THE BENEFITS OF CANNABIS

The facts cited herein on marijuana are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, which was printed on Cannabis hemp paper for 150 years. Other facts and anecdotes are source cited in brevity.

Hempstead, Long Island; Hempstead County, Texas; Hempstead County, Arkansas; Hemp Hill, North Carolina, among others, were all so named because they were marijuana growing regions. All schoolbooks were made from hemp and/or flax paper until the 1880s, and most schoolbooks were still made with Cannabis fiber until the early 1900s. (Hemp Paper Reconsidered, Jack Frazier, 1974). Seventy-five to ninety per cent of all paper in the world was made from Cannabis hemp until 1883. Most books, maps, etc. were made from Cannabis hemp fiber. The Declaration of Independence was probably printed on Cannabis hemp linen paper. The California Marijuana Initiative asked the U.S. Government Archives, who would be no more specific than to answer "linen". Hemp is a perfect archival medium. (U.S. Government Archives and U.S. Library of Congress).

It was legal to pay taxes with Cannabis hemp in the United States from 1631 until the early 1800s. (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 12, 1981, and other sources). Refusing to grow Cannabis hemp was against the law in the United States during the 17th and 18th century; one could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769. (L.A. Times, Aug. 1981, and Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G.M. Herdon). George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew Cannabis, a fact described in their diaries and garden books. In 1860 the Ohio State Medical Society concurred with biblical scholars that "The gall and vinegar or myrrhed wine offered to our Savior immediately before his crucifixion was in all probability a preparation of Indian hemp." (reprinted with the transactions of the 15th annual meeting of the Ohio Medical Society at White Sulphur Springs, June 12 through 14, 1860, page 75-100).

Cannabis hemp is the longest, most durable, and longest lasting natural fiber known to exist on the earth. Ninety per cent of all ships sails were made from Cannabis hemp since before Christ until the 1930s. the word canvas is the Dutch pronunciation of the Greek word cannabis. (Webster's New World Dictionary, and other sources). Virtually all canvas paintings were painted on Cannabis hemp linen canvas. Eighty per cent of all textiles - fabrics, clothing, linen, drapes, rugs, bedsheets, etc. - were made from Cannabis hemp until the 1820s. The national flag itself was made from Cannabis hemp. Virtually all stocks and bonds were printed on hemp paper until the 1950s. (Jeffries Bank Note Company, Los Angeles, CA).

By the 1820s, industrial cotton gins allowed cotton to be produced at less cost than hand separating hemp fiber which was then hand spun on Spinning Jennys. Hemp was the second most used natural fiber in the United States until the 1930s, when it was replaced mostly be new Du Pont plastic fibers under license of 1936 German patents. Hemp fiber paper was replaced by the cheaper wood pulp sulphide process around 1883. Again, Du Pont was a recipient of the displaced Cannabis fiber business, with new wood pulp sulphide process patents in 1937. Ninety per cent of all rope and twine was made from Cannabis hemp until 1937. Hemp rope and twine has been replaced mostly by petrochemical fibers, produced principally by Du Pont.

Marijuana seed was used in porridge, soups, and gruel by virtually all the people of the world daily until the twentieth century. Monks were required to eat it three times a day, they made their clothing from hemp, and printed their Bibles on hemp. (Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, and Research Institute for Study of Man, and Eastern Orthodox Church). Australia survived two prolonged famines in the 19th century using virtually nothing but marijuana seed for protein and marijuana leaves for roughage. (Australia history books, and the Marijuana Farmer, Jack Frazier, 1972).

The Marijuana seed, which is technically a fruit, is the second most complete protein source known, after soybeans. The enzymes and endistins contained in marijuana seed break down food nutrients to allow easier digestion and more food value. (The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, and three European studies). Marijuana seed contains a higher percentage of enzymes and amino acids than any other food, including soybeans, and like soybeans can be made to taste like chicken, beef, tofu, etc. at five to ten per cent the cost of soybean protein. Domestic animals could also be fed for less than 20 per cent of current costs. (Marijuana Farmer). Marijuana can be grown very poor soil, is an excellent rotation crop (USDA), there is no THC content in the seed.

