Hemp for Victory!

I wasn't surprised when yet another plot of marijuana was found over in Marion County. The debate over this leafy hero, or demon, has raged for years.
While we hear of all the reasons it's bad, from being called a "gateway" drug, to dire warnings about health risks, we forget that hemp has been around for centuries, and our government urged people to grow it during WWII !

Hemp was used for making rope, canvas for sails, and even clothing for many years. Henry Ford used it to help make (and fuel) cars. It's a renewable resource that can be used to make hemp oil, which can power diesel engines, or make ethanol to blend with gasoline.
Hemp oil is biodegradable, and does not produce sulfur dioxide when burned. A group of people even converted a car to run on hemp oil, and drove it cross-country. It sure doesn't sound like the demon weed it's purported to be!

In the wake of these hard economic times, growing hemp would be a boon to farmers struggling to keep family farms going. It can be grown from border to border, with little or no attention, and can be used for many products that now rely on dwindling supplies of petrochemicals. With all these things going for it, why does the government at all levels, try to eradicate it? In my opinion, this could well be the goose that laid the golden egg! We now need to promote it, not destroy it.

And going back to the local pot bust, and the economy of late; what's wrong with growing it in order to make money? Jobs are drying up, people are falling behind on their mortgages, and other bills, and the outlook is getting bleaker. Perhaps this little patch was just to help someone survive for a little while longer. It's no different than the stills that popped up here during prohibition. It's American ingenuity at it's best! Just because the Government can't regulate it doesn't make it bad.

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that our government urged people to grow pot? They even produced a short newsreel promoting it! Click the following link and see for yourself: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/04/hemp-for-victory-194.html

Whoever planted that patch in Marion County wasn't a criminal, they are a true patriot! Hemp for victory!