Hemp Is a Sustainable Building Material with Dozens of Incredible Characteristics–But, Of Course, There’s a Catch
Anyway one looks at it, hemp is a wonder substance
. As a building material, it is easily and inexpensively grown with organic farming methods. Hemp can be formed in blocks, much like concrete that are naturally terrific insulators, and fire- and insect-resistant as well. In a world in which harsh chemicals continue to invade our biosphere, and thus our bodies (there are more than 140 synthetic chemicals in your blood stream as you read this), hemp offers the opportunity to stop this trend dead in its tracks.
So what’s the issue? The ceaseless terror our government has about marijuana–which is a “schedule one” drug, meaning that it’s placed in the same category as heroin.
One might surmise that this thinking may be changing, as the years go by, the American people increasingly call for the legalization of recreational pot (currently 60%, and much more if one includes medical purposes), and it becomes more evident to all that, by all conceivable measures, pot is far less debilitating, both to the individual and to society, than alcohol. For fun, try to name a metric in which booze offers more value than pot. Consider traffic deaths, workplace absence and ruined careers, domestic violence, divorce, clinic depression, brain damage, chemical dependence, erectile dysfunction, organ damage…make the list as long as you choose. When was the last time you read about a man coming home, getting high, and beating up his wife?
Conversely, consider the mounting evidence suggesting that several of the cannabinoids in marijuana have salubrious effects on a considerable range of different disease states: glaucoma, arthritis, chronic anxiety, diminished lung capacity, the progression of Alhzeimher’s and certain kinds of cancer, nausea associated with chemotheraphy, epilepsy and other causes of seizures and spasms, insomnia, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Of course, the U.S. is going through a regressionary period in every possible modality of government intrusion into our personal and civic lives, so it’s only to be expected that our Attorney General is desperate to halt the process by which states legalize the use of marijuana and increase the penalties associated with it. Yet, as with all the other forms of insanity that pervade our politics today, we need to hope that this is a passing phase, and that science and reason will somehow be restored in our society. Wish us luck.
Craig,
It’s great to find myself in furious agreement with you !
If ever any nation should have learned a lesson about the disastrous from trying to control a medical/ lifestyle choice by means of prohibition and moralistic law enforcement, it’s should be the USA !
Various US governments, State and Federal of every political persuasion have made disastrous decisions regarding marijuana and other drugs.
Worse, by strenuous and often exceedingly coercive methods US agencies have exported this insanity to other nations. The level of insanity against the War on Drugs has reached levels of madness and cost totally without any measure of success, in fact the whole approach has turned a minor problem into devastation.
Everyone knows prohibition, or law enforcement doesn’t work, just leads to massive social and institutionalized corruption, that like a cancer destroys society.
Again, well said , Craig, very well said indeed !
This really is a red-letter day. 🙂
Having stood literally on both sides of this issue at the same time I came quickly to the conclusion that this is an un-winnable “war”. I have seen the resources both sides are able to throw at their end of the conflict and long ago came to the conclusion that in order to absolutely seal our boarders against smuggling each American would have to be willing to give up a full 50% of their paycheck in taxes to fund this effort. I would like to see the republicans try to convince their constituency of the value of that.
Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol or prostitution. It is folly to think it will work for drugs.
One thing the hemp prohibition did was to force our waterborne military to purchase hemp for their line from outside of our country. Kind of ironic that we were unable to tie our vessels up with line made in the US.