>From verdant@student.umass.edu Mon May 3 19:03:29 1993 Date: 03 May 1993 17:44:27 -0400 From: Sol Lightman To: pauls@css.itd.umich.edu Subject: hemp:UMACRC_requested_file As Clinton walked by me I was able to hand him two copies of the below (in "prettified" hardcopy format of course--e-mail me if you'd like a PostScript version) while saying "Please read this." with a LOT of emphasis. I thought he might go by too fast or that some SS guy would not let me pass the papers, but there was no resistance, he looked directly at me after I spoke to him and said, "I will." with, what I felt, was straightforward honesty. Of course, this is one of the biziest and most sought after people on the planet. Pretty unlikely he'll read this himself, but you just never know. I must admit it was pretty exciting. Now I've got to start sending copies to my lengthy list of military conversion/activist/peace/enviromental/ officialdom/elected-types/groups and press them with the same questions I ask you all below to ask every- one/group you know/connect with. --ratitor HEMP, THE PLANT THAT CAN SAVE MOTHER EARTH Locate the blind spot in the culture--the place where the culture isn't looking, because it dare not--because if it were to look there, its previous values would dissolve. --Terence McKenna The following is a transcript of a remarkable commentary on hemp, the world's premiere renewable natural resource, by journalist and commentator Hugh Downs speaking for ABC News radio out of New York in November, 1990. Mr. Downs did his homework exceedingly well for this report--he succeeded in including a great deal of useful information in the short timespan of only nine minutes, forty seconds. Seeking to leverage off the clarity of his research, nine footnotes have been added to the text to provide people with a cross-section of the reference material substantiating the facts Mr. Downs articulates. It is hoped people will be motivated and inspired by the information below, to understand how, since the mid-thirties, this society has been reduced to an infantile status in which the awareness has been lost of how exceedingly useful a natural resource the vegetable hemp is, and, how simply changing the way we have been taught to think about this plant, will enable us to clear away the stagnant, constipated, tired and inappropriate thinking that has inhibited some of the very best qualities of human innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness for more than half a century. As the documentation below explains, the uses of cannabis hemp are as varied and multi-faceted as any of us could ever possibly imagine or hope for. This plant can indeed provide us solutions to MANY of the critical imbalances we as an industrial culture have created in the brief span of the past few hundred years. From the production of all forms of paper products, to plastics as tough as steel, to fuel that can replace all oil, gas, coal and nuclear power consumption, to a rich source of vegetable oil and protein, to all manner and form of fabrics and textiles, to medicinal products for the management of pain, chronic neurologic diseases, convulsive disorders, migraine headache, anorexia, mental illness, and bacterial infections, to 100% non-toxic paints and varnishes, to lubricants, to building materials that can replace dry wall and plywood, to carpets, rope, laces, sails, . . . the list rolls on and on and on. And the only thing that prevents us from once again employing this raw material for tens of thousands of useful and non-polluting products to replace the dirty, limited and expensive non-renewables derived from toxic petro-chemicals, is the way we have learned to think about hemp: "You can't use it--it's illegal." "Even if we could save the planet's life systems by changing that?" "That's right." This is the kind of frozen, devolutionary thinking we must expand our conscious awareness out beyond to once again encompass the capacity for hopes and dreams of the kind of world we want to, and can, provide our great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren with. Trust your own infinite intelligence and creativity. There is NO LIMIT to what we as sentient beings can do to change the world for the betterment of all. All we need to appreciate is that any and all change starts with how we consider or think about the world. We can stop cutting down ALL trees used for making paper and fuel; stop extracting and consuming petroleum we continue to spill into the oceans, as well as be partially consumed and end up forever in the atmosphere destroying the protective screen from the sun that has existed for millions of years; we can stop burning coal and begin to end the recently created phenomenon of acid rain; we can stop unearthing uranium and transmuting it into the most deadly man-made substance known to human beings. None of these limited, dirty and expensive forms of energy sources need be relied on anymore. The choice and decision is all of ours to make and implement. Teach yourselves and all you know or meet about this lifeline to our collective future. Send copies of this post to elected/appointed officials asking them why cannabis hemp/marijuana prohibition laws are allowed to stand when this premier natural resource can truly save the planet, ourselves and all future generations of all life on Mother Earth. The "leaders" will eventually have to follow and change course from the current going `alternative' of "lemming death." (As always PostScript versions of this file are available for any wanting "prettified" hardcopy.) -- ratitor dave@sgi.com version 1.1 . . . the most important thing is not to be dualistic. Our "original mind" includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few. -- Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind," Weatherhill, 1985, p. 21. transcript of Hugh Downs commentary on hemp, for ABC News, NY, 11/90: ____________________________________________________________________________ Voters in the state of Alaska recently made marijuana illegal again for the first time in 15 years. If Alaska turns out to be like the other 49 states, the law will do little to curb use or production. Even the drug czar himself, William Bennett, has abandoned the drug war now that his "test case" of Washington, D.C., continues to see rising crime figures connected with the drug industry. Despite the legal trend against marijuana, many Americans continue to buck the trend. Some pro-marijuana organizations in fact tell us that marijuana, also known as hemp, could, as a raw material, save the U.S. economy. That's some statment. Not by smoking it--that's a minor issue. Would you believe that marijuana could replace most oil and energy needs? That marijuana could revolutionize the textile industry and stop foreign imports? Those are the claims. Some people think marijuana, or hemp, may be the epidome of yankee ingenuity. Mr. Jack Herer, for example, is the national director and founder of an organization called HEMP (that's an acronym for "Help End Marijuana Prohibition") located in Van Nuys, California. Mr. Herer is the author of a remarkable little book called, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," wherein, not surprisingly, Mr. Herer urges the repeal of marijuana prohibition. Mr. Herer is not alone. Throughout the war on drugs, several organizations have consistently urged the legalization of marijuana. "High Times" magazine for example, The National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws or NORML for short, and an organization called BACH--the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp. But the reason the pro-marijuana lobby want marijuana legal has little to do with getting high, and a great deal to do with fighting oil giants like Saddam Hussein, Exxon and Iran. The pro-marijuana groups claim that hemp is such a versatile raw material, that its products not only compete with petroleum, but with coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, pharmaceutical, timber and textile companies.[1] It is estimated that methane and methanol production alone from hemp grown as biomass could replace 90% of the world's energy needs.[2] If they are right, this is not good news for oil interests and could account for the continuation of marijuana prohibition. The claim is that the threat hemp posed to natural resource companies back in the thirties accounts for its original ban. At one time marijuana seemed to have a promising future as a cornerstone of industry. When Rudolph Diesel produced his famous engine in 1896, he assumed that the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Rudolph Diesel, like most engineers then, believed vegetable fuels were superior to petroleum. Hemp is the most efficient vegetable. In the 1930s the Ford Motor Company also saw a future in biomass fuels. Ford operated a successful biomass conversion plant, that included hemp, at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl-acetate and creosote. All fundamental ingredients for modern industry and now supplied by oil-related industries.[2] The difference is that the vegetable source is renewable, cheap and clean, and the petroleum or coal sources are limited, expensive and dirty. By volume, 30% of the hemp seed contains oil suitable for high-grade diesel fuel as well as aircraft engine and precision machine oil. Henry Ford's experiments with methanol promised cheap, readily renewable fuel. And if you think methanol means compromise, you should know that many modern race cars run on methanol. About the time Ford was making biomass methanol, a mechanical device[3] to strip the outer fibers of the hemp plant appeared on the market. These machines could turn hemp into paper and fabrics[4] quickly and cheaply. Hemp paper is superior to wood paper. The first two drafts of the U.S. constitution were written on hemp paper. The final draft is on animal skin. Hemp paper contains no dioxin, or other toxic residue, and a single acre of hemp can produce the same amount of paper as four acres of trees.[5] The trees take 20 years to harvest and hemp takes a single season. In warm climates hemp can be harvested two even three times a year. It also grows in bad soil and restores the nutrients. Hemp fiber-stripping machines were bad news to the Hearst paper manufacturing division, and a host of other natural resource firms. Coincidentally, the DuPont Chemical Company had, in 1937, been granted a patent on a sulfuric acid process to make paper from wood pulp. At the time DuPont predicted their sulfuric acid process would account for 80% of their business for the next 50 years. Hemp, once the mainstay of American agriculture, became a threat to a handful of corporate giants. To stifle the commercial threat that hemp posed to timber interests, William Randolph Hearst began referring to hemp in his newspapers, by its Spanish name, "marijuana." This did two things: it associated the plant with Mexicans and played on racist fears, and it misled the public into thinking that marijuana and hemp were different plants. Nobody was afraid of hemp--it had been cultivated and processed into usable goods, and consumed as medicine, and burned in oil lamps, for hundreds of years. But after a campaign to discredit hemp in the Hearst newspapers, Americans became afraid of something called marijuana. By 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed which marked the beginning of the end of the hemp industry. In 1938, "Popular Mechanics" ran an article about marijuana called, "New Billion Dollar Crop."[6] It was the first time the words "billion dollar" were used to describe a U.S. agricultural product. "Popular Mechanics" said, . . . a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. . . . The machine . . . is designed for removing the fiber- bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human labor. Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products ranging from rope, to fine laces, and the woody "hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed, contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products ranging from dynamite to cellophane. Well since the "Popular Mechanics" article appeared over half a century ago, many more applications have come to light. Back in 1935, more than 58,000 tons of marijuana seed were used just to make paint and varnish (all non-toxic, by the way). When marijuana was banned, these safe paints and varnishes were replaced by paints made with toxic petro-chemicals. In the 1930s no one knew about poisoned rivers or deadly land-fills or children dying from chemicals in house paint. People did know something about hemp back then, because the plant and its products were so common. All ships lines were made from hemp and much of the sail canvas. (In fact the word "canvas" is the Dutch pronunciation of the Greek word for hemp, "cannabis.") All ropes, fozzers (sp?) and lines aboard ship, all rigging, nets, flags and pennants were also made from marijuana stalks. And so were all charts, logs and bibles. Today many of these items are made, in whole or in part, with synthetic petro-chemicals and wood. All oil lamps used to burn hemp- seed oil until the whale oil edged it out of first place in the mid- nineteenth century. And then, when all the whales were dead, lamplights were fueled by petroleum, and coal, and recently radioactive energy.[7] This may be hard to believe in the middle of a war on drugs, but the first law concerning marijuana in the colonies at Jamestown in 1619, ordered farmers to grow Indian hemp. Massachussetts passed a compulsory grow law in 1631. Connecticut followed in 1632. The Chesapeake colonies ordered their farmers, by law, to grow marijuana in the mid-eighteenth century. Names like Hempstead or Hemphill dot the American landscape and reflect areas of intense marijuana cultivation. During World War II, domestic hemp production became crucial when the Japanese cut off Asian supplies to the U.S. American farmers (and even their sons), who grew marijuana, were exempt from military duty during World War II. A 1942 U.S. Department of Agriculture film called "Hemp For Victory" extolled the agricultural might of marijuana and called for hundreds of thousands of acres to be planted.[8] Despite a rather vigorous drug crackdown, 4-H clubs were asked by the government to grow marijuana for seed supply. Ironically, war plunged the government into a sober reality about marijuana and that is that it's very valuable. In today's anti-drug climate, people don't want to hear about the commercial potential of marijuana. The reason is that the flowering top of a female hemp plant contains a drug. But from 1842 through the 1890s a powerful concentrated extract of marijuana was the second most prescribed drug in the United States. In all that time the medical literature didn't list any of the ill effects claimed by today's drug warriors.[9] Today, there are anywhere from 25 to 30 million Americans who smoke marijuana regularly. As an industry, marijuana clears well more than $4 billion a year. [This must have been a misreading of his notes--for 1990, the minimum figure would have been at least $40 billion for the entire nation. (phone interview with Jack Herer)] Obviously, as an illegal business, none of that money goes to taxes. But the modern marijuana trade only sells one product, a drug. Hemp could be worth considerably more than $4 [$40] billion a year, if it were legally supplying the 50,000 safe products the proponents claim it can. If hemp could supply the energy needs of the United States, its value would be inestimable. Now that the drug czar is in final retreat, America has an opportunity to, once and for all, say farewell to the Exxon Valdez, Saddam Hussein and a prohibitively expensive brinkmanship in the desert sands of Saudi Arabia. This is Hugh Downs, ABC News, New York. Humanity has been held to a limited and distorted view of itself, from its interpretation of the most intimate emotions to its grandest visions of human possibilities, by virtue of its subordination of women. Until recently, "mankind's" understandings have been the only understandings generally available to us. As other perceptions arise--precisely those perceptions that men, because of their dominant position could not perceive--the total vision of human possibilities enlarges and is transformed. -- Jean Baker Miller, "Toward a New Psychology of Women" (1976) ----- Footnotes: [1] If you are unfamiliar with the facts about hemp, the world's premier renewable natural resource, a great place to start is Jack Herer's information-compressed, "Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes," (c) 1985, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, available in many bookstores, or from H.E.M.P., 5632 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 210, Van Nuys, CA 91401. From the Introduction: The purpose of this book is to revive the authoritative historical, social and economic perspective needed to ensure comprehensive legal reforms, abolish cannabis hemp/marijuana prohibition laws, and save the Earth's life systems. Another book going to press at this time is "Hemp: Lifeline To The Future, Unexpected Answers To Our Environment And Economic Crises," written by Chris Conrad, the founder and international director of BACH, the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp, Box 71093, LA, CA 90071-0093, 213/288-4152. NEW BILLION-DOLLAR CROP Popular Mechanics February, 1938 AMERICAN farmers are promised a new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all because a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. It is hemp, a crop that will not compete with other American products. Instead, it will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and peasant labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers throughout the land. The machine which makes this possible is designed for removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human labor. Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody "hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane. Machines now in service in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and other states are producing fiber at a manufacturing cost of half a cent a pound, and are finding a profitable market for the rest of the stalk. Machine operators are making a good profit in competition with coolie-produced foreign fiber while paying farmers fifteen dollars a ton for hemp as it comes from the field. From the farmers' point of view, hemp is an easy crop to grow and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any land that will grow corn, wheat, or oats. It has a short growing season, so that it can be planted after other crops are in. It can be grown in any state of the union. The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year's crop. The dense shock of leaves, eight to twelve feet above the ground, chokes out weeds. Two successive crops are enough to reclaim land that has been abandoned because of Canadian thistles or quack grass. Under old methods, hemp was cut and allowed to lie in the fields for weeks until it "retted" enough so the fibers could be pulled off by hand. Retting is simply rotting as a result of dew, rain and bacterial action. Machines were developed to separate the fibers mechanically after retting was complete, but the cost was high, the loss of fiber great, and the quality of fiber comparatively low. With the new machine, known as a decorticator, hemp is cut with a slightly modified grain binder. It is delivered to the machine where an automatic chain conveyor feeds it to the breaking arms at the rate of two or three tons per hour. The hurds are broken into fine pieces which drop into the hopper, from where they are delivered by blower to a baler or to truck or freight car for loose shipment. The fiber comes from the other end of the machine, ready for baling. From this point on almost anything can happen. The raw fiber can be used to produce strong twine or rope, woven into burlap, used for carpet warp or linoleum backing or it may be bleached and refined, with resinous by-products of high commercial value. It can, in fact, be used to replace the foreign fibers which now flood our markets. Thousands of tons of hemp hurds are used every year by one large powder company for the manufacture of dynamite and TNT. A large paper company, which has been paying more than a million dollars a year in duties on foreign-made cigarette papers, now is manufacturing these papers from American hemp grown in Minnesota. A new factory in Illinois is producing fine bond papers from hemp. The natural materials in hemp make it an economical source of pulp for any grade of paper manufactured, and the high percentage of alpha cellulose promises an unlimited supply of raw material for the thousands of cellulose products our chemists have developed. It is generally believed that all linen is produced from flax. Actually, the majority comes from hemp--authorities estimate that more than half of our imported linen fabrics are manufactured from hemp fiber. Another misconception is that burlap is made from hemp. Actually, its source is usually jute, and practically all of the burlap we use is woven by laborers in India who receive only four cents a day. Binder twine is usually made from sisal which comes from Yucatan and East Africa. All of these products, now imported, can be produced from home- grown hemp. Fish nets, bow strings, canvas, strong rope, overalls, damask tablecloths, fine linen garments, towels, bed linen and thousands of other everyday items can be grown on American farms. Our imports of foreign fabrics and fibers average about $200,000,000 per year; in raw fibers alone we imported over $50,000,000 in the first six months of 1937. All of this income can be made available for Americans. The paper industry offers even greater possibilities. As an industry it amounts to over $1,000,000,000 a year, and of that eighty per cent is imported. But hemp will produce every grade of paper, and government figures estimate that 10,000 acres devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average pulp land. One obstacle in the onward march of hemp is the reluctance of farmers to try new crops. The problem is complicated by the need for proper equipment a reasonable distance from the farm. The machine cannot be operated profitably unless there is enough acreage within driving range and farmers cannot find a profitable market unless there is machinery to handle the crop. Another obstacle is that the blossom of the female hemp plant contains marijuana, a narcotic, and it is impossible to grow hemp without producing the blossom. Federal regulations now being drawn up require registration of hemp growers, and tentative proposals for preventing narcotic production are rather stringent. However, the connection of hemp as a crop and marijuana seems to be exaggerated. The drug is usually produced from wild hemp or locoweed which can be found on vacant lots and along railroad tracks in every state. If federal regulations can be drawn to protect the public without preventing the legitimate culture of hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry. "Popular Mechanics Magazine" can furnish the name and address of the maker of, or dealer in, any article described in its pages. If you wish this information, write to the Bureau of Information, inclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope. * * * * * Pinch Hitters for Defense Popular Mechanics December, 1941 Over in England it's saccharine for sugar; on the continent it's charcoal "gasogenes" in the rumble seat instead of gasoline in the tank. Here in America there's plenty of sugar, plenty of gasoline. Yet there's an industrial revolution in progress just the same, a revolution in materials that will affect every home. After twelve years of research, the Ford Motor Company has completed an experimental automobile with a plastic body. Although its design takes advantage of the properties of plastics, the streamline car does not differ greatly in appearance from its steel counterpart. The only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame on which are mounted 14 plastic panels, 3/16 inch thick. Composed of a mixture of farm crops and synthetic chemicals, the plastic is reported to withstand a blow 10 times as great as steel without denting. Even the windows and windshield are of plastic. The total weight of the plastic car is about 2,000 pounds, compared with 3,000 pounds for a steel automobile of the same size. Although no hint has been given as to when plastic cars may go into production, the experimental model is pictured as a step toward materialization of Henry Ford's belief that some day he would "grow automobiles from the soil." When Henry Ford recently unveiled his plastic car, result of 12 years of research, he gave the world a glimpse of the automobilie of tomorrow, its tough panels molded under hydraulic pressure of 1,500 pounds per square inch from a recipe that calls for 70 percent of cellulose fibers from wheat straw, hemp and sisal plus 30 percent resin binder. The only steel in the car is its tubular welded frame. The plastic car weighs a ton, 1,000 pounds lighter than a comparable steel car. Manufacturers are already taking a low-priced plastic car to test the public's taste by 1943. * * * * * 6. Paints and Varnishes For thousands of years, virtually all good paints and varnishes were made with hemp seed oil and/or linseed oil. For instance, in 1935 alone, 116 million pounds (58,000 tons) [National Institute of Oilseed Products congressional testimony *against* the 1937 Marijuana Transfer Tax Law] of hemp seed were used in America just for paint and varnish. As a comparison, consider that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), along with all America's state and local police agencies, claim to have seized for all of 1988, 651.5 tons of American-grown marijuana--seed, plant, root, dirt clump and all.[National Narcotics Intelligence Consumer's Committee, NNICC Report, 1988 DEA office relase, El Paso, TX, April, 1989.] The hemp drying oil business went principally to DuPont petro-chemicals. [Sloman, Larry, "Reefer Madness," Grove Press, New York, NY, 1979, pg. 72.] Congress and the Treasury Department were assured through secret testimony given by DuPont in 1935-37 directly to Herman Oliphant, Chief Counsel for the Treasury Dept., that hemp seed oil could be replaced with synthetic petro-chemical oils made principally by DuPont. Oliphant was solely responsible for drafting the Marijuana Tax Act that was submitted to Congress.[Bonnie, Richard and Whitebread, Charles, "The Marijuana Conviction," Univ. of Virginia Press, 1974.] (See complete story in Chapter 4, "The Last Days of Legal Cannabis.") -- Herer, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," 1991 edition, p. 8. * * * * * 11. Building Materials And Housing Because one acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees (Dewey & Merrill, "Bulletin #404," U.S. Dept. of Ag., 1916), hemp is the perfect material to replace trees for pressed board, particle board and cor concrete construction molds. Practical, inexpensive construction material which is fire resistant, with excellent thermal and sound insulating qualities, can be made using a process called Environcore.(c) This process, developed by Mansion Industries, applies heat and compression to agricultural fiber to create strong construction paneling, replacing dry wall and plywood. (See Appendix, p. 172. [Vincent H. Miller, "A Grass House In Your Future?," "Freedom Network News," June/July 1989]) Hemp has been used throughout history for carpet backing. Hemp fiber has potential in the manufacture of strong, rot resistant carpeting--eliminating the poisonous fumes of burning synthetic materials in a house or commercial fire, along with allergic reactions associated with new synthetic carpeting. Plastic plumbing pipe (PVC pipes) can be manufactured using renewable hemp cellulose as the chemical feedstocks, replacing non- renewable petroleum-based chemical feedstocks. So we can envision a house of the future built, plumbed, painted and furnished with the world's num,ber one renewable resource--hemp. -- Herer, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," 1991 edition, p. 10. [7] Most people think with the Cold War over, nuclear weapons, and, the nuclear industry as a whole, will simply become a thing of the past. This is NOT the perspective of the people who run the nuclear weapons labs--the heart of the nuclear industry. DOE plans for creating an "assembly line" for international commerce in enriched uranium for foreign atomic power plants are swinging into high gear at the same time the justification for the existence of the nuclear establishment over the past 50 years--communism--is no more. The following Fact Sheet by the Western States Legal Foundation is only one indicator of what the DOE and the Nuclear Weapons Complex intend to do to create a "thriving" international commerce in enriched high-level radioactive materials, the most long-lived biologically toxic matter existent on earth. And, as has consistently happened throughout the history of the development of nuclear technology in the United States, all this is being done in secret without ANY meaningful public debate. Who's interests are truly being served here? Teaching all people in the industrial nations how hemp IS our lifeline to the future--how it IS the renewable, cheap, and clean vegetable source to meet humanity's energy needs instead of the astronomically expensive and lethally polluting source that nuclear technology is--this is what we must be about. And when people respond by saying, "Yes, but what are you going to use if we don't further develop and employ nuclear?--Petroleum and coal are too dirty and solar isn't technologically feasible yet." That's when you respond by explaining why alcohol prohibition of the 1920s was rescinded by FDR in the 30s, why hemp prohibition must be rescinded now, and how hemp is THE world's premier renewable natural resource that is only waiting for us to re-exercise our own best intelligence to employ it to solve our energy "crisis". [8] Transcript of the original 1942 United States Department of Agriculture Film, "Hemp for Victory" extolling some of the many uses of this ancient plant and premier world resource: HEMP FOR VICTORY -- 1942 -- Reprinted from "High Times," October 1989 Long ago when these ancient Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850 all the ships that sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable. A 44-gun frigate like our cherished Old Ironsides took over 60 tons of hemp for rigging, including an anchor cable 25 inches in circumference. The Conestoga wagons and prairie schooners of pioneer days were covered with hemp canvas. Indeed the very word canvas comes from the Arabic word for hemp. In those days hemp was an important crop in Kentucky and Missouri. Then came cheaper imported fibers for cordage, like jute, sisal and Manila hemp, and the culture of hemp in America declined. But now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese, and shipment of jute from India curtailed, American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our Industry. In 1942, patriotic farmers at the government's request planted 36,000 acres of seed hemp, an increase of several thousand percent. The goal for 1943 is 50,000 acres of seed hemp. In Kentucky much of the seed hemp acreage is on river bottom land such as this. Some of these fields are inaccessible except by boat. Thus plans are afoot for a great expansion of a hemp industry as a part of the war program. This film is designed to tell farmers how to handle this ancient crop now little known outside Kentucky and Wisconsin. This is hemp seed. Be careful how you use it. For to grow hemp legally you must have a federal registration and tax stamp. This is provided for in your contract. Ask your county agent about it. Don't forget. Hemp demands a rich, well-drained soil such as is found here in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky or in central Wisconsin. It must be loose and rich in organic matter. Poor soils won't do. Soil that will grow good corn will usually grow hemp. Hemp is not hard on the soil. In Kentucky it has been grown for several years on the same ground, though this practice is not recommended. A dense and shady crop, hemp tends to choke out weeds. Here's a Canada thistle that couldn't stand the competition, dead as a dodo. Thus hemp leaves the ground in good condition for the following crop. For fiber, hemp should be sewn closely, the closer the rows, the better. These rows are spaced about four inches. This hemp has been broadcast. Either way it should be sewn thick enough to grow a slender stalk. Here's an ideal stand: the right height to be harvested easily, thick enough to grow slender stalks that are easy to cut and process. Stalks like these here on the left wield the most fiber and the best. Those on the right are too coarse and woody. For seed, hemp is planted in hills like corn. Sometimes by hand. Hemp is a dioecious plant. The female flower is inconspicuous. But the male flower is easily spotted. In seed production after the pollen has been shed, these male plants are cut out. These are the seeds on a female plant. Hemp for fiber is ready to harvest when the pollen is shedding and the leaves are falling. In Kentucky, hemp harvest comes in August. Here the old standby has been the self-rake reaper, which has been used for a generation or more. Hemp grows so luxuriantly in Kentucky that harvesting is sometimes difficult, which may account for the popularity of the self-rake with its lateral stroke. A modified rice binder has been used to some extent. This machine works well on average hemp. Recently, the improved hemp harvester, used for many years in Wisconsin, has been introduced in Kentucky. This machine spreads the hemp in a continuous swath. It is a far cry from this fast and efficient modern harvester, that doesn't stall in the heaviest hemp. In Kentucky, hand cutting is practicing in opening fields for the machine. In Kentucky, hemp is shucked as soon as safe, after cutting, to be spread out for retting later in the fall. In Wisconsin, hemp is harvested in September. Here the hemp harvester with automatic spreader is standard equipment. Note how smoothly the rotating apron lays the swaths preparatory to retting. Here it is a common and essential practice to leave headlands around hemp fields. These strips may be planted with other crops, preferably small grain. Thus the harvester has room to make its first round without preparatory hand cutting. The other machine is running over corn stubble. When the cutter bar is much shorter than the hemp is tall, overlapping occurs. Not so good for retting. The standard cut is eight to nine feet. The length of time hemp is left on the ground to ret depends on the weather. The swaths must be turned to get a uniform ret. When the woody core breaks away readily like this, the hemp is about ready to pick up and bind into bundles. Well-retted hemp is light to dark grey. The fiber tends to pull away from the stalks. The presence of stalks in the bough-string stage indicates that retting is well underway. When hemp is short or tangled or when the ground is too wet for machines, it's bound by hand. A wooden bucket is used. Twine will do for tying, but the hemp itself makes a good band. When conditions are favorable, the pickup binder is commonly used. The swaths should lie smooth and even with the stalks parallel. The picker won't work well in tangled hemp. After binding, hemp is shucked as soon as possible to stop further retting. In 1942, 14,000 acres of fiber hemp were harvested in the United States. The goal for the old standby cordage fiber, is staging a strong comeback. This is Kentucky hemp going into the dryer over mill at Versailles. In the old days braking was done by hand. One of the hardest jobs known to man. Now the power braker makes quick work of it. Spinning American hemp into rope yarn or twine in the old Kentucky river mill at Frankfort, Kentucky. Another pioneer plant that has been making cordage for more than a century. All such plants will presently be turning out products spun from American-grown hemp: twine of various kinds for tying and upholster's work; rope for marine rigging and towing; for hay forks, derricks, and heavy duty tackle; light duty firehose; thread for shoes for millions of American soldiers; and parachute webbing for our paratroopers. As for the United States Navy, every battleship requires 34,000 feet of rope. Here in the Boston Navy Yard, where cables for frigates were made long ago, crews are now working night and day making cordage for the fleet. In the old days rope yarn was spun by hand. The rope yarn feeds through holes in an iron plate. This is Manila hemp from the Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves. When it is gone, American hemp will go on duty again: hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory. _____________________________________________________________________________ A STRATEGY TO DEREGULATE AMERICAN HEMP In 1937, a Special Interest Group Got the Cannabis Industry Banned by Attacking "Marijuana" While Concealing the Many Valuable Uses of the Plant. Today, a Public Interest Group, BACH, Intends to Deregulate Cannabis by Promoting "Hemp" and Showing How Everyone Benefits From This Reform. We start with a natural core constituency: Civil libertarians, Rock-n- Roll/Rasta/Jazz music fans, paraphernalia makers and users, medical users, sympathetic media and officials, Vietnam vets, entrepreneurs, the art community and the "Sixties Generation." We can rapidly win over farmers, economists, environmentalists, holistic/natural medicine advocates, the unemployed, hunger relief projects, tax reformers and free market/anti-Big Government forces and others. THE FARMING COMMUNITY is our linchpin, linking the Northwest, Midwest and South. It is in financial trouble and will be the first major beneficiary of hemp commerce. TEXTILE, FUEL, PAPER INDUSTRIES AND MARKETS, MEDICAL AND RECREATIONAL USERS are concentrated in coastal and urbanized population centers. SHIPPING, INVESTORS, COMMODITIES MARKETS AND BANKS link these regions, create a role for the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in deregulating hemp and add to the financial pressure for reform. We anticipate strong resistance in pharmaceuticals and plastics, where entrenched forces stand to lose a share of the market when hemp products come into common use. But this pressure will soon be offset by the support of hemp industry consumers, investors and workers who benefit from new spin-off industries. CAMPAIGN SUMMARY PHASE ONE: ORGANIZATION: Develop and target literature and lobby campaigns, alert our consituency, explain the economic and social significance of this reform to potential allies and win "celebrity" endorsements. We need to demonstrate an interstate supply and demand network to establish the economic vitality of hemp commerce, thereby drawing financial and political support and setting the stage for ICC intervention against state laws that impede trade. PHASE TWO: PUBLIC RELATIONS: Launch a program of speaking engagements and advertisments (PSAs and paid) to redefine the hemp debate, sway the general public and create a climate of support based on people's self-interest. Our goal is to disassociate hemp from "drugs" and align it with jobs, prosperity and traditional American self-sufficiency. PHASE THREE: DEREGULATION: Introduce non-threatening deregulation legislation, support initiatives/referenda, set up test cases to pursue legalization through the courts and use business pressure to win ICC action. BACH Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp P.O. Box 71903, Los Angeles, CA 90071-0093 310/288-4152 _____________________________________________________________________________ -- "We are able to inform you that ancient grandfathers, the great stands of cedar and redwoods, are in danger of extinction by chainsaws. The maple, chief of trees, is dying from the top down, as was prophesied by Ganiodaiio, Handsome Lake, in 1799. Great rivers and streams are filled with chemicals and filth, and these great veins of life are being used as sewers. "We were told the female is sacred and carries the gift of life as our Mother Earth, the family is the center of our life and that we must build our communities with life and respect for one another. "We were told the Creator loves children the most, and we can tell the state of affairs of the nation by how the children are being treated. "When we return to Onondaga, we will begin our Great Midwinter ceremonies. We will tie the past year in a bundle and give thanks once again for another year on this earth. "This was given to us, and we have despoiled and polluted it. If we are to survive, dear friends and colleagues, we must clean it up now or suffer its consequences. . . . But Lyons also remembered