Posted by boB on April 19, 2000, at 19:05:40
In reply to Re: hemp availability?, posted by CarolAnn on April 19, 2000, at 9:25:19
CarolAnn,
Hemp is marijuana. Both are cannibas sativa or cannibas indica. The primary difference is the word used, though the word hemp ususally implies the industrial use and marijuana implies the usually illegal medical use.
Hemp products are now widely available in the United States. Hemp fibers, in the form of string and rope, have always been around, but hemp clothing has become fashionable in the past 10 years, thanks in large part to a legalization movement. Most, if not all, hemp grown for fiber is grown overseas, especially in Seria and China, I think. Hemp seed is a typical ingrediant of bird seed mixtures, and hemp oil is available from some sources. The Kentucky Hemp Council (sic?) can probably hook you up with a legal source. Fertile hemp seeds are available through mail order from overseas distributors, but accepting a delivery is a risky matter, because in many jurisdictions, evidence of receipt of an order of hemp seeds can serve as probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant. Some district attorneys and district courts likely get away with prosecuting people for possession of seeds, but I have noticed state laboratories refusing to return positive test results for seeds. Some state laws specifically require tetrahydracannebinoid (THC) content for suspected "vegetative substance" to be illegal.
Hemp, if you are not up on the subject, was the primary fiber used in most sailing ships throughout the maritime era. Ships used tons of hemp fiber (canvas - derived from the word cannibas). The war of 1812 resulted when American ships ran British blockades to deliver Russiam hemp to the French. (check this out-I might have the alliances wrong, but the run-the-blockade part is history.)
Marijuana is a Spanish word, reputedly tagged on to reefer to assiciate it with undesireable racial elements. Racism, so the story goes, was used to prejudice people against the otherwise widespread use of cannibas. Hearst Newspapers reportedly owned vast tracts of timber lands and wanted to insure that wood fiber rather than papter fiber dominated the publishing industry. Hearst got most of the land for free, by the way. It came over to them in railroad right of way trades, and some of it had to do with land grant colleges. I am not working from source material, so don't quote me.
The practical difference in hemp grown for fiber and hemp grown as a medication, and hemp grown for seed is the way it is grown. For fiber, the seeds are planted in a very dense spread, so the stalks grow straight and tall. For oil seed, plants are more spread out, and allowed to pollinate, to trigger seed production. For medicine, the males plants are sacrificed and only female plants allowed to mature, hopefully beyond the reach of pollen. The resulting unpolinated flowers are what you are supposed to get when you go down to fifth and vine and throw down twenty bucks for a bag.
Hemp is truly one of the most important industrial plants of modern history. The war on drugs has resulted in intentional efforts to lie to children about the role of this plant in world history.
I suspect there is a vast knowldege of the history of hemp among readers of this site.
> Can you even *get* hemp or any derivatives of it here in the USA? I thought it was illegal even to grow it because of it's biological relation to Marijuana(even though, I don't think, hemp can get a person "high")?
> This was something I saw in the news a few years ago. Has there been a change in the law? CarolAnn
poster:boB
thread:29661
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/30610.html