Hemp

History and Facts

For over 3,000 years, hemp has made a significant contribution to the economic and social fabric of societies around the world. However, since hemp is of the same species as the marijuana plant, Cannabis sativa, its production was made illegal in some of the developed countries in the mid - 1930s. In response to American legislation, Canada prohibited production in 1939 under the Opium and Narcotics Control Act.

Hemp is different from marijuana. The hemp plant contains only. 09% THC, whereas drug-quality plants contain 10 to 30% of this notorious chemical. The hemp stalk, which is the source of pulp used for paper production, contains no psychoactive elements. Historically hemp has been used to produce rope, cloth, paper, food and medicine. The mature plants even look quite different -- the marijuana plant is a shrub; the hemp plant is a stock that grows to between 6 and 16 feet tall.

So why was it banned?

It seems likely that it was banned for purely economic reasons. Markets for paper, textiles and medicine were well established. New harvesting technology made hemp more economical than ever. In the wake of these developments, the plant was poised for record levels of cultivation. Enter the two men who where largely responsible for hemp's prohibition, Lamont DuPont's company had just patented the chemical processes for making paper from trees, and for making textiles from petrochemicals. William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate, owned 800,000 acres of forest and wanted to use the DuPont process to turn his trees into newsprint. His control of the media allowed him to exploit drug hysteria and orchestrate the "Reefer Madness" campaign. In 1937, it helped him persuade the US Congress to pass the Marijuana Tax Act, prohibiting hemp production. Hearst and DuPont stood to lose billions of dollars if hemp had become widely used.

Isn't it time to reinstate this benevolent plant?

Hemp is a key crop in helping to remedy some of the problems that continue to damage our planet. Hemp is the world's primary biomass producer, growing ten tons/acre in approximately 4 months. It can produce 4 times the amount of paper/acre than 20 year old trees can and will grow in various climatic zones. Hemp can also be used to produce charcoal, gas or methanol, oil, -- among many other things.

Canada currently produces 31% of the worlds' newsprint. 98% of the worlds' phone books use paper made from wood pulp produced in B.C. Over cutting has devastated the environment as well as the forest industry itself. If hemp was again Canada's number one crop, we could dramatically reduce the dependence on our forests. By using hemp pulp for the production of paper, we could curtail deforestation and produce stronger, more environmentally sound paper products for less than 1/2 the price of wood pulp paper.

Consider the benefits of hemp paper production in reducing damage to our environment. The process uses on 14-25% as much sulphur-based acids as used in paper produced from wood pulp. The problem of dioxin contamination of our rivers and lakes could be reversed since chlorine bleach would be substituted with safe hydrogen peroxide.

As an Agricultural Crop:

• fast growing - 70 to 110 days to mature to a 6 to 16 foot stalk
• hardy plant that can be grown in most climates
• resists diseases -- doesn't need pesticides
• hemp plants actually kill weeks by blocking out the sun
• yields 3 to 8 tones of dry stalk per acre
• harvest leaves fields fertile and weed-free

As an Alternative to Wood Fibre for Paper

• hemp fibres are the strongest natural fibres
• hemp paper is naturally acid-free and therefore does not turn yellow or brittle with age
• the longer hemp fibres are excellent for stationery and books
• the shorter hemp fibres are very good for newsprint, tissue paper and packing material
• hemp paper can be recycled 7 times versus 3 times for wood pulp paper
• hemp paper can be bleached with environmentally safe hydrogen peroxide -- instead of chlorine bleach which is used to make new wood pulp paper-- dumped into rivers every day by wood pulp mills in Canada alone.
• world paper consumption skyrocketed from 14 million tones in 1913 to 250 million tones in 1990, leading to a shortage of wood pulp in 1994 (and the huge increase in paper prices)

The greatest barrier to hemp paper production today has been the ban on commercial cultivation. However, the relaxation of farming restriction made in 1998 in Canada, together with new varieties of industrial hemp that have extremely low levels of psychoactive components (from as low as 0.1 % THC), could positively influence the future of industrial hemp cultivation. As new advances in farming, processing and pulping move from experimental to commercial applications, hemp's potential to become a major pulp ingredient may finally be realized.