POLICY NEEDED ON HEMP AS BUILDING MATERIAL

Plant fibres can save much of the energy needed to make cars, caravans
even lorries and result in parts that are 40 per cent lighter and are at
least 65 cents cheaper per pound than fibreglass, can be recycled s-ily -
and they are biodegradable.

A company called Indiana Bio-Composites will make a recyclable exterior
panel for a mobile ho me from kenaf, a cordlike hibiscus, in the next two
years.

Researchers at the Univer-sity of Warwick [US] are work-ing to convert a
nine-loot-tall crop known as elephant grass into a tough material fit for
biodegradable car bodies by 2006.

Car makers, have already begun to replace fibreglass with natural plant
fibres. Last year in North America, following in the foot steps of their
European counter parts such as Fords, BMW replaced 2 percent of the
fibreglass in mats, seat backs, parcel shelves, door panels, and other
plastic composites with plant stalks according to the New Jersey [US]
consulting firm Kline & Company natural fibre's are expected to replace a
fifth of the fibreglass in today's automobile interiors by 2010.

Biodegradable cars from natural fibres [growing a car from the soil] now,
that would con-stitute the real engineering triumph?

One problem but a big one: the leading fibre in this field is cannabis
hemp. Too bad it's a controlled substance. Even though the stalks have
negligible effect the government views growing industrial hemp without a
licence - cannabis, after all - as tantamount to growing the weed of wisdom.

Questions: How green is green? Why doesn't Geenpeace have a policy on
hemp? Why is there no mention of hemp in the green party's manifesto?

Don Barnard, Legalise Cannabis Alliance