Why a plant as important as hemp isn't still cultivated on a large scale? Why they don't invest for example in textile and paper spinnerets?

Economy and environment can't do without row materials that only hemp can replace. (At the moment italian editors are very worry about the paper. The forecasts for the paper cost are wretched: in 2001 it could increase of 20%. And there is the risk to be highter than offer: the spinnerets intend to sell their products in markets where negotiation are in dollars. Some newspapers as "il Giorno" started to begin the number of sheets in their issues).

Besides hemp becomes indispensable to agriculture as cultivation in rotation of crops and as no-food alternative to traditional agricultures for nourishment, since its market can't expand more.

The problem which forbad the hemp relaunch has got a name: "marijuana"

There are several variety of hemp. There is hemp cultivated regularly in Europe to produce fabrics (Cannabis sativa) that contains low quantity of resin and hemp that comes from Eastern, full of resin, that contents cannabinoids responsible of psychoactive effect (Cannabis indica).

Cannabinoids are in resin that imbue plants inflorescence. THC (tetraidrocannabinolo) is the most important cannabinoids. The inflorescence, full of resin, are used to produce cigarettes of marijuana, that law considers drugs.

The problem is that the european hemp, at low THC rate is indistinguible from Indian hemp (the WHO - World Health Organization) fixes that if the percentage of THC is more than 1% we consider Indiana hemp, that means drug, and if it is less than 1% we consider industrial hemp.
Resin at natural condition (hashish) gives hallucinogenic effects and we have to consider that a real drug (even if they usually use it, crumbled in little bits and put into tobaccoes, to make cigarettes that have the same concentration of active substance and they smoke them as marijuana).
Even if it is possible with tests establish the THC rate of a plant and even if notwithstanding the existing provisions of the law and with a thousand limits is enabled to cultivate hemp, but hemp cultivation isn't free. And it could happen that a farmer who cultivate it is treated like a drug trafficker and it will be difficult to find farmers that seed it and firms that coltivate it.

Drug as a problem

If the "problem of marijuana" doesn't exist, hemp could be a regular cultivatin and we could use it to solve many problems in agricolture, economy and environment. If from some quality of hemp they obtain drugs is only an unlikely coincidence.
But does the thing work like this?
Really the question couldn't be what it is: it isn't true that we can't use this plant to solve environmental problems because - unfortunately - it is also a drug. Instead of that it is true that hemp, riched of resin, is first of all an important medicine and it become drugs in 30's to eliminate the dangerous competing of petroleum, in chemical industry and in paper producted by wood.

This reason why who are interested in hemp either economic or environmental reasons, they will have to reckon with the drug problem.
Let us to know why it is neccesary look back.
Hemp (Cannabis sativa) has always been one of the main plants used in agricolture, with a big importance as whether economic or strategic, because it was used to produce the most widespread fabrics, sails and ropes. Hemp one of few plants cultivated in ancient times from est to west. We can't imagine a ancient society without hemp, without its fabrics, without sails and ropes made by strong and imperishable hemp. The importance of hemp in ancient societies rises from geographical places that remind its name (for example: Canavese in Italy, Hempshire in England, Bangladesh in southern Asia). Hemp was often exalted by writers and poets and in Italy a poem was dedicated to it Il Canapaio.

In the ninth century hemp cultivation lost a lot of its importance because it was replaced step by step with cotton and the sailing-boats were replced with stimboats.
Also the medical uses of hemp (cannabis indica) are as much as ancient. They are traditional in East, but hemp use with soporific effects were known in Mediterranean Civilties (Egyptians) and then in Arabian Countries.

In the first half of ninth century englishmen rediscovered the importance of medical hemp in India.
In 1842, the english doctor O'Shaunghnessey come back in England with tincture of hemp and soon this new medicine was diffused till become, in the second half of the ninth century, one of the most known in anglosaxson coutries.

The medical uses of hemp (Cannabis Indica) are sono several and important, and so hemp is one of the most useful medical plant. The Cannabis indica is one of the most effective medicines, and the most effective is, as analgesic, anti-emetic, antidepressant, in headache and hemicrania, in epilepsy, in glaucoma and in asthma treatments, etc..
Between ninth and twentieth centuries, hemp began to be replaced by synthetic medicines, that they had the advantage to be able to be dosed exactly and to be more effective in treatments; the cellaterale effects weren't known even if they were more remunerative. So hemp began to replaced, for the same reasons for which began the replace step by step of natural medicine with synthetic medicine.
So hemp has a long history, and concernig hemp, full of resin, used by medicine, the problem of its bland psychoactive effects was considered negligible, so much so that it was given to children.

