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... from hemp (8). Hempseed oil can also be used for lighting, and was at one time, the most popular fuel of choice for this purpose. Futuristic US citizens, such as Henry Ford, envisioned a nation powered by organic, renewal Bio Mass Energy derived from hemp. Its demise was realized as the large monopolies were negotiating their rise to power (8). So how did this gift from God, this plant that served as legal currency become illegal?
Why? Many factors came together, which eventually ended up yanking hemp out of its vital role as an American staple. As more and more corporate mergers saw industries folded into a handful of giants, the U. S. federal government gave control of most domestic textile production to DuPont, their chief munitions manufacturer. DuPont bought out small TNT and dynamite producers until they controlled two-thirds of industry output.
Around the time when the Harrison Narcotics Act became federal law, Harvard chemist Wallace Carothers synthesized the natural cellulose fibers found in hemp, while working from German patents, under a DuPont grant (Clark 27). DuPont, which had largely taken control of hemp output to harvest its cellulose for weapons production, now had what it needed to make weapons without cannabis hemp. It patented the first synthetic fiber, and developed synthetic plastics under the guise of conserving natural resources! Coal tar and petroleum-based chemicals were employed, and different devices, spinnerets and processes were patented. This new type of textile, nylon, was to be controlled from the raw material stage, as coal, to the completed product; a patented chemical product. The chemical company centralized the production and profits of the new "miracle" fiber.
The introduction of nylon, the introduction of high-volume machinery to separate hemp's long fiber from the cellulose hurd, and the outlawing of hemp as "marijuana" all occurred simultaneously. (Clark 27) Ironically Wallace Carothers, the Harvard chemist who worked to synthesize cellulose, committed suicide one week after the House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on cannabis and created the bill that would outlaw hemp (Clark 27). In 1997 Dupont was still the largest producer of man-made fibers, while no American citizen has legally harvested a single acre of textile grade hemp in over 60 years (except during the period of WWII). The next question one might naturally ask is, what type of public relations extravaganza was needed to wean America from this sturdy, cash crop? The answer lies in blatant discrimination, and the repetition of severely twisted facts that continues in public service announcements to date. The marijuana portion of the hemp prohibitionist movement found it all too easy to integrate its agenda with racial and ethnic discrimination that was a prevalent part of US culture at the time. The first cannabis prohibition law in the U.
S. was passed in 1903 in Brownsville, Texas. The law applied only to Mexicans, and targeted them based upon a heavy cannabis smoking tradition that remained a part of their culture, while immigrating to the US (Here 87). The next group to be targeted by anti-marijuana legislation were Blacks in the Storyville section of New Orleans, otherwise known as the birthplace of jazz. "Sailors from the islands took their shore leave and their marijuana there" (Here 87).
Town officials tried to use marijuana as a vehicle to pass blame on a city that had grown increasingly full of cabarets, brothels, In fact, marijuana was being blamed for the first refusals of black entertainers to wear blackface [a requirement for any black entertainer who wanted to sneak onto a Louisiana stage, in violation of "Jim Crow" laws] and for hysterical laughter by "negros" under marijuana's influence when told to cross a street or go to the back of the trolley, etc (87) American newspapers, politicians, and police, had virtually no idea, for all these years (until the 1920 s, and then only rarely), that the marijuana the "darkies" and "Chicanos" were smoking in cigarettes or pipes was just a weaker version of the many familiar concentrated cannabis medicines they'd been taking since childhood, or that the same drug was smoked legally at the local "white man's" plush hashish parlors. (Here When Harry An slinger, Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief, testified before Congress in 1937, he boasted many of the bogus, racist claims of the movement, even calling jazz music "satanic" (88). California, Utah, and Colorado had already passed "Jim Crow" legislation targeted at Blacks and Mexicans in their communities, and the Harrison Narcotic Act, which swept many useful drugs into restriction, was already in effect on the federal level. What started out disgraceful remains so today, as the United States continues to imprison innocent people because of victimless crimes. "African Americans comprise 12 % of the nation's population, and 13 % of its drug users, yet they account for one third of all drug-related arrests and nearly two thirds of all convictions" (web). In his September 1989 drug policy speech, President Bush promised to double the federal prison population. He did, and so did President Clinton in 1996 (Here 91). Now, "On any given day in the U.
S. , more than one out of every three Black males between 18 - 29 are either incarcerated, on probation, on parole or under warrant for arrest. The figure for Latinos is one in six. For Whites, it is one in twenty" (web). As US leaders continue to lock up America's youth, discretionary funds seep away from areas of hope and improvement, like education. Billions have been spent creating, upholding, and expanding the multibillion-dollar Drug War.
The government has quietly resurrected old seizure laws that date back to the 1800 s, and has made disturbing use of them to take property and money from citizens who are caught with cannabis. The War on Drugs, especially cannabis, is un-American in every way. Born out of ignorance and greed, laws against marijuana have served to help business make more money, and to suppress minority groups. How can crime really be a crime if "Benjamin Franklin started one of America's first paper mills with cannabis. This allowed America to have a free colonial press without having to beg or justify the need for paper from England" (Here 1). In a time when farmers are being paid millions to plow under their harvests, we ignore the cash crop that once defined our nation.
It is time that we take back our crop. It is time that the economy should flourish with new production, while we effortlessly watch the black market for pot fade away. It's time that we free our prisoners of war. It's time that we enjoy God's truly beautiful gift without shame.
It's what Ben would have wanted. Bibliography: Works Cited Clark, Shan. "Man-Made Fiber The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fibers. " The Emperor Wears No Clothes. (1998): 27. "Communities of Color and the drug war. " Drug Reform Coordination Network. Dec. 1999... Here, Jack. The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Phoenix: Paper Master Trade Printing, 1998.
Rubin, Vera, and Lambros Comics. Ganja in Jamaica-A Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marijuana Use. New York: Anchor Books, 1975.
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