Hemp House

Are really all sorts of hemp illegal? I'm not an expert. In Germany hemp is illegal, too, but you can buy hemp seeds or ropes made out of their fibers.

Of course you can't grow plants that give you hemp that makes you high out of them or actually get high smoking the rope. Hemp is a very useful plant just like flax.

Haha, I don't really think so.

Really Mike?
Are you that uninformed or do you really believe the lies the government spreads about it.
You do realize Hemp is different from the cannabis you smoke right?
You do realize that hemp is as harmful as corn right?

Mike I'm not saying it's a miracle plant, never did.
What I'm saying is it has many viable uses and there is no logical reason for it to be illegal.
I agree that many advocates for the plant do go over board.
But also many of the claims aren't as far out as they sound, look at the nutritional benefits of hemp seeds for example.
As for the countries that allow hemp production let me ask you this.
First does it put a drain or strain on their economy or does it contribute to it.
Second if it isn't a viable and profitable crop for the farmers, why do they grow it?
Why aren't the farmers in our country allowed the same opportunity?
As you know, every where in the world farmers are dependent on the crops they grow. If growing hemp wasn't profitable to the farmer, they wouldn't grow it.
Hemp may not be the perfect plant, but name one that is or has as many uses as hemp does.
Legalizing hemp here would help our farmers by giving them a profitable plant to grow that doesn't require the heavy pesticide and fertilizer regime that most other crops require and will build a healthier soil as a bonus.
It would create eco-friendly businesses that would add employees to the work force, money to the economy, and taxes for big brother.
It would save forest's that are being cleared for paper and can be left to clean the air (which hemp and every other plant also does). Plus you would cut down on pollution from the wood paper making process.
The list of uses for hemp really is quit large.
Sure on the list you can find alternative sources for many of the products, some are better, some aren't.
Yet there is not one logical or viable reason to keep it illegal.

Your argument for keeping it illegal seems to be that some advocates make outrageous claims about the plant. Is that really a good reason to keep a beneficial plant illegal?
Look at just the facts and forget the bull from both sides

Superior products or inferior, we as individuals should be able to choose what plants we grow or what materials and processes we want to support.

To deny that ability to one because it's one's opinion that the paper or fibers are inferior is a slippery slope.

Do you now ban anything but that absolute best? Do you get rid of all operating systems but "the best", all apples but the best, etc etc?

Interesting John. You just gave a very good argument which shows EXACTLY what Thom is trying to point out.

You are talking about legalizing Marijuana and Thom is talking about legalizing HEMP.

Hemp has to be cultivated for smoking for it to get you high. You can go out and smoke a bag of hemp and all you are going to get is sick, YUCK.

Hemp is not cultivated to contain the levels of THC needed to use for recreational purposes. Period. It is an industrial plant. The whole plant can be used, cloth, rope, paper, etc. as already spoken about.

The seeds of the hemp plant are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. I recently found and started drinking Hemp Milk - it is loaded with Vitamin B12 in an easily absorbable form, along with many other very healthy nutrients. It tastes great and you can feel it energizing you - but you can drink a quart or two and never feel one bit like you are getting high.

People have to face facts -- our population has gone past carrying capacity and we are causing a resource debt. We need to save our trees and plant things that can be used in as many ways as possible while saving our forests. We have that choice, or we can just kiss our children's ability to survive goodbye. NASA, along with a league of other scientific groups are now monitoring the planet for hot spots - those are spots where the ecology is being destroyed so completely and so rapidly that there is a very real danger of an irreversible chain reaction eco-system crash resulting.
Yet we keep cutting trees for things we have other more ecologically friendly plants to use to make. That is NOT logical.

Now back to what you were saying ----- I'm a firm believer in making Pot legal, too - for the reasons you stated and one that you might have, but I missed. I'm sick of watching the danger and destruction caused by drug cartels. Take their ability to make money from pot and you put them out of business. Let them go home and let their own country deal with them -- but take their means of making money in ours away from them.

It goes back to keeping us safe - we right now are actually supporting the cartel's ability to operate in this country -- keeping terrorists in business, if you will.

As far as smoking it -- that law has never stopped anyone who wants to smoke it from smoking it. We have jails overcrowded because of otherwise law-abiding citizens being incarcerated for choosing to smoke pot instead of drinking for recreation. Prisons are corporations and profit from these people by using them as labor slaves - making them work for slave wages while keeping the rest of their money for themselves. They are making a killing from pot smokers to the extent that they are ignoring real criminals who could not be allowed out on work releases safely. Nobody seems to care how exploited people who are arrested for smoking pot are being.