All good paints and varnisheds were made from Cannabis seed oil until 1937. (Sherwin Williams Paint Company testimony before Congress against the 1937 Hemp Tax Transfer Law). One hundred sixteen million pounds (58 thousand tons) of Cannabis seed were used in the United States for paint manufacture in 1935. The Cannabis oil business displaced when Cannabis production became illegal went to Du Pont petrochemicals.

A hemp pulp paper process was invented in 1916 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1916 wrote that one acre of Cannabis hemp for pulp would replace 4 and a half acres of trees being cut down for pulp, as soon as the technology is available. This technology became available in the mid 1930s and is detailed in the Feb. 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine. The Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division and Kimberly Clark Co. and other established concerns could have been hurt by this development for billions of dollars. Hearst Newspaper led the fight to have marijuana outlawed in 1936-37 and later admitted to yellow journalism. The testimony before Congress in 1937 in favor of making Cannabis illegal consisted almost entirely of Hearst Newspaper articles read aloud by Anslinger. Anslinger was Director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1931 to 1961. Prior to 1931, Anslinger had been Assistant U.S. Commissioner for Prohibition. Anslinger was picked to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics by his uncle-in-law, Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury under Hoover, and by the owner of Mellon Bank, Pittsburgh, the sixth largest U.S. bank, and a banker for Du Pont since 1928.

In 1937 Anslinger testified before Congress that "Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind." After the 1944 New York City La Guardia Marijuana Report refuting marijuana causing violence at all, Anslinger changed his tune before Congress by 1948, when he told Congress that he no longer thought marijuana violence-causing, but "a much more dangerous drug than America than that." He testified that "Marijuana causes its users to become so peaceful and pacifistic that in the future American boys will not want to fight in our wars." Anslinger also warned Congress that "The Communists could use marijuana to sap our will to fight." This represents a reversal of the reasoning which originally produced marijuana's illegalization in this country in 1937. Anslinger retired in 1961. (Omni Magazine, Sept. 1982)

CANNABIS USE TODAY

Today China makes very popular hemp/cotton textiles. (The National Textile Co., Shanghai, China. Canada, England and others still use hemp fiber in their paper money. It lasts three times longer than U.S. money.
If Cannabis hemp were legal to grow with 20th century technology, it would again be the single largest agricultural crop in the United States, without even considering recreational smoking. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture). If the hemp pulp paper process invented by the USDA in 1916 were legal today, it would replace 40 to 70 per cent of wood pulp paper, and make a better and cheaper paper, with no acid rain produced in its manufacture. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture).

