Hemp is the name used for cannabis sativa plants grown specifically for their industrial purposes, containing very low psychoactive agents (THC). Hemp is an extremely useful plant, but has been federally banned along with its more psychoactive cousin.
Some of the uses include: rope, sails, clothing (more durable and longer lasting than cotton), paper (1 acre of hemp produces 4X as much paper as trees and it can be grown annually in a sustainable manner), building material (hempcrete), food (hemp seeds have 27g of protein per 100g of seed and all the essential amino and fatty acids our bodies need), cooking oil, fuel oil, paint, plastic, soap, animal feed, weed suppression, erosion control, (not to mention all of its medicinal uses) and many many other uses.
The video attached is called "Hemp for Victory" created by the US Department of Agriculture during World War II when the Allied Powers desperately needed hemp for the war effort (despite being illegal at home). Hemp was temporarily legal during WWII, but later recriminalized in the 1950s.
Do you think we should relegalize cannabis hemp? Please share your thoughts below.
Sources:
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Cannabis+sativa
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html
