What’s the scoop on hemp? Is it true that in earlier days of our country over 90 percent of paper was made of hemp? Is it true hemp is one of the strongest fibers known to man? Why is it illegal to grow it, since it is only about 1 percent THC? In fact, it is only a relative of the plant that is cultivated for smoking, is it not? It just seems that cultivation of hemp would be such an easy solution to the deforestation problems we are having.
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One of the nuttier developments of recent times is the sudden interest in nonpharmacological hemp cultivation among people who’ve never grown so much as a radish. It’s true that prior to criminalization hemp was grown commercially for paper, cloth, rope and twine, and other products. It grows pretty much anywhere, doesn’t require much tending, and produces plenty of strong fiber.
During World War II the government relaxed the antihemp laws and encouraged midwestern farmers to grow the stuff for the war effort. It’s said that a parachute rigging made of hemp saved the life of George Bush when the young bomber pilot bailed out of his burning plane.
The suppression of hemp wasn’t, as some have alleged, the result of an unholy conspiracy between federal narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, the Du Pont corporation, and William Randolph Hearst. No question, Anslinger was a zealot who thought marijuana was a menace to society, and Hearst’s newspapers had done their best to whip up antihemp hysteria. But so had everybody else in the press. Lurid antimarijuana stories appeared in the New Yorker, for God’s sake.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration by Slug Signorino.