The rediscover of hemp in 30's and the prohibitionism in 1937

Concerning industrial uses, in 30's there was a new interest in hemp: they studied new materials with a high quantity of fiber for industry, plastic materials produced by wood cellulose and they studied also the possibility to produce paper from hemp wood. After all with oil they produced a large quantity of paints and petrol.
Just in those years the magnate of petroleum Henry Ford built a prototype of a car in which either body or inside and also glasses made with hemp. This car weighed less than one third and also the petrol use for it was hemp.
In 30's, hemp used as row material in several fields in industry. An industry much more supporting environmet than industry of today.
Unfortunately these promises wasn't kept. There were big interests that opposited to hemp. With petroleum they began to produce plastic materials and paints, and the paper of the Hearst's newspapers was produced with wood with a process that used a large quantity of chemical solvents, given by chemical Du Pont's industry.
So Du Pont and Hearst formed a coalition. With the continuous press campaign in several years, from then on cannabis was named "marijuana", was accused to be the responsable for all the crimes reported by news in those days.
The mexican name "marijuana" was accurate choosen to point out hemp badly, since Mexico was, in that age, a hostile nation against which United States had just fight a war about boundaries. After that "marijuana" was a unknown word, so the general opinion, hearing about a such dangerous drugs, couldn't know that it is the inoffensive and kind medicine named Cannabis with relax properties, and that it has as a side effect can arouse only a light gaiety.
After that in 30's United States was going throught a big economic crisis with millions of unemployeds and a general opinion which was searching the scapegoat for that, in 1937 was passed a law that forbad the cultivatin of any kind of hemp. We have to observe that not only hemp full of resin was forbad but also the hemp usually cultivated. It was more than a simple prohibitionism, because it was also unjustified. In United States thousand persons are imprisoned only because they find them smoking some cigarettes. Prohibitionism was determinant to diffuse the consumeristic use of hemp, while before that there was only a medicl use. The only kind of prohibitionism that had success was throught hemp for industrial use, the real objective of prohibitionism, apart from medical hemp.

Since 30's chemical petroleum industry and industry of paper produced by wood arouse a lot of destruction in world ecosystems. If today we want to form a consumer's society much more favourable to environment is necessary reverse the decision that in 1937 tranformed one of the most important and inoffensive medicine in a dangerous drug.
As above-mentioned the Cannabis can be a real drug, not only for the denages, but at least about the effects that it can arouse. Resin at natural condition (known as hashish) if took in a large quantity, arouse hallucinogenic effects, as intense as the quantity. But it wasn't the reason of the prohibition of hemp in 1937, because the hallucinogenic use was unknown in United States, it don't corresponded to the mexican name marijuana, and anyway it couldn't arouse violent crime imputed to it.
By the way his problem exists. A consumistic use of Cannabis to have hallucinogenic effects is unadvisable: hashish isn't a anodyne substance; it can cause strong sensations either pleasant or unpleasant, so advise them to use it with prudence.

Can Cannabis cause physical damages and dependence?
On the main mass-media there is continuosly discussions about the danger of hemp, either physical damages or dependence.
Concerning the problem about dependence physical damages, the Roques' Report ordered by French Government, in the chapter concerning Cannabis, mentions about many researches done or in progress, that could end with the demonstration that there are some damages debited with hemp. Notwithstanding the scientific big words, there isn't anything that is demontrated. Many reserches are done, to determinate damages to justify the prohibitionism, but these researches demonstred its innocuousness. The most important thing in the Report, mentioned by prohibitionists, is an alteration in the system of immunity, observed in cavy to which they given high doses of Cannabis.
An irregular behaviour of system of immunity could surely cause problems, but we have to keep in mind that they given to cavies doses much more highter than a dose taken by a human.
The high dosages with hallucinogenic effects are the only ones that could arouse apprehension but they don't be used in medicine and they aren't also much used among consumers of Indian hemp.
It is the low doses for their own use, tipical of smoked Cannabis, alias marijuana, is in the interest of medicine, even if we had to say that when Cannabis was used in medicine, was used in tincture, so dosed in drops not smoked. However, also in that way there was the "famous" psychoactive effects, baut they don't consider them a a problem.
When we talk about marijuana, the only example that prohibitionists can make, concerning the possible damages to lungs. We had to start from this: a marijuana cigarette deposits in lungs more than three times of the usual quantity of a tobaccoes cigarette. What does it mean? It means that is marijuana more detrimental than tobacco? Are there three times highter cancer risk to lungs?
First of all we had to say that the reason of this greater deposit of tar: tobacco cigarettes have filter, while the others in black market haven't.

