The Industrial Uses of Marijuana

The marijuana plant is one of the great unused economic resources in America today. The successful commercial exploration of the marijuana plant will bring about a renaissance in the Americas that will dominate the next century. The self-proclaimed moralists advocating the current prohibition against the marijuana plant, because of the intoxicating effects of its flowers, have binded our society, and themselves, to the incredible potential this plant has for America's future. Civilizations have risen and fallen with their ability to maximize the long term exploration of their agricultural resources. Prior to the twentieth century, the marijuana plant (then known more modestly as hemp) was the single most important industrial, or non-food producing crop in America and the world. We must conserve the knowledge of the gifts the marijuana plant offers human society, and apply that knowledge if our way of life is to prosper.

Before attending to a discussion of its industrial use, the question of the intoxicating qualities of marijuana needs to be briefly addressed. Marijuana has been used as an intoxant, and as a therapeutic drug, for thousands of years, as well as an economic resource. It has economic value as an intoxant, as does alcohol, and as a medicine. While these uses are being debated, the less controversial issue of marijuana's industrial potential is generally ignored. In fact, that demonstrates the odd, myopic hysteria surrounding marijuana that hides from us the benefits the plant has to offer us.

A case for the economic potential of the intoxicating product of the marijuana plant, its flower buds, would be simple to make. As a black- market crop it has become the most valuable farm crop in the country. This alone argues for it's legalization. And like the Greeks, whose development accelerated dramatically when their farmers found that growing grapes for wine provided capital for economic development, American civilization would prosper. But the industrial uses of the marijuana plant make it a multi-purpose crop that will spread prosperity around the globe. The marijuana plant is a cheap, conservative source of the most durable fiber on the planet, as well as for pulp. Long ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that one acre of hemp could provide the same quantity of pulp as four acres of trees. This year the Agriculture Department announced the need to double our timber harvest by the year 2030, and industry spokespersons for the forest products industry said that still wouldn't meet the demand for timber. The marijuana plant could take the burden of pulp production away from our forests, leaving more trees avaliable for construction, leaving our forests intact & providing a refuge for wildlife. Why is pulp so valuable? We make paper out of it, and a lot of it at that. A Chinese man, Ts 'a Lon, invented the world's first paper in 105 A.D. The chinese were quite familiar with the Marijuana plant. Fabric-marked pots and hemp textiles dated to 4000 B.C. have been found in North Central China. In the Neolithic era Chinese produced clothing, rope, fishnets, pottery mats, food, and oil all from the marijuana plant. They were also familiar with the intoxicating properties of the flowers.

The marijuana plant has been culturally significant throughout Western Civilation. The Romans cultivated it for use in making clothing,strong rope and durable sailcloth. Henry VIII ordered every farmer to cultivate 1/4 acre of hemp for every 60 acres they tilled. He was on to something- seapower. The list of ship paraphernalia provided by the marijuana plant includes sails, riggings, anchor ropes, cargo nets,fisherman's nets, flags, shrouds,clothing, thread and more. In the age of Discovery an average ship required 50 to 100 tons of hemp rigging.

Prior to the twenthieth century the marijuana plant provided almost all of the world's paper, textiles, and rope. It was essential for cultural development, meeting the basic needs of the populace (clothing), and access through, and rule over, the high seas. It was the stuff their empires were built on. Most importantly, the marijuana plant provided the elements of self-reliance to the newly created American colonies.

In Common Sense, Thomas Paine argues that among other reasons, Americans should fight for independance because we possessed the natural resources that could bring us greatness. One bit of evidence he offered was that "Hemp abounds." Indeed, the first edition of Paine's Common Sense was published on hemp paper. At Jamestown, in 1619, one of the first laws passed in the new land required farmers to grow hemp. It was legal tender in America from 1631 to the early 1800's. The marijuana plant was the chief cash crop in Kentucky until the Civil War. Not only did the marijuana plant hold together the ship that brought our ancestors here, it also provided the canvas that covered the Conestoga wagons that settled the West.

The marijuana plant was so widely used that despite the considerable attention given to growing it in the U.S., Russia remained the supplier of 80% of the world's hemp until late into the 19th century. It might be argued that the marijuana plant's value diminished when seapower lost it's reliance on sails. However during World War II America lost her source of marijuana fiber when the Japanese took the Phillipines. The U.S. government planted over 400,000 pounds of marijuana seed to produce 42,000 tons of hemp rope annually for the war effort.

In 1936 Popular Mechanics hailed the invention of a new machine that processed hemp fiber and beckoned a new age in the exploration of hemp. Reefer Madness dawned instead,and the incredible potential of the marijuana plant remains untapped.

Besides being a more productive source of pulp than trees and producing the most durable natural fiber known to man, the marijuana plant has another valuable industrial property. It provides 4 to 50 times the Cellulose found in a cornstock. Cellulose can be made into methanol, a cheap, clean fuel.

The cultivation of marijuana plants has ecological benefits aside from saving trees, a worthy feat in itself. A marijuana plant puts down a 10 to 12 inch root compared to a 1 inch root of rye and barley.This long root breaks the soil and leaves it good for next year. It is a wise decision to plant it on land laying fallow, or after forest fires, because these roots will prevent soil erosion and also preserve the watershed.The leafy nature of the plant will cover the weeds and starve them of sunlight. It even provides a way of clearing a field before planting another crop. According to Popular Mechanics, two crops of marijuana will reclaim land from thistles. All the farmer has to do is harvest the stalks before they go to seed. And by the way, one acre can yield 3-6 tons of hemp, a nice way to suppliment to any farmer's income.

Clearly the marijuana plant has potential as an industrial, multi- purpose crop. It is a source of fiber, pulp, energy and has beneficial ecological value. It is an agricultural resource our farmers can use to strengthen their finances and protect the family farm from the now treacherous farm economy, our society, and our future. But is it of significance to the advancement of our civilization?

History and anthropology reveal to us how crucial exploration of the marijuana plant was to the development of American culture and Western Civilization.It helped make possible such historic acts as the exploration of the world by sea, the printing of the Guntenberg Bible, the declaration of Independance, the U.S. Constitution, and even protected our soldiers from the cold at Valley Forge. It is people who make history, but they make it out of material things. It is the human spirit that is inspired, but they need tools and products to express that spirit. Great civilizations are built out of human survival, & human survival comes from the efficient exploitation of all our natural crops.

It can be said that the exciting potential of the marijuana plant, it's energy potential notwithstanding, may have had its day prior to the industrial revolution that has shaed our modern society. In fact, this is the most crucial lesson we must realise and apply. Much of this world lags behind in the development that characterizes our society. Marijuana helped the American colonies begin their development, and it can do the same to the Third World. The marijuana plant provides a means for these societies to accelerate their development that is compatible with the agriculturally based indigenous cultures they are composed of. The cultivation of marijuana,then, also provides a means to promoting freedom in the undeveloped world. This is what will lead to a new renaissance.