|
T H E ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL ABOUT H E M P HOME PAGE
|
END PROHIBITION
70% OF THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC NOW AGREE THAT MARIJUANA SHOULD NOW AT LEAST BE DECRIMINALISED.
MORE THAN JUST A NICE BUZZ
MARIJUANA HAS MANY USES AS OIL, TIMBER PULP, MEDICINES AND MUCH MORE
LETS STOP CHOPPING DOWN TREES FOR PAPER AND USE HEMP!
ALL STATES OF AUSTRALIA SHOULD TAKE ADELAIDE'S LEAD!
LEGALISE IT NOW
What is hemp?
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).
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.
What is cannabis?
Cannabis is the most durable of the hemp plants, and it produces the toughest cloth, called canvas. (Canvas 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.
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.
Where did the word marijuana come from?
The word marijuana is a Mexican slang term which became popular in the late 1930's in America, during a series of media and government programs which we now refer to as the Reefer Madness Movement' It refers specifically to the medicine part of cannabis, which Mexican soldiers used to smoke.
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 sterilised (will not grow to maturity.)
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.
EXCERPTS FROM THE ALT.HEMP CANNABIS/MARIJUANA FAQ
Cannabis Hemp an environmental solution
Hemp the most versatile and desirable plant there is. It has
been linked with Mankind as a major important crop since
1000 BC
It's uses include textiles & fabrics, paper, building
materials & biomass for energy, other traditional uses were
sails for ships, sealants and paints. ropes, twine, and art
canvas.
Hemp fabric is strong durable & long lasting. Last century
eighty percent of all humankinds textiles for clothing, linens,
sheets, quilts, etc were made from hemp fabric.
Every part of the hemp plant is useful, seeds contain a
complete protein with all the essential amino needed to
promote health.
Fragments of dry stalk after fiber is stripped off makes an
excellent pulp which is used to make non-toxic paints and
sealants.
..South Australia and N.S.W. have been given the go ahead
for Hemp crops to be 'tested' This would offer a practical
solution for our farmers, at the same time be a huge step
forward for the environmental problems we now must face.
Australia has the opportunity of tapping into this major
resource, with todays technologies combined with a need to
have produce that has a positive effect on the environment.
Quote from Jack Herer's book 'The Emperor wears no
clothes'
If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as the
deforestation of trees for paper and agriculture are banned
from use in order to save the planet and reverse the
greenhouse effect.
Then there is only one known renewable natural resource
able to provide the overall majority of our paper, textiles
and food, meet all the world's transportation, home and
industrial energy needs, reduce pollution, rebuild the soil
and clean the atmosphere- all at the same time- our old
stand-by that did it all before: Cannabis Hemp...Marijuana!
This is an excerpt from the recently published book entitled
"Psychoactive plants have had an extremely important position"
in most societies. Consumption of such plants tens or even hundreds
of thousands of years ago may have been responsible for
generating much of the mythology and religion, indeed, much
of the very fabric of culture which so strikingly distinguishes
man from even the most advanced of the great apes. Could it be
that these plants provided sparks to kindle the flame of intellect
which now shines so brightly... ?"
"Most of the psychoactive plants contain large amounts of
alkaloids.... Why do so many plants contain chemicals that have
striking actions on animal nervous systems? Surely the
chemicals ... found in the plants must play important roles in
the economy of the plant or else the many genes required for
their synthesis would be eliminated by natural selection. ...
Nevertheless, the relatively high concentrations of many
psychoactive substances are still puzzling and their
precise functions in the plants remain a mystery."
"The active chemicals of marijuana, though they are unusual
in that they are not alkaloids, do not contain nitrogen and are
relatively insoluble in water, likewise have no known reason for
being in the plant. However, the psychoactive constituents of
Cannabis are unusual, in fact unique, in that they are largely
produced in specialised groups of cells termed lactifers, stalked
glands and sessile (not stalked) glands, and in their being released
from these cells to form a sticky coating."
MARIJUANA CHEMISTRY
Queen Victoria used to smoke pot to relieve menstrual cramps.
Drop Us A Line At editor@firehorse.com
Paper made from hemp lasts 50 times longer, is easier &
cheaper to make as well as saving our forests from further
deforestation.
1:NIMBIN....2:HOLAND....3:HAWAIIAN....4:MEXICAN....5:HYDROPONIC....6:HOMEGROWN
If you can remember it .. then you weren't really there!
Lots of kewl Hemp products
alt.hemp cannabis/marijuana faq
Hemp in Agroforestry from QDC Solutions
Hemp links in the QDC site
Fine Art Limited Edition Print Series
MARIJUANA CHEMISTRY 3-09-95
ISBN: 0-914171-39-9
Copyright 1977 and 1990 by Michael Starks
Ronin Publishing, Inc.
Post Office Box 1035
Berkeley, CA 94701
CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO FIREHORSE