Compared to tobacco, marijuana is loss smoked. According to Roques'sReport the 90% of consumers of Cannabis are occasional, that means they don't smoke neither a cigarette per day. And if the problem is that, using narghile that don't allow to the assumption of tar or on other type of assumption. But also the researches on obstinate smokers, the ones who smoke till to 10 marijuana cigarettes per day (the tehoric maximum rate, bacause in this way we are under the effects of the substance in all the hours of the day in which they are awake), they don't demontrated no one increase of the statistics risks to be taken ill about sickness or cancer of the lungs.

In the smoke of tobacco there are carcinogenic substances that there aren't in somke of cannabis. Besides, while nicotine of tobacco cause the stricture of the alveoluses of lungs, the smoke of cannabis cause the dilatation of them, that favours the elimination of foreing substances. For this reason the smoke of marijuana is considered an asthma treatment. The scientists say that in marijuana smokers there are the same superficial damages in the mucosas of the lungs that there are in tobacco smokers, but then the damages don't progress.
Also the other damages, attributed to indian hemp, are duly disavowed by scientific researches: the decrease of memory aren't never demonstrated, because the memory tests give contrasting little differences. The damages in brain aren't existing also concerning hallucinogenic doses (while drunkenness destroy a lrge quantity of cerebral cells).

About the problem "dipendence", while the Roques' Report asserts that a restricted number of cases, however much more lower than the ones of alcohol and tobacco, high doses of cannabis (hashish) could give dependence, other authors assert that it don't give never habit or dependence whatever the doses are.
But nevermore nobody can assert there are problems of dependence for cannabis in light doses (marijuana). See the page on medical uses of hemp where there is the report issued in english journal New Scientist that talks about ducth experience of liberalization of use of indian hemp (see "Hemp & Medicine").

Keep in mind that there aren't detoxication programs for marijuana or hashish anywhere, but sometimes in United States there are courses of re-education, to avoid to loose job - but that isn't the same thing.
We had to consider the damages (and the dependence) of a inoffensive substance, so sold without prescription in drugstores.
The aspirin, that had replaced exactly 100 years ago the cannabis as analgesic, cause stomach ulcerations (they say always to everyone to don't keep it on a empty stomach). Besides in scientific literature there are by the dozen cases of death due to aspirin. After all aspirin cause habit, if it is true that million of people in the world uses it a half blister at time. According to Lester Grinspoon, the main world expertabout marijuana, there isn't in medical literature no one case of death certainly due to cannabis.
If they would demonstrat for cannabis also a tenth part of the damages caused from aspirin, who knows what they say!
Really the damages caused by indian hemp, if they exist, are lower than the tenth part of the ones caused by aspirin. To stand that cannabis causes damages, they try to prove that black is white and white black!

If we compare the medicine cannabis with the other ones that at the moment replace it, as psychotropic drugs, anti-emetics etc.. and that cause big side effects, strong dependence and heavy effects on psyche, instead of the whole innocuousness of indian hemp.
It's really curious that such topics are a justify, instead of what it is, that means a prohibitionistic obstinacy.

The psychoactive effects of marijuana

The psychoactive effects of cannabis at low doses can't be a justify of prohibitionism.
First of all they are mild effect, so a person, that is under its influence, isn't easily distinguishable from an other. Besides these effects aren't so demoniac. Here we are, more or less, (not for direct experience): mental and muscle relaxing, better humor, slackening of reflexes, more difficult to pay attention and more interests in details.
Concerning slackening of reflexes, more difficult to pay attention, they aren't cannabis damages, but only of its peculiarity (complitely reversible and without long-dated effects as many studies have demonstrated). So the peculiarity of camomile-tea has a soporific effect and coffee to better the attention condition, but nobody thinks that, for this reason, camomile-tea and coffee are dangerous drugs to forbid.

In the other hand, the prohibition of 1937 was justify with other indictments to slacken reflexes: they accuse it to be responsable of the worse crimes of the time, like it was able to render mad the people and persons thirsting for violence.
Now nobody dreams to do such accusations, that thay are the cause of what we can name "the mother of all prohibitions". Since that, notwithstanding the original arguments broken, this prohibition is confirmed many times. Indeed, always to justify this anacronistic prohibition, somewhere today somebody assert that cannabis could render people more kindly and in the case they are assaulted they can defend themself.

