Greed Killed Mary Jane

Let me begin this post by saying that I have no idea how valid this story is. Having said that, I don't really doubt it. Greed has run this country since it's discovery. I read this not long ago and thought that it made perfect sense. It is how greed killed Mary Jane.

Years ago, this country had a thriving hemp crop. The colonists were ordered by King James, you know, the one the bible is named after, to grow hemp and ship it back to jolly old England. Why? Because they used it for a multitude of things.

Now remember, this is hemp, used for clothing, rope, food, and many other uses. The smoking type is something else. Still, they are related. Good old George Washington grew it. Thomas Jefferson grew it. Hemp was a money maker. It grew well here and made money for those who grew it.

Fast forward a century or so.

William Randolph Hearst owned nearly every newspaper in the country. He also owned vast holdings in timber. The reason was he could make money from selling newspapers and from making the paper it was printed on. Hemp makes great paper! Good old Willie didn't want people making paper out of hemp. It cut into his millions and he wouldn't be able to put on another wing to his castle. He started lobbying (read buying politicians) to make hemp illegal.

About the same time, there was a family named Du Pont. They had holdings in many synthetic products such as nylon. These products were made from petroleum products. The country was just beginning to toy with petroleum as a fuel instead of using a product invented by a fellow named Diesel that he made from hemp oil.

The Du Ponts didn't like the idea that you could make things from hemp. They didn't make any money off of that. They began to "lobby" politicians as well.

What was helpful to these special interest groups was the fact that hemp was related to Marijuana, a substance known to make someone who smoked it high.

Suddenly we had people coming out of the woodwork claiming that the high produced by Marijuana, an evil relative of hemp, made especially Blacks and Mexicans murderous devils who want to have sex with white women and prey on the innocent. You know, the same things the rich were doing.

Although there were many who stood up for hemp and marijuana as being not only benign but helpful, there were many more paid to tell the horror stories of this "devil's weed" and sway those in power to ban the substances.

This has been a pretty poor telling of the story. There is a much better article on it here.

So what about today?

Same shit, different day.

You think the medical/pharmaceutical complex wants you to be able to grow in your back yard a plant that could do better than their money making drugs do? Do you think that the petrochemical industry wants a plant to grow that could replace their money making fuels?

The answer is, Fuck No!

Do you think the plastics companies want hemp to be available to make comparable products? In 1941, Ford built a car with the body made out of hemp. Here's a video of it.

As I said in the beginning, greed has everything to do with why Cannabis, Mary Jane, was made illegal and still is. It has nothing to do with it being a dangerous substance. It is not addictive and there are many studies that show that it is not harmful physically. Not only that, in many cases, it is helpful in bringing about cures.

Greed killed Mary Jane and it is keeping her in the grave! We have to fight to resurrect her so that she can take her rightful place in making this a better world.

Whoa, I really sound preachy there!

Stoney