We just printed it out and placed it with the graphs/images in the document protector.

Earlier this year, I had to argue with his teacher to allow the subject matter, she was convinced that the idea was of a "pot head" and that it was innapropriate.

Needless to say she was "Shocked and appalled" that the son of a police officer would be an activist for Hemp usage.

(Waggle eyebrows) I told her "Hrm, don't judge a book by the badge it wears. You'd be surprised."

She allowed it, I think more from curiosity than anything else.



Here it is. :D Please be proud with me!


_______________________________________________________________







The Legalization of Hemp



English 12















Cannabis Sativa is a low maintenance crop grown in thirty-two other

countries that can be used in paper, clothing, food, medicine, rope and even cars.

Hemp is one of the worlds most useful plants that could replace many

environmentally destructive products. It is for this reason hemp should not be

illegal in the United States.


What is Hemp? Hemp is a general term used to refer to cannabis used for

industrial purposes. Cannabis Sativa, unlike Marijuana does not have the

psychotropic ingredient Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannibinol or otherwise referred to as

THC. With potency levels generally under 0.5 % there isn’t enough of this

substance available for recreational use. “To receive the standard psychoactive

dose would require a person to power smoke ten to twelve hemp cigarettes over an

extremely short period of time.” States the Arizona Industrial Hemp Council.


Industrial Hemp is grown quite differently than marijuana, hemp plants are

grown only inches apart to produce taller plants with stalks. Whereas marijuana is

grown feet apart to assure shorter, bushier THC rich flowers and leaves. Moreover

they are harvested at different times. In contrast, hemp production typically seeks

fertilization to produce seeds.


Hemp seeds are used in many types of food. One good example is the

Fredrick Brewing Company in Fredrick Maryland, two brews of which are made

with the seeds of the hemp plant. “Neither brew contains any of the narcotic Delta-

9-Tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) which makes pot so popular.” explains Ted

Williams in his article, Legalize it! published in Audubon Magazine. Better tasting

and more digestible than Soy, hemp seeds could render into hundreds of foods

thereby taking pressure off the forests in the United States which are being replaced

with soybean plantations. The hemp seed is a highly nutritious source of protein,

and essential fatty oils. Many populations have grown hemp for its seeds, which

they eat as gruel, a food closely resembling oatmeal. This is a disclaimer: Hemp

seeds do not contain marijuana and they do not have psychotropic effects. Hemp

seed protein closely resembles the protein found in human blood and is remarkably

easy to digest.


The fibers from the hemp stalk can be woven into cloth, just as comfortable

and yet more durable than cloth made with cotton. Much more difficult to grow,

cotton relies on chemical elixirs and massive doses of artificial fertilizers,

insecticides and herbicides to be able to grow successfully. Hemp, which out

competes other weeds, requires no herbicides. In one study, hemp grown in rotation

with soy beans reduced cyst nematodes by more than half.


Paper made with hemp is naturally bright, where wood based paper pulp

turns brown during the cooking process. The wood pulp is then bleached with

chlorine, which when disposed of in the environment produces dioxin, among other

poisons. If farmers were allowed to grow hemp which produces twice and much

fiber per acre as an average forest, our nation could reduce no sustainable logging

and the carbon contained within the wood would remain there instead of

contributing to the greenhouse effect.


Practically anything we make from a polluting and nonrenewable

hydrocarbon such as oil and coal, can be made from a cleaner and renewable

carbohydrate such as hemp. The pulp of the hemp can be burned as-is, or processed

into charcoal, methanol, methane or gasoline. This process is called “Destructive

Distillation” or “Pyrolysis”. Fuels made from plants such as these are called

Biomass Fuels. “Hemp can be turned into plastics and made into petroleum without

producing sulfur. Thus reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere.” said Simon Frew.


Hemp use stretches back as far as the 1600’s in the United States, when our

first law enacted in Virginia made it illegal for farmer not to grow this crop in 1619.

This same law took effect in Massachusetts in 1631, Connecticut in 1632 and again

in the Chesapeake colonies in the mid 1700’s at which time hemp was the worlds

leading crop. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted

on hempen paper. During the revolutionary war “Old Ironsides”, our most

formidable battleship, carried 60 tons of hempen sail and rope. Betsy Ross made

the first flag for the United States on hempen canvas.


While hemp could make practically everything a lot easier on this tired old

planet of ours, as well as on the farmers who till its soil, no one in North Carolina

will be growing it any time soon because anyone in this state, or anywhere else in

this country for that matter, who tries to plant the seeds will be targeted for illegal

activity by the DEA. Until the federal government recognizes hemp for the versatile

crop it is, instead of the illegal drug it isn’t, we as citizens of the United States will

continue to waste and pillage our dying resources until the only thing left to use is

that which was so vigorously protested by our own government.




:woohoo:

how i long for the day i can sit on my front porch & smoke a doobie :):) in total security!!!!!!!!

The textile industry could be revived here in the United States. It is a win win paper.

I think about our younger generations, and suddenly I realize there's hope to come.