turning to Leon Shenandoah, chief of the Grand Council of the Six Nations Confederacy. "My chief, he doesn't say much, but I asked and he said, `They're not taking it serious enough. I don't think they realize what's going to happen to them. What's coming.' He would have liked to see less posturing. We have our prophecies. We know what is coming down the road.'" -- Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons, on the Global Forum he helped organize on Environment and Development for Survival held in Moscow, January 15 to 19, 1990. The following article appeared in British journal New Scientist, November 13, 1980. It's pretty long, but there are some great facts in it. The initial Anslinger quote actually appeared under a photo later in the article. Reprinted without permission. Typos are mine. ----------------------------- Begin Article ----------------------------- NO MARIHUANA: PLENTY OF HEMP French farmers are doing well out of the growing market for hemp fibres. British farmers could face 14 years in jail if they followed suit. by Tim Malyon and Anthony Henman "Now this hemp is the finest fibre known to mankind, my God, if you ever have a shirt made out of it, your grandchildren would never wear it out. You take Polish families. We used to see marijuana in the yards of Polish families. We'd go in and start to tear it up and the man came out with his shotgun, yelling: 'These are my clothes for next winter.'" -- Harry J. Anslinger, former Commissioner, US Federal Bureau of Narcotics Eight thousand hectares of EEC-subsidised cannabis growing in France -- it seemed inconceivable. Our source of information, however, left little doubt as to its accuracy. The neat scientific pamphlets of the Federation Nationale des Producteurs de Chanvre (FNPC) could hardly be accused of pandering to the pot culture. Anxious to confirm the fact at first hand, we hopped on the early morning train out of Paris's Gare Montparnasse, and two hours later were met in Le Mans by the research officer of the FNPC. It was early in September, just as the harvest was getting into full swing. With a justified pride in his achievement, our contact showed us out to the experimental fields, where acre upon acre of the French type of monoecious hemp(with male and female flowers on the same plant) vied with the trial introductions of five-metre dioecious plants (only one sex per plant) from Italy, and thick-set Lebanese bushes of the kind normally used for producing hashish. Apart from these latter plants -- a mere dozen or so, grown exclusively for "comparative purposes" -- we were assured that the rest of the crop had been subject to selective breeding which reduced the levels of THC -- the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis -- to virtual insignificance. On collecting a few "female flowering tops" and smoking them in Paris later that same evening, we were forced to concede the truth: French hemp is useless as a drug plant, and the smoking of even large quantities of it succeeded in giving us a mild but irritating headache... Hemp's history in the service to human culture is as long as it is diverse. The Neolithic "Yang Shao" culture of China (4000 BC) is believed to have used the long fibrous strands on the outside of the cannabis stalk for rope and cloth. According to Professor Hui-Lin Li, an economic botanist at the University of Pennsylvania, cannabis seeds, rich in protein, "were considered, along with millet, rice, barley and soybean, as one of the major grains of ancient China". The first paper was made of hempen rags, while the earliest pharmacopoeia in existence, the Pen-ts'ao-Ching, states that "the fruits of hemp...if taken in excess will produce hallucinations [literally seeing devils]. If taken over a long term, it makes one communicate with spirits and lightens one's body." Writing in the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus describes how the Scythians would purge themselves after funerals by inhaling the smoke of hemp seeds thrown onto hot stones. "The Scythians enjoy it so much that they howl with pleasure..." Linguistic evidence indicates that in the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Old Testament the "holy anointing oil" which God directed Moses to make (Exodus 30:23) was composed of myrrh, cinnamon, cannabis and cassia. PRECIOUS PLANTS Up to the middle of the last century France alone was cultivating more than 100,000 hectares, whilst so precious was the plant in Tudor England that Queen Elizabeth I exacted a bounty of 5 gold sovereigns on any farmer who did not cultivate it. The reason for such a penalty was simple: hemp fibre is the strongest vegetable fibre known to man, and can be grown easily and in a single six-month cycle from April to September. Before the introduction of tropical sisals and Manila hemp, it was essential for the rope and canvas (the very word derived from cannabis, according to the OED) used to outfit the Navy. An American commentary on the 1764 Hemp Law governing importation from "His Majesty's colonies into Great Britain" notes the necessity to "render their mother country independent of certain northern powers (mainly the Baltic States) upon whom her former dependence, for a supply of naval stores, has been frequently very precarious". This strategic aspect of cannabis as a basic fibre source reappeared for a short while during the Second World War. In the wake of Pearl Harbour and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, the US was cut off from its supplies of Manila rope and twine, and made considerable efforts to revive its by then sagging hemp trade. Planters' manuals were rapidly reprinted, and the estimated area under cultivation increased from 585 hectares in 1939 to 59,500 hectares in 1943. By 1946 the total had dropped back to 1950 hectares and the industry was on its way to extinction in the industrial West. A number of factors combined to bring about this state of affairs. The production of high-quality hemp fibre is a labour-intensive business. The hemp stalks must be dried in the field, then transported to a "retting pit" where they are left in water for several days to start the process of separating the fibre from the woody core (known as hurds) of the stalk. The retted plants are then taken back to the farm to be dried out in building similar to hop oast houses. The stalks are passed through what is essentially a large mangle separating fibre from broken hurd. The hurds are then shaken out, and after "scutching and heckling" (a process of cleaning and separating individual strands) the long, strong fibres are ready for spinning and weaving. In a pre-industrial society, the bulk of this work could be carried out during the winter when farmers had little to do. With the importation of cheap tropical fibres and the demise of the sail, however, such labour-intensive work no longer proved financially viable. A mechanical hemp "breaker" was introduced in the early 1900s, but it had arrived too late to save a trade which by then was having to cope with international cannabis prohibition and a new image for the plant, from essential crop to assassin of youth. Synthetic textiles also helped hasten hemp's decline, as so, too, did the 19th century introduction of the chemical woodpulping process. As already mentioned, hemp textiles were one essential source for rag paper. After the Second World War, for instance, Robert Fletcher and Sons, the paper manufacturer owned by the Imperial Tobacco Group, bought up large stocks of Nazi concentration camp uniforms made from hemp, which it converted into paper. Since then, Fletchers has stopped using textiles for paper because it is almost impossible to obtain them free of synthetic materials which wreak havoc on the machinery. It now imports raw hemp fibres from France. For, curiously enough, as wood-pulp paper replaced rag paper and hemp textile products disappeared from the market, a new process was being developed in France that used the raw hemp fibres for the production of high-quality, strong papers. The fibre is extremely resilient and ideal for the manufacture of cigarette paper, which must combine high tensile strength with extreme lightness. Fibre for paper is cheaper to produce than fibre for textiles, because it needs neither to be as long nor of such high quality. Paralleling the growth in the consumption of illicit, high-THC forms of cannabis, the new hemp cigarette paper industry was launched in the early 1960s in France, and established its present prominence in the halcyon years between 1967 and 1971. Statistics show a decline in the area of French cannabis sown for textiles from 1084 hectares in 1961 to 147 hectares in 1968, the last year for which official records of this type of cultivation exist. In contrast, areas dedicated to paper production increased from 61 hectares in 1961 to 3181 hectares in 1968, peaking at 10,595 hectares in 1977. The growth of this new market for the pant in France was accompanied by a radical restructuring of the economics of the hemp business. Though a few farmers grow the crop principally for the sake of the subsidies they receive (1405 francs per hectare last year), the bulk of current production comes from mechanised concerns with high levels of productivity. One of the great advantages of hemp for farmers lies in its use as a rotation crop, breaking up the soil with its deep root system and also eliminating weeds, thus leaving the land ready for the direct sowing of a winter wheat crop before the arrival off the first frosts. An enthusiastic response to this potential has brought about the large-scale introduction of hemp into areas where it was not traditionally cultivated, and in Bar-sur-Aube, for instance, 200 km south-east of Paris, a flourishing cooperative has been established to represent the interests of part of the new hemp agribusiness. There, 93 farmers helped finance their own breaking mill which 1978 was processing 2500 hectares of hemp. SREAMLINED MECHANISATION A certain amount of trade secrecy surrounds the exact mechanical processes involved in "breaking" the dried hemp stalks and separating bast fibre -- the phloem fibres, most suitable for paper production -- >from the woody hurds. The director of the Bar-sur-Aube cooperative politely refused us saying that as he sold 20 per cent of his product to England, he did not wish to encourage "English competition". The De Mauduit mill likewise refused to receive us, even though the FNPC intervened in our behalf. Their reticence is understandable. It is streamlined mechanisation in the breaking mills which has made the production of crude bast fibre for paper much more cost-effective when undertaken on a large industrial scale. Not surprisingly this new system has led to an ever-increasing centralisation of the hemp business. Various small mills were involved in the early 1960s, but in the past decade the field has narrowed to two major concerns, besides the Bar-sur-Aube cooperative. One is the relatively traditional Job cigarette paper company in Toulouse, and the other the giant De Mauduit factory in Quimperle, which has prevailed over all its competitors in the main hemp-growing areas of central and north-eastern France. Its aggressive business acumen -- De Mauduit is actually a subsidiary of the US paper multinational Kimberly Clark who makes Kleenex tissues -- is based upon a fine understanding of the profitability of the trade: French farmers receive 435 francs per tonne for the dried hemp stalks and De Mauduit charges 2500 francs for the prepared bast paper fibre, for which the British paper maker ends up paying L650 per tonne. De Mauduit's treated paper fibre, hemp pulp board, costs an astonishing 6500 francs per tonne. Since the break mills have a virtually monopoly, the FNPC in Le Mans is looking for ways of diversifying the market for the hemp its members produce. Research is being undertaken into the possibility of including a proportion of hemp in various courser grades of paper, including wrapping paper, as a means of increasing strength. Some printing paper manufacturers, including the company that produces the glossy pages of Paris Match, are considering introducing a proportion of hemp into their paper pulp. So far the only indication that British companies other than Robert Fletcher and Sons are actively researching hemp's paper potential comes from the Manchester University's Department of Paper Science, which refused to divulge information on recent work in this area because of what information it had was a "trade secret". Further potential for hemp in paper manufacture involves utilising the plant's woody core, the hurds. While the average fibre yield per hectare is approximately 185 kg, fully two-and-a-half tonnes of hurds are produced from the same area. These are now being sold for animal bedding and for producing building boards with good sound-proofing properties. As far back as 1916, however, the US Department of Agriculture carried out a number of semi-commercial tests on the use of hurds for paper production and concluded: "After several trials, under conditions of treatment and manufacture which are regarded as favourable in comparison with those used with wood pulp, paper was produced which received very favourable comment both from investigators and from the trade and which according to official tests would be classed as No. 1 machine finish printing paper." Not only could hemp hurds compete with wood pulp on cost and quality, but they were also found to be far more economical in terms of land use. "Every tract of of 10,000 acres which is devoted to hemp raising year by year is equivalent to a sustained pulp-producing capacity of 40,500 acres of average pulp-wood lands." Despite a 1977 Italian study which found that this usage remained commercially viable, paper companies are apparently disregarding the potential for hurds, even though paper production from hurds is much less polluting than from wood pulp. Hemp hurds contain on average 4 per cent lignin, as opposed to 18-30 per cent in wood, and it is the effluent resulting from washing out the lignin that causes the most pollution in the chemical pulping process. Some thought is now going into researching non-paper applications for hemp products. At present seeds (farmers receive 10 francs per kg; average yield is 50 kg/ha) have a limited use, being sold mainly as animal feed, bird food and anglers' bait. However, cannabis seeds contain 30-45 per cent high protein oil, which is edible, or may be used in future in paint production. The French hemp industry is of course entirely disregarding cannabis' textile potential, despite the fact that in Brittany some small farmers still produce hempen sheets and other hard-wearing cloth for their own use. We were informed in France that the production of the high quality fibres required for textiles remains prohibitively costly and that rope and sacking are imported from Eastern Bloc countries where labour costs remain lower. Scottish hemp fibre importers obtain a large percentage of their material from Poland. According to our research, the finest hemp cloth has always been produced by the Chinese and Italians, and Yugoslavia, India and Japan are still producing hemp textiles, the latter in combination with synthetic fibres. What might be the future for revitalised hemp fibre industry in the UK? Certainly, the British paper-makers could not but welcome any attempt to undercut prices they pay for imported hemp, but in order to achieve this, considerable capital must be invested in British breaking mills. However, what is possible of more interest than the now established use of fibre for high quality paper is the future of hemp fibre in textiles. Given careful preparation, high-quality hemp cloth can be produced in Britain that is both comfortable and more durable than any other natural textile. A hemp/wool mix was once widely used in France, being known generically as berlinge. Demand is growing for durable natural fibre products where the public will pay a somewhat higher price for a superior product. Certain clothing manufacturers in the US have expressed an interest in hemp jeans (Levi Strauss's original jeans were made from hempen sailcloth), while the outdoor equipment industry is also returning where possible to natural fibres, and hemp might be ideal in, for instance, specialist mountaineering backpacks. Given the mess in which the British textile industry finds itself, such innovative ideas could well bear fruit, particularly if the technology can be developed from the existing machinery in the linen industry to keep the cost of preparing weaving quality hemp fibre within reasonable limits. All this, of course, presumes a more sensible government attitude to British cultivation laws. (Cannabis stalks and seeds are already legal, and can be safely imported.) While international law governing cannabis cultivation makes a specific exemption for industrial uses, no such exemption exists in British law, and growers must obtain their official, low-THC seed directly from the FNPC, informing the Ministries of Health and Agriculture of their intentions. Such a model could easily be introduced into this country in conformity with the Common Agriculture Policy. Since the rapid expansion of the French industry furnishes proof of profit potential, British farmers might be justifiably annoyed at being threatened with a 14 year jail sentence for growing a plant, generously subsidised by the EEC on the continent, from which their French neighbours are making good money. Or perhaps Her Majesty's government should sue the EEC commissioners for conspiring to aid and abet a criminal offence? ------------------------------ End Article ------------------------------ In the early part of the 1900s the US Farm Bureau had a department for fiber investigations. One report is as follows: In the literature of the fiber producing plants of the world the word hemp appears frequently, applied oftentimes to fibers that are widely distinct from each other. The word is usually employed with a prefix, even when the true hemp is meant, as manila hemp, sisal hemp, Russian hemp, etc. In this article will be considered the hemp plant proper, the Cannabis Sativa of the botanists, which has been so generally cultivated the world over as a cordage fiber that the value of all other fibers as to strength and durability is estimated by it. The Sanskrit name of the plant is bhanga; in Hindostan it is called ganja; the Arab name is kinnub, from which, doubtless, its Latin name cannabis, is derived; in Persia it is known as bung, while in China it is chu ts-ao, and in Japan, asa. Its native home is India and Persia, but it is in general cultivation in many parts of the world, both in temperate and more tropical climes, though only in Russia and Poland in large quantities for export. French hemp is much valued, but the finest quality comes from Italy, and is fine, soft, light colored, and strong. Hemp, though grown throughout India, is little cultivated for its fiber, although Bombay grown hemp "was proved to be superior to Russian." Hemp is largely grown in Japan for the manufacture of cloth. This industry is very old, as prior to the introduction of silk weaving it was the only textile fabric of the country. Its cultivation is an established industry in the United States, Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois being the chief sources of supply, though the culture has extended as far north as Minnesota and as far south as the Mississippi Delta, while California has only recently become interested in its growth. Formerly large areas were devoted to the cultivation of the plant in the United States, and thirty five years ago nearly 40,000 tons of hemp was produced in Kentucky alone, while now the figure has diminished due to imports of Philippine manila and jute. Kentucky hemp is used successfully not only for rigging of vessels and for twines and yarns and bagging, but it is also spun and woven into cloth, just as today it is manufactured into fabrics in portions of Brittany. Soil Selection As in Brittany, so in Kentucky, limestone soils, or the alluvial soils such as are found in the river bottoms, are best adapted to this plant. The culture, therefore, is quite general along the smaller streams of Brittany, where the climate is mild and the atmosphere humid. In Kentucky the best lands only are chosen for hemp, and the most favorable results are obtained where there is an underlying bed of blue limestone. In certain portions of the State, Shelby County for example, it is claimed that a finer and tougher fiber is produced than in other sections, and this is thought to be due to a mixture in the soil of a whitish, oily clay. As a general rule, however, light or dry soils or heavy, tenacious soils are most unfavorable. Hemp is not an exhaustive crop. A recent report states that in Kentucky a grower in virgin soil sown to hemp can be followed with this crop for fifteen to twenty years successively; sown then to small grain and clover, it can be grown every third year, without fertilizers, almost indefinitely. In New York, it is customary to apply barnyard manures as there it is considered essential to put the soil in good fertility to make a successful crop. Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: cklausme@jarthur.claremont.edu (Chris Klausmeier) Subject: ARCHIVE: hemp.1856 Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711 Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1993 00:32:17 GMT /* Written 7:51 pm May 13, 1992 by cdp:mrosing in peg:norml.hemp */ /* ---------- "Enc. Britannica 1856 about hemp" ---------- */ My boss has a copy of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. Eighth Edition." In volume XI is the entry on HEMP. It is so fascinating that it needs to be broadcast to a wider audiance. If anyone gets a chance, send a copy to Herer, I'm sure he'll love it. I have not put in any editorial comments in the main text although I wanted to. Remember while you read this that _Cannabis sativa_ is THE TRUE HEMP. (Underlines surrounding text indicate italics in the original document.) *************************************************************************** THE ENCLCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, OR DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, AND GENERAL LITERATURE. EIGHTH EDITION. WITH EXTENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS AND ADDITIONS; AND NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. VOLUME XI LITTLE, BROWN, AND CO., BOSTON, U.S. MDCCLVI. [The Proprietors of this Work give notice that they reserve the right of Translating it.] (skip to page 311, bottom right to find:) HEMP, a tough fibre yielded by the large annual plant _Cannabis sativa_, of the natural order Cannabinaceae. There are, however, several other fibres known in commerce to which the term is more or less commonly applied. for example - Jute hemp is obtained from _Corchorus capsularis_ and _C. olitorius; Manilla hemp from _Musa textilis_; Brown hemp from _Hibiscus canabinus; Pite or Pita hemp from several species of agave and aloe; Sunn hemp, Madras hemp, brown Bombay hemp and Malabar hemp, from _Crotalaria juncea_; Jubbulpore hemp, from _Crotalaria tenuifolia_, and several others. The true hemp (_Cannabis sativa_) has been recognised as a useful plant from a very early period, although probably not of the same antiquity as flax. Herodotus is the first writer who mentions it (iv. 74), but he speaks of it in a manner which shows it must have been then well-known, for he describes the hempen garments made by the Thracians as being equal to linen (flax cloth) in fineness. Its use for making cordage is noted as early as 200 years B.C. by Moschion, who mentions that a large ship, the "syracusia," built by Hiero II, was rigged with ropes made from hemp brought from the Rhone. The original country of the hemp-plant is not positively known, but it is generally believed to have been the mountainous districts in the extreme north of India, whence it spread westward through Europe, and southward through the peninsula of India. Its cultivation in each direction had in all probability a different object; for it is found to produce under tropical culture an inferior fibre, and a powerfully intoxicating drug, but in cold and temperate climates it yields an abundance of strong fibres in great perfection for textile purposes, and loses its narcotic qualities. The similarity of its name in various languages is a strong indication that it has taken the course here indicated; thus, in the Sanscrit it is called _goni_, _sana_, or _shanapu_; Persic, _canna_; Arabic, _kanneh_ or _kinnub; Greek, _kannabis_; Latin, _cannabis_; Italian, _canapa_; French, _chanvre_ or _chanbre_; Danish, _kamp_ or _kennep_; Lettish and Lithuanian, _kannapes_; Slavonic, _konopi_; Erse, _canaib_; Scaninavian, _hampr_; Swedish, _hampa_; German, _hauf_; Anglo-Saxon, _haenep_; and English, _hemp_. In India other names are applied, indicative of its intoxicating or narcotic powers; thus, according to Dr Royle, it is called the "increaser of pleasure," the "exciter of desire," the "cementer of friendship," the "causer of the reeling gait," the "laughter mover," &c.; and he also suggests that it may have been the _nepenthes_ ("assuager of grief") of Homer, given by Helen to Telemachus. The intoxicating properties of hemp reside in a peculiar resinous extract naturally secreted by the plant when growing in a hot climate. So remarkable is this peculiarity, that botanists until lately insisted upon the hemp of India being a distinct species (_C. indica_). It is now, however, decided that there is really no specific difference, the change being simply climatal. The secretion is deposited by exudation upon the surface of the leaves, the slender branches, and the flowers. According to Dr O'Shaughnessy, it is collected during the hot season by men clad in leathern dresses, who rush with violence through the hemp fields; the resin adheres to their dresses, from which it is scraped off and kneaded into lumps which have the appearance of pieces of linseed oil cake in colour and texture, and a peculiar and by no means agreeable smell. In this state it is called "churrus;" and there are evidently several varieties of the substance, as Dr Pereira describes it as being "in masses of the shape and size of a hen's egg, or of a small lemon, and formed by the adhesion of superimposed elongated pieces. It has dull grayish-brown colour, and not much odour;" whereas one specimen in the writer's collection differs in being in large shapeless fragments of the colour of amber, with the loose friable texture of linseed cake, and a heavy unpleasant odour. Another specimen has a resinous lustre, a dark brown colour, and is formed into an elongated oval shape, but not larger than half a hen's egg. This is almost odourless, and is probably the _momeea_ or _waxen churrus_, said to be collected with great care by the hand, and to be highly prized. The dried plant after it has flowered, and from which the churrus has not been removed, is compressed into bundles of twenty-four plants each, and is sold in the bazaars of India under the name of gunjah. The larger leaves and capsules, without the stalks, are also compressed into irregular sized masses, which receive the names of bang, subjee, or sidhee, in India. The hashish of the Arabians consists of the tops of the small branchlets after inflorescence, carefully gathered and dried. Both this and the two previously mentioned preparations are extensively used for smoking and chewing - the gunjah and bang in India and Persis, and the hashish in Africa. When the bushmen of Southern Africa were brought to England, they passed much of their time in smoking this narcotic in pipes made of the long teeth of alligators, hollowed out for the purpose. Its use as a means of intoxication is said to have given rise to our word assassin, from the fact that the low Saracen soldiery, called _hashashins_, when intoxicated with hashish, were sent into the camps of the crusaders for the purpose of killing whomsoever they met, the drug rendering them quite regardless of the consequences. The physiological effects of the various preparations above mentioned are most remarkable, and are unlike every other narcotic at present known. It produces inebriation and delirium of decidedly hilarious character, inducing violent laughter, jumping and dancing. The writer several times witnessed its effects upon the bushmen. After inhaling the smoke for some time they rose and began a very slow dance, which was gradually quickened until they became perfectly frenzied, and finally fell down in a state of complete insensiblity, from which they were a considerable time in recovering. Dr O'Shaughnessy relates some most remarkable effects of the churrus, particularly its power in producing a state of true catalepsy. The same effects do not appear to take place upon Europeans, but this point has not yet been fairly tried, as the drug evidently suffers some change in its transmission by sea. But it is not as a narcotic and excitant that the hemp plant is most useful to mankind; it is as an advancer rather than a retarder of civilization, that its utility is made most manifest. Its great value as a textile material, particularly for cordage and canvas, has made it eminently useful; and if we were to copy the figurative style of the Sanscrit writers, we might with justice call it the "accelerator of commerce," and the "spreader of wealth and intellect." for ages man has been dependent upon hempen cordage and hempen sails for enabling his ships to cross the seas; and in this respect it still occupies a most important place in our commercial affairs. For its valuable fibre hemp is very largely cultivated in Europe, but chiefly in Russia and Russian Poland. It undergoes the same process for decomposing the parts of the stem as that described in the article on FLAX, called _water-retting_, by which the cellular tissue of the bark and medulla is destroyed, and the long fibres of the woody part are set free. This is not done by simply soaking in the waters of ponds and streams, for it requires to be dried both previously and subsequently to the retting process; after which it is beaten with wooden beetles or mallets, or by an apparatus called a _break_ or _brake_ worked by a treddle. Sometimes, however, this laborious operation is effected by water or steam-power. Some of the finer kinds of hemp are more carefully prepared; the seed is sown broad-cast instead of in drills, by which the stems are grown more slender and the fibres finer; and after the water-retting each stem is taken in the hand, and the epidermis is stripped or _peeled_ off, and the reed or boon is then submitted as before mentioned to the _breaking_ process. In both cases after _breaking_ the stalks are conveyed to the _scutching-mills_, where the separation of the fibres is still further effected by rubbing and striking, after which it is heckled or hackled - the heckler taking as much as he can conveniently hold and drawing it through a number of iron spikes fixed in a board forming a kind of comb. The process called dew-retting, described in the article on FLAX, is also adopted for very fine varieties of hemp, such as the white crown Marienburg, and the Italian garden hemp; and in Russia and Sweden another method called snow-retting is used. After the first fall of snow the hemp which has been put up in stacks is spread out over the snow, and left to be buried by successive falls. It thus remains covered until the snow disappears, and is then sufficiently retted. We have hitherto received the largest quantity of hemp from Russia - St Petersburg, Memel, and Riga being the chief ports of shipment; but the late war, which put a stop to the supply from this source, is likely to produce a beneficial result to our colonies. The indefatigable exertions of Dr Royle on behalf of the Indian government have led to the knowledge of various fibrous substances which are prodeuced in the greatest abundance in our Indian empire, in the manufacture of cordage and canvas; so that having been forced into a knowledge of our own resources, it is not probable we shall ever be so dependent upon Russia in future for this necessary article. The best substitute appears to be the Caloee or Rheea fibre produced by a plant of the nettle tribe (Urticaccae), _Boehmeria nivea_. The Rheea fibre can, it is expected, be produced very much cheaper than Russian hemp, and it is nearly twice as strong. Hitherto hemp has had one great advantage over all other fibres in the manufacture of cordage, and it remains to be seen whether the Rheea fibre has this qualification. When a hempen rope is worn out, if it has not been tarred, it is valuable for making paper; and if it has been tarred, it is even more useful for oakum. This is not the case certainly with the fine ropes of Manilla hemp (_Musa textilis_), which, though stronger than the best Russian hemp, are almost useless when worn out. The same may be said of the admirable coir ropes now so extensively used for ship's hawsers and other corage exposed to water. These ropes are made of the fibres from the husk of the common cocoa-nut. The fibre called New Zealand flax, which is procured from the long sword-shaped leaves of _Phormium tenax_, a liliaceous plant, has been much recommended of late; but whether from the difficulty of preparing it, or from the inadequacy of the supply, it has not yet become a regular article of commerce. The epidermis of its leaves is more compact and harder than that of the stalks of the plants previously mentioned, and this may cause great difficulty both in retting and scutching. We import hemp from Russia, Italy, Holland, Turkey, the East Indies, and latterly from the United States. That from America, however, is of inferior quality and blackish colour. The East Indian hemp is coarse, and is in small hanks plaited about the thickness of a man's arm. The Italian hemp is very fine, that variety called garden-hemp being the longest of any kind; its superiority is supposed to be the result of spade culture in very suitable soil. It is also as white and soft as the finest white Russian. Of the Russian kinds the St Petersburg clean and the Riga rein (or clean) are the best for general purposes. The variety called white crown Marienburg is remarkably short, white and soft; it is only fit for fine canvas. The quantity of hemp imported into the United Kingdom was- From Russia | From other countries. In 1851.........33,229 tons | In 1851..........31,441 tons .. 1852.........26,857 .... | .. 1852..........26,551 .... .. 1853.........40,320 .... | .. 1853..........20,619 .... .. 1854......... 1,044 .... | .. 1854..........35,927 .... .. 1855......... nil. .... | .. 1855..........28,010 .... The price of Russian hemp has ranged from L38 to L90 (L=pound) per ton during the last five years, the maximum price being caused by the war. Considerable quantities are also raised in England and Ireland. Of the figures just given those relating to Russia may be depended upon, but those referring to the imports from other countries are by no means satisfactory; for owing to the slovenly manner in which our commercial statistics are collected by the government, all articles which bear the trade name of hemp are included, such as Manilla hemp, and very often even jute. There is one other useful quality in the hemp plant; it produces an abundance of seed, which not only yields a valuable oil, but the seed is extensively used in feeding singing birds. As the hemp is _diaecious_, only about one half the plants produce seeds; but these yield it in such abundance that an acre will yield from three to four quarters at about 40s. per quarter. As this is independent of the fibre produced it is a profitable crop in countries like Russia where the land is not too valuable. For fuller information upon the subject consult Dr Royle's _Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains_, and his _Fibrous Plants of India_; Dr. O'Shaughnessy on the _Preparation of the Indian Hemp or Gunjah_; and the erudite work _Textrinum Antiquorum_, by James Yates, Esq., M.A. (T.C.A.) ************************************************************************* There are certainly a lot of biases in this entry. Ignoring those, there are many items which conflict with what I thought were facts. Gunjah instead of ganjuh for example, does anyone know how it's actually pronounced in India? Or if the pronunciation has changed in the last 140 years? Hope y'all enjoy reading that as much as I did! Patience, persistence, truth, reality: mgr@anhep2.hep.anl.gov Dr. mike UUCP: uunet!pyramid!cdp!mrosing IMI, P.O. BOX 2242, Darien IL 60559 bitnet: mrosing@igc.org Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: cklausme@jarthur.claremont.edu (Chris Klausmeier) Subject: ARCHIVE: hemp.flyer Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711 Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1993 00:32:53 GMT I passed an earlier version of this at a Clinton-Gore appearance in LaCrosse a month ago. Went over well with older folks, farmers. Feel free to reprint, give your address _____________________________________________________ HOW THE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN SAVE THE FARM ECONOMY (and balance the budget) (and protect the environment) America cannot return to prosperity without restoring prosperity to its farmers. Subsidies are not the answer, as they only lead to further overproduction of food crops the market doesn't want. We must move toward high yielding agricultural crops as primary feedstocks for industry. PROTECTIONISM IN REVERSE Hemp, the single most prolific and versatile plant for these uses is off limits to the American farmer. Russian farmers typically yield 5 tons of hemp stalk per acre per year. They lack modern factories for turning hemp into useful products. The Dutch government has invested $20 million in a research project to develop improved strains and machinery. Unless a similar effort is undertaken here we will find ourselves once again aced out of huge markets. PAPER Hemp outyields trees at least 3 to 1. Because of its higher cellulose content, hemp requires less chemical processing, and thus has lower costs and pollution, according to the Dutch Studies.