THE DISTRUST OF PROGRESS

The humans' distaste and distrust of progress probably had its start when
some young troglodyte proposed the controlled use of fire in the cave for
heat, warmth and protection. This proposal was certainly met with the most
vociferous opposition followed by outright attacks on the name, body and
family of the insubordinate lad.

The elders saw this as a blatant attempt of the youth to make life easier
and more comfortable with the use of something that was strictly taboo. The
elders did not allow the use of fire because they had seen what fire can do
when someone stands in it and they weren't about to let some kid bring it
into his cave and spread the idea to others. The elders thought not only of
the dangers but also the abuses that such a tool could be used for and felt
the price too high to allow its controlled use.

Yet despite all the clamoring, all the demagoguery, and all the predictions
of world damnation and moral corruption they failed to stop what they
initially didn't understand because they soon learned that the benefits of
fire outweighed the potential (real or imagined) costs of abuse.

Today you see the same ignorant behavior surrounding the legalization of
marijuana. Despite the promising medicinal and overwhelming agricultural
potential of this plant, our politicians have found it necessary to spend
more time picking out next year's interns than getting rid of a program
which incarcerates a person for smoking marijuana every 54 seconds at a
cost of $23,000 dollars a year -- and which ultimately costs taxpayers $7.5
billion dollars a year.

The recent failure of Senate Bill 6271, which would have allowed possession
of marijuana for a medical condition, reflects that the simian thought
processes our fire-taming ancestor encountered are still at work today.
Marijuana needs to be addressed as more than a drug of the underworld; it
is a drug with very useful medicinal qualities. Many studies show marijuana
to be very effective in reducing nausea in cancer chemotherapy patients as
well as reducing the nausea, vomiting and the loss of appetite experienced
by AIDS patients.

Other studies show that marijuana is also effective at treating glaucoma,
the leading cause of blindness in the U.S., by reducing the intraocular
pressure which causes it, and clinical evidence demonstrates marijuana's
effectiveness as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of an assortment of
nervous system abnormalities and injuries including multiple sclerosis,
paraplegia, epilepsy and quadriplegia.

The problem with SB6271 is that it doesn't go far enough. What we really
need is a bill that will allow farmers to begin growing hemp commercially.
Industrial hemp is not the same as the much-beleaguered marijuana plant in
the sense that it contains only trace amounts of the psychoactive
ingredient, THC. Smoking hemp won't give you a buzz, it will give you a
headache and a sore throat. Industrial hemp is also different in the sense
that it has the potential to become a billion-dollar agricultural crop with
over 25,000 possible different uses.

Hemp has many advantages over other agricultural plants. It is incredibly
versatile because we can use it to make textiles (ropes, yarns, fabrics),
paper, paints, plastics, cosmetics, foodstuffs, insulation and animal feed.

The fabrics made from hemp are better in many respects than those made of
cotton. First, they are more durable, they don't stretch and they are water
resistant. A longer-lasting fabric would reduce our consumption and reduce
our generation of waste. Second, hemp's growing cycle of only 100 days is
almost 50 days shorter than cotton's. This would allow a farmer to plant
hemp twice in one year, compared to planting cotton once. Third, hemp
produces a higher yield of fiber per acre than cotton. Fourth, hemp does
not require pesticides, while the cotton grown in our country currently
uses half of all pesticides sprayed in the U.S. Fifth, hemp does not
require fertilizer as it is not harvested until the leaves fall off, which
decompose and replenish the soil. Farmers have grown hemp on the same site
for twenty years without fertilizer and without noticeably depleting the
soil of nutrients. Cotton, however, requires large amounts of fertilizer
each year.

All of this translates into a more efficient fiber. Hemp lasts longer,
grows faster, produces more fiber, is naturally pest-resistant and doesn't
require fertilization. This would reduce the amount of acreage required to
grow products destined for textile use and reduce our dependence on
environmentally damaging pesticides and fertilizers.

The hemp seed also offers advantages not seen in other agricultural
products. It contains the second highest concentration of protein -- soy
has the highest -- and the highest concentration of essential amino and
fatty acids. Although soybeans have a higher concentration of protein, hemp
seeds provide a higher quality of protein with the added benefit of having
close to no saturated fat. The U.S. currently produces about half of all
the soybeans in the world, about 50 million metric tons, for food and oil.

Hemp seed could not only provide this food and oil but can do so without
being as easily affected by temperature and water as the soybean plant IS.

The use of hemp as a material for making paper also has many advantages
over the current process which uses wood pulp. One acre of hemp in annual
rotation provides as much usable fiber for pulp as does four acres of
forest during its necessary 20-year rotation period. Hemp also requires
fewer chemicals to produce the pulp necessary for making paper. In order to
make paper from natural fibers, the lignin which holds the cellulose
together must be broken down. Environmentally harmful sulfur-based
chemicals break down this lignin and leave the cellulose. Trees are 18-30%
lignin, while hemp is only 4% lignin, which reduces the need for chemicals.

Therefore, hemp is four times more productive than a forest at providing
pulp and it provides this pulp with at least four to seven times less
pollution.

I am not contending that the legalization of marijuana will have the same
profound effects on human civilization as the use of fire. What I am
contending is that the continued prohibition on its use is based on
ignorance -- an ignorance that costs us billions of dollars, lowers the
standard of living for the sick and degrades our environment. To oppose the
legalization of marijuana because some people may abuse it and use it to
make them "high" for no reason is like wanting to ban fire because some
people use it to light their marijuana and their crack. We can use
marijuana and fire for more than just getting "high." They both have very
useful, very real purposes. You cannot judge something by the evil uses it
can be put to. If you did, nothing would be legal because nothing is
abuse-proof. Support the legalization of marijuana.

Copyright 1998 The Daily of the University of Washington