…well, not so much (insert sad face here)
Since it’s April and 4:20 is just around the corner I thought I might bore myself with a little rambling about weed. Before I really get going however, I should mention something I noticed the other day while listening to a local rock station and then watching a re-run of Family Guy later that same day. The song in question was Aaron Lewis’s (Staind) solo album single “country boy” where the songwriter says he smokes a little weed and Family Guy Season 7: Episode 12 where there is a whole 3.24 minute song called “bag of weed” where they must say “weed” 200 times. The radio station edited the word “weed”…WTF!
I have had a long personal relationship with weed that ended tragically at the end of the year 2000 when I moved to the US
Now I have this crazy epilepsy shit going on, I’m going to have to take serious medications for the rest of my life (think long term side effects that affect everyday life). I have to weigh the side effects of the drugs vs. their effectiveness, all of which could change at any time. I dread going through the trial and error phase of finding an effective medication. It took 2+ years to find a combo that works for my seizures and has tolerable side effects, side effects that most people, in a different scenario would find unacceptable. I hope to be able to test out the benefits of medical maryjane one day. I do know epilepsy is an accepted disease on the MM list.
That’s part of the reason why I am in support of Decriminalization. The other part is the insane hypocrisy of the government profiting from alcohol and tobacco which are obviously much worse for a person. Then there is the political process that makes the whole thing a big mess. A lot of the people that are opposed to big government, support the ‘war on drugs’ (which has been proven time and again to have been a colossal failure). Lots of misinformation, mostly from people who have zero experience, is spread, the sheeple of the country don’t care as long as they can get their 18 pack of Bud Lite and Camels. ***now I’m officially rambling***
A lot of my disdain today is a direct result from an article I read this morning regarding the difficulties Medical Marijuana distributors and growers are having due to government intervention. Mountains of regulations, $XXXXX in fees and compliance have turned this potentially lucrative industry into something akin to owning a coffee shop in a 1/2 empty strip mall.
Peace
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Some facts
* All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s; Hemp Paper Reconsidered, Jack Frazier, 1974.
* It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until the early 1800s; LA Times, Aug. 12, 1981.
* REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th and 18th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon.
* George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers GREW HEMP; Washington and Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.
* Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow’s export to England; Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer.
* For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp. The word ‘canvas’ is Dutch for cannabis; Webster’s New World Dictionary.
* 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.
* The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross’s flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.
* The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th Century; State Archives.
* Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.
* Rembrants, Gainsboroughs, Van Goghs as well as most early canvas paintings were principally painted on hemp linen.
* In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs; Department of Agriculture
* Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until 1937. 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were used in America for paint products in 1935; Sherman Williams Paint Co. testimony before Congress against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.
* Henry Ford’s first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONSTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, ‘grown from the soil,’ had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.
* The diesel engine was designed to run on off of vegetable and seed oils, especially hemp.
* Hemp called ‘Billion Dollar Crop.’ It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars; Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938.
* Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938) published an article entitled ‘The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.’ It stated that if hemp was cultivated using 20th Century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
-some rich cunt (William Randolph Hearst) decided his paper making business was more important…he and Du Pont petrochemical company (who made chemicals that were used in making paper and gasoline additives) had friends in high places… They helped to create a media scare using Hearst’s publishing company convincing people that hemp=marijuana and Mexicans and black people were getting crazy on this stuff and raping and pillaging the white neighborhoods.
I copied some shit from these sites, hope they don’t mind.
-peace