HIGH FINANCE?

Q: Is it true that Canadian paper money is made of hemp? - Nick Bazso,
Surrey, B.C.

A: NO. It is not made of hemp (that is, Cannabis sativa) now and it was not
even in the 1960s when, in some circles, it was "well known" that it was.
Canadian folding money today is made of one-quarter wood pulp and
three-quarters cotton. The paper is manufactured in Beauharnois, Que., at
the Spexel Inc. paper mill, and the cotton (which gives the paper strength
and toughness) is waste from the Montreal garment trade, specifically,
cuttings from blue-jeans factories. The paper is made to Bank of Canada
specifications, and then sent in sheets to two Ottawa-based companies,
Canadian Bank Note Ltd. and B A Banknote for printing and cutting. Earlier
issues of Bank of Canada paper money were three-quarters flax instead of
cotton, and indeed in many countries, flax remains the fibre of choice.

Money, like many other paper products, could be made out of hemp and may be
one day. Hemp for fibre (as opposed to marijuana for smoking) was an
enormously important crop in former times, including sailing-ship days when
it was the source of rope and sailcloth (our word canvas is a corruption of
cannabis). There is a movement today to bring it back for use in pulp and
paper, both to benefit agriculture and reduce demands on forests.

As for the notion that money was made of hemp, there are a couple of
possible explanations. One is the attractiveness of the irony that while
marijuana was illegal, people handled it daily. Another is that for many
years, the same plant in Beauharnois that made paper for paper money also
manufactured cigarette paper out of hemp imported from Europe or India.