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Food and Fibre Support Pro-hemp View

With the distinctive scent of Mardi Grass still fresh in many of your nostrils, law reform and cannabis-use lingers like an unresolved motion at a council meeting. Despite the attention given the topic in various media forums, including this erstwhile journal, the focus has remained squarely on the puff, the smoko, the THC that alters the mind and ostensibly got the weed banned in the first place.

The fact remains that the hemp plant is controlled not just the drug that can be derived from it. That subtle distinction is an economic and environmental tragedy of global proportion.

We argue about the viability of a toxic woodchip industry that destroys forests, landscape and farmland with the blessing of State and Federal governments when hemp-based paper is cheaper, stronger and higher quality with almost none of the negative side-effects. The US currency is still printed on the stuff, as are all the high quality copies of that world best seller, the Christian bible.

We avoid talking about the obvious advantages of using this ninety day wonder crop rather than the ninety year forest alternative, largely because J.Edgar Hoover had a phobia about Mexicans more than half a century ago. The US government banned the Marijuana plant until the Second World War, when the need for hemp fibre to make high quality rope and canvas made the ban impossible. After the war, with the blessing of the burgeoning plastics industry, the ban was re-introduced. Here we are, over sixty years later, maintaining zero tolerance toward a crop that has been a staple companion plant of humanity for millennia.

Aside from its psychotropic qualities and astoundingly long, strong and fast-growing fibre, cannabis is also a significant source of food and building materials. The people at the hemp embassy in Nimbin, or the many pro-hemp web-sites around the place have much more detail than I can give you here, and when you visit those sites to find out more, the uses of this wonder plant will blow your cotton socks off (so you can replace them with long-wearing hemp ones). Just Google hemp masonry if you really want to be surprised.

Of course, those who prefer others to do their research could just head for Billin Cliffs on May 15 where a string of speakers and exhibits promoting sustainable living will include many examples of integrating hemp into your daily life.

Published first in the Northern Star, an APN newspaper. Reprinted with permission