Capitalism made hemp, pot illegal

State columnist

link Tom McDonald

One of the perks to having a column that runs in papers around the state is the feedback, especially through emails, that I receive from readers. Sometimes it surprises me what people get passionate about.

Not long ago I wrote about some of the bills that passed New Mexico’s most recent legislative session, listing more than a dozen measures that passed — including one that caught the attention of a hemp enthusiast.

“I enjoyed reading your article,” wrote S.R. Collier of Drink Mary Jane’s, a trademarked company out of Canada that produces alcohol from hemp. He has a Google alert set up for anything out there referring to hemp, and caught my column, and the mention of New Mexico’s newest hemp legislation, from up in Crystal Beach, Ontario — where “marijuana’s sober cousin,” he told me, “is legal.”

“In fact, our Prime Minister Stephen Harper offers incentives for farmers to grow the crop, as the supply cannot meet the demand,” he wrote in response to my queries.

Collier also pointed out that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp back in their day. He also gave me some links to the “redeeming” qualities of hemp. By that I mean that while hemp may look like a harmless cash crop to some, it’s actually been classified as one the great scourges of our country for years now — as a Schedule 1 controlled substance — alongside that evil cousin, marijuana.

You probably know that pot and hemp are both part of the cannabis family, but only one of them gets you high. Hemp has only trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. But its practical uses are many — it’s good for making rope, clothing, pulp and paper, building materials, fuel and, as my Canadian source confirms, booze. It’s been important as a raw material worldwide through the centuries.

My e-correspondent was right about Washington and Jefferson growing hemp. Some have made the case that these two Founding Fathers enjoyed smoking cannabis too — perhaps even the THC-infused kind — but I don’t think anyone’s proven that. What is certain, however, is that both of these wealthy Virginia farmers grew lots of industrial hemp.

So why is it illegal now? Two reasons: capitalism and guilt-by-association.

By the 1930s, the struggling cotton and timber industries saw hemp as a threat to their interests, and the unscrupulous newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who had lots of his money tied up in the timber industry, mounted a campaign to demonize marijuana and other cannabis plants, including hemp. In 1937, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which was followed by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, both of which effectively shut down the agricultural production of marijuana and hemp in the U.S. — a prohibition that’s lasted to this day.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

tmcdonald@

gazettemediaservices.com