The History Of Hemp: America’s Love-Hate Relationship With One of The Planet’s Most Useful Plants

By Jay Syrmopoulos

 Understanding the long history of hemp and its criminalization in  America is important, as it is the story of a plant that was  criminalized by the U.S. government at the behest of oligarchic titans  of industry, in an effort to protect their respective business empires  from being overtaken by hemp. 

Hemp is a specific variety of cannabis plant grown for the industrial  and commercial uses of its fiber, which contain almost no THC, the  psychoactive compound in cannabis that alters an individual’s mental  state upon ingestion. In fact, hemp was grown for hundreds of years—even  by some of the “Founding Fathers”—mainly for the multi-use fiber in its  stalk. Industrial hemp has the potential to replace many of the currently  used fossil fuel-based products as it can be used in a reported 25,000  products—perhaps explaining why a substance that has no psychoactive  value is treated as a controlled substance by the U.S. federal  government; classified as a Schedule 1 drug. 

As a report, entitled “Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity” by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) notes, “hemp  is also from the same species of plant, Cannabis sativa, as marijuana.  As a result, production in the United States is restricted due to hemp’s  association with marijuana, and the U.S. market is largely dependent on  imports…” The CRS report specifies: 

“Under current U.S. drug policy, all cannabis  varieties—including industrial hemp—are considered Schedule I controlled  substances under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA),1 and DEA  continues to control and regulate hemp production.”

How and why was hemp outlawed?

It is important to understand why this plant became illegal in the  United States since the use, possession, and sale of cannabis are the most common reasons for an individual to be incarcerated in a U.S. jail or prison. Prior to 1937, hemp was legally grown in the U.S. but the passage of  the Marijuana Tax Act—while not technically criminalizing hemp—taxed  hemp in such a way as to make it unlawful to possess or grow. The  legislation was worded in such a way that anyone wanting to grow hemp  had to possess a Marijuana Tax Stamp. But in order to receive a stamp an  individual was required to be in possession of cannabis—which was  illegal if not in possession of a stamp. 

This self-incriminating  requirement made it so if someone attempted to register while in  possession of cannabis, they were arrested. For those that did not have  cannabis in their possession when registering, they were simply denied a  tax stamp. Although the law contained an unconstitutional self-incriminating  requirement in violation of the Fifth Amendment, it was not until 32  years later, in 1969, that the Marijuana Tax Act was declared  unconstitutional. 

It is important to understand that the passage of the Marijuana Tax  Act was not due to a social need, but clearly derived from the societal  power-elite and their political cronies operating in unison to protect  timber, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, tobacco, and news tycoons, as  they feared industrial hemp would come to dominate their industries.

 Additionally, hemp was generally grown by poor, working-class  farmers, thus corporate mass media and the political establishment made  no profit from the industry. 

Many experts believe that if hemp was  legalized in the U.S. it would become the number one cash crop in the  country. In the 1930s, machines including the Hemp Dresser and the  Decorticator vastly improved the efficiency of harvest and manufacturing  processes that strip hemp fiber making them more affordable and  practical for common people to use, thus posing a threat to the  oligarchs of industry as a number of their companies were reliant on  less sustainable, non-recyclable resources.

 A Popular Mechanics  magazine article published in February 1938 projected that domestically grown hemp could be worth $1 billion. Jack Herer wrote in his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes: 

“In 1916, USDA Bulletin No. 404 reported that one  acre of cannabis hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would  produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres of trees being cut down over  the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/7 to 1/4 as much  polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like  lignin that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda  ash. All this lignin must be broken down to make pulp. Hemp pulp is  only 4-10% lignin, while trees are 18-30% lignin. The problem of dioxin  contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process,  which does not need to use chlorine bleach (as the wood pulp papermaking  process requires), but instead substitutes safer hydrogen peroxide in  the bleaching process. Thus, hemp provides four times as much pulp with at least four to  seven times less pollution. As we have seen, this hemp pulp-paper  potential depended on the invention and the engineering of new machines  for stripping the hemp by modern technology. This would also lower  demand for lumber and reduce the cost of housing, while at the same time  helping re-oxygenate the planet. As an example: If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper process were in  use legally today, it would soon replace about 70 percent of all wood  pulp paper; including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes, and  paper bags. If hemp had not been made illegal, 80% of DuPont’s business  would never have materialized and the great majority of the pollution  which has poisoned our Northwestern and Southeastern rivers would not  have occurred.”

