Endorsement: VOTE YES ON PROP 19 - #Prop19
(Originaly Broadcast on K.A.O.S. 89.3 FM in 1994)
Hemp, Cannabis Sativa, termed Maihuana or Marijuana by 1930's "yellow journalists," is possibly the most versatile plant product, which can be grown by humans.
The following shall allude to hard facts and evidence, without exceeding the bounds of these, and without harking directly upon said truths in a statistical manner.
Cannabis species have been coincidentally developed to serve humanity throughout the ages, have fortified historical societies in all matters of evolutionary progression, and shall lightly be referred to hereafter, as such.
The purposes of this article is to appropriately direct attention to the pertinent sequential argumentation in favor of the disbandment of laws which outlaw the Cannabis species.
I pray that I have served well.
First Reason: Air.
Next to Papyrus, Hemp is one of the oldest paper products utilized by humankind, tree forests have been overdrawn from, and have been relegated to the higher role of species resource banks.
The depletion of mature trees has caused a twenty to one-hundred year deficit in the oxygen cycle in terms of total potential (oxygen/carbon ratio). The poisoning of seas and oceans is strangulating the algae, plankton, and other sea weeds, which compose up to 70% of our oxygen supply. These are common facts.
The ability of Hemp species to easily grow in marginal and fertile soils alike, can, in principle, compensate partially for current oxygen cycle deficits by converting otherwise non (low) oxygen interactive bioregions into fixing nitrogen into soils, while creating oxygens.
The cycling, and break-down, of polluted air and soils, on lands otherwise fallowed out as "contaminated," is expediated when Hemp is set to meadow on these. Hemps have rapid cycles, bearing seed annually and semi-annually, and therefore process at proportionate rates of consumption. Of course the products raised on soil are characteristic to the soil, and, thus, are not recommended for use, until soil has mended.
Second Reason: Soil.
A hypothetical meadow growing on marginal, contaminated, or poor soil will not only extract and break-down toxins form both air and soil, but will fix nitrogens at similar rates as a legume while building humus.
Humus is essentially the most biologically active element, which composes soil as we know it.
Hemp when cultivated into soils, or left to rot, not only improves the soil by adding humus, but the roots of many Hemp varieties have the capability of rooting three to ten feet, or more, into the earth. This action loosens many strata of soil layers, fixing nitrogen therein, setting down pathways for water percolation to occur, and thus extracting otherwise locked-up minerals and elements towards the surface. When left to rot, vital microbial activities can occur as deep as the roots set.
With all these factors put into consideration, it is evident that Hemps are a vital agricultural option in the process of soil activation, restoration, and purification. Especially, when one considers the density that Hemp as a monoculture has the capability tto provide in conjunct with many varieties having two, three, and four season fruition capacity. This is one dynamic crop to enhance soil tilth!
Reason Three: Water.
When water percolation rates are increased, soils improved, and vegitation masses, hence transpiration, are increased, or improved, the water cycle is facilitated in manifold ways.
In the scenario where a soils rate of percolation, water table depth, and purity are increased, as in my "contaminated meadow" scenario, water that falls on the land is purified by the percolatory actions, depth improved retention, which in turn produces a complex effect on the water cycles as a whole. Suffice it to say, that waters lodge in the purer soil for longer amounts of time improves water quality.
In areas where land was destroyed by settlement, disasters, or other natural occurrences in which desertification has progressed, when high density crops are procured, the effect of mass transpiration, the breathing of many plants, stimulates winds, attracts humidity, and thus when humidity condenses creates rain. There is no direct evidence to say Hemp will increase rainfall.
However, many Hemp varieties have been reported to successfully cycle with less than ten inches of rainfall and no regular irrigation annually. Hemps are a vital tool in the prevention of desertification worldwide!
Fourth Reason: Fire.
At present, the species homo sapiens is faced with the realization that a lack of carbon dioxide recycling, where carbons are held in check by plant species, is increasing the overall temperatures of our common Earth's functioning.
There is the further problem posed by our contaminantions depleting our tertiary ooxygen cycle, called the Ozone layer, which provides deflection of ultra-violet, among other, spectrums of solar radiation. As I write this article (1994), I believe we have only twelve percent of hard ozone remaining, with the capacity to restore seventy-percent of this ancient shield.
Hemp can reverse these effects by acting as a scaffold forest. The primary cause of this effect is removal of trees, poisoning of waters, and pollution of air supplies. Hemp fields, where nothing else might grow, will increase our oxygen supply, and thus create tertiary oxygens for the increase of our common ozone layer. Hemp will fix nitrogens and hold carbons at a more rapid pace than a forest, but if this is occurring on lands on which no forest is predominant, for whatever reasons, this will be a real improvement. All of this occurs, while poisons are broken down, and forests re-grown -- a scaffold towards common healing.
Fifth Reason: Insects.
Without insects the Earth is dead. This is common agricultural knowledge.
Insects are among the most misunderstood creatures on this planet, yet their evolutionary capacities are extraordinary.
