Hemp; The Cause Theory
Though current law, tolerating the use of Cannabis as a medicine & recreational use are taking foot, we cannot yet rejoice and cheer for hemp's victory. As Cannabis in any form, from psychoactive medicine to industrial Hemp, are still widely illegal. To add salt to the wound, some countries, like Malaysia & Singapore, implement harsh & unforgiving rules. Getting caught with enough amount to sell (as little as 200g), or germinating a single Cannabis seed (industrial hemp included), will get you a minimum of life sentence or worst, capital punishment. Laws like this, which are incredibly unreasonable & inhumane (death for growing a plant), suppresses any pro-Cannabis movement in the country & making the pursue for legalizing Hemp a harder run.
What theory?
This theory points out to the scandalous prohibitions of all types Cannabis. Psychoactive Marijuana became the scape goat, said to be a dangerous substance that is associated with negative behaviors & labelled as a schedule 1 controlled substance. Meaning it has no use & benefit for human kind. But the main target of the prohibition was industrial Hemp. Hemp's superiority over other raw materials surely shook some industrial giants. If Hemp was made a main industrial material, some big industries might have to go through billion of dollars in lost revenue or even bankruptcy. People like William Randolp Hearst who controlled timber supplies for the paper industries, DuPont who dominated the petrochemical plastic industries (also the inventor of the Ozone depleting gas CFC), and conveniently the Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon, who also owns the Gulf oil.
Lets Begin!
This is where the story begins. Along with Hemp, there was also competitions from the expensive, in-renewable, time consuming, pollution causing materials. Namely this two giant, logging for wood pulp-paper & petroleum mining. Timber for pulp paper takes 50-100 years to mature & petroleum is down right unsustainable (and running low!) so they are very expensive, in comparison to industrial Hemp. Their main advantage as a raw material, is human's no.1 weakness. Convenience.
To prove that there was a foul play in the prohibition of Cannabis, we have to look at the history of Cannabis, we will learn that there was a period of time, where Hemp was triumphant & celebrated. This was also the period of industrialization. Where the human focus was to build, bigger, faster, taller & stronger everything. Factories' chimney pumped black smoke 24/7, raw materials were used in massive amounts. So the search for the ultimate material that is flexible, strong, & plentiful, begins. Alas, the answer was there all along. It can be planted, so the supply is never ending. It takes just over 100 days to mature & be harvested. It can be turned into food, energy, fabrics, plastics & a million other things. Hemp was & still is, human's best crop.
Refer again to the history of Hemp, right up before 1937, the first prohibition of Cannabis. Before 1937, we can see clear evidences that the world has already accepted Hemp for its uses. Hemp was dubbed the "Billion Dollar Crop" (keep in mind billion in the early 1900s is a REALLY HUGE number!), around that time Henry Ford literally built a car out of Hemp that can also be powered with Hemp, the use of THC rich Marijuana for medicine can be traced back as far as 1000 B.C & also used to "heightened marital pleasures" in 1890's. The world was ready for Cannabis, it has always been a part of human civilization all around the globe. With such cheap & versatile material available, of course some of the other raw material industries feels threatened.
The First Prohibition: "Its The Devil's Harvest!"
On the 2nd of August 1937, something out of the ordinary happened in the U.S. The country who has been profiting, pioneering, & leading in the Hemp industry, suddenly issued the Marihuana Tax Act. Which means anybody wanting to cultivate & use Cannabis need to pay a $1 tax. No problem there, government just trying to earn a quick buck from their people. But the problem was, they were not giving any out. Which is strange. The government at that time, suddenly claims that Marihuana is a dangerous substance & are heavily associated with the African slaves & workers. They claim that black man under the influence of Marihuana will act aggressively, hysteria-like & lewdly on white woman. Such acts was, laughing really loudly, playing the devil music (jazz), dancing, raping a white woman, or stepping on a white man's shadow. Furthermore, "Reefer Madness" a movie with inaccurate & scary depictions of the use of Marijuana became a standard Public Service Announcement. Unsurprisingly, "Reefer Madness" was sponsored by industries related to timbers & petrochemicals.
Hemp Re-legalization: "Need it To Win The War!"
In 1942 though, the US government once again legalize the cultivation of Hemp, this time to support the War Initiative. Not only that it was legalize again, farmers were encouraged to grow Hemp again to support the war effort. Farmers & their sons that grew Hemp for the war effort are excluded from the war draft. Hemp's superiority & ability to "win the war" was clearly shown in the short PSA film "Hemp for Victory".
The Second Prohibition: "Vietnam was what we had, instead of a happy childhoods"
Conveniently a decade after the war ended, in 1955, Cannabis was once again illegal. To understand why, we have to know that in 1955, the Vietnam War began. One of the most controversial war in the human history, next to the invasion of Iraq. The Vietnam War lasted more than 3 times longer (19 years 5 month 29 days) than The World War II (6 years 1 day). Controversies over faulty standard equipments issued to the American forces, looms the war. Hemp no longer is a weapon to win the war, but now an enemy in the war. The US government now outlaw Cannabis because they claim that the effects of smoking Marihuana will weaken the US forces motivation to fight the Vietnam farmers. A soldier under the influence of Marihuana will turn into a slow moving pacifist. Conveniently for the government, the Peace Movement, aiming to end the Vietnam War was mostly participated by Cannabis users. So the government not only stop the Cannabis use in Vietnam & America, they also crushed & destroyed the main opposing force against the Vietnam War, the people.
Wait a minute?
Thats exactly the total opposite reason why they outlawed Cannabis the first time in August 1937. First they say that Cannabis will make the user uber aggressive & generally black. Now they are claiming that Cannabis users will become a big, lazy, peace loving hippie. These obvious wordplays are enough for one to suspect something fishy about the prohibition on Cannabis in general.
Lets "Wrap" it Up
Ever since day 1 of prohibition, we can see that Marijuana is just a scape goat, used to bring down the irreplaceable Hemp. Looking at it from "their" (industries affected by Hemp) perspective, we can see Marijuana at that time, has no threat whatsoever to their industries. But, With this absent of connection to their industries, Marijuana is also the perfect fall-guy. Hemp, on the other hand, can fully replace their products. So illegalising Hemp directly would be too obvious. Hemp was the real target because it will cost them their business & billions of dollars in loss. Destroying their precious monopoly & dynasty in the world's resources. Rendering their unsustainable resources useless.
The benefit of Cannabis as medicine has been known ever since 1000 B.C, but at the time of prohibition, the use of Medical Marijuana, is not a popular issue, not making it a threat to the pharmaceutical industries. Now however, pharmaceutical industries has become one of the big sponsors, supporting the war on drugs. Currently, psycho active Cannabis are widely illegal and so is industrial Hemp. The reason why is because, all developing country under the UN are sanctioned to illegalize Cannabis. Countries including Malaysia & Singapore. America being one of the UN veto power, played a major role in seeing this happen.
So we can see from this elaborated post, how Hemp was actually the real target behind the world wide prohibition of Cannabis & the inaccurate norm that Cannabis products are dangerous & harmful drugs that can lead to psychosis & also a gateway to harder narcotics. Which, if you are well informed enough, we all know is not the truth.
Seek Truth!
"Non but ourself can free our mind" - Bob Marley
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