Hemp Seeds... For Your Health!

     Cannabis sativa, also known as hemp or simply "cannabis", is one of the most nutritionally balanced foods known to man.  In a day when health foods and supplements are billion-dollar industries,  it is crazy to think that society has not caught on to health benefits of this amazing seed.
     Hemp seeds have been used as a source of food throughout history.  It has been given to livestock and birds as a cheap, balanced food source.  Even today, many natural food advocates praise hemp seed for its high protein and high essential fatty acid (EFA) content.  The protein found in hemp seeds is close to two-thirds edestin and one-third albumin.  These two types of globulin proteins together contain all eight essential amino acids.  About 44% of the weight of the seed consists of healthy oils, which 80% of are EFAs like alpha and gamma-linolenic acids and linoleic acid.

     Medicinally, the oil from the seed has been used to treat skin disorders such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne.  The high "good fat" content of the oil promotes cardiovascular and joint health.  EFAs found in hemp seed oil are also essential for immune health as well as proper nervous system function.
     Currently, it is illegal for farmers to grow cannabis in the United States.  Hemp seed and its oil has to be imported into the country, which at that point can be sold or used as an additive in healthcare products and foods.  Hemp grows in a variety of climates and needs little or no herbicides and pesticides.  Hopefully in the near future, cannabis will be able to be freely grown for its many uses, such as for food, medicine, and industry.

DuPont hates Cannabis - Part 3

     Until now, I have left one factor out of this saga's equation: *William Randolph Hearst*.  Hearst was the owner of the largest newspaper conglomerate in his day and he took full advantage of it. Using yellow journalism and smear tactics, Hearst's papers painted a false picture of cannabis as being a factor in violent crimes and interracial unions.  

     It is ironic that this occurred around the same time as the invention of the hemp decorticator (1935), a device used in separating the cellulose fibers from the plant.  Much like the cotton gin did for cotton, the decorticator allowed for hemp fiber processing time - and ultimately production costs - to drop significantly.  Previously (in 1916), the USDA concluded that pulp made from hemp was "favorable in comparison with those used in wood pulp".Here is a *link* to a downloadable copy of their findings.  Hemp was on course to become America's leading cash crop!  

     Hearst had other plans, however. Because the Hearst corporation also was a major logging company, Hearst had vested interest in hundreds of thousands of acres of timber. DuPont produced the chemicals for the treatment of raw wood pulp into usable paper.  DuPont also was a huge advertiser in Hearst's publications. These two giants were not about to let hemp get between them and dollar bills...

     The vast size of the newspaper empire of the Hearst Corporation allowed for Hearst to propagate completely made-up tales of rape, murder, and "madness"! It was claimed that white women would be seduced by marijuana to "seek sexual relations" with "Negroes and  Mexicans and entertainers".  With society being duped of the purportedly dangerous effects of cannabis, the stage was being set for prohibition.  Remember Andrew Mellon? He was the Treasury Secretary at the time and he appointed his nephew, Harry Anslinger, to be head of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics (by the way, cannabis is not a narcotic).  Anslinger hated minorities and believed that "the Devil's music", Jazz, was a direct  result of marijuana use by minority entertainers.  

    It is quite sad that all of this greed, racism, and lies have set America back. Because of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1938, cannabis was virtually outlawed (by doubling the cost for registered possessors and multiplying the cost a hundred-fold for unregistered possessors).  If you haven't, please read "DuPont hates Cannabis" in all three parts.  Also, share these blog entries with people who think marijuana was outlawed with good intentions.  

     

DuPont hates Cannabis - Part 2

     In Part 1, I mentioned society's shift from using hempseed oil to synthetic chemicals in paints and varnishes.  I would like to now draw your attention to behind the historical "curtain".  In the late 1800s,  "Agriculture" was begining to lose marketshare to the up-and-coming  "Industy". Several billion dollars were at stake.  In 1896, Rudolph Diesel's new engine had been designed with the presumption that vegetable and seed oils (like hempseed oil) would be used as fuel.
     Have you ever heard of Chevron? Chevron was the result of the merger of Standard Oil and Gulf Oil companies in 1985.  Gulf Oil had been throughout most of the twentieth century one of the major manufacturers of fuels and lubricants. Fuels and lubricants that were made from petroleum instead of natural oils such as hempseed oil.  It was in 1913 that Gulf Oil opened its first drive-in gas station - the same year Ford Motor Company began using the assembly line for automobile manufacturing.  At this time I shall mention briefly that the Alcohol Prohibition of 1919 falls right in line with the fledgling automotive industry's decision of which fuel to use - ethanol ( alcohol produced from grains) versus petroleum-derived gasoline.

     The special interests do not stop there - we are just getting started!  One of DuPont's larger financial backers, a man by the name of Andrew Mellon became the Treasury Secretary of this nation.  Mellon had taken over Gulf Oil.  In 1914, DuPont had purchased $25 million in stock of a little known company called General Motors.  Pierre DuPont, the founder of DuPont, became president of GM in 1920.  The ties between DuPont and the Oil and Automotive industries had been made.  They were going to rise or fall as a group - they needed each other.
     As this story unfolds, I hope you are beginning to see the corruption that is starting to brew and how it all links in the prohibition of cannabis.  Stay tuned for Part 3!

DuPont hates Cannabis - Part 1

     If one is willing to take a moment and do some homework, he or she would find that DuPont, one of the world's leading chemical corporations, was a major player in the "Let's eradicate cannabis from the planet!" campaign.  I will try to give my readers a condensed version of this story, but please take some time and search out these facts for yourself.  Due to the fact that I try to keep my blog entries to a few paragraphs per blog, I will not pour out everything there is to know about this "relationship" between cannabis and DuPont in this blog entry.  I will begin by focusing on the use of cannabis in paints and varnishes.
     Prior to DuPont's multiple petrochemical creations hitting the market, *hempseed oil* was used in the manufacturing of virtually all quality paints and varnishes. It has been a staple in the industry for thousands of years.   In 1935, 116 million pounds of it were designated for paint and varnish use in America alone!  The testimonies of DuPont lobbyists between the years of 1935-1937 to Herman Oliphant (Chief Counsel for the Treasury Department) that hempseed oil could be synthetically replaced by DuPont's new chemical products are undoubtedly tied in with Oliphant's drafting of the Marijuana Tax Act, which was submitted to Congress and passed in 1938.
cont. in Part 2