We are slow to realize that the more poisons we throw at a species the more resistant that species becomes. This lack of acknowledgment of the Darwinistic reality of evolutionary progression, has led to penicillin resistant virus strains, virtually immune insects and rodents resistant to our poison traps.
The Native Americans would plant half their crops for the tribe, with a similar or equal proportion of crop for the spirits of nature.
It is thus that I propose the extreme regulation of poisons, in conjunction with mass planting of Hemps on marginal, contaminated, and/or poor soil as offerings for the insects that they become fat-- less resistant.
Sixth reason: Birds.
Within the aforementioned proposal is the inherent understanding that species avian would also gain substantially from these scaffold forests.
Hemp seeds are second only to the soybean in protein content, and are high in what is called healthy cholesterol. This means that as food stuff, the seeds of cannabis species are very popular among avians, or birds.
The procurement of such masses of Hemp, where human activities are limited or restricted, would create huge encampments for all manner of songbird.
The primary deficit to this is in the case of soils being restored from toxins, in which case measures would be required to prevent the addition of these toxins into bird cycles. Hemp fibers make strong, durable, biodegradable netting, and thus might serve this end, too.
The increase in bird populations would stimulate other aspects of the food chain, and simultaneously keep the increased "fat insect" population in check.
Seventh Reason: Starvation.
There were several organizations founded throughout the nineteen-sixties, seventies, and even eighties, which sought to alleviate world wide "hunger," or what I am calling starvation, by some targeted date-- commonly in the Twenty-First Century.
I believe this goal is still possible if the following steps were implemented;
The saturation of marginal lands leaning towards desertification with Hemp Seeds, that able populations might harvest leaves for greens and half of seed harvest as food, with the other half sent back to earth with the stocks for subsequent harvest. Regional collectives might best accomplish these goals.
Hemp plant matter is a healthful animal feed for green eaters, and the seeds are excellent for both plant and seed eaters alike. This is true of humans as well, and thus higher efficiency occurs when human directly eat the Hemp vegetable.
Starvation would be prevented particularly when distribution of supply is facilitated, and so far as I see it, is the real geo-political cause of "hunger."
Eighth Reason: Economics.
It is estimated, were Hemp legalized, over ten thousand industries would be created! Further, it is assumed that the Hemp plant has over fifty-thousand production possibilities.
Hemp can be used as paper, plastic, fuel, rope, fiber, resin, pulp fiber for building products, cloth, food, medicine, and so much more!
Taxes generated by the regulation, licensing, and envigoration of commerce created by Hemp legalization would create a virtual rekindling of the industrial revolution.
The small-farm economy would be revitalized, every paper mill shut down in the past twenty years could re-open, entire houses could be built with Hemp products alone, ships could be fabricated entirely out of Hemp, and clothing made from Hemp would last much longer.
Medical research would be free to find relief, and potentially lead to the curing of diseases, such as, but not limited to, glaucoma, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.
The de facto number on cash crop of the Pacific West could revitalize, stimulate, and expand our legitimate economy, if "legalization" were enacted.
Ninth Reason: Faith.
According to the bible, "And the Earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good." (Gen 1:12)
Also, "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." (Pro 15:17)
With these two quotations much speculation can occur, but it appears evident that no human was meant to outlaw the growth of any plant under our common husbandry.
The first Christians, in the Hebraic traditions, were known to have utilized cannabis for spiritual meditations.
In fact, cannabis has been used for this similar, or same, spiritual purpose wherever it was able to grow, for millennia.
Why, now, do we assume ourselves superior, in the exclusion of one of the most vital and powerful crops available to humankind?
I believe the answer is as simple as the biblical notion of greed.
If we as a society are to "not bear false witness" upon an agent of the Earth, then we must avail our guilt in the case of Hemps. The power of big oil, and corrupt government caused the outlaw of cannabis in America.
Tenth Reason: Earthly Salvation.
The Earth, as we know it, would be resuscitated to a state, which resembled, "how we found it," that our progeny might be less encumbered by the legacy of our industrial forbearers, were the actions, parallel, or equal, to the ones I have alluded to in this article, taken.
The Ozone cycle might be revitalized by the addition of what I have termed Hemp Fields; the "greenhouse effect" might be staved off were what I call Scaffold Forests implemented; soil and air would be detoxified; and all Life cycles would be benefited by these strategies.
Were marginal lands planted up world-wide, distribution of the protein-rich Hemp seed facilitated, and water cycles improved through land reclamations, then mass starvation could potentially be alleviated.
The experimentation of anti-desertification on lands where desertification is pending, is also one of the possibilities with Hemp.
The restoration of our economy, now considered relatively unified world-wide, and the creation of innumerable jobs is potential in the legitimization of the Hemp species and products.
The illegalization of Hemp is an effort not worthy of continuing, due to the outstanding circumstances that humanity now faces.
(Origially written for ISBN-- Independent Student Broadcast Network)
