (and
AIDS treatment),
glaucoma, depression, epilepsy, migraine
headaches, asthma, pruritis, sclerodoma, severe pain,
and
dystonia. This list does not even consider the other
medicines which can be made out
of marijuana — these are
just some of the illnesses for which people smoke or eat
whole
marijuana today.<p>
There are over 60 chemicals in marijuana which may have
medical uses. It is relatively easy to extract these into
food or beverage, or into some sort
of lotion, using butter,
fat, oil, or alcohol. One chemical, cannabinol, may be
useful
to help people who cannot sleep. Another is taken
from premature buds and is called
cannabidiolic acid. It is
a powerful disinfectant. Marijuana dissolved in rubbing
alcohol helps people with the skin disease herpes control
their sores, and a salve like this
was one of the earliest
medical uses for cannabis. The leaves were once used in
bandages
and a relaxing non-psychoactive herbal tea can be
made from small cannabis stems.<p>
The most well known use of marijuana today is to control
nausea and vomiting. One of
the most important things when
treating cancer with chemotherapy or when treating AIDS with
difference between life or death.
Patients have found
marijuana to be extremely effective in fighting nausea; in
fact so
many patients use it for this purpose even though it
is illegal that they have formed `buyers
clubs’ to help them
find a steady supply. In California, some city governments
have
decided to look the other way and allow these clubs to
operate openly.<p>
Marijuana is also useful for fighting two other very serious
and wide-spread disabilities.
Glaucoma is the second
leading cause of blindness, caused by uncontrollable eye
pressure. Marijuana can control the eye pressure and keep
glaucoma from causing blindness.
Multiple Sclerosis is a
disease where the body’s immune system attacks nerve cells.
Spasms and many other problems result from this. Marijuana
not only helps stop these spasms,
but it may also keep
multiple sclerosis from getting worse.<p>
<a name="6b"><h4>6b) What’s wrong with all the prescription
drugs we have?</h4>
</a>
They cost money and are hard to make. In many
cases,
they do not work as well, either. Some prescription drugs
which marijuana can
replace have very bad, even downright
dangerous, side-effects. Cannabis medicines are
cheap,
safe, and easy to make.<p>
Many people think that the drug
dronabinol should be used
instead of marijuana. Dronabinol is an exact imitation of
one
of the chemicals found in marijuana, and it may actually
work on a lot of the above diseases,
but there are some big
problems with dronabinol, and most patients who have used
both
dronabinol and marijuana say that marijuana works
better.<p>
The first
problem with Dronabinol is that it is even harder
to get than marijuana. Many doctors do not
like to
prescribe dronabinol, and many drug stores do not want to
supply it, because a
lot of paperwork has to be filed with
the Drug Enforcement Administration. Secondly,
dronabinol
comes in pills which are virtually useless to anyone who is
throwing up, and
it is hard to take just the right amount of
dronabinol since it cannot be smoked. Finally,
because
dronabinol is only one of the many chemicals in cannabis, it
just does not work
for some diseases. Many patients do not
like the effects of dronabinol because it does not
contain
some of the more calming chemicals which are present in
marijuana.<p>
<a name="7"><h4>7) What other uses for hemp are
there?</h4></a>
One of the newest uses of hemp is in construction
materials. Hemp can be used in the manufacture of `press
board’ or `composite board.’ This
involves gluing fibrous
hemp stalks together under pressure to produce a board which
is
many times more elastic and durable than hardwood.
Because hemp produces a long, tough fiber
it is the perfect
source for press-board. Another interesting application of
hemp in
industry is making plastic. Many plastics can be
made from the high-cellulose hemp hurd. Hemp
seed oil has a
multitude of uses in products such as varnishes and
lubricants.<p>
Using hemp to build is by no means a new idea. French
archeologists have discovered bridges built with a process
that mineralizes hemp stalks into a
long-lasting cement.
The process involves no synthetic chemicals and produces a
material
which works as a filler in building construction.
Called Isochanvre, it is gaining popularity
in France.
Isochanvre can be used as drywall, insulates against heat
and noise, and is
very long lasting.<p>
`Bio-plastics’ are not a new idea, either — way back in
the
1930’s Henry Ford had already made a whole car body out of
them — but the processes
for making them do need more
research and development. Bio-plastics can be made without
much pollution. Unfortunately, companies are not likely to
explore bio-plastics if they have
to either import the raw
materials or break the law. (Not to mention compete with
the
already established petrochemical products.)<p>
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