We have to kkep in mind that we don't talking about drugs, not even soft drugs that include also lozenges made of artificial chemical substances. But we talking about a plant and a natural medicine called cannabis.
The only contraindication concerning the overindulgence of teenagers.
In this hard age, that we pass from a surrounding protected and without troubles to a situation in which we have to start to undertake responsabilities, we could need to escape from reality. We can escape from reality in many ways: too much tv, movies, videogames, comics, etc.. And also too much marijuana. Marijuana itself don't be a problem, unless it become a convenient way to escape from reality and responsabilities. Also in that case it's better inform and educate than forbid. Certainly the worse way is to swindle youngs, that know marijuana is innocuousness and that to get it they have to contact heavy drug-pushers.

It's time to realize it.

World War I Syndrome

Really in the behaviour of many prohibitionists against cannabis we can find what we can called "World War I Syndrome".
To explain what is the "World War I Syndrome" we need to make a digression.
The wars born usually when in States there are strong internal tensions that we can resolve: these tensions are projected into the States abroad, throught neighboring Countries. But the World War I don't start in this way. Europe was in a economic growth and it has a growing welfare. Many fact happened and they cause military collation between France and Germany. The two Coutries thought that letting see the muscle was enought. Besides after a few months, many youngs was dead and magnificent display of power became in a dirty bloody war.

It was better say: we don't need this war, we mistaken, come back, act as if nothing had happened. But how do this: there was a lot of deads! So the war went on and at the end there was tens of millions of deads.

The same is for indian hemp. How we say now: "Sorry, we mistaken, cannabis is completely innocuousness, not only but it is a good medicine", after so many professions on dangerously and on demoniac effects of this substance, after million of people all over the world are imprisoned to smoke a joint?
Perhaps for this reason they haven't the courage to admit that this prohibitionism is absurd, that put at the same level cannabis and drugs like heroine and cocaine.
It's more and more difficult keep this position: in United States, where medicine of cannabis was in use for a long time, there are almost twenty Countries where popular referendum have liberalized cannabis to medical use. In the american hospitals since many times there is the use of cannabis and even encurage from doctors, notwithstanding there is the prohibitionism of Federal Government.
Lately, after Holland, Switzerland and Spain, also Belgium on 19 of Genuary 2001 decided to completely liberalize the use of cannabis.
And also in the outstanding Italy the madical uses of hemp start to be known.

Not only the main magazines, but also italian television (as RAI3 - as "Report" on sunday 18 February 2001 at 11.00 p.m.) dedicated reports to this topic and also on internet there is full site in italian on medicine using cannabis, keep by doctors to whom we can answer questions.

About hemp

Finally, even if someone can demonstrate the opposite (many people try this..) the situation may be condensed in these points:

• hemp cultivation for industrial use, cultivate everywhere since agriculture exists, is more and more necessary for the balance of environment and for a maintenable economy;

• hemp cultivation for industrial use is forbad, except derogations or limitations, because it is similar to indian hemp;

• indian hemp at low doses (marijuana) is forbad as drug, while its psycoactive effects are mild and socially accettable, it don't cause damages and even it is a more important medicine;

• indian hemp at high doses (hashish) is forbad because give hallucinogenic effects, even if it don't cause fisical damages but perhaps only light habit;

• we can't liberalize hemp cultivation to industrial use, because that permit the risk to loosen the prohibition on marijuana;

• we can't liberalize hemp cultivation to industrial use, even if it isn't a drug but a natural medicine, because that permit the risk to loosen the prohibition on hashish;

• for transitiv property we can't liberalize hemp cultivation to industrial use, because that permit the risk to loosen the prohibition on hashish, even if hashish is a innocuousness substance and also not much in use!

But it is at all: in derogation to prohibition, Europe establish that we acn cultivate industrial hemp seeding seeds certified with THC rate less than 0.3%.
As soon as Italy began to produce itself a few seeds of italian variety within this limit, immediately EEC decrease to 0.2% toward 0% if Italy (that produced better textile fiber of hemp all over the world) will insist to be within this parameter. All this to protect a little french monopoly, support by EEC help, formed in these years.

So it happen that, while a more and more large number of Countries discover utility of hemp, they revaluate its medicine uses and legalize marijuana and hashish, a myopic community bureaucracy try to stop anyway that the problems of environment can find the solutions that we are waiting for a long time.