So, we already talked a little about how crazy it is that our government won’t let people grow hemp for both commercial and personal use. We know that hemp is an amazing natural resource that could, if cultivated and used wisely, help slow the downward spiral that we see happening on our planet today.
But we don’t know how it all happened. I mean, why would anyone not want farmers in our country to grow hemp? Why would any government choose to do the thing that will hurt the environment, rather than consider the importance of our actions? Who knows?
Seriously. It makes no sense!
Ok. Let’s think about this for a minute. You have an easy to grow crop with super high yields that can be harvested and processed and turned into textiles, rope, twine, oil, fuel, paper and other paper products, and is even a superfood when ingested. Basically, it’s a huge cash crop that could bolster any economy and make it rain for our governments, both at a state and local level.
Sounds like the ultimate example of sustainability, doesn’t it?
It was, until Herbert Hoover became the president of the United States and decided that hemp would never make large corporations that he was involved with any money. You see, Hoover had his hands deep in the pockets of a large chemical company—you may have heard of it-DuPont. At this point in time, new mechanical hemp fiber stripping machines were being manufactured. They were affordable and worked really well. Genius idea, really. Hemp instead of timber. The ultimate in sustainability.
But hang on a minute. If hemp became king, it would literally drive these large chemical and timber companies right out of business. Rich business men would no longer be able to make bank off of bad practices. Neither would any stock holders or investors.
So guess what happened? They blacklisted hemp. Rather than praise it for its low environmental impact, President Hoover created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and appointed a crazy extremist, Harry Anslinger, as its head. He went crazy on weed, aligning it with smugglers, thieves, gangsters, and criminals. The campaign to eliminate all hemp from our country was on and, let me tell you, it was fierce.
He played the race card, slandering all people of color all over the place. Essentially, he took something that was pure and good and stepped all over it. He renamed hemp “marihuana”, which was a Mexican slang for cannabis that was smoked and contained THC. Americans were lead to believe that all hemp was “bad” and should be eliminated. This “crusade” went on for a while and culminated in arrests, deportations, and in 1937, a $100 per ounce tax on all cannabis.
This bigoted and ignorant perspective changed the landscape of American farming for years to come.