EDICINAL PROPERTIES OF CANNABIS

For more than 3,500 years marijuana has been one of the most widely used drugs for oriental medicine. From 1850 to 1937 American Pharmacopeia prescribed marijuana for more than 100 separate illnesses or diseases. From 1842 to the 1880's marijuana was one of the most used drugs in the United States to treat the illnesses of adults and children.The American Medical Association testified against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. (Dr. James Woodward, 1937, before Congress). The United States Government forbid marijuana research for 30 years from 1931 to 1961. An active ingredient of marijuana, Delta-9 THC was isolated in 1964-1965 by Israeli scientists. More than 400 of a suspected 1,000 different ingredients of marijuana have been isolated since 1964.Recent research (1966 through 1976) reconfirms marijuana to be the medicine of choice, best and safest, for glaucoma, for epilepsy, for muscular spasms, for reduction of tumors, for control of nausea in cancer chemotherapy, for emphysema, migraine, depression, and anorexia nervosa.Eighty percent of asthmatic - more than 15 million people are affected - could add two to four years to their lifespans, especially children, over the benefits of presently legal and toxic medicines, by using marijuana (UCLA 1969-1975, and Therapeutic Potential for Marijuana, and Life Insurance Actuarial Rates, 1985).Ninety percent of glaucoma victims can benefit from the use of marijuana. California eye doctors will tell their patients, discreetly, to use marijuana to save their eyes. (Harvard; UCLA; Medical College of Georgia; University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 1975; The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana; and the National Eye Institute). Marijuana is two to three times as effective as any currently legal medicines for reducing ocular pressure, without toxic side effects destroying liver and kidneys, toxic effects associated with present legal glaucoma drugs. As far as the California Marijuana Initiative can determine, no Californian receives marijuana legally for glaucoma, even though California law (1979) allows for medicinal use of marijuana. This provision is not implemented because of the current Federal Natural Marijuana Prohibition, and past California State Attorney General Deukmejians's thwarting of doctors' and researchers' ability to acquire legal supplies of marijuana from him within the program passed by our legislators. (L.A. Times, 1982; and Patrick Mayers).Marijuana is also the supreme dilator of the airways, the bronchi, opening them up to allow more oxygen into the blood. Marijuana is the best dilator of the little air tubes of the lungs, the bronchioles. Marijuana is the best overall bronchiole dilator. (Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, and studies by Taskin at UCLA from 1969 through 1983, and the U.S. Costa Rican Studies, 1982). The original Costa rican Report was ordered suppressed by the Reagan Administration. A copy was snuck out to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The Reagan Administration and National Institute for Health ordered the Costa Rican Report rewritten three times, then finally rewrote the report themselves. The N.I.H. ordered only 300 copies to be printed. To read the suppressed original Costa Rican Report ordered by the U.S. Government would make you cry. The extrapolations of health potentials are extraordinary.Medical research indicates that light marijuana smoking would be the therapy of choice for mild emphysema to allow more fresh areas of the bronchi to open up for more oxygen transfer, and increase the quality of life greatly for tens of millions of sufferers of emphysema. (UCLA, 1974-1975). All research into the oxygen transfer effects caused by marijuana indicates that chest pains, shallowness of breath, headaches, etc., which are symptomatic of heavy smog exposure are usually alleviated entirely by the light smoking of marijuana throughout the day. (Marijuana Pulmonary Research, Taskin, UCLA, 1969-1983). Marijuana is the best natural expectorant to void lungs of smog.Marijuana completely alleviates most migraine headaches most of the time. It is estimated that, if legal, marijuana would replace more than fifty percent of Valium, Librium, Stellazine, etc. (Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana). Marijuana is the best way presently known to dry the mouth's saliva, in dentistry. If legal, it would replace the highly toxic Probanthine, manufactured by Searle & Co. Marijuana is also the best relaxant and back spasm medicine available short of morphine.Marijuana is the best herb known for reducing malignant and benign tumors. Until 1937 virtually all fistula, corns, and fibrosis were treated with poltices made from or treated with marijuana extracts. (The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana and Marijuana Medical Papers, 1972).Sixty percent of epileptics can benefit from the use of marijuana. It is considered to be the best medication for many types od epilepsy, and for most victim's post seizure trauma.

(The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, Cohen/Stillman, UCLA, 1976).The Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Government ordered (then ordered suppressed) studies done at the Medical College of Virginia. After notable success in the research, orders were given by the DEA and the National Institute of Health, to cease all research and reports in 1975. (The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, and personal interviews with the doctors and researchers who conducted the research, by the California Marijuana Initiative in Washington, D.C., Nov. 1982). This study was ordered originally on the premise that marijuana would harm the immune system, based on studies done by Dr. Gabriel Nahas, Columbia University, 1972. The same Dr. Nahas who said marijuana created chromosome damage, etc. Nahas is still the favorite of DEA and National Institute of Drug Abuse, yet no anti-marijuana studies done by Nahas have ever been replicated in six other university researches. Columbia University disassociated themselves, specifically, from Nahas researches in a University Press Conference in 1975. Old, discredited Nahas studies are still trotted out and used by the DEA today to give unknowledgeable parents, PTA, etc. as valid research regarding marijuana.Marijuana is the best agent for control of nausea in cancer chemotherapy. (UCLA, Dr. Thomas Underleider, head of California's Marijuana for Cancer Research Project, 1979-1983). Patrick Mayers in 1979 was instrumental in getting the California Legislature to pass legislation allowing for medical use of marijuana in California. Mayer's life was saved in 1976 when his doctor advised him, to illegally to use marijuana for his chemotherapy nausea. At the time Mayer's weight was down to 93 pounds. Mayers was shocked in 1981 when Deukmejian, then Attorney General, in charge of the medical supply program, was absolutely refusing to supply the confiscated marijuana he had been legally authorized to dispense to doctors prescribing marijuana for their patients. At this point Mayers convinced the L.A. Times and other public media to demand implementation of the 1979 California Medicine Law.It is estimated by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and by Omni Magazine that Eli Lilly Company; Abbot Laboratories; Smith, Kline, and French, Inc.; etc. would lose hundreds of millions to billions of dollars if marijuana were made legal. U.S. drug companies successfully lobbied the federal government to ban all positive research into marijuana in 1976. In return, the drug companies would take over research into analogues of synthetic THCs, CBSs, CBNs, etc. Eli Lilly Co. came out with Nabilone, a synthetic cousin of Delta-9 THC, promising great results. Nabilone is presently legal to prescribe only in Canada. Omni Magazine states that after nine years Nabilone is still considered virtually useless when compared with real marijuana THC. After spending millions of dollars in research over the last eight years, U.S. drug companies have been unable top synthesize the therapeutic qualities of natural marijuana THC. (Omni Magazine).NORML concludes that the reason drug companies want only synthetic THCs to be legal is to prevent anyone extracting and marketing the natural ingredients of marijuana, interfering with their own monopoly-protected profit. Eli Lilly Co. =would stand to lose a third of their patented monopoly, including Darvon, Tuinal and Seconal patented line. The U.S. drug companies presently supply almost half of all funding for the 4,000 "Families Against Marijuana" type organizations in the U.S. The other half of the funding is from ACTION, a federal VISTA agency.It is interesting to note President Bush's anti drug stance. Bush is one of Eli Lilly Co.'s largest stockholders, and was director of the Eli Lilly Co. from 1977 to 1979. Bush's family owns controlling interest in Eli Lilly Company. (Internal Revenue Service).