Good job with the son-raising mom!

contains a recipe for a peanut-butter-like paste made with ground hemp seeds. It was used as a sandwich spread and as a filling for pirukad, the Estonian version of baked pierogies. The cookbook is written in Estonian and was published in the early 1900s.

I've never tried it; it doesn't sound very appetizing. The hempseed grown at such a northern latitude probably contains little or no THC. It was used strictly for nutritional purposes at a time when food was often scarce and people had to take advantage of whatever edibles they could get.

The Estonian word for hempseed is kanep, their version of the word cannabis. I have no idea if it's used today, but it's probably illegal.

and you for raising a person who uses critical thinking and just doesn't accept the conventional widsom as gospel.

I have written the Obama transition team about this very topic. It would be extremely stupid to keep this plant illegal, because of our governments continued ignorance concerning hemp.

If hemp were allowed to become a cash crop, even if it were to be smoke the only effects you would experience is a severe headache.

Kudos to your son, and for your persistence to educating his teacher. I just hope she learns something on this subject matter. Your son did a excellent job on the differences, perhaps she will want to learn more about hemp. Your son would receive an A+ if I were his teacher.

:thumbsup::applause:



Edit: :kick: & RRRRRRR

Bravo! Smart kid you got there and you obviously raised him right! :toast: :patriot: :applause:

Julie

The short-sightedness of our government on this (and so many other issues) is appalling...
What's that thing again about being...umm...COMPETITIVE in a global market????
Sheesh.

in the sixth paragraph the phrase "twice and much" is probably supposed to be "twice as much"

Yes it's too late. Today was the due day :blush:

;)

(ducks)

Hemp has been a principle component in rope and durable paper products
until it was made illegal.

(It has been suggested that)Hemp is illegal mainly
because Wm Hearst campaigned against hemp in order
to promote the use of wood pulp for cheaper (high acid) paper.
At the time he owned substantial interests in forests in the NW US,
which forests are now substantially depleted from wood paper use.

see section on "Criticism" at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst

Some have apparently suggested the whole matter of was
just another swindle unconnected to anything but profit.
It wiped out hemp industry practically overnight. Look for
motive there too.

High acid paper lasts about 20-70 years, and old papers are
now disappearing (literally) unless they have been recorded.

This made fine quality and durable paper which would last 100 years
(for fine books) extravagantly expensive. As a direct consequence
fine quality printing is essentially extinct in the US
and currently only the Japanese and Swiss are doing fine quality printing.

Just random stuff from my (usually reliable) source
For what it is worth.

He'll be very interested in that, thank you.

He really is an activist about usages.

When he was writing the paper, he came to me and said (I'm a medical tech) "Mama...They don't even allow this plant to be used to assist hunger in AIDS patients, or ease treatment in cancer patients." I told him that I knew, and he was preaching to the choir. For the record, when I was on the back of the truck I would look at my patients and say "Listen, I'm not the cops. I'm not going to report you for anything you've decided to take. I just need to know, so that I don't kill you with the wrong medicine." I would keep my word on it also. I'm not going to condemn a woman who's lost her hair, and is throwing up from her shoes for wanting some relief. Thats just plain cruel.

She allowed the argument for Hemp only, sadly enough. He could have written another 5 full pages on the medicinal uses of THC, along with overpopulation of our jails. He has first hand knowledge from his dad (PD officer) about how many resources are wasted on this.

Quote from my son "Mama...Alchohol is MUCH more damaging, and addictive. Same with cigarettes. But they allow those, you know why? Because they make money off of it in taxes...that's why."

Love love love my boy. :)

such a son who knows how to research! That is the finest skill one can have in life. If one knows how to research and put thoughts together, one can know and learn ANYthing! Your love for your son shines in how you've prepared him for the world and the world will be lucky to have him.

Thank you both, for being.

Kicked and happily rec'd!!

and may all our jails and prisons be purged of people in there for pot reasons. what a cruelty. what a sick way for govs. to raise money.

Wasted, totally wasted resources. Wasting lives, money and time.

This morning, as I was looking at thread titles, I thought this said, "I am so proud of my son, he wrote his senior paper without HEMP!"

and i just learned quite a bit.

Very well done Mom! Yah! Post a picture of the young man please!

Kicked and recommended. :kick:

That's when they were preaching chromosome damage and my argument was coffee could cause more.

I met Tim Leary many years later and he reaffirmed that paper.

Now where is that mandala I was staring at? :)

(that's a great paper!)

Cannabis Sativa (and Indica) is indeed marijuana.

Marijuana (Marihuana) is simply the Mexican term for Cannabis, the reason that the name Marijuana was used when the plant was made illegal was that a great many Americans were familiar with Cannabis and totally unafraid of it so another, foreign sounding, term had to be used in order to scare people with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_(etymology)

Edited to add: The link didn't format correctly on DU, if you put the (etymology) part on the end of the URL with an _ (underscore) between it will take you to a Wiki page on the etymology of the word.

what your intelligent and forward thinking son got on his paper.

I give him an A+

Especially if you don't have to worry about seeds. :)

Or so I've heard. In all seriousness, very nice paper and a good message.