Hemp is the common name for plants of the entire genus Cannabis, although the term is often used to refer only to Cannabis strains cultivated for industrial (non-drug) use. Industrial hemp has many uses, including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food, and fuel. It is one of the fastest growing biomasses known, and one of the earliest domesticated plants known. Here are 15 fascinating facts about the less-pleasurable version of weed. [Source]
1. All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s. (Jack Frazier. Hemp Paper Reconsidered. 1974.)
2. It was legal to pay taxes with hemp in America from 1631 until the early 1800s. (LA Times. Aug. 12, 1981.)
3. Refusing to grow hemp in America during the 17th and 18th centuries was against the law! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769 (G. M. Herdon. Hemp in Colonial Virginia).
4. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers grew hemp. (Washington and Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.)
5. Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America, and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow’s export to England. (Jack Herer. Emperor Wears No Clothes.)
6. For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp. The word ‘canvas’ comes from the Middle English word “canevas” which comes from the Latin word cannabis. (Webster’s New World Dictionary.)
7. 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc., were made from hemp until the 1820s, with the introduction of the cotton gin.
8. The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross’s flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp. (U.S. Government Archives.)
9. The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th century. (State Archives.)
10. Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.
11. Rembrandt’s, Van Gogh’s, Gainsborough’s, as well as most early canvas paintings, were principally painted on hemp linen.
12. In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs. (U.S. Department of Agriculture Archives.)
13. Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until 1937. 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were used in America for paint products in 1935. (Sherman Williams Paint Co. testimony before the U.S.Congress against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.)
14. Henry Ford’s first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the car itself was constructed from hemp! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, ‘grown from the soil,’ had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel. (Popular Mechanics, 1941.)
15. In 1938, hemp was called ‘Billion Dollar Crop.’ It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars. (Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938.)
It is interesting to see how things like the media and misconceptions can make people see things like hemp as evil.
Am I also first? Never been that before.
whoa, nice list!
didn’t know most of these
Wow, put that in your pipe an smoke it
I hear it’s being legalized in the U.S. soon. Or something similar to that, anyway.
It is funny how the “war on drugs” have cost the entire world so much progress. Oh well, that’s what happens with these “moral laws”.
Pretty useful material. Cool.
Can’t use this for the ‘legalize pot’ argument though, since these obviously aren’t the ways people plan to use it.
Right then im gonna start growing hemp for “paper” lol
hell im high right now!!
5. Frank : Ever seen a crack addict? How someone hooked on heroine? There is a very good reason to ban some drugs. But I do agree that the prohibition of hemp isn’t all that constructive.
First of all, weed is not addicting like crack and heroine, so don't make that comparison.
Second, hemp and weed aren't even the same thing. Hemp contains approx. 0.5% THC, whereas weed contains up to 20% THC. You would have to smoke impossibly large amounts of hemp in an extremely short amount of time in order to get high (in other words, you can't).
There is no good reason for hemp not to be used more often, and it's even worse that it's actually illegal in the US.
Mark – what about this idea: legalize all drugs and make people get them via a doctor. You get guaranteed pure drugs and a professional to manage your use and help you come off if you want to. This means the police can deal with violent crimes and drug related crimes would vanish…
LOL! ‘Ever seen a crack addict?’ Yeah. And they look nothing like hemp farmers.
Or hemp smokers for that matter.
But you’re right, the prohibition on farming hemp was a little short-sighted. 1 acre of hemp = 4.1 of trees?! What were they thinking?!
they were thinking they could make more money selling poorer quality products that doesn’t last as long. cotton, wood, all those businesses would cease to exist if hemp was the competition.
10. jfrater : Organized crime could be a problem there as I think is quite obvious. Plus too many hands to go through before it gets to the “doctor” – or just some guy who has a special card – anyway don’t you think? It’s a great idea in theory, but finding enough trustworthy people and even then creating and implementing a reliable system… Not going to happen unfortunately
What about the system we have for dangerous prescription drugs now? That seems to work ok? Hell, I couldn’t even get a repeat prescription for sleeping pills!