THE POLITICS OF MARIJUANA AND A SCENARIO

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is still pressuring Latin American countries to use paraquat, a deadly herbicide. Mexico has been spraying fields with paraquat, much of this sprayed marijuana makes its way to the United States. Science Digest (a Hearst Publication) June 1983, NORML, L.A. Times, USA Today, and others state that paraquat is a very dangerous chemical and a singularly hideous way to die. It is a heinous crime for any government to allow paraquat to its people and its lands. The president of Chevron, the U.S. manufacturer of paraquat, has begged the U.S. Government, the U.S. State Dept., and the DEA to not use paraquat in this manner, as it may kill thousands of innocent people, and constitute other grave dangers. (Science Digest, June 1983). In July of 1983 the Federal Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia stated that as many as 9,000 Americans may have been poisoned and experience dramatically shortened lives because of the use of paraquat in marijuana control. In 1978 NORML was able to get the use of paraquat stopped, but Reagan prevailed upon Congress in 1981 to reauthorize paraquat use in marijuana control, this was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 1983.Seventy percent of all federal, state, and local tax dollars for narcotic and drug enforcement is being spent for marijuana enforcement. In 1989 there were 327,000 arrests for simple possession of marijuana. Operation Green Merchant, which took place in the fall of 1989, was aimed at garden stores. Over 440 people were arrested and more than $9 million of property was seized. Advertisers in magazines such as High Times were targeted and mail-order catalog lists were siezed. About 150 times more money is spent on marijuana enforcement than on alcohol enforcement. (1981 FBI crime statistics).Isn't it interesting that a substance so useful and applicable to so many applications is so heavily suppressed by our government? Despite years of research and valuable applications marijuana was recently denied an upgrade in drug classification which would have still made it illegal except for a few specific medical uses (such as anti-nausea during chemotherapy) and is still considered a "dangerous substance with no medical use".

Here is a possible scenario reconstructed from facts which are public record. The Hearst Publishing Company can see it coming - heavy losses in the companies wood pulp paper holdings. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture itself had in 1916 invented a hemp pulp paper process which it proclaimed would, as soon as the technology became available, make paper both superior and cheaper than wood pulp paper. This technology becomes available in the 30's. At the same time Du Pont, an industry directly competing with Cannabis seed oil in paint and other petrochemical products, is able to put of their own men into the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. This man, Anslinger, then testifies before Congress in 1937, mostly reciting Hearst newspaper articles. The result was the 1937 Hemp Tax Transfer Law, which made marijuana illegal. Du Pont goes on to become a major player in the petrochemical/plastics industry, and secures use of their wood pulp paper process and the circle of self-interest is closed. It's up to us to re-open the discussion.