how hemp became illegal : AZ IMC

How DID True Hemp ( Cannabis sativa,
sub-species sativa ) disappear from American
family-hemp-farms?

Starting in the late 1920's, forest-products,
cotton, oil,
petrochemical, steel, and perhaps even aluminum
industries feared
COMPETITION from a very innovative new technology;
the HEMP
DECORTICATOR.

HEMP DECORTICATORS were just becoming
commercially-available on True
Hemp farms. This key technology would have allowed
family farmers to
create a carbohydrate economy to replace what is now
a system dominated
by hydrocarbons (oil, coal, and natural-gas).

In fact, in the February, 1938 edition of Popular
Mechanics, hemp was
heralded as a 'New Billion Dollar Crop'.

Exactly what caused the demise of True Hemp
commodity farming? Well, in
1917 George W. Schlicten pulled off a sort of
Eli-Whitney-cotton-gin
stunt, only way better....he patented the HEMP
DECORTICATOR; a
farm-machine that mechanically seperates the fiber
in
the True Hemp stalk. This labor-saving device was
just barely beginning to kick some
centralized-polluting-corporate-butt
in the
late 1920's.

Coincidentally, this is exactly when a deliberate
smear campaign was
launched (by print, newsreel, and radio) to
discredit what was THEN a
very new and mysterious word: marijuana. A negative
image was assigned
to that now-dreaded M-word.

Non-drug, True Hemp simply had to be stopped (if you
were a wealthy
industrialist, that is....)

Although the indica sub-species may or may not
compete with patented,
synthetic, man-made-chemicals that can be centrally
controlled by
pharmaceutical corporations,
I do believe that sativa
sub-species-non-drug-True-Hemp commodity
COMPETITION is what very big business actually
stopped (by clever
deception).
---------------------------------------

Rep. Ron Paul introduces Bill to re-legitimize hemp farming.

Industrial Hemp Farming Act introduced in Congress
Mike Sheehan
Published: Tuesday February 13, 2007

An act to legitimize hemp farming has been introduced in Congress, according
to a press release.

"For the second time since the federal government outlawed hemp farming in
the United States," the release states, "a federal bill has been introduced
that would remove restrictions on the cultivation of non-psychoactive
industrial hemp."

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), a maverick 2008 presidential candidate, is the chief
sponsor behind the bill, H.R. 1009. Nine co-sponsors, including fellow White
House hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), are
all Democrats.

The bill "would give states the right to regulate farming of the versatile
hemp crop," the release says.

"It is indefensible that the United States government prevents American
farmers from growing this crop," the release quotes Rep. Paul. "The
prohibition subsidizes farmers in countries from Canada to Romania by
eliminating American competition and encourages jobs in industries such as
food, auto parts and clothing that utilize industrial hemp to be located
overseas instead of in the United States."

Paul states that the passing of the act would "help American farmers and
reduce the trade deficit -- all without spending a single taxpayer dollar."

The release cites fifteen states which have passed pro-hemp legislation,
including seven (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota
and West Virginia) which "have removed barriers to its production or
research." Rep. Paul's bill would, the statement continues, "remove federal
barriers and allow laws in these states regulating the growing and
processing of industrial hemp to take effect."

A hemp activist leader, quoted in the release, asserts that "the DEA has
taken the Controlled Substances Act's antiquated definition of marijuana out
of context and used it as an excuse to ban industrial hemp farming" and says
passage of the new act "will bring us back to more rational times when the
government regulated marijuana, but told farmers they could go ahead and
continue raising hemp just as they always had."