* Last year the first shiploads of Brazilian eucalyptus pulp unloaded at the Port of Green Bay. The US Department of Agriculture has promoted kenaf, a traditional African fiber plant as a paper alternative. Two years ago Pat LeMahieu, a former agronomy researcher at the UW-Madison now director of operations with Agrecol, achieved an impressive 6 ton per acre yield of kenaf. In the Feb 8, 1991 Isthmus, (Madison's weekly,) LeMahieu said hemp has higher quality fiber, more potential uses, the ability to withstand cold better, and possibly higher yields. "If it weren't for the alkaloids [psychoactive ingredients] in hemp, we wouldn't even be talking about kenaf." Hemp is also far more drought resistant than Kenaf. FIBER Historically hemp supplied fabrics from the finest linens to the sails for seagoing ships. (Canvass is the Old Dutch word for cannabis.) Cotton, with only 1/3 the fiber yield, is the most chemical intensive crop in production. Hemp chokes out competing weeds, and has few insect pests, so hemp farmers have little use for pesticides. While hemp likes a rich soil, most of the nutrients migrate to the leaves and eventually flowers, which are returned to the soil when growing hemp for stalk, so with appropriate rotation fertilizers are unneccessary. Hemp's long taproot brings minerals from deep soil layers, leaving them accessible to the following crop. Unlike cotton, hemp can be grown throughout the United States, and its lower cost makes it competitive with synthetic fibres. Fabric used to be the most recycled item in commerce. Now it is the least because no one has discovered a way to seperate the cotton from the polyester. FUEL Like any biomass (plant derived) fuel, burning hemp releases into the atmosphere only as much Carbon Dioxide as was removed in photosynthesis, with no net contribution to the Greenhouse Effect. Hemp's low Sulfur content contributes little to Acid Rain. Recent advances in Biomass Gasification technologies suggest hemp replacing coal in our electric power stations. Technology for conversion to liquid fuels is farther behind, and still expensive when compared to current oil prices as subsidised by our military presence in the Persian Gulf. Shifting more of the tax burden to environmentally destructive use of fossil fuels would stimulate research, and hasten the inevitable changeover to clean biomass. FOOD and MEDECINE Cultivation of hemp seed for food and livestock feed dates at least to the ancient Sumerians. While it is second to soybeans in total protein content, hemp seed has a more complete balance of amino acids. More importantly, hemp seed oil is the top plant source for linoleic and linolenic acids, the essential fatty acids for which fish oil is touted to lower blood colesterol and strengthen the immune system. Of course pressing the oil from hemp seed makes these nutrients available at a tiny fraction of the cost of fish oil. Hemp flowers provide a medecine useful for the treatment of such diverse problems as Muscular Sclerosis, Anorexia, Glaucoma, and the Nausea associated with Chemotherapy and AIDS. ONE OBSTACLE REMAINS. The flowers of the hemp plant, when smoked or otherwise ingested, produce a mild euphoria, which we have culturally and legally labeled as inherently evil. The law defines any part of the plant other than stalk, fiber, or sterilized seed as marijuana, and there is no way to raise stalks without leaves. While low potency fiber strains are available in Europe, and fiber crops are harvested before the flowers form, (much more potent than leaves,) US law makes no distinction. No-one has ever died from using marijuana. Indeed, in a review of its medical use, US Administative Law Judge Francis Young found it to be "among the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." The sole remaining argument against it is the so-called "Gateway Effect.," which states that its use leads to hard drugs. In fact, it is the prohibition of the plant which puts it in the same marketplace as heroin or cocaine. When the supply of marijuana is interrupted retailers find themselves without any income, and some shift to selling whatever they can get, luring their customers to truly dangerous drugs. In a legal cannabis market, supply would be continuous and regulated. DOES GEORGE BUSH REALLY CARE ABOUT DRUG ABUSE? As Vice President he headed the South Florida Drug Interdiction Task Force, and simultaneously oversaw Ollie North's Contra supply operation, whose planes returned from Cental America loaded with Cocaine. The Task Force decided which drug smugglers would be targeted by law enforcement, and consequently which would not. If he was really "out of the loop" on contra supply, why did he protect their illicit fundraising? Is the government's war on marijuana a cover for continuing intelligence agency involvement in the importation of hard drugs? Can you fool all of the people all of the time? To find out, tune in in November. Ben Masel, Wiscsconsin State Director National Organization to Reform the Marijuana Laws 911 Williamson St, Madison, WI 53703 (608) 257-5456 * Characterization and Processing of Annual Crops (Esp. Hemp) for Pulp and Paper by Marie-Jose de Smet, Agrotechnical Research Institute, ATO- DLO, Haagsteeg 6, 6700AA Wageningen, The Netherlands, as presented at the First European Conference on Industrial Uses for Agricultural Crops, Maastricht, the Netherlands, November 1991. f Dewey and Merrill, "Bulletin #404, Hemp Hurds As Paper-Making Material," U.S.D.A., Washington, D.C., October 14, 1916. from the prophetic "Conclusions" section of this USDA Bulletin: There appears to be little doubt that under the present system of forest use and consumption the present supply cannot withstand the demands placed upon it. By the time improved methods of forestry have established an equilibrium between production and consumption, the price of pulp wood may be such that a knowledge of other available raw materials may be imperative. Semicommercial paper-making tests were conducted, therefore, on hemp hurds, in cooperation with a paper manufacturer. After several trials, under conditions of treatment and manufacture which are regarded as favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood, paper was produced which received very favorable comment both from investigators and from the trade which according to official test would be classed as a No. 1 machine finished printing paper. (p. 25) "This remarkable new pulp technology for papermaking was invented in 1916 by our own U.S. Department of Agriculture chief scientists, Lyster H. Dewey, Botanist in Charge of Fiber-Plant Investigations, and Jason L. Merrill, Paper-Plant Chemist, Paper-Plant Investigations. As the USDA bulletin suggested, this process had to stay in the laboratory until the invention of decorticating and havesting machinery allowed for its economic utilization. Until this time, hemp paper had only been made from rags and stalk fibers while the fiber and cellulose-rich hurds were burnt to fertilize the soil. Some cannabis plant strains regularly reach tree-like heights of 20 feet or more in one growing season. The new paper process used hemp "hurds"--77% of the hemp stalk's weight, which was then a wasted by-product of the fiber-stripping process. In 1916, USDA Bulletin No. 404, reported that one acre of cannabis hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres of trees being cut down over the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/4 to 1/7 as much polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like lignin that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda ash. The problem of dioxin contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process, which does not need to use chlorine bleach (as the wood pulp paper making process requires) but instead safely substitutes hydrogen peroxide in the bleaching process. All this lignin must be broken down to make pulp paper. Hemp pulp is only 4% lignin, while trees are 18-30% lignin. Thus hemp provides four times as much pulp with at least four to seven times less pollution. . . . As we have seen, this hemp pulp-paper potential depended on the invention and the engineering of new machines for stripping the hemp by modern technology. This would also lower demand for lumber and reduce the cost of housing, while at the same time helping re-oxygenate the planet. As an example: If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper process were legal today, it would soon replace about 70% of all wood pulp paper, including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes and paper bags." -- Herer, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", 1991 edition, pp. 20-22, 118-122. MAN MADE FIBER . . . THE TOXIC ALTERNATIVE TO NATURAL FIBERS. The late 1920s and 1930s saw continuing consolidation of power into the hands of a few large steel, oil and chemical (munitions) companies. The U.S. federal government placed much of the textile production for the domestic economy in the hands of their chief munitions maker, DuPont. The processing of nitrating cellulose into explosives is very similar to the process for nitrating cellulose into synthetic fibers and plastics. Rayon, the first synthetic fiber, is simply stabilized guncotton, or nitrated cloth, the basic explosive of the 19th century. "Synthetic plastics find application in fabricating a wide variety of articles, many of which in the past were made from natural products," beamed Lammot DuPont ("Popular Mechanics," June 1939, pg. 805). "Consider our natural resources," the president of DuPont continued, "The chemist has aided in conserving natural resources by developing synthetic products to supplement or wholly replace natural products." DuPont's scientists were the world's leading researchers into the processes of nitrating cellulose and were in fact the largest processor of cellulose in the nation in this era. The February, 1938 "Popular Mechanics" article stated "Thousands of tons of hemp hurds are used every year by one large powder company for the manufacture of dynamite and TNT." History shows that DuPont had largely cornered the market in explosives by buying up and consolidating the smaller blasting companies in the late 1800s. By 1902 they controlled about two-thirds of industry output. They were the largest powder company, supplying 40% of the munitions for the allies in WWI. As cellulose and fiber researchers, DuPont's chemists knew hemp's true value better than anyone else. The value of hemp goes far beyond line fibers; although recognized for linen, canvas, netting and cordage, these long fibers are only 20% of the hempstalks' weight. 80% of the hemp is in the 77% cellulose hurd, and this was the most abundant, cleanest resource of cellulose (fiber) for paper, plastics and even rayon. The empirical evidence in this book shows that the federal government--through the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act--allowed this munitions maker to supply synthetic fibers for the domestic economy without competition. The proof of a successful conspiracy among these corporate and governing interests is simply this: In 1991 DuPont was still the largest producer of man-made fibers, while no citizen has legally harvested a single acre of textile grade hemp in over 50 years. An almost unlimited tonnage of natural fiber and cellulose would have become available to the American farmer in 1937, the year DuPont patented nylon and the polluting wood-pulp paper sulfide process. All of hemp's potential value was lost. Simple plastics of the early 1900s were made of nitrated cellulose, directly related to DuPont's munitions-making processes. Celluloid, acetate and rayon were the simple plastics of that era, and hemp was well known to cellulose researchers as the premier resource for this new industry to use. Worldwide, the raw material of simple plastics, rayon and paper could be best supplied by hemp hurds. Nylon fibers were developed between 1926-1936 by the noted Harvard chemist Wallace Carothers, working from German patents. These polyamides are long fibers based on observed natural products. Carothers, supplied with an open-ended research grant from DuPont, made a comprehensive study of natural cellulose fibers. He duplicated natural fibers in his labs and polyamides--long fibers of a specific chemical process--were developed. 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. The new man-made fibers (MMFs) can best be described as war material. The fiber making process has become one based on big factories, smokestacks, coolants and hazardous chemicals, rather than one of stripping out the abundant, naturally available fibers. Coming from a history of making explosives and munitions, the old "chemical dye plants" now produce hosiery, mock linens, mock canvas, latex paint and synthetic carpets. Their polluting factories make imitation leather, upholstery and wood surfaces, while an important part of the natural cycle stands outlawed. The standard fiber of world history, America's traditional crop, hemp, could provide our textiles, paper and be the premier source for cellulose. The war industries--DuPont, Allied Chemical, Monsanto, etc.,--are protected from competition by the marijuana laws. They make war on the natural cycle and the common farmer. Shan Clark _______________________________________________________________________ Sources: "Encyclopedia of Textiles" 3rd Edition by the editors of "American Fabrics and Fashions Magazine," William C. Legal, Publisher Prentice- Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1980; "The Emergence of Industrial America Strategic Factors in American Economic Growth Since 1870," Peter George, State University, NY; "DuPont" (a corporate autobiography published periodically by E.I. DuPont De Nemours and Co., Inc. Wilmington, DE); "The Blasting Handbook," E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co. Inc., Wilmington, DE; "Mechanical Engineering Magazine," Feb. 1938; "Popular Mechanics," Feb. 1938; "Journal of Applied Polymer Science," Vol. 47, 1984; "Polyamides, the Chemistry of Long Molecules" (author unknown) U.S. Patent #2,071,250 (Feb. 16, 1937), W.H. Carothers; "DuPont Dynasties," Jerry Colby; "The American Peoples Encyclopedia," the Sponsor Press, Chicago, 1953. "About 6% of contiguous United States land area put into cultivation for biomass could supply all current demands for oil and gas." (and employ farmers instead of subsidizing them.) Very few people know what "biomass conversion" or "pyrolysis" mean--not only in terms of their dictionary definitions, but in terms of what they mean as alternative sources of energy, to the limited, expensive and dirty petro-chemical, nuclear, or coal sources. The only reason the U.S.--and every other nation on earth--can't once again become energy independent and smog free is because people are not educated concerning the facts about solutions to the environment/energy "crises" continuously lamented and tepidly addressed "leaders," claiming they are the best informed to decide what to do. The knowledge exists right now for our lifeline to the future and the health and well-being of the Seventh Generation yet unborn. Everyone of us must learn about this existent lifeline and teach everyone else we know what the facts are for THE way out of the current "crisis". HEMP FOR FUEL Excerpted from "Energy Farming in America," by Lynn Osburn BIOMASS CONVERSION to fuel has proven economically feasible, first in laboratory tests and by continuous operation of pilot plants in field tests since 1973. When the energy crop is growing it takes in C02 from the air, so when it is burned the C02 is released, creating a balanced system. Biomass is the term used to describe all biologically produced matter. World production of biomass is estimated at 146 billion metric tons a year, mostly wild plant growth. Some farm crops and trees can produce up to 20 metric tons per acre of biomass a year. Types of algae and grasses may produce 50 metric tons per year. This biomass has a heating value of 5000-8000 BTU/lb, with virtually no ash or sulfur produced during combustion. About 6% of contiguous United States land area put into cultivation for biomass could supply all current demands for oil and gas. The foundation upon which this will be achieved is the emerging concept of "energy farming," wherein farmers grow and harvest crops for biomass conversion to fuels. PYROLYSIS IS THE TECHNIQUE of applying high heat to organic matter (ligno-cellulosic materials) in the absence of air or in reduced air. The process can produce charcoal, condensable organic liquids (pyrolytic fuel oil), non-condensable gasses, acetic acid, acetone, and methanol. The process can be adjusted to favor charcoal, pyrolytic oil, gas, or methanol production with a 95.5% fuel-to-feed efficiency. Pyrolysis has been used since the dawn of civilization. Ancient Egyptians practiced wood distillation by collecting the tars and pyroligneous acid for use in their embalming industry. Methanol-powered automobiles and reduced emissions from coal-fired power plants can be accomplished by biomass conversion to fuel utilizing pyrolysis technology, and at the same time save the American family farm while turning the American heartland into a prosperous source of clean energy production. Pyrolysis has the advantage of using the same technology now used to process crude fossil fuel oil and coal. Coal and oil conversion is more efficient in terms of fuel-to-feed ratio, but biomass conversion by pyrolysis has many environmental and economic advantages over coal and oil. Pyrolysis facilities will run three shifts a day. Some 68% of the energy of the raw biomass will be contained in the charcoal and fuel oils made at the facility. This charcoal has nearly the same heating value in BTU as coal, with virtually no sulfur. Pyrolytic fuel oil has similar properties to no. 2 and no. 6 fuel oil. The charcoal can be transported economically by rail to all urban area power plants generating electricity. The fuel oil can be transported economically by trucking creating more jobs for Americans. When these plants use charcoal instead of coal, the problems of acid rain will begin to disappear. When this energy system is on line producing a steady supply of fuel for electrical power plants, it will be more feasible to build the complex gasifying systems to produce methanol from the cubed biomass, or make synthetic gasoline from the methanol by the addition of the Mobil Co. process equipment to the gasifier. FARMERS MUST BE ALLOWED TO GROW an energy crop capable of producing 10 tons per acre in 90-120 days. This crop must be woody in nature and high in lignocellulose. It must be able to grow in all climactic zones in America. And it should not compete with food crops for the most productive land, but be grown in rotation with food crops or on marginal land where food crop production isn't profitable. When farmers can make a profit growing energy, it will not take long to get 6% of continental American land mass into cultivation of biomass fuel--enough to replace our economy's dependence on fossil fuels. We will no longer be increasing the C02 burden in the atmosphere. The threat of global greenhouse warming and adverse climactic change will diminish. To keep costs down, pyrolysis reactors need to be located within a 50 mile radius of the energy farms. This necessity will bring life back to our small towns by providing jobs locally. HEMP IS THE NUMBER ONE biomass producer on planet earth: 10 tons per acre in approximately four months. It is a woody plant containing 77% cellulose. Wood produces 60% cellulose. This energy crop can be harvested with equipment readily available. It can be "cubed" by modifying hay cubing equipment. This method condenses the bulk, reducing trucking costs from the field to the pyrolysis reactor. And the biomass cubes are ready for conversion with no further treatment. Hemp is drought resistant, making it an ideal crop in the dry western regions of the country. Hemp is the only biomass resource capable of making America energy independent. And our government outlawed it in 1938. Remember, in 10 years, by the year 2000, America will have exhausted 80% of her petroleum reserves. Will we then go to war with the Arabs for the privilege of driving our cars; will we stripmine our land for coal, and poison our air so we can drive our autos an extra 100 years; will we raze our forests for our energy needs? During World War II, our supply of hemp was cut off by the Japanese. The federal government responded to the emergency by suspending marijuana prohibition. Patriotic American farmers were encouraged to apply for a license to cultivate hemp and responded enthusiastically. Hundreds of thousands of acres of hemp were grown. The argument against hemp production does not hold up to scrutiny: hemp grown for biomass makes very poor grade marijuana. The 20 to 40 million Americans who smoke marijuana would loath to smoke hemp grown for biomass, so a farmer's hemp biomass crop is worthless as marijuana. It is time the government once again respond to our economic emergency as they did in WWII to permit our farmers to grow American hemp so this mighty nation can once again become energy independent and smog free. For more information on the many uses of hemp, contact BACH, the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp, Box 71093, LA, CA 90071-0093, 213/288-4152. --excerpt from Herer, "Emperor Wears No Clothes," 1991 edition, p. 136 For an updated version of "Energy Farming In America," "Books In Print" lists "Ecohemp: Economy and Ecolgy with Hemp," Access Unlimited, Frazier Park, CA, 805/632-2644. [9] Introduction from "Marijuana: Medical Papers," Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D., Medi-Comp Press, 1973, pp. xiii-xxvii, describing some of the recent history of western medical explorations into the salutory medicinal benefits of hemp drugs--a history that is almost completely unknown to people at the end of the 20th century, but, throughout the majority of the 19th century, was commonly known and experienced by much of the population: Introduction Medicine in the Western World has forgotten almost all it once knew about therapeutic properties of marijuana, or cannabis. Analgesia, anticonvulsant action, appetite stimulation, ataraxia, antibiotic properties and low toxicity were described throughout medical literature, beginning in 1839, when O'Shaughnessy introduced cannabis into the Western pharmacopoeia. As these findings were reported throughout Western medicine, cannabis attained wide use. Cannabis therapy was described in most pharmacopoeial texts as a treatment for a variety of disease conditions. During the second half of the 1800s and in the present century, medical researchers in some measure corroborated the early reports of the therapeutic potential of cannabis. In addition, much laboratory research has been concerned with bioassay, determination of the mode of action, and attempts to solve the problems of insolubility in water and variability of strength among different cannabis specimens. "Recreational" smoking of cannabis in the twentieth century and the resultant restrictive federal legislation have functionally ended all medical uses of marijuana. In light of such assets as minimal toxicity, no buildup of tolerance, no physical dependence, and minimal autonomic disturbance, immediate major clinical reinvestigation of cannabis preparations is indicated in the management of pain, chronic neurologic diseases, convulsive disorders, migraine headache, anorexia, mental illness, and bacterial infections. Recently declassified secret U.S. Defense Department studies reconfirm marijuana's congeners to have therapeutic utility. Cannabis indica, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis americana, Indian hemp and marijuana (or marihuana) all refer to the same plant. Cannabis is used throughout the world for diverse purposes and has a long history characterized by usefulness, euphoria or evil--depending on one's point of view. To the agriculturist cannabis is a fiber crop; to the physician of a century ago it was a valuable medicine; to the physician of today it is an enigma; to the user, a euphoriant; to the police, a menace; to the traffickers, a source of profitable danger; to the convict or parolee and his family, a source of sorrow. This book is concerned primarily with the medicinal aspects of cannabis. The Chinese emperor Shen-nung is reported to have taught his people to grow hemp for fiber in the twenty-eighth century B.C. A text from the period 1500-1200 B.C. documents a knowledge of the plant in China- -but not for use as fiber. In 200 A.D., the use of cannabis as an analgesic was described by the physician Hoa-tho.[44] In India the use of hemp preparations as a remedy was described before 1000 B.C. In Persia, cannabis was known several centuries before Christ. In Assyria, about 650 B.C., its intoxicating properties were noted.[44] Except for Herodotus' report that the Scythians used the smoke from burning hemp seeds for intoxication, the ancient Greeks seemed to be unaware of the psychoactive properties of cannabis. Dioscorides in the first century A.D. rendered an accurate morphologic description of the plant, but made no note of intoxicating properties.[10] In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Arabic writers described the social use of cannabis and resultant cruel but unsuccessful attempts to suppress its non-medical use.[44] Although Galen described the use of the seeds for creating warmth, he did not describe the intoxicating qualities of hemp. Of interest is the paucity of references to hemp's intoxicating properties in the lay and medical literature of Europe before the 1800s.[44] The therapeutic use of cannabis was introduced into Western medicine in 1839, in a forty-page article by W. B. O'Shaughnessy, a thirty- year-old physician serving with the British in India.[27] His discussion of the history of the use of cannabis products in the East reveals an awareness that these drugs had not only been used in medicine for therapeutic purposes, but had also been used for recreational and religious purposes. O'Shaughnessy is not primarily known for his discovery of hemp drugs, but rather for his basic studies on intravenous electrolyte therapy in 1831, and his introduction of the telegraph into India in the 1850s.[26] After studying the literature on cannabis and conferring with contemporary Hindu and Mohammedan scholars O'Shaughnessy tested the effects of various hemp preparations on animals, before attempting to use them to treat humans. Satisfied that the drug was reasonably safe, he administered preparations of cannabis extract to patients, and discovered that it had analgesic and sedative properties. O'Shaughnessy successfully relieved the pain of rheumatism and stilled the convulsions of an infant with this strange new drug. His most spectacular success came, however, when he quelled the wrenching muscle spasms of tetanus and rabies with the fragrant resin. Psychic effects resembling a curious delirium, when an overdose was given, were treated with strong purgatives, emetics with a blister to the nape of the neck, and leeches on the temples.[27] The use of cannabis derivatives for medicinal purposes spread rapidly throughout Western medicine, as is evidenced in the report of the Committee on Cannabis Indica of the Ohio State Medical Society, published in 1860. In that report physicians told of success in treating stomach pain, childbirth psychosis, chronic cough, and gonorrhea with hemp products.[25] A Dr. Fronmueller, of Fuerth, Ohio, summarized his experiences with the drug as follows: I have used hemp many hundred times to relieve local pains of an inflammatory as well as neuralgic nature, and judging from these experiments, I have to assign to the Indian hemp a place among the so-called hypnotic medicines next to opium; its effects are less intense, and the secretions are not so much suppressed by it. Digestion is not disturbed; the appetite rather increased; sickness of the stomach seldom induced; congestion never. Hemp may consequently be employed in inflammatory conditions. It disturbs the expectoration far less than opium; the nervous system is also not so much affected. The whole effect of hemp being less violent, and producing a more natural sleep, without interfering with the actions of the internal organs, it is certainly often preferable to opium, although it is not equal to that drug in strength and reliability. An alternating course of opium and Indian hemp seems particularly adapted to those cases where opium alone fails in producing the desired effect.[25] Because cannabis did not lead to physical dependence, it was found to be superior to the opiates for a number of therapeutic purposes. Birch, in 1889, reported success in treating opiate and chloral addiction with cannabis,[5] and Mattison in 1891 recommended its use to the young physician, comparing it favorably with the opiates. He quoted his colleague Suckling: With a wish for speedy effect, it is so easy to use that modern mischief-maker, hypodermic morphia, that they [young physicians] are prone to forget remote results of incautious opiate giving. Would that the wisdom which has come to their professional fathers through, it may be, a hapless experience, might serve them to steer clear of narcotic shoals on which many a patient has gone awreck. Indian hemp is not here lauded as a specific. It will, at times, fail. So do other drugs. But the many cases in which it acts well, entitle it to a large and lasting confidence. My experience warrants this statement: cannabis indica is, often, a safe and successful anodyne and hypnotic.[23] In their study of the medical applications of cannabis, physicians of the nineteenth century repeatedly encountered a number of difficulties. Recognizing the therapeutic potential of the drug, many experimenters sought ways of overcoming these drawbacks to its use in medicine, in particular the following: Cannabis products are insoluble in water. The onset of the effects of medicinal preparations of cannabis takes an hour or so; its action is therefore slower than that of many other drugs. Different batches of cannabis derivatives vary greatly in strength; moreover, the common procedure for standardization of cannabis samples, by administration to test animals, is subject to error owing to variability of reactions among the animals. There is wide variation among humans in their individual responses to cannabis. Despite these problems regarding the uncertainty of potency and dosage and the difficulties in mode of administration, cannabis has several important advantages over other substances used as analgesics, sedatives, and hypnotics: The prolonged use of cannabis does not lead to the development of physical dependence. [11, 13, 14, 24, 39, 44] There is minimal development of tolerance to cannabis products. (Loewe notes a slight "beginner's habituation" in dogs, during the first few trials with the drug, as the only noticeable tolerance effect.[20]) [11, 13, 14, 24, 44] Cannabis products have exceedingly low toxicity.[9, 21, 22, 24] (The oral dose required to kill a mouse has been found to be about 40,000 times the dose required to produce typical symptoms of intoxication in man.)[21] Cannabis produces no disturbance of vegetative functioning, whereas the opiates inhibit the gastrointestinal tract, the flow of bile and the cough reflex.[1, 2, 24, 44, 46] Besides investigating the physical effects of medicinal preparations of cannabis, nineteenth-century physicians observed the psychic effects of the drug in its therapeutic applications.[4, 27, 33] They found that cannabis first mildly stimulates, and then sedates the higher centers of the brain. Hare suggested in 1887 a possible mechanism of cannabis' analgesic properties: During the time that this remarkable drug is relieving pain a very curious psychical condition manifests itself; namely, that the diminution of the pain seems to be due to its fading away in the distance, so that the pain becomes less and less, just as the pain in a delicate ear would grow less and less as a beaten drum was carried farther and farther out of the range of hearing. This condition is probably associated with the other well- known symptom produced by the drug; namely, the prolongation of time.[16] Reynolds, in 1890,[33] summed up thirty years of his clinical experience using cannabis, finding it useful as a nocturnal sedative in senile insomnia, and valuable in treating dysmenorrhea, neuralgias including tic douloureux and tabetic symptoms, migraine headache and certain epileptoid or choreoid muscle spasms. He felt it to be of uncertain benefit in asthma, alcoholic delirium and depressions. Reynolds thought cannabis to be of no value in joint pains that were aggravated by motion and in cases of true chronic epilepsy. Reynolds stressed the necessity of titrating the dose of each patient, increasing gradually every third or fourth day, to avoid "toxic" effects: The dose should be given in minimum quantity, repeated in not less than four or six hours, and gradually increased by one drop every third or fourth day, until either relief is obtained, or the drug is proved, in such case, to be useless. With these precautions I have never met with any toxic effects, and have rarely failed to find, after a comparatively short time, either the value or the uselessness of the drug.[33] Concerning migraine headache, Osler stated in his text: Cannabis indica is probably the most satisfactory remedy.[11, 28] In his definitive survey of the literature and report of his own studies, deceptively titled "Marihuana, America's New Drug Problem," Walton notes that cannabis was widely used during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and particularly before new drugs were developed: This popularity of the hemp drugs can be attributed partly to the fact that they were introduced before the synthetic hypnotics and analgesics. Chloral hydrate was not introduced until 1869 and was followed in the next thirty years by paraldehyde, sulfonal and the barbitals. Antipyrine and acetanilide, the first of their particular group of analgesics, were introduced about 1884. For general sedative and analgesic purposes, the only drugs commonly used at this time were the morphine derivatives and their disadvantages were very well known. In fact, the most attractive feature of the hemp narcotics was probably the fact that they did not exhibit certain of the notorious disadvantages of the opiates. The hemp narcotics do not constipate at all, they more often increase than decrease appetite, they do not particularly depress the respiratory center even in large doses, they rarely or never cause pruritis or cutaneous eruptions and, most important, the liability of developing addiction is very much less than with opiates.[44] The use of cannabis in American medicine was seriously affected by the increased use of opiates in the latter half of the nineteenth century. With the introduction of the hypodermic syringe into American medicine from England in 1856 by Barker and Ruppaner, the use of the faster acting, water-soluble opiate drugs rapidly increased. The Civil War helped to spread the use of opiates in this country; the injected drugs were administered widely--and often indiscriminately--to relieve the pain of maimed soldiers returning from combat. (Opiate addiction was once called the "army disease."[41]) As the use of injected opiates increased, cannabis declined in popularity. Cannabis preparations were still widely available in legend and over-the-counter forms in the 1930s. Crump (Chairman, Investigating Committee, American Medical Association) in 1931 mentioned the proprietaries "Piso's Cure," "One Day Cough Cure" and "Neurosine" as containing cannabis.[44] In 1937 Sasman listed twenty-eight pharmaceuticals containing cannabis.[36] Cannabis was still recognized as a medicinal agent in that year, when the committee on legislative activities of the American Medical Association concluded as follows: . . . there is positively no evidence to indicate the abuse of cannabis as a medicinal agent or to show that its medicinal use is leading to the development of cannabis addiction. Cannabis at the present time is slightly used for medicinal purposes, but it would seem worthwhile to maintain its status as a medicinal agent for such purposes as it now has. There is a possibility that a re-study of the drug by modern means may show other advantages to be derived from its medicinal use.[32] Meanwhile, in Mexico, the poor were smoking marijuana to relax and to endure heat and fatigue. (Originally marijuana was the Mexican slang word for the smoking preparation of dried leaves and flowering tops of the Cannabis sativa plant--the indigenous variety of the hemp plant.) The recreational smoking of marijuana may have started in this country in New Orleans in about 1910, and continued on a small scale there until 1926, when a newspaper ran a six-part series on the use of the drug.[44] The fad subsequently spread up the Mississippi and throughout the United States, faster than local and state laws could be passed to discourage it. The use of "tea" or "muggles" blossomed into a minor "psychedelic revolution" of the 1920s. Narcotics officers encouraged the enactment of local prohibitory laws and eventually succeeded in bringing about restrictive Federal legislation. In 1937 Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act, the finale to a series of prohibitory acts in the individual states. Under the new laws, the already dwindling use of cannabis as a therapeutic substance in medicine was brought to a virtual halt. In 1941, cannabis was dropped from the "National Formulary and Pharmacopoeia." Around the time of the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act, Walton postulated sites of action for cannabis drugs. Cortical areas, he found, are affected at low dosage, while at high dosage there seems to be a depressant effect on the thalamo-cortical pathways. Hyperemia of the brain appears to be a local phenomenon, unless centers controlling vasodilation might be located in the thalamo-cortical region. Similar possible mechanisms are suggested for the phenomenon of mild hypoglycemia, usual hunger and thirst and occasional lacrimation and nausea.[44] Despite restrictive legislation, a few medical researchers have had the opportunity to continue the investigation of the therapeutic applications of cannabis in recent years. In his study of the medical applications of cannabis for Mayor La Guardia's committee, Dr. Samuel Allentuck reported, among other findings, favorable results in treating withdrawal of opiate addicts with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a powerful purified product of the hemp plant.[1, 24] An article in 1949, buried in a journal of chemical abstracts, reported that a substance related to THC controlled epileptic seizures in a group of children more effectively than diphenylhydantoin (Dilantin(R)), a most commonly prescribed anticonvulsant.[9] A number of experimenters, believing that cannabis products might be of value in psychiatry, have investigated the applications of various forms of them in the treatment of mental disorders. Cannabis had been used in the nineteenth century to treat mental illness.[19, 25, 45, 46] However, aside from some rather equivocal clinical studies, primarily in the treatment of depression,[29, 30, 35, 39] and another report of success in treating withdrawal from alcohol and opiate addiction,[42] no significant contemporary psychiatric studies involving cannabis therapy have been reported to date. Many current "authoritative" publications unequivocally state that there is no legitimate medical use for marijuana. As compared with the 1800s, this century has seen very little medical research on the array of some twenty chemicals that are found in the hemp plant.[37] Today's readers may tend to be skeptical about a report of a cure for gonorrhea published over a century ago.[19, 25] Such findings may bear reinvestigation, however, in the light of a report from Czechoslovakia in 1960 that cannabidiolic acid, a product of the unripe hemp plant, has bacteriocidal properties.[7] Some of the therapeutic applications reported in the early medical papers have been corroborated by later investigators, but for the most part the therapeutic aspects of cannabis remain to be re-explored under modern clinical conditions. In the past twenty years, clinical and basic research on cannabis have dwindled to practically nothing. The record of tax stamps issued by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics for cannabis research, as compared with those for research on narcotic drugs, tells the story of the twenty-year "drought" in the investigation of cannabis products:[43] Users for Purposes of Research, Instruction, or Analysis Year Narcotic Drugs Marijuana 1938 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 5 1941 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 .. 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 43 1946 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 .. 1948 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 87 1951 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078 .. 1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 18 1956 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 .. 1958 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 6 1961 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 .. 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 16 The rising non-medical use of marijuana both floated and was buoyed by the "psychedelic revolution" of the mid 1960s. The panicked reaction included a renewed scientific interest in the drug. Eleven studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health 1967 concerning cannabis were either specialized animal experiments, part of an observational sociologic study of a number of drugs, or explorations of chemical detection methods. No human studies were included. Of the fifty-six projects funded during the next fiscal years 1968-69 only two used humans.[52] The next year was somewhat less cautious with eight out of thirty-five projects devoted to clinical studies.[53] Some of the preliminary results are in from these studies. Much is still unpublished. According to Harris, the toxicity factor of marijuana derivatives is over two hundred and that chronic smoking of marijuana is less harmful to the lungs than tobacco cigarettes.[49] Domino described the cross tolerance of THC and alcohol in pigeons[47] corroborating Jones' clinical observations.[50, 51] These rediscoveries demand therapeutic trial. In August 1971 certain secret Defense Department documents were declassified. While at NIMH as a consulting research psychiatrist in 1967 I had become aware of the existence of clandestine research at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. From 1954-59 Dr. Van M. Sim was in charge of the project. He reported to "Medical World News:" "Marijuana . . . is probably the most potent anti-epileptic known to medicine today."[49] Dr. Harold F. Hardman, then with the Defense contracting group at the University of Michigan's Department of Pharmacology reported effects of profound hypothermia and felt marijuana derivatives to be potentially quite useful in brain and traumatic surgery.[48] The principal focus was, however, on the possible use of THC homologs as incapacitating agents. Besides the aforementioned government agency and university, the private sector was represented by the Arthur D. Little Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts.[55] Recently in the course of a study of effects on driving, it was incidentally discovered that cannabis lowers intraocular pressure, thus being possibly useful in the treatment of glaucoma.[56] Thus, a helix is made. Modern technologic methods confirm O'Shaughnessy's observations 130 years ago. After swinging away from the knowledge of marijuana's properties through the worship of new synthetics, an unrelated rise of marijuana use socially, illegalization and removal from availability for clinical use, medicine rediscovers marijuana. The flame of knowledge is at a low ebb, kept alive by isolated scientists and clinicians; it is now being rekindled by these recent circumscribed revelations. Unless existing restrictive state and federal laws governing marijuana are changed, there will be no future for either modern scientific investigation or controlled clinical trial by present-day methods. The tide is turning. The Federal Bureau of Narcotic and Dangerous Drugs, National Institute of Mental Health and The Food and Drug Administration Joint Committee recently authorized human therapeutic trial of cannabis products. We may now look forward to reinvestigation of the numerous possible medical uses of marijuana.[54] A concerted effort is indicated for full-scale investigations where knowledge is lacking. Acute and chronic effects of cannabis should be restudied by modern methods. Metabolic pathways of action and detoxification need exploration by the pharmaceutical means of today. Chronic toxicity studies must be undertaken to examine possible long- term effects of cannabis use. (Cunningham in 1893 found no gross central nervous system changes with chronic administration of hemp drugs to primates over several months.[8]) Medical science must again confront the problems of cannabis' insolubility in water and its variable strength. Since human and animal responses vary a great deal, individual doses must be titrated. The popular "double blind" type of study methods will require revision. The reporting of personal drug experience was once acceptable to the scientific community.[15, 22, 25, 29, 34, 39, 44] Humans who are drug "sophisticates" will again become indispensable to psychoactive drug research, as wine tasters are to the wine industry, for only humans can verbally report the subtle and complex effects of these substances. Government agencies having stimulated little significant clinical research in this field, the pharmaceutical industry should take the initiative in starting basic research and clinical studies into the purified congeners of cannabis for their chemical properties, pharmacologic qualities and therapeutic applications. "Possible Therapeutic Applications of Tetrahydrocannabinols and Like Products" Analgesic-hypnotic [16, 18, 19, 23, 25, 27,33, 45] Appetite stimulant [18, 25, 27] Antiepileptic-antispasmodic [9, 18, 27, 33, 40, 45, 49] Prophylactic and treatment of the neuralgias, including migraine and tic douloureux [3, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 25, 28, 31, 33, 38, 40, 45] Antidepressant-tranquilizer [6, 16, 18, 19, 23, 25, 31, 33, 40, 45] Antiasthmatic [18, 25, 45] Oxytocic [25, 45] Antitussive [3, 16, 25, 38, 45] Topical anesthetic [8] Withdrawal agent for opiate and alcohol addiction [5, 23, 24, 38, 42, 45, 47, 50, 51] Childbirth analgesic [12] Antibiotic [7] Intraocular hypotensive [56] Hypothermogenic [48] Medicine, being an empiric art, has not hesitated in the past to utilize a substance first used for recreational purposes, (Morton "discovered" ether for anesthetic purposes after observing medical students at "ether frolics" in 1846. [Howard W. Haggard: "Devils, Drugs and Doctors," Harper and Row, New York, 1929, p. 99.]) in the pursuit of the more noble purposes of healing, relieving pain and teaching us more of the workings of the human mind and body. The active constituents of cannabis appear to have remarkably low acute and chronic toxicity factors and might be quite useful in the management of many chronic disease conditions. More reasonable laws and regulations controlling psychoactive drug research are required to permit significant medical inquiry to begin so that we can fill the large gaps in our knowledge of cannabis. REFERENCES 1. Adams, Koger: "Marihuana," "Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine," 18:705-29, Nov. 1942. 2. Ames, Frances: "A clinical and metabolic study of acute intoxication with cannabis sativa and its role in the model psychoses," "J. of Mental Science," 104:972-99, Oct. 1958. 3. Anderson, G. S. D.: "Remarks on the remedial virtues of cannabis indica, or Indian hemp," "Boston Med. and Surg. J.," 67:427-30, 1863. 4. Bell, John: "On the haschisch or cannabis indica," "Boston Med. and Surg. J.," 56:209-16, 229-36, 1857. 5. Birch, Edward A.: "The use of Indian hemp in the treatment of chronic chloral and chronic opium poisoning," "Lancet," 1:625, 30 Mar. 1889. 6. Boyd, E. S., and Merritt, D. A.: "Effects of a tetrahydrocannabinol derivative on some motor systems in the cat," "Arch. Internat. de Pharmacodynamie et de Therapie," 153:1-12, 1965. 7. CIBA Foundation Study Group, "Hashish--Its Chemistry and Pharmacology," 1964, pp. 45, 49. 8. Cunningham, D. D.: Report by Brigade-Surgeon--Lieut. Col. D. D. Cunningham, F.R.S., C.I.E., on the nature of the effects accompanying the continued treatment of animals with hemp drugs and with dhatura; "from" "Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission," 1893-4, Government Central Printing Office, Simla, India, 1894, Vol. 3, pp. 192-96. 9. Davis, J. P., and Ramsey, H. H.: "Antiepileptic action of marihuana-active substances," "Federat. Proc.," 8:284-85, Mar. 1949. 10. Dioscorides, Pedanius: "The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides," Edited by Robert T. Gunther, Hafner Publishing Co., New York, 1959, pp. 390- 91. 11. Eddy, N. B., Halbach, H., Isbell, H., and Seevers, M. H.: "Drug dependence: its significance and characteristics. "Psychopharmacology Bull.," 3:1-12, July 1966. 12. "Effects of alcohol and cannabis during labor," "JAMA," 94:1165, 1930. 13. Goodman, L. S., and Gilman, A.: "The Pharmacological Basic of Therapeutics," 2nd Edition, Macmillan, New York, 1955. 14. Goodman, L. S., and Gilman, A.: "The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics," 3rd Edition, Macmillan, New York, 1965. 15. Hamilton, H. C., Lescohier, A. W., and Perkins, R. A.: "The physiological activity of cannabis sativa. Comparison of extracts from Indian and American-grown drug upon human subjects," "J. Amer. Pharm. Assoc.," 2:22-30, 1913. 16. Hare, Hobart Amory: "Clinical and physiological notes on the action of cannabis indica," "Therap. Gaz.," 11:225-28, 1887. 17. Hare, H. A., and Chrystie, W.: "A System of Practical Therapeutics," Lee Brothers and Co., Philadelphia, 1892, Vol. 3. 18. "Indian Materia Medica," edited by A. K. Nadkarni, Popular Book Depot, Bombay, 1954. 19. "Lilly's Hand Book of Pharmacy and Therapeutics," Eli Lilly and Co., Indianapolis, 1898, p. 32. 20. Loewe, S.: "The active principles of cannabis and the pharmacology of the cannabinols," "Archiv fur Experim. Pathologie und Pharmakologie," 211:175-93, 1950. 21. Loewe, S.: "Studies on the pharmacology and acute toxicity of compounds with marihuana activity," "J. Pharmacol. and Experim. Therap.," 88:154-61, Oct. 1946. 22. Marshall, C. R.: "A contribution to the pharmacology of cannabis indica," "JAMA," 31:882-91, 15 Oct. 1898. 23. Mattison, J. B.: "Cannabis indica as an anodyne and hypnotic," "St. Louis Med. and Surg. J.," 61:265-71, Nov. 1891. 24. "Mayor's Committee on Marihuana, The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York," Jaques Cattell, Lancaster, Pa., 1944. 25. McMeens, R. R.: "Report of the committee on cannabis indica; from Transactions of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Ohio State Medical Society," Follett, Foster and Co., Columbus, Ohio, 1860, pp. 75-100. 26. Moon, J. B.: "Sir William Brooke O'Shaughnessy--the foundations of fluid therapy and the Indian telegraph service." "New Eng. J. of Med.," 276:283-84, 2 Feb. 1967. 27. O'Shaughnessy, W. B.: "On the preparations of the Indian hemp, or gunjah," "Trans. Med. and Phy. Soc.," Bengal, 71-102, 1838-40; 421-61, 1842. 28. Osler, W., and McCrae, T.: "Principles and Practice of Medicine," 8th Edition, D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1916, p. 1089. 29. Parker, C. S., and Wrigley, F.: "Synthetic cannabis preparations in psychiatry: "(1) synhexyl," "J. of Mental Science," 96:176-79, 1950. 30. Pond, D. A.: "Psychological effects in depressive patients of the marihuana homologue synhexyl," "J. Neurol. Neurosurg, Psychiat.," 11:271-79, 1948. 31. Ratnam, E. V.: "Cannabis indica," "J. of the Ceylon Branch of the Brit. Med. Assoc.," 13:30-34, 1916. 32. "Report of the Committee on Legislative Activities," "JAMA," 108:2214-15, 1937. 33. Reynolds, J. Russell: "Therapeutical uses and toxic effects of cannabis indica," "Lancet," 1:637-38, 22 Mar. 1890. 34. Robinson, Victor: "An Essay on Hasheesh--Historical and Experimental," L. H. Ringer, New York, 1912. 35. Rolls, E. J., and Stafford-Clark, D.: "Depersonalization treated by cannabis indica and psychotherapy," "Guy's Hospital Report," 103:330-36, 1954. 36. Sasman, Marty: "Cannabis indica in pharmaceuticals," "J. of the N.J. Med Soc.," 35:51-52, Jan. 1938. 37. Shulgin, Alexander T.: personal communication, 1968. 38. Stevens, A. A.: "Modern Materia Medica and Therapeutics," W. B. Saunders and Co., Philadelphia, 1903, pp. 77-78. 39. Stockings, G. Taylor: "A new euphoriant for depressive mental states," "Brit. Med J.," 1:918-22, 28 June 1947. 40. Suckling, C. W.: "On the therapeutic value of Indian Hemp," "Brit. Med. J.," 2:12, 1881. 41. Terry, C. E., and Pellens, M.: "The Opium Problem," Bureau of Social Hygiene, Inc., New York, 1928, pp. 53-93. 42. Thompson, L. J. and Proctor, R. C.: "The use of pyrahexyl in the treatment of alcoholic and drug withdrawal conditions," "N. Carolina Med. J.," 14:520-23, Oct. 1953. 43. U.S. Treasury Dept., Bureau of Narcotics, "Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs for the Year Ended Dec. 31, 1965," U.S. Printing Office, Washington, 1966, pp. 55-56. 44. Walton, Robert P.: "Marihuana: America's New Drug Problem," J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1938, pp. 1-18, 86-157. 45. Waring, Edward John: "Practical Therapeutics," Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1874, pp. 157-61. 46. Wood, G. B., and Bache, F.: "The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 12th Edition," J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1866, pp. 379-82. 47. Domino, Edward F., "Neuropharmacological Studies of Marijuana-- Some Synthetic and Natural THC Derivatives in Animals and Man," 1971. Unpublished. 54 pp. 48. Hardman, Harold F., Domino, Edward F. and Seevers, Maurice T., "General Pharmacological Actions of Synthetic Tetrahydrocannabinol Derivatives," 1971. Unpublished. 49. Berger, Alfred D., Marijuana. "Med. World News," July 16, 1971, pp. 37-43. 50. Jones, Reese T., "Psychological Studies of Marijuana and Alcohol in Man," "Psychopharmacologia," 18, 108-117, 1970. 51. Jones, Reese T ., "Tetrahydrocannabinol and the Marijuana Induced Social `High' or the Effects of the Mind on Marijuana. Ann." "N.Y. Acad. Sci.," 1972. In press. 52. "Grants Active During Fiscal Years 1968 and 1969 Center for Studies in Narcotics and Drug Abuse," "National Institute of Mental Health," 1969. Unpublished. 53. Ibid., 1970. 54. Bozetti, Louis: personal communication, January, 1972. 55. Arthur D. Little Company, "New Incapacitating Agents Quarterly Report 15/16 Supplement." "Preclinical Pharmacology and Toxicology of Candidate Agent 226, 169." "Papers on Tetrahydrocannabinols Cleared for public release." The National Technical Information Service, Department of Commerce, 1971. 56. Hepler, R. S. and Frank, I. R. "Marihuana Smoking and Intraocular Pressure," "JAMA," Sept. 6, 1971. Vol. 217, no. 10. The Herald (Monday, February 15, 1993: SCIENTIST SAYS CANNABIS WILL BE USED TO TREAT BRAIN DISORDERS A SCOTISH scientist has said it is only a matter of time before cannabis is used to treat brain related disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease. Dr Roger Pertwee, who is leading research into the drug, says marijuana will stop being regarded as a drug of abuse and become a substance which can be used positively. Dr Pertwee, of Aberdeen University's department of bio-medical science, has been studying cannabis since the late 1960s, and is secretary of the International Cannabis Research Society. He and collegues in Israel have discovered a naturally occurring compound in the body which mimics the effects of cannabis on the brain. The genetic material, he sasys, produces what are known as cannabis receptors which affect certain parts of the brain in exactly the same way as cannabis. The effect is most marked in those parts of the brain which deal with memory loss, muscle movement and body temperature, all of which are affected by cannabis. Scientists in the United States "cloned" the genetic compound last year. Dr Pertwee says the receptors are found in the brain areas where it is known that cannabis produces many of its effects. "They are not found in equal amounts throughout the brain, and there is a good correlation between where they are found and the effects which we know cannabis has. "The cannabis field has moved away from the drug abuse side of things. It has expanded in a very exciting way, so we are not dealing just with pharmacology but with physiology. "We are actually now dealing with a substance which affects us all, not just the few people who take cannabis for recreational purposes." Dr Pertwee said it could be that the genetic substance is helping the human memory to function properly, and having a controlling or modulatory role on the brain. "Moving on from there, it could be that we find out more about how certain diseases occur, and we could maybe find new ways of treating diseases." He said that, when looking at potential positive uses, there are clues in the effects which cannabis has on certain body functions. "It has an effect on perception, it has an effect on mood and on the ability to move the muscles, memory, to name just a few. So possibly it might be used to deal with disorders of those effects. "Memory and cognition are affected in old age, particularly in Alzheimer's Disease. It could be that one could use cannabis related compounds to deal with disorders of those phenomena, like memory and so on." Dr Pertwee says there is no longer a stigma attached to cannabis research in the scientific world, although pharmaceutical companies have been less willing to be seen to be working with cannabis-like substances. Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: cklausme@jarthur.claremont.edu (Chris Klausmeier) Subject: ARCHIVE: pot.cancer Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711 Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1993 06:09:22 GMT This is a file from my personal archive of alt.drugs/talk.politics.drugs posts which I've found especially interesting or informative. Odds are good I didn't write it, please don't assume I did. If I repost one of your messages without proper attribution (many files have lost their headers), please send me mail so you can get credit. -- Chris ########################################################################## CancerNet from the National Cancer Institute's PDQ System ********************************************************************* * This information is intended for use by doctors and other health * * care professionals. If you are a cancer patient, your doctor * * can explain how it applies to you, or you can call the Cancer * * Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237). * * CancerNet also has information for patients; see the CancerNet * * Contents List for more information. * ********************************************************************* Information for Physicians Nausea and vomiting 208/04466 Nausea and vomiting: introduction Nausea and vomiting may be among the discomforting, distressing side effects of cancer therapies. Despite advances in the pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic management, nausea and vomiting remain two of the most dreaded side effects by cancer patients and their families.[1,2] Prevention and control of nausea and vomiting is paramount in the treatment of cancer patients, as these can result in serious metabolic derangements, nutritional depletion, deterioration of a patient's physical and mental status, withdrawal from potentially useful and curative antineoplastic treatment, and degeneration of self-care and functional ability.[3-5] Nausea is a subjective phenomenon of an unpleasant, wavelike sensation experienced in the back of the throat and/or the epigastrium that may or may not culminate in vomiting. It is often described as "feeling sick to the stomach."[6,7] Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of the stomach, duodenum, or jejunum through the oral cavity. Retching is the attempt to vomit without bringing anything up and is also described as "dry heaves." Although nausea and vomiting are often used synonymously, some studies suggest that they are distinct entities with different component. s.[4,6,8] Patients have made the distinction between nausea and vomiting and indicate that nausea is far more distressing than vomiting.[6,9,10] Nausea and vomiting are also commonly classified as anticipatory, acute, or delayed, especially when referring to chemotherapy-induced symptoms. Anticipatory nausea and vomiting (ANV) largely occurs prior to or during chemotherapy administration and, to a lesser extent, radiation therapy. Acute nausea and vomiting occurs within a few minutes to several hours after drug administration and usually resolves within 24 hours. Delayed nausea and vomiting occurs several hours after chemotherapeutic drugs are given and can last several days. Certain drugs, such as cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and ifosfamide, are associated with delayed nausea and vomiting.[11] References: 1. Coates A, Abraham S, Kaye SB, et al.: On the receiving end - patient perception of the side-effects of cancer chemotherapy. European Journal of Cancer and Clinical Oncology 19(2): 203-208, 1983. 2. Craig JB, Powell BL: The management of nausea and vomiting in clinical oncology. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 293(1): 34-44, 1987. 3. Richardson JL, Marks G, Levine A: The influence of symptoms of disease and side effects of treatment on compliance with cancer therapy. Journal of Clinical Oncology 6(11): 1746-1752, 1988. 4. Laszlo J, Ed.: Antiemetics and Cancer Chemotherapy. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkens, 1983. 5. Ingle RJ, Burish TG, Wallston KA: Conditionability of cancer chemotherapy patients. Oncology Nursing Forum 11(4): 97-102, 1984. 6. Rhodes VA, Watson PM, Johnson MH, et al.: Patterns of nausea, vomiting, and distress in patients receiving antineoplastic drug protocols. Oncology Nursing Forum 14(4): 35-44, 1987. 7. Rhodes VA, Watson PM, Johnson MH: Development of reliable and valid measures of nausea and vomiting. Cancer Nursing 7(1): 33-41, 1984. 8. Salla. n SE, Cronin CM: Nausea and vomiting. In: DeVita VT, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, Eds.: Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott Company, 2nd Edition, 1985, pp 2008-2013. 9. Rhodes VA, Watson PM, Johnson MH: Patterns of nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients: a preliminary study. Oncology Nursing Forum 12(3): 42-48, 1985. 10. Rhodes VA, Watson PM, Johnson MH: Association of chemotherapy related nausea and vomiting with pretreatment and posttreatment anxiety. Oncology Nursing Forum 13(1): 41-47, 1986. 11. Moreno I, Rosell R, Abad A, et al.: Comparison of three protracted antiemetic regimens for the control of delayed emesis in cisplatin-treated patients. European Journal of Cancer 28A(8/9): 1344-1347, 1992. Nausea and vomiting: neurophysiology Neurophysiology of Nausea and Vomiting Progress has been made in understanding the neurophysiologic mechanisms that control nausea and vomiting. Both are controlled or mediated by the central nervous system but by different mechanisms. Nausea is mediated through the autonomic nervous system. Vomiting results from the stimulation of a complex reflex that is coordinated by the true vomiting center, located in the dorsolateral reticular formation near the respiratory center of the medulla. The true vomiting center, which ultimately controls all emesis, may be stimulated from several neurologic pathways. Afferent input comes from the chemoreceptor trigger zone (CTZ), located in the floor of the fourth ventricle. The CTZ responds to the following: the presence of noxious stimuli in the blood and spinal fluid; vagal visceral and other sympathetic afferents from the viscera (i.e., sympathetic visceral response to inflammation, ischemia, and irritation of the GI tract); vestibulocerebellar afferents from the labyrinth of the inner ear in response to body motion; and afferent input from the cerebral cortex and the limbic system in response . to stimulation of the senses (particularly smell and taste), distress, pain, and increases in intracranial pressure. It is believed that input into the CTZ is the major cause of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. The central pathways appear to converge on the true vomiting center and contain distinct types of neurotransmitter receptors that respond to the specific chemicals dopamine, histamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and glutamine.[1-5] The effect of these multiple pathways upon the true vomiting center is complex. In ANV, however, the CTZ is probably not directly stimulated. References: 1. Craig JB, Powell BL: The management of nausea and vomiting in clinical oncology. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 293(1): 34-44, 1987. 2. Sallan SE, Cronin CM: Nausea and vomiting. In: DeVita VT, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, Eds.: Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott Company, 2nd Edition, 1985, pp 2008-2013. 3. Borison HL, Wang S: Physiology and pharmacology of vomiting. Pharmacological Reviews 5: 195-230, 1953.. 4. Guyton AC: Textbook of Medical Physiology. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 6th ed., 1981.. 5. Borison HL, McCarthy LE: Neuropharmacologic mechanisms of emesis. In: Laszlo J, Ed.: Antiemetics and Cancer Chemotherapy. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkens, 1983, pp 6-20. Nausea and vomiting: incidence and etiology Not all cancer patients will experience nausea and/or vomiting. The most common causes are emetogenic chemotherapy drugs and radiation therapy to the gastrointestinal tract, liver, or brain. Other possible causes include fluid and electrolyte imbalances such as hypercalcemia, volume depletion, or water intoxication; tumor invasion or growth in the gastrointestinal tract, liver, or central nervous system, especially the posterior fossa; constipation; certain drugs such as narcotics; infection or septicemia; uremia; and psychogenic factors. Clinic. ians treating nausea and vomiting must be alert to all potential causes and factors, especially in cancer patients who may be receiving combinations of several treatments and medications. Anticipatory nausea and vomiting refers to a conditioned response in which nausea and vomiting occur prior to treatments and/or specific environmental stimuli (i.e., objects, odors, tastes, and smells). Approximately 10-44% of patients receiving chemotherapy experience nausea and/or vomiting prior to or during chemotherapy infusions.[1-3] While the onset of ANV varies among patients, the pattern is frequently apparent by the fourth or fifth course of treatment. No single factor is characteristic of the development of ANV symptoms. Recent evidence indicates that certain variables can predict which patients will develop ANV. These variables include patients who receive a drug regimen high in emetogenic potential, experience symptom and psychosocial distress, experience mood disturbances, and who demonstrate a limited ability to cope with the stress of the treatment.[4] Variables correlated with the development of ANV include:[1,5-7] - Emetogenicity of chemotherapy received. - Sweating after last chemotherapy. - Feeling warm or hot after last chemotherapy. - Severity of post-treatment nausea and vomiting. - Number of chemotherapy cycles received. - High state- and trait-anxiety levels (state anxiety is a measure of an individual's feelings of anxiety at a specific moment, while trait anxiety reflects how individuals generally feel about themselves and their responses to stress). - Abnormal taste sensations during chemotherapy administration. - Susceptibility to motion sickness. - Delayed onset of postchemotherapy nausea and vomiting. - Age (negatively correlated) less than 50. - Post-treatment dizziness and lightheadedness. Although anxiety may not be the sole factor, it may facilitate the development of ANV in the presence of oth. er identified factors. State- and trait-anxiety levels have been observed to be significantly higher in patients with anticipatory nausea, and increased anxiety has been found to decrease the patient's ability to develop coping strategies in the event of nausea and vomiting.[6] The direct effect of age on the development of ANV has not been clearly demonstrated. Although it has been suggested that younger adults are more susceptible to ANV, whether younger patients may be receiving more aggressive chemotherapy treatments than their older counterparts, and subsequently experiencing more severe post-treatment nausea and vomiting, remains unclear.[1] Several myths concerning nausea and vomiting must be dispelled. The first is that nausea and vomiting are inevitable from cancer treatments. Many cancer patients may never experience these symptoms. A second myth centers on the belief that a cancer patient should experience nausea and vomiting for the treatment to be effective. There appears to be no correlation between these. Finally, it is common to believe that nothing can be done about nausea and vomiting. In the vast majority of cancer patients who will experience these symptoms, nausea and vomiting can be prevented or controlled. By far, chemotherapy is the most common cause of nausea and vomiting. The incidence and severity in persons receiving chemotherapy varies according to many factors, including the particular drug, dose, schedule of administration, route, and individual patient variables. Although every chemotherapy drug in use has the potential for causing nausea and vomiting, drugs are classified based on their emetogenic potential:[8] Severe emetogenic potential drugs (greater than 90% of persons will experience nausea and vomiting) include the following: cisplatin dacarbazine streptozocin mechlorethamine cytarabine (high dose) High emetogenic potential drugs (60-90% of persons will experience nausea and vomiting) include the follo. wing: cyclophosphamide carmustine semustine lomustine procarbazine methotrexate (high dose) dactinomycin ifosfamide carboplatin Moderate emetogenic potential drugs (30-60% of persons will experience nausea and vomiting) include the following: L-asparaginase daunorubicin doxorubicin mitomycin-C 5-azacytidine 5-fluorouracil hexamethylmelamine etoposide Low emetogenic potential drugs (10-30% of persons will experience nausea and vomiting) include the following: bleomycin cytarabine methotrexate hydroxyurea 6-mercaptopurine vinblastine thiotepa Finally, very low emetogenic potential drugs (less than 10% of persons will experience nausea and vomiting) include the following: busulfan androgens estrogens corticosteroids thioguanine vincristine progestins Besides emetogenic potential, however, the dose and schedule used are also extremely important factors. For example, a drug with a low emetogenic potential given in high doses would have a dramatic increase in the potential to induce nausea and vomiting. Standard doses of cytarabine rarely produce nausea and vomiting, but these are often seen with high doses of this drug. Another factor to consider is the use of drug combinations. Because most patients receive combination chemotherapy, the emetogenic potential of all of the drugs combined and individual drug doses needs to be considered. Although patients receiving radiation therapy can experience ANV, in general, patients receiving radiation to the GI tract or brain have the greatest potential for nausea/vomiting as a side effect. Because cells of the GI tract are dividing quickly, they are quite sensitive to radiation therapy. Radiation to the brain is believed to stimulate the brain's vomiting center or CTZ. Similar to chemotherapy, radiation dose factors also play a role in determining the possible occurrence of nausea and vomiting. In general, the higher the daily fractional dose and total. dose of radiation, and the greater the amount of tissue that is irradiated, the higher the potential for nausea and vomiting. In addition, the more of the GI tract irradiated, the higher the potential for nausea and vomiting. Total body irradiation before bone marrow transplant, for example, has a high probability for nausea and vomiting as acute side effects. Nausea and vomiting from radiation may be acute and self-limiting. It usually occurs one-half to several hours after treatment. Patients report that it improves on days that they are not being treated. There are also cumulative effects that may occur in patients receiving radiation therapy to the GI tract. Nausea and vomiting have also been reported in patients receiving radiosensitizers, such as SR 2508. References: 1. Morrow GR, Lindke J, Black PM: Predicting development of anticipatory nausea in cancer patients: prospective examination of eight clinical characteristics. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 6(4): 215-223, 1991. 2. Nesse RM, Carli T, Curtis GC, et al.: Pretreatment nausea in cancer chemotherapy: a conditioned response? Psychosomatic Medicine 42(1): 33-36, 1980. 3. Wilcox PM, Fetting JH, Nettesheim KM, et al.: Anticipatory vomiting in women receiving cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-FU (CMF) adjuvant chemotherapy for breast carcinoma. Cancer Treatment Reports 66(8): 1601-1604, 1982. 4. Pickett M: Determinants of anticipatory nausea and anticipatory vomiting in adults receiving cancer chemotherapy. Cancer Nursing 14(6): 334-343, 1991. 5. Nerenz DR, Leventhal H, Easterling DV, et al.: Anxiety and drug taste as predictors of anticipatory nausea in cancer chemotherapy. Journal of Clinical Oncology 4(2): 224-233, 1986. 6. Andrykowski MA, Redd WH: Longitudinal analysis of the development of anticipatory nausea. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 55(1): 36-41, 1987. 7. Chin SB, Kucuk O. , Peterson R, et al.: Variables contributing to anticipatory nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy. American Journal of Clinical Oncology 15(3): 262-267, 1992. 8. Chase JL, Staggs RJ: Outpatient treatment of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting. Outpatient Chemotherapy 3(3): 4, 1990. Post-treatment nausea and vomiting: management Antiemetic agents are the most common intervention in the management of treatment-related nausea and vomiting. The basis for antiemetic therapy is the neurochemical control of vomiting. Although the exact mechanism is not well understood, the CTZ is known to contain receptors for histamine (H1 and H2), dopamine, acetylcholine, and opiates. Antiemetics act by blocking the receptors for these substances, thereby inhibiting their stimulation of the CTZ. Several studies have been done to show the effectiveness of antiemetics in preventing and controlling treatment-related nausea and vomiting. With the advent of cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug producing severe nausea, a more aggressive approach to the study and use of antiemetics has emerged. Most drugs used to treat nausea and vomiting can be classified into the following groups: dopamine antagonists, serotonin antagonists, and other antagonists. Examples of dopamine antagonists include phenothiazines, substituted benzamides, and butyrophenones. Prochlorperazine is perhaps the most frequently used antiemetic, and with low doses is generally effective in preventing nausea associated with radiation therapy and in treating nausea and vomiting attributed to very low to moderately emetogenic chemotherapy drugs. It is a phenothiazine and can be given by mouth, IM, IV, and rectally. It is usually given in the 10-50 mg dose range (Pediatric dose: 6 mg every 4 to 6 hours). Higher doses of prochlorperazine are also used intravenously for high emetogenic potential chemotherapy drug treatments. The most common side effects of this drug are extrapyramidal reactions. and sedation. Other phenothiazines include chlorpromazine (also available IM, IV, PO, and rectally, 10-50 mg dose range (Pediatric dose: >12 years old - 10 mg every 6 to 8 hours; <12 years old - 5 mg every 6 to 8 hours) and thiethylperazine (given IM, IV, PO, and rectally, 5-10 mg dose range). The phenothiazines act on the true vomiting center. Metoclopramide, a substituted benzamide, is often used in chemotherapy regimens using cisplatin. It is an effective antiemetic but has a relatively short half-life, requiring frequent administrations. It acts on the CTZ periphery and can be administered PO and IV in normal dose ranges of 1-2 mg/kg. It is associated with the side effects of dystonia and akathisia, especially in persons under the age of 30, often requiring concomitant diphenhydramine for prevention of dystonic reactions. Benztropine mesylate, as well as diphenhydramine, can be used for treatment of dystonic reactions.[1] A third dopamine antagonist used less frequently than prochlorperazine and metoclopramide is droperidol. This drug is similar in chemical structure to the phenothiazines. It is in a class of drugs classified as butyrophenones and is administered IM or IV in the 1-2.5 mg dose range and can produce tachycardia or orthostatic hypotension. Haloperidol, another butyrophenone, is administered IM, IV, or PO in the dose range of 1-4 mg and can have the same primary side effects as droperidol. The site of action for the butyrophenones is also on the CTZ. A serotonin antagonist, ondansetron, was approved by the FDA in 1991 for use as an antiemetic. Several studies have demonstrated its enhanced efficacy and low toxicity compared to other agents used in the management of nausea and vomiting induced by chemotherapy.[2-5] Ondansetron (0.15 mg/kg IV) is given 15 minutes prior to chemotherapy; the same dose is repeated at 4 hours and 8 hours. Combination with dexamethasone has shown increased efficacy.[6,7] Other dosing schedules, such as l. arge single doses (32 mg) 1/2 hour prior to chemotherapy or as a continuous infusion (1 mg/hr for 24 hours) or oral administration, have been used.[7-11] Side effects include headache, constipation, fatigue, dry mouth, diarrhea, and transient asymptomatic elevations in liver function tests, i.e. alanine transaminase/aspartate transaminase. The frequency of extrapyramidal side effects and sedation appears to be less with serotonin antagonists than with other classes of antiemetics, however, the drug is expensive. Other serotonin antagonists are also under evaluation.[12-14] Several other antagonists are also commonly used in the prevention and treatment of nausea and vomiting. These include steroids (dexamethasone, methylprednisolone), benzodiazepines (lorazepam, diazepam), and the cannabinoids (dronabinol, nabilone). Steroids can treat nausea and vomiting as single agents, but are more often used in antiemetic drug combinations.[15] Their mechanism of action related to emesis is not fully understood, but they may affect prostaglandin activity in the brain.[16] Dexamethasone is often the treatment of choice in treating nausea and vomiting in a person receiving radiation to the brain, as it also reduces brain edema. It is administered PO, IM, or IV in the dose range of 8-40 mg (Pediatric dose: 0.25-0.5 mg/kg). For chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting, it is often given intravenously before and after the chemotherapy is given, then orally for delayed nausea and vomiting. Long-term administration of dexamethasone can produce several side effects, including muscle weakness (especially in the thighs and upper arms), lethargy, weight gain, GI irritation, and mood changes. If given intravenously, dexamethasone should be given slowly since rapid infusion can cause acute transient rectal pain.[17] Benzodiazepines, such as lorazepam, are becoming more popular in the prevention and treatment of treatment-related nausea and vomiting, especially with severe emet. ogenic chemotherapy given to children.[18] These drugs act on the higher CNS structures, the brainstem, and spinal cord, and essentially produce both a sedative and amnesic effect. Lorazepam can be administered PO, IM, IV, and also sublingually. Dose range is 0.5-3 mg in adults and 0.03-0.05 mg/kg in children. Cannabinoids, the last category of non-dopamine antagonists, also target the higher CNS structures to prevent nausea and vomiting. Synthetic drugs similar to [7mmarijuana[m include dronabinol and nabilone. Because of cultural, societal, and financial constraints, these drugs are often not the first selected agents for antiemetics but may be best accepted and most useful in young adults. These drugs are administered orally and may produce a euphoria or "high," drowsiness, or hypotension. In one double-blind randomized study of patients receiving cisplatin, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) was superior to placebo when given in combination with metoclopramide and dexamethasone. A dose of 1 mg ACTH decreased the incidence and severity of delayed emesis for the 24-72 hours after therapy.[19] Wickham, Krasnow and Sagar have published comprehensive overviews of antiemetic drugs, their actions, doses, and possible side effects.[17,20-22] Gralla et al. [23] have outlined methodology for use in designing antiemetic trials. Besides single antiemetic agents, combination antiemetic regimens are also used and have become increasingly popular with highly emetogenic chemotherapy treatment programs. A combination of several drugs can be used to attack nausea and vomiting from several sites and mechanisms of action. Most combination drug regimens combine a dopamine antagonist with those having no dopamine-blocking effect. An example of a combination drug regimen is the in-patient administration of metoclopramide, dexamethasone, and lorazepam for a cisplatin-containing drug regimen in the following doses and schedule: metoclopramide 2 mg/kg IV before chemotherapy 02/06 0109 Marijuana-Birds Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. By SCOTT LINDLAW Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- This marijuana is for the birds. All 608 tons of it. That's the amount of marijuana seeds imported last year -- all of it legal -- to feed pet birds. Packers say the seeds are high in protein and fat and make for shiny feathers. "It is not used to excite the birds," said Kathy Schneider, technical service coordinator for Kaytee Products in Chilton, Wis., which packages marijuana seed. "It is a nutritional source." The Drug Enforcement Agency allows six U.S. companies to import marijuana seeds that end up as feed for parakeets, parrots, cockatiels and pigeons. Pigeon owners favor feeding their birds the seeds before shows because they improve appearance, Schneider said. The seeds aren't the kind that would intoxicate a bird, let alone a human. But to discourage would-be pot gardeners, the DEA makes sure the life is baked out of them in a heat treatment before they hit U.S. shores. Under DEA rules, the seeds must be "non-viable," or incapable of producing marijuana plants, when they arrive in this country. If tests show they are viable, they get another heat treatment. Schneider said a few seeds will bloom into plants even after the treatment, but won't mature or bear seeds. Most of the seeds are imported from Hong Kong and mainland China, said Joel Fries, deputy chief of the drug operations section of DEA's Office of Diversion Control. Why not let the seed companies grow marijuana and harvest the seeds? That would be illegal, Fries said. So would using seeds confiscated in drug busts, because the seeds are often viable. "Anyway, we destroy the stuff as fast as we can and it's hard to store," he said. -- The University of Massachusetts at Amherst | _________,^-. Cannabis Reform Coalition ( | ) ,> S.A.O. Box #2 \|/ { 415 Student Union Building `-^-' ? ) UMASS, Amherst MA 01003 verdant@titan.ucs.umass.edu |____________ `--~ ; \_,-__/ * To find out about our on-line library, mail a message with the * pattern "{{{readme}}}" contained IN THE SUBJECT LINE. * You will be mailed instructions; your message will be otherwise ignored