Had hemp remained legal, DuPont would have been directly challenged  as hemp can be used to create biodegradable plastics without the use of  pollutants or chemicals, thus causing DuPont to become one of the great  supporters of criminalizing hemp. Another titan of industry that sought to criminalize hemp was  publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, who founded the Hearst  Corporation in 1887. 

Hearst’s publication empire, which had a major  influence on public opinion, was used to run propaganda and “yellow  journalism” to shape public perceptions, as his papers reportedly had  over 20 million readers. Publishers like Hearst and Pulitzer had a vested interest in  propagandizing the public in an effort to criminalize cannabis for their  own personal financial motives, as a move toward hemp would have  required the newspaper industry to shift operations from using tree pulp  to hemp pulp for use in their publications. 

The publishers engaged in  distributing outright lies that claimed cannabis caused “mass murder and insanity.” The Marijuana Tax Act, passed in 1937, made no differentiation  between highly psychoactive cannabis and varieties with virtually no  psychoactive components used for their fibers. With the tax act in  place, already profitable industries were protected from competition  from hemp. 

Additionally, it gave the government the power to target and  incarcerate immigrants and African Americans who smoked cannabis. For a brief period, after the United States entered World War II in  1941, the nation’s hemp cultivation efforts were brought back to life  with the release of the film “Hemp for Victory,”  to encourage American farmers to grow as much hemp as possible for the  war effort. Following the end of the war, domestic production of hemp  once again disappeared. 

 After the Marijuana Tax Act was declared unconstitutional in 1969,  the U.S. government passed the Controlled Substances Act, a statute that  regulates all cannabis, including industrial hemp. The definition of  marijuana, included in the CSA, excluded certain parts of  hemp—sterilized hemp seed, hemp fiber, and hemp seed oil—from  regulation. 

A federal court case in 2004 ruled that the DEA did not have  authority to regulate the excluded hemp parts under the CSA. The passage  of the 2014 Farm Bill included Section 7606, which allowed states to  implement laws allowing state departments of agriculture and  universities to grow hemp for research or pilot programs. 

Last month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced  the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which seeks to remove hemp from the  federal government’s controlled substances list and to legalize it as an  agriculture commodity. The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Ron  Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY). Congressman James Comer (R-KY) is set  to introduce a companion hemp legalization bill in the U.S. House of  Representatives. A press release from Senator McConnell claimed that the bill seeks to: 

“The Hemp Farming Act of 2018 will help Kentucky  enhance its position as the leading state on hemp production. It builds  upon the success we have seen through the hemp pilot programs by  allowing states to be the primary regulators of hemp if the U.S.  Department of Agriculture approves their implementation plan. This  legislation also will remove the federal barriers in place that have  stifled the industry, which will help expand the domestic production of  hemp. It will also give hemp researchers the chance to apply for  competitive federal grants from the U.S. Department of  Agriculture—allowing them to continue their impressive work with the  support of federal research dollars.” 

Senator Wyden, a co-sponsor of the bill, wrote in a statement, “It  is far past time for Congress to pass this commonsense, bipartisan  legislation to end the outrageous anti-hemp, anti-farmer and anti-jobs  stigma that’s been codified into law and is holding back growth in  American agriculture jobs and our economy at large. Hemp products are  made in this country, sold in this country and consumed in this country.  Senator McConnell, our colleagues and I are going to keep pushing to  make sure that if Americans can buy hemp products at the local  supermarket, American farmers can grow hemp in this country.” 

The Hemp Farming Act of 2018 was  placed on a fast-track through the U.S. Senate on Monday, allowing it  to skip the typical committee hurdles that newly-announced bills  ordinarily face. A spokesperson for Senator McConnell told The Hill that the majority leader has yet to announce when the bill will be taken up for a vote.  

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