In the 1930's the oil, timber, cotton and pharmaceutical industries convinced Congress to ban the cultivation and use of industrial hemp because it was a member of the cannabis family of plants. Instead of simply banning Marijuana, Congress decided to ban the cultivation and use of industrial hemp in order to do an end run around natural freedoms. The government claimed that in order to protect the people from the dangers associated with Marijuana it was also necessary to ban the use of the hemp plant. This does not follow ANY accepted Constitutional Law. The legitimate purpose of OUR government, according to the Constitution FOR the united States of America is to protect the rights of the people, not to protect the people from themselves. It is the responsibility of the individual to protect his/her lives, liberty and property, the most viable of which is their own body and what goes in it. The real reason Congress banned hemp was to protect the financial interests of the oil, timber, cotton and pharmaceutical industries.
We were born with a natural right to life which includes the right to consume whatever we want. No one has a right to compel or prohibit anyone else from using certain plants or animals to their benefit as God would have us do. However, there are natural consequences from eating poisonous plants and health benefits from eating nutritious ones. When governments create laws that compel people to eat certain kinds of foods or prohibit them from eating other foods, they deprive the people of their right to choose. Some mushrooms are delicious and nutritious and others are deadly. A law that bans the consumption of ALL mushrooms may potentially protect the lives of some people, but in order to do so, the law must deny the rights of others to choose for themselves, the benefits of SOME mushrooms. This makes no sense and that's probably why there are very few laws concerning mushrooms. Only the psychoactive ones are controlled.
There is a family of plants known as nightshades. Some of these plants delicious and others are poisonous. Both tomatoes and hemlock are members of the nightshade family. To ban tomatoes because they are in the same family of plants as hemlock makes no sense at all. There is a family of plants known as nightshades. Some of these plants delicious and others are poisonous. Perhaps, the deadliest plant in the nightshade family is Hemlock. In order to protect the people from the dangers of hemlock the government could ban hemlock or all plants in the nightshade family. But, it doesn't make sense to ban tomatoes in order to protect the people from the dangers of hemlