Hemp Stigma Hurting U.S.

The hemp plant has more uses than almost any other plant grown worldwide, yet it has been illegal to grow in the United States for industrial use for the last 80 years.

It can be used for food purposes, body care products, fuel, oil, paint, ropes, fabric, paper, and it has many other uses as well.

Many people don't know how widely hemp was used in Colonial America. It used to be the primary material used in ropes, ship sails, clothes, books, paper and even legal tender notes.

Although the plant is related to the marijuana plant, it contains virtually no THC, and regardless of what many think, hemp will not get people high.

In a world with today's economic problems and the search for better, more efficient fuels, the legalization of industrial-use hemp would have only positive effects, and they would be substantial. Hemp-oil fuels produce half of the harmful emissions of an ordinary diesel engine, it can produce four times the amount of paper than a same-size plot of trees would, and three times as much fabric as a same-size crop of cotton.

Kristofer Clark

Lompoc, CA

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