Now that Hemp is Finally Legal Can We Use it to Save Planet Earth & Why Did We Wait So Darn Long?

by Zvi Baranoff

Now that hemp is FINALLY being reintroduced to the American economy, I reflect on the DECADES of struggle that proceeded.

In the early 1980s we began an educational campaign about the vast social, environmental and economic opportunities and possibilities of hemp. We were generally met with disbelief or scorn. Jack Herrer's book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes was published in 1985, and is justifiably credited with launching the hemp movement,  but before publication much of the key information was being circulated in the form of leaflets.

Mainstream Environmental organizations were absolutely NOT interested, fearing any association to cannabis. Even the fringe, supposedly radical Greens responded similarly, shunning or purging cannabis advocates well into the 1990s. The perception was that hemp was a Trojan Horse to introduce marijuana and THAT was the Third Rail of American politics. Nobody but a fool touches the Third Rail.

The circles where hemp gained traction were twofold. There were the Rainbow Family/Dead Head/Hippie types that identified on a cultural level and started buying hemp twine to make bracelets and necklaces and other sorts of arty trinkets. These Hempsters helped spread the Gospel of Hemp with somewhat of a religious fervor. On the other end of the spectrum, some intelligently calculating Libertarian types, farmers and business interests became interested. Everyone else just looked askance.

It took decades for the awareness to work its way from the fringes to the political and cultural center.

Thirty plus years later, we now can test some of our theories concerning hemp and the Environment. With luck and determination we may be able to use hemp as a major tool to avoid environmental collapse.

It certainly would have been better if we had been given this opportunity decades ago. Unfortunately, there was too much political intransigence. We really, as a culture, should have been acting with the seriousness of a crisis situation back then because now everything is way more critical. Yet, we had the seeds of a better economy and a healthier environment all along. Finally, the seeds are now legal.