‘Trustworthy people’ – doctors
‘Reliable system’ – Prescription services/pharmacies
Ta-da!
Probably worth adding that the original Levi jeans were made from hemp and it’s also a foodstuff. The Wikipedia entry for hemp is a useful adjunct to this list.
I get the impression that this is still a really big agri-business (requires a license in the US and UK). If there’s any relative decline it’s not just drug panic; it’s as much about use of modern synthetic materials and (possibly) vanished markets like sailcloth.
I surmise that hemp being the main source of sailcloth (almost literally an engine of war and trade) explains why wars were fought over it and laws to grow it were passed.
Is it completely illigal to grow hemp in the US? Here in Denmark you can grow hemp for industrial use, you just need at permit from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. So you are not allowed to grow it for production of *****, but for all the other uses.
13. Bloomin’ : Yeah, but, oh wait, what about growing hemp, poppies etc… Think before you post, they weren’t the only problems you gave a “solution” to.
Whoops, Iain kind of answered my question while I was typing it…
mark – organized crime relating to drugs ends if you can get a prescription for meth from your doctor – drug companies produce it so the costs are low and the drugs pure
18. jfrater : The government legalizing meth o.O now that would be poor government. It’s not only the impurities, it’s the mental impacts – paranoia etc. – that can result. Not to mention that it’ll always be cheaper on the streets, the government’s going to tax it, there’s no if or but about that.
Doctor prescribed drugs is a good idea in theory, but in real life it is still pretty ineffective. Look at pain killers. You really just have to tell a doctor you have a neck ache, and they will prescribe you a bottle. Go in a few more times and continue complaining, they’ll up the strength and amount. I have a few family members about to kill themselves because of this.
Doctors don’t care who they give drugs to, just asking for them ups his pay check. If that did anything, I think it’d make drugs more available and cause more people to use them.
hemp is organic and an herbal plant,right? so it’s not drugs..hehehe
in new Zealand meth is available on prescription – the only reason there are problems is that it is prescribed for very few reasons
oh and on prescription it is $30 a month for an employed person – surely that is much cheaper than the stuff on the street which is cut with other chemicals…
Honestly Jamie, I live in the U.S. and I think your argument is absolutely valid. Sure, people are going to abuse things regardless of who they get them from (think prescription painkillers and benzodiazapines)! At least if you are getting them from a doctor, you know it’s pure. For instance, back in my pot-smoking days my hubby and I bought some from someone who, in turn, got it from someone else. Long story short, the bag was laced with something (possibly formaldehyde) and I ended up at the hospital with heart palpitations. It felt like it was beating out of my chest (close to 200 beats per minute, I think) and I thought I was going to die! Would that have happened if I’d gotten it from a doctor or dispensary?! NO!
Can someone explain what exactly the difference is (if there is one) between hemp and *****? Is it just a difference of one you smoke and the other you don’t?
Also, it seems as if the whole “doctors prescribing *****s” thing kind of goes against the Hippocratic Oath. Just a little bit.
Msulli – same family different effect – hemp doesn’t have the chemical that makes you high
Darkpizza – they are legal for prescription and serve a purpose for some people – therefore no breach of the hippocratic oath
Gosh I feel like the only person commenting
Reefers!!
We should add that hemp helps millions of youngsters get through History Classes and Prom nights!!
Reefers!!!
Are they writing notes on their hemp paper? Because they certainly aren't smoking it…
It’s a slow morning Frater. But I’m here to back you up.
Sivart it may help them get through the class but passing that class is a whole other thing
H3000 thanks
Wish i could say the same thing but it is pushing 3:30 am here and it may be bed time for this guy
How cool would it be if every comment on this list finished with the word: Reefers! Just like that song from Sublime!!
Sounds like a challenge??
It´s funny how people confuse hemp and weed for smoking. Hemp doesn´t have THC peoples, therefore it´s not a drug. Just nature´s magic product, more renewable, stronger, but try telling that to the Wood chip industry.
Jfrater, what do doctors prescribe meth for?
@DH
Wiki says attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, extreme obesity, and narcolepsy.
