The Hemp Issue • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
As hemp and Cannabis become mainstays in mainstream America, this debate regarding the validity of this conspiracy will only become louder and more pronounced.
The truth about American hemp Before beginning this discussion about the hemp conspiracy, we should first establish the known facts. Both sides of this debate are guilty of propagandizing their positions, and in order to make sense of this debate, the facts need to be clear. First, although hemp was a staple of U.S. agriculture since the times of George Washington, our nation’s economy was never dependent on hemp. After the invention of the cotton gin in the 1800s, hemp was slowly phased out of popularity as cotton, once considered the material of the wealthy, could be cheaply mass produced. Some states, particularly Kentucky and Wisconsin, continued to rely on large acreages of hemp, but these states were in the minority. However, many, if not most, farmers in the United States did grow hemp. Hemp was cultivated alongside other crops. During the Great Depression, farmers relied on hemp for a little extra cash. If we look at U.S. agricultural census data, along with national farm reports, we see that hemp rarely makes it into the top cash crops for any given state. Even by the hemp farmers’ own admissions during the hearings for the Marihuana Tax Act, hemp was not a large industry in the United States compared to other cash crops. Corn, wheat, cotton, etc. were the kings of agriculture in the early 1900s, as they are today. But hemp was used for a number of manufactured products. Hemp went into ropes, sails, textiles, industrial oils, and foodstuffs
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In the 1920s, new technologies made hemp processing much more efficient, which contributed to predictions of a hemp boom. — but not primarily. For instance,, rope was typically made with jute or other materials, and the only sails that tended to incorporate hemp were sails employed by the U.S. Navy (and sailboats made up a small percentage of the U.S. Navy’s armada). Despite theorists’ claims of hemp’s popularity in the early 1900s, consumers and markets preferred cotton, wool, and later rayon and nylon. Another myth that muddies this debate has to do with the immediate consequences of the Marihuana Tax Act. Despite popular belief, this tax law did not ban the production of hemp or Cannabis. Both were allowed to be grown, processed and distributed, but the act’s passage imposed new fees to conduct Cannabis-related business. Hemp production continued in the United States up until 1970, when the Controlled Substances Act officially outlawed hemp cultivation in America. These clarifications aside, the theorists still have ammo to support their claims. The theorists’ most convincing argument is that hemp held immense promise as an
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