WE HAVE NO POLITICAL WILL

RE: Hemp could end climate change

No matter what is causing climate change, one of the best things
Canadians could do to reduce greenhouse gasses is grow lots of
Industrial Hemp. We have the people, we have the land, we have the
know-how - we just have no political will.

Hemp (the legal, non-drug version of the Cannabis plant) produces more
ethanol fuel per acre than any other crop. It can be used for car,
truck, boat, and airplane fuel, polymer body parts, lubricants, paint,
and about 25,000 other things. Hemp doesn't need the fertilizers or
pesticides used to grow corn, soy, or wheat grass, or the fuel to
spread those chemicals, so that would reduce pollution further. This
would also help Canada's farmers immensely, most of whom are operating
under large debts.

Hemp doesn't need the prime soil of those other crops, and can grow on
even marginal, contaminated, or depleted soil.

Hemp eats more CO2 per acre than any other crop, reducing pollution
further.

Hemp is a weed, so it will not be choked off or overgrown by the other
weeds that will thrive in the warmer, higher CO2 atmosphere of the
coming decade, and threaten more traditional crops.

Hemp also produces more biomass per acre than any other crop, meaning
it could - at least partially - replace coal as a hydroelectric fuel.
Unlike dirty, finite, coal, Hemp is endlessly renewable and burns
lean. Then we wouldn't need more dams or nuclear plants! Hemp produces
more nutrition per acre than any other crop, and it is the most easily
assimilated protein known to man. The ironic part is, outdoor
marijuana growers would never sneak their illegal pot into or anywhere
near someone's legal Hemp field (as they often do now with corn),
because the Hemp plants would pollinate the marijuana, causing it to
seed, and making the pot absolutely useless on the black market! The
main problem is; promoting and using Industrial Hemp for all of these
clean, green, environmentally friendly industries might send the wrong
message to youth about marijuana, and undermine the government's 70+
year anti-pot propaganda campaign. So it looks like we are stuck with
oil, coal, and prohibitively expensive corn for another generation at
least.

Russell Barth

Federal medical marijuana license holder