Hemp is the cannabis plant high in CBD
and low in THC grown for it's fiber to make fabric, paper, rope and a
food source. From the very beginning of early America, the cannabis
plant has been an integral part of the society.
Hemp was one of the first commodities
in early America. In 1611 the British started cultivating hemp in
Virginia. In 1619 Jamestown Virginia declared it illegal to NOT grow
hemp, Massachusetts and Connecticut passing similar laws later. Hemp
being a commodity in early America was used for bartering in 1631 in
the Colonies. This continued through the 17th and 18th
century for hemp to be legal tender to pay taxes and encourage
cultivation. From 1715-1730 hemp laws were passed to encourages
self-sufficiency in the colonies by creating incentive to make cloth,
bibles and maps on hemp paper. In Lancaster County Pennsylvania every
township grew hemp with a booming business of more than 100 mills to
process the hemp fiber.
Notable people and relics were part of
the hemp industry of early United States of America. “Make the most
of the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere" said George
Washington in 1795. Benjamin Franklin, wanting distance from Englands
control, started the first hemp paper mill. Thomas Paine wrote his
patriotic messages on hemp paper. The Declaration of Independence was
drafted and the Constitution was printed on hemp paper. Betsy Ross
made the first American flag from hemp fiber. Thomas Jefferson grew
hemp on his plantation saying “Hemp is of first necessity to the
wealth and prosperity of the nation.” The frigate U.S. Constitution
known as “Old Ironsides” in the War of 1812 used hemp for its
rope and sails. Mark Twain did his writings on hemp paper. Abraham
Lincoln used hemp oil in his lamp to work in the night to write the
Emancipation Proclamation.
Hemp proliferated throughout the United
States as the progression of expansion moved west. The early 1800's
has reports of the Californian missions growing hemp. By 1850, the
U.S. Census reported 8,327 hemp plantations. The westward movement
used lassos, lighting oil, paints, varnishes and canvas covered
wagons made from hemp.
Other fibers started to take less labor
like cotton, jute, sisal and petroleum in the late 1800's starting to
create the decline in the hemp industry. Hemp started being used for
just unique products like birdseed or varnish. In 1917 George W.
Schlichten created a machine that made the production for hemp much
more economical by increasing the yield by 600% and reducing labor
costs by 90%.
At the same time Rudolph Diesel around
the same time invented the diesel engine to use vegetable and seed
oil which would have benefited the hemp industry. However the oil
stronghold of Rockefeller, Standard Oil and Rothschild bought onto
Henry Fords vision of methanol fuel and worked to keep prices down so
there was a lack of competition. This worked until 1970 when the
competition was erased with oil jumping to record high
prices.(
Source)
Unfortunately for hemp a big
anti-narcotic campaign, where the fear led to banning the cultivation
of hemp. California in 1913 was the first to ban the cultivation of
hemp with 30 states following by 1930. There were two reasons for
the early outlaws of hemp, the first from a prejudice against
Mexicans that used it. The second is for the fear that heroin would
be a gateway drug to the use of marijuana, much in reverse of modern
day thinking.(
Source)
In the 1930's campaigns were brought to
demonize marijuana and exaggerate the correlation between hemp and
marijuana. These campaigns were funded by Andrew Mellon who invested
in DuPont, William Randolph Hearst who was in the timber industry,
and Harry Anslinger, nieces husband of Andrew Mellon who Mellon
appointed as the Federal Bureau of Narcotics which later became the
DEA. The fall of the hemp industry allowed the timber industry of
Hearst and the petroleum-based products of DuPont to flourish. The
anti-cannabis campaign focused on demonizing Mexican immigrants and
Black jazz musicians that used it with movies like “Marijuana:
Assasin of Youth”, “Devil's Weed”, and “Reefer
Madness”.
The destruction of the hemp industry
was really put into effect in 1937 by the Marijuana Tax Act, that
penalized the usage of hemp. In 1941 Henry Ford illegally grew hemp
to test a car that could be run on the oil of hemp, trying to
separate from the monopoly of the petroleum industry that he helped
create.(
Source)
During World War 2, importation of hemp
was curtailed, which was used in many military applications. The
U.S. Government started the 1941-1945 Hemp for Victory campaign.
After the war, the campaign was replaced by “Ditch the Weed”,
which the midwest still has many of the hemp volunteer plants lining
the roadways and ditches from the campaign. The U.S. Denied that Hemp
for Victory campaign was ever created, however hemp activists Carl
Packard, Mia Farrow and
Jack Herer recovered some VHS tapes in 1989
of the propaganda film. (
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In the 1990's there was a new emergence
of life to the hemp industry that had been suppressed. In 1994
President Clinton declared hemp as a strategic food source in an
executive order. The American Farm Bureau Federation passed a
resolution in 1996 to grow test plots of land for hemp. Jesse
Ventura running for governor in 1998 endorsed industrial hemp,
jumping his support from 7-38%.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in South Dakota legalized hemp in 1998. Alex
White Plume grew hemp on the reservation and the DEA promptly
destroyed it at harvest time in 2000. The Kentucky Hemp Growers
replaced the hemp to Alex so he could continue growing. Alex White
Plume became the first farmer since 1968 to cultivate and sell hemp
in the U.S.(
Source)
Currently the federal government bans
the growing of hemp, while the states of California, Colorado,
Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota,
Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia deems the growing
of hemp as legal. President Obama in 2014 signed the Farm Bill of
2013 into law to for research and agriculture pilot programs.(
Source)
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