Also - if smoking it concerns people who just don't like to see people smoke -- the oil can be used for recreational highs, too - it can be added to foods so the person is getting some nutrient and medicinal value from it without inhaling smoke. Omega's, minerals, vitamins. It's a growing trend among those who wish not to smoke anything.

The only ones really reaping benefit from pot being illegal are the prison corporations and the businesses who save money slaving prisoners, and the drug cartels.


Yes we can buy them. They are imported and the money goes to other countries where people are working in the hemp industry. We could have all those people working here and keep the money from the hemp clothes, bags, papers, etc. right here in our own country.

And bags - by the way - some countries are making shopping bags from hemp which can be produced en mass to reduce the harm caused by plastics. When the bag is no longer any good it is bio-degradable. While it's in use, you have a durable bag that replaces plastic, which is a high level toxin, and the toxic waste we are creating with plastic bags would be eliminated. There is also less plastic in your house to create toxic fumes for you to breath.

Sooner or later they will legalize pot. It may happen sooner if hemp is legalized. I don't understand why not legalizing pot should be considered the same issue as legalizing hemp. Dow Chemical might not like it -- but considering the crap they are loading into our environment, I don't care if they go out of business. Put their chemical producers to work making stuff that is environmentally more friendly. Wouldn't hurt my feelings at all. We HAVE to stop chemical pollution very soon or we're going to be facing irreversible consequences.

Umm...they made it illegal for a while and it didn't work out.

~M~

Yes it does look more like corn
Hemp grown for industrial use is a much different plant.
When growing hemp you are looking for long fibers.
This means you want little to no branching as the branch nodes will interfere with the fiber strands.
With 'marijuana' you what buds which are formed on the inter-nodes of the branches, hence you want a plant that has many branches.
Just the opposite of hemp.

Well lets go back in time to when alcohol was illegal.
Did they make the plants you use to produce liqueur illegal?
Why not? Could it be because they had many other uses not related to alcohol? Lets use a better analogy.
How about mushrooms? Are all mushroom species illegal to grow because one species is used as a drug?
How about cactus?
Can you tell the difference between a Peyote cactus and any other type of cactus?

Do you know your argument is the same as the govts. argument for keeping hemp illegal?
Where you are saying people aren't intelligent enough to distinguish between hemp plants and 'marijuana' plants, the govt. says the police aren't intelligent enough to tell the difference between the two.
Either way it's a slap in the face of the American public and a good indication as to how smart the govt. really thinks we are.

Yep - you're ignorant........and my body is just like Raquel Welsh's.

LOL - everyone does it, John - that's how they keep it illegal. That's what they programmed us to do. Too bad for them that it's getting that most aren't against EITHER so it really doesn't matter much.

I agree totally.

Ha, you seen the size of the pharmaceutical industry?

Gee, don't take "their" drugs, pssst... take ours.


Jim

Huh?

It was a simple response to your question, and I honestly don't see how I made it political. You were the one that brought up federal vs. state law. I simply said it was an easy question for me to answer. In the example you gave, the Colorado law is what you should follow because that's where you live. (That's what I meant by a nice easy pitch, it's an easy question for me to answer. The state law wins in the example you gave.)

This thread was WAY politicized prior to our current posts, and I have no desire to get into the politics of anything. That's not allowed here, and I'm very happy for that rule. (Seriously. I really thought I was only answering your question, not trying to be political at all.)

I wasn't really name calling. The term "tiger" was meant to be lighthearted; just a different way of saying "buddy" or "friend", but with a bit of a humorous bent.

And you totally miss the point of my overall argument. If marijuana were legal, then I see no problem with hemp being legal. I think you are making assumptions, but I could be mistaken.

To be honest, your response kind of surprised me because I thought I was agreeing with you more than anything else.

You also mentioned "the laws you pick and choose for me". That WAS uncalled for, as it's not what I'm trying to do. I am, however, trying to say that we need to obey the laws as they are...or work to change them. Also, we ALL--me, you, and everyone else that's eligible to vote--have a say in what the laws are. It's not as if I made the current hemp laws. So, you can knock that part of it off as it does nothing but make YOUR comments personal. And there really is no need for that. I think we can discuss the issue in a civil manner, let's do it.

All the best,
Michael