TRUTH BE TOLD OF AN URBAN LEGEND
By Laura Noble
Disinformation has surrounded industrial hemp in the United States since the 1920’s. Commerce for
industrial hemp was put at bay by The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 (H.R. 6385). It enacted a hefty tax on
the permits and sale of hemp. That bill was drafted by Harry Anslinger. He was very successful in turning
industrial hemp into a demon crop by making a false claim that it was a narcotic.
Anslinger didn’t limit his shout-out to the United States; he reached out to the world. Media press was
headed by Randolph Hearst as he helped to create a negative campaign of “Reefer Madness”.
Funding came from a bandwagon of wealthy individuals and corporate giants that would reap great benefits
in this propaganda; thus prohibition began. (It should be noted the etymology of the words “marihuana” and
“marijuana” carries a very short history. Some historians make claim the word was made up by Randolph
Hearst in an effort to bring confusion to industrial hemp.)
Prohibition on growing hemp in the U.S. was lifted for a short period during World War II. At that time,
Japan was the U.S. supplier of hemp fiber. The fiber from the plant was needed for manufacturing rope for
ships and fabric for uniforms. Select U.S. farmers grew hemp as “Hemp for Victory” became a short lived
patriotic duty to fill this need.
In the 1970’s industrial hemp took a turn for the worse. President Richard Nixon sentenced it to prison, convicting it of a crime it didn’t commit by placing it on the Schedule I Control Substance list.
Industrial hemp is not a drug; it never has been. Nixon was advised against this, but managed to lock hemp
away in a matter of days before he resigned from his presidency. This inaccurate classification placed the
industrial hemp plant at the mercy of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The DEA became the drug czar
of controlling the permits to grow industrial hemp; even though it is not a drug.
The costs for permits became out of reach for farming. Further if permits were applied for; the DEA would
not grant them.
Because of the false information surrounding the industrial hemp plant; compounded by the difficulty and
cost of getting permits to grow the crop in the United States; as an agriculture commodity, it was squashed
from economic development. So although hemp is a sustainable crop that can provide the raw materials for
tens of thousands of products, and a seed food crop that provides one of the most nutritionally dense food
sources for mammals, it was banned from being cultivated and harvested in the United States.
The oil from the hemp seed also provides for a wealth of products. It’s a versatile commodity that can be
consumed by mammals for nutritional purposes; it can be used in body/hair care products. It can provide
a renewable energy supply source for the production of fuel. (As a side note, around the 1930’s, Henry Ford
had experimented using hemp oil (hempoline) to fuel automobiles. As you can imagine, this certainly was
not something John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil Company wanted to see materialize.)
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