Answer is hemp
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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Stumble It!To the editor:
While I read the various plans for what we should do to stay warm this winter and see firewood being stolen, I see the let-the-goverment-take-care-of-me individuals are out there.
There is the possibility to do that, but why and how will it be done. I recently stumbled on a Web site while looking at alternative fuel sources. The answer is hemp.
No, sorry, not marijuana, but rather industrial grade hemp.
We have the soil to grow it. It is renewable carbon neutral. We can use it for fuel both for home and vehicle use. The secret is that the government did it when we were short of oil during World War II, much like wood smoke digesters.
Go to www.hempcar.org if you want to see more. I am not advocating drugs. I am advocating a homegrown, totally renewable way to keep us warm in the winter, the lights on in the dark, the vehicle warm and the imported oil out of our tanks.
Wouldn’t it be nice to say, “darn I just paid $500 for a year’s worth of fuel.” Farmers in Delta would have a rotation crop, while Palmer, North Pole and Two Rivers could go back to farming.
Dwane McKee
Fairbanks
Community Discussion
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Im not trying to make a joke when I say this, but I just threw away my babys hemp diaper. No matter what I do/did to clean it, it had a "smell" to it that would not get washed out. It was a hemp smell. I just couldnt take it anymore. Im glad I only bought one to try out.
In this era with war cost climbing out of control any idea to survive is the answer! Our forefathers did what they can in WWII and won we can do the same.
Every state is man for himself at this point.
Yes, but can I smoke it?
Why do people think hemp is pot? I just don't understand.
There is only one hemp plant, Cannabis sativa.
If it were legal to grow and use for many things, much environmental degradation would cease.
Psychoactive compounds in the resin are present in all varieties of Cannabis sativa but vary widely in their concentration. The strength of a variety can, along with most other characteristics, be controlled by selection and breeding.
I do not have a problem with hemp but i find it very curious that the only people that I know who push for legalizing hemp are pot smokers. I worry that they may not be aware that they can't get high smoking it or maybe they can and I am just reading the wrong studies. Oh well I think I will go get another beer while I do some more research on how much hemp a person would have to smoke to actually get high on hemp or if you would die of smoke inhalation first.
I dont smoke weed and I support Hemp (i know you dont know me a1shiva), people should look into our history. Hemp was used for a long time before people linked it to pot as an evil drug....so funny. Maybe pot smokers know more than the average person, surely more than the beer drinker anyways.
hemp makes great colthes w/o smell. just too expensive for me to purchase.
Henry Ford's first Model T ran exclusively on ethanol from hemp.
In WWII the government launched the "Hemp for War Campaign."
It's funny how all this changed after the war and the oil tycoons interests were contrary to those of the hemp farmers. Hemp is way more efficient as a biofuel than corn and does not impact our food supply.
You might get a buzz if you smoked a bushel of industrial hemp, but you would probably be sicker than a dog.
I agree, hemp, along with other alternative fuel sources are a great solution, at least part of the solution. Problem is, the political types can't seem to think outside the box. This state makes pretty good money off the fines it imposes on "growers",and not a bad chunk o' change off the oil we produce. Much more than it can make on taxes that it can't impose on you for growing your own fuel. And if you want to smoke your industrial grade hemp, knock yourself out, I've never been opposed to any nitwit that wants to smoke any other type of fuel.
I have NO idea whether any of this would work or how, but it's the kind of thinking they should be doing in Juneau/Washington. Finding alternatives to oil is the best solution for our children's children.
From http://www.hemphousemaui.com/history.htm...
1619 Virginia colony makes hemp cultivation mandatory, followed by most other colonies. Europe pays hemp bounties.
1631 Hemp used as money throughout American colonies.
1776 American 'Declaration of Independence' drafted on hemp paper.
1791 President Washington sets duties on hemp to encourage domestic industry; Jefferson calls hemp "a necessity", and urges farmers to grow hemp instead of tobacco.
1801 Certain premiums offered to encourage the cultivation of hemp in Upper and Lower Canada.
1800's Australia survives two prolonged famines by eating virtually nothing but hemp seed for protein and hemp leaves for roughage.
===
Hemp is stronger and more durable than cotton, as well as being a very rich source for natural oils that we could use to fuel our pertoleum dependent economy.
However, with this rabid war on (some) drugs going on, do you think that this KNOWN information will ever be acted upon? After all, someone might actually smoke a whole bale and get high someday!
aframe: your baby's diaper smelled because it was made from skunky weed.
I want to run my truck and car off hemp, because then the exhaust pipes will double as bongs! Just think how fun it will be in winter when the ice fog hits! We'll all be out there breathing deep! Might mellow out some of those rednecks around town. It would also put the kibosh on the local Republican Party, but that's no loss. They'll all chill out and quit causing problems for the rest of us. God knows, Mike Kelly could use a big hit.
Fumigating our air with hemp exhaust will assist the local restaurant industry, since we'll all have the munchies. It will also be good for sales of jazz CDs. The only loss will be in personal motivation, but most of us don't have any to begin with, so no biggie, dudes.
Hemp, isn't that the stuff that makes kids go crazy? Ya, like Lithium, Prozac, Ritalin, Haldol, Mellaril and several others that have, in the last few years, had a 400% increase in the number of prescriptions written for CHILDREN. Give me a break already, who's running this country anyway? (Don't answer that, you'll just pi$$ me off more.)
Legalize it, tax it, educate against it, release the pot smoking criminals and pay for the apprehension and incarceration of REAL criminals. Do it today.
I am sure that nasa has some tests on this in space too.
We can't legalize it since that would cut into Exxon's profits. Are you all anti-business?
mike, you are on the right track...
My understanding is that is was made illegal by the combined efforts of the oil companies, the cotton industry, and the pharmaceutical companies (along with the league of women voters (who had failed at prohibition of alcohol) and all of the racists that painted it as an evil substance used by those darn Mexicans & Negroes...)
Remember Refer Madness?
I have a great poster from that time that states
"Marijuana is a powerful Narcotic that results in MURDER, DEATH, INSANITY!!!"
*chuckle*
Man people are really sheep, aren't they? Yell something loud enough and people accept it as the truth. Especially when you can play the fear & hatred propaganda card!
Ah, you punched the clown in the nose on that one, Newsreader. Let's not forget the paper industry! Cotton and paper were two of our most important cash crops around the time of Reefer Madness! It's all in the economics of it, I'm afraid. Hemp is such a renewable resource, and apparently easy enough to grow that any stoner can do it! All the funny pot jokes aside, there are so many things wrong with our country's inability (read unwillingness) to hop off of the Oil Bandwagon and actually look for alternative sources -- heck, money making sources to boot! I mean, we like money right? We're Americans! Somebody could be making a killing off of the production and regulation of hemp products. I mean, if we won't do it (Legalize hemp production) because it's good for us, at least do it 'cus it'll make somebody a buck, right??
Curmudgeon, funny post!
Anyone who grew up in the midwest knows hemp is called "ditchweed" there. Cant use it, cant smoke it, cant get rid of it...Drive east-west across Iowa in late September and in 300 miles you will pass well over a million wild hemp plants; what you wont see is a single person harvesting or smoking it. So why is it illegal? Simple: cultivators of pot simply plant their good stuff right in with it; perfect camoflage :)
Heres the truth. Hemp is such a useful plant, mass cultivation could literally put many of the larger corporations out of business. You can eat it, burn it, wear it, move machinery with it, lift with it, read by it, stop bullets with it, cure sickness with it...the list goes on and on and on...you can even feed it to the birds in winter.
How can we allow that in this great free country of ours??? Imagine a corporate exec struggling to find a minimum wage job while a hippy farmer gets rich...Never gonna happen; go figure.
I can just see the DNM headlines now; "DEA trashes 20th hemp field this year, causing fuel price to rise above 30 cents/gallon"
Go look at this: http://www.hemp4fuel.com/
Why is it illegal? Politics.
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2...
Basically the Marihuana Tax Act was passed as the result of a conspiracy between the Dupont Company, William Randolph Hearst, Harry Anslinger (head of the government's new Bureau of Narcotics), and various industrial interests. The theory is that marijuana was outlawed because the invention of a machine called the decorticator made it possible to produce hemp products much more cheaply. With the cheaper production, hemp was thought to be a threat to chemical interests that made their money from oil. It was a threat to the timber industry because it was thought to better meet the needs of the paper industry. It has been alleged that hemp was a threat to various fibers such as nylon, rayon, and cotton.
As to why most people who support legalizing hemp are also marijuana users, that statement is a rude generalization and an indicator of a close-minded view held by someone who mindlessly buys into the political machinations of government.
The thing that has ruined the chances for hemp to be seriously considered is that whenever you see a pro-hemp or pro-grass rally or group the participants or spokespeople usually look like they are either returning from or heading to a Grateful Dead concert.
It would cost more to grow the hemp than it is worth. Stick with the stinky diapers.
ihateidiots: "It would cost more to grow the hemp than it is worth."
HAHAHAHAHA I guess you hate yourself then???
come on people their's a stage that you get just as high on hemp as pot don't any of you remender woodstock and how much hemp was their i know because they was no law against hemp i was very mellow and the music was great on hemp
I won't call you an idiot just yet, but I sure would like to know how it is going to cost more to grow hemp than its worth.
I did a research paper on this subject about 20 years ago and what I remember was that Dupont played a particularly aggressive role in making hemp illegal. I am not doubting at all that timber, oil and other big businesses played their part. However I found a lot of written anecdotal evidence that suggest that early on in the car manufacturing days some dude whose name I cannot remember figured out a way to make car tires out of hemp. Unfortunately for him Dupont had just recently spend a gob of money on setting up a system to make the standard rubber we are used to now. It was cheaper for Dupont to buy the legislation making hemp illegal than it was for them to retrofit their tire operation to compete with the hemp dude.
In this country it has always been about big business and it always will be, its our own little nationwide cultural sickness. Profit trump public policy every time.
Ha Ha...Mike Kelly doing bong hits is a great mental image huh?
TOLERATE AND TAX HEMP!
T A C that was so funny
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