I’m sorry Tri, but is your name jfrater now?
Nah, just kidding, you’re aight.
Is hemp outlawed in the states at the moment?
And honestly I see no reason for pot to be illegal.
trigun is right – it’s for severe obesity, adult ADD, and narcolepsy – each one is fairly understandable: uppers make a high person crash (ADD), an obese person active, and help a narcolept stay awake
a natural remedy for Hyperactivity in children is a strong coffee – so same principle in adults really. Ritalin is an upper also.
what people don’t seem to realize is that drugs in the same family as many illegal street drugs are prescribed regularly from doctors, i.e. a multitude of different amphetamines. legalizing all drugs and making them available only through prescriptions if necessary seems to be the way to go. place regulations on them like other prescribed drugs have, and voila. using the argument that there are drugs that are harmful like crack or heroin is not a good argument because, well, if you think about it, if meth and heroin became legal tomorrow, would you change your mind on whether you would do meth or heroin or not and go out and get them? I wouldn’t. the legality status does little to nothing to hinder someone wanting to get certain drugs, nor does it change a person’s decision on what drugs are okay and good (if they’re educated and research for themselves what each drug does or can do.)
but, realizing that this is not a topic about drugs, the uses of hemp are many and numerous and the fact that 1 acre of hemp is equal to 4.1 acres of trees is crazy. why we do not use hemp more is beyond me, it’s a much more economical plant and grows so easily.
Mattofutexas: well put – many of these drugs are available at a lower cost with the safety net of a doctor watching over. Why not make them legally available to addicts so we know who they are and can offer real help when it is needed?
oh – and hemp sure is nifty (returning to the topic at hand)
40. mattofutexas : You were going so well there, then bam, you hit a brick wall. I thought you were going to say that seeing as we are given similar drugs legally, why do we complain about these? If meth was legalized tomorrow people wouldn’t think anything more of taking it then taking normal amphetemines likewise with heroin and morphine. You have to realize that it’s a stigma AND it all depends on the context i.e. In a hospital, prescription, recreational etc.
Hemp sure is. I’d rock some hemp clothes as long as they aren’t all scratchy, which I imagine them to be.
Also, Lifeschool, nice list!
Mark: or, instead of feeding children the lying propaganda that we feed them through programs like in the U.S. D.A.R.E., we can educate them with drug education like we have in the past except not do it to just *****s (which is beyond me why they do not educate about the dangers more of prescription drugs, which have a higher death rate). in the scenario presented above, we would be having drug education about the LEGAL possibly prescribed drugs, which would be everything. it would be no different than the current situation.
also another main point is that in many cases a street drug can be more harmful because it is not pure and cut with other *****. in a world with all drugs being regulated to prescriptions, that would not be a worry. and for the record, the UK has diacetylmorphine (pure heroin) legalized, and used it in hospitals until they had a shortage and switched to mainly morphine. but it is still legal.
46. mattofutexas : Difference, *****s = very dangerous street drugs, doesn’t matter how resposibly they’re used, you’re in trouble – with some notable exceptions
Prescription drugs, given for a reason and when prescribed you will be educated about them, oh, and they’re not inherently dangerous.
I think your argument is specious…
47. mattofutexas : Lol, at least we’re on the same page about some things obviously
Compared to morphine, pure heroin isn’t that bad at all really though…
regardless of what people thought about taking it also Mark, it is still regulated in my scenario lol. they don’t make that decision. the docs do. the potential for abuse would be no different from today’s prescription drugs’ potential for abuse. if you can give me an argument why some drugs should be kept illegal over others, then go ahead. it also goes against freedoms, as it works much in the same way as freedom of speech, etc. if you make one thing illegal or consider one thing to be out-of-line, then where does the censorship end?
street drugs, not considering the potential for them to be cut with something, are far less dangerous than most prescription drugs. the death rate for prescription drugs is higher. when these drugs are all regulated to prescription also, the chance of overdose is GREATLY reduced as you can only prescribe a certain amount to a patient.
How can you be so naive as to think that legalizing all drugs with doctors’ control would eliminate drug-related crime? That makes no sense whatsoever.
It wouldn’t control drug abuse either, and it would most likely increase drug use because more people would have access to drugs. I know a lot of well-off white kids who won’t drive to Detroit to score drugs, but would certainly buy them off me if I had a prescription.
(I don’t mean weed either, but the harder stuff.)
50. mattofutexas : But you have to regulate them, there is a reason that the government(s) haven’t legalized them for extra tax revenue yet. The fact of the matter is that you can’t buy amphetemines for recreational, so why do we have to legalize meth? Likewise with opiates, why? It’s not censorship, I don’t even see the connection.
51. mattofutexas : Not even going to bother, I think I went over it all above.
52. Corey : I think you’ve got a good point there, all legalizing drugs will be doing is opening up a wider group of people to contact with these substances.
one more possible note about the stigma of *****s vs. prescribed drugs and education: we need to stop teaching children and actually adults about why drugs are bad because they’re “illegal”, and instead educate them on how they truly affect their body and the long-term effects as well as short-term effects. this needs to apply to all things, people should never be more concerned with the legal vs. illegal activities provided in a law than whether the law is good for moral reasons, or whether they harm persons or property. making people care more about whether things are illegal or legal takes away the people’s right to make the laws themselves in the democracy we live in and pushes them into fear and blind obedience.
55. mattofutexas : The widespread use of street drugs would indicate that you’re mistaken on your last point. But here in Australia the handouts about *****s do tell us – I’m a teenager obviously – why we shouldn’t use them, what they could do to us. Although in saying that, if I had the money, time and effort, all of that probably wouldn’t stop me anyway
not sure if someone has stated, but you CANNOT smoke hemp. there is so little thc, that it’d be like smoking leaves.
so that being said, there is absolutely no reason for it to be illegal. it’s all thanks to dupont.
57. dvrains : If having THC is a reason to be illegal then hemp should be, you can concentrate it… In saying that I don’t think that containing THC should make something illegal so don’t bite my head off.
Corey: what is “drug-related crime”? a crime caused by drugs? the people commit the crimes regardless of what drugs they’re on. if you can show me proof that a drug is causal rather than happening at the same time for someone committing a crime, then go ahead, I want to see it, because I really don’t know of it.
Mark: to your response about my 50 post, there is no legitimate reason that I can see why ***** hasn’t been legalized for extra tax revenue, so argument is invalid. you wouldn’t be buying anything for recreational, you would be getting it prescribed to you from a doc if necessary; your argument works both ways, why are some amphetamines legalized over meth? why are some opiates legalized over heroin, such as Fentanyl which is ummm 81 TIMES STRONGER THAN MORPHINE, hence way stronger and way more dangerous than heroin. people buy and sell adderall from others who have prescriptions like it’s nothing, and yes that crime would continue as the sole drug-related crime. as for your response to my 51 post, what did you clear up that negates anything I said in 51? “Difference, *****s = very dangerous street drugs, doesn’t matter how resposibly they’re used, you’re in trouble – with some notable exceptions” is not correct, as I stated in 51 that the death rate for prescription LEGAL drugs is higher than those of street drugs. look it up. and what did you say that negates my second part that the chance of overdose would be greatly reduced? lol. and eliminating drug abuse should not be the goal of making drugs illegal vs. legal, drug abuse is gonna continue no matter what the status of drugs are; but if you look at the facts I think it is clearly obvious that if people are better educated on the dangers and true effects of drugs then they can educatedly decide for themselves what is good and what is not, much better than the propaganda fed to them right now because things are “illegal.” Drug abuse will continue no matter what happens to the legality of drugs, but the drugs aren’t going away, they’re gonna exist nonetheless. Prohibition does NOT WORK. And on the note of drug abuse increasing, I think it will be much harder for someone to get heroin prescribed to them than it will for it to be bought on the street, and if I had to guess the people prescribed heroin probably would need it more than their desire to sell it out, since it would probably only be prescribed (if it would even be prescribed hardly ever in the first place rather than regulated to just hospitals) for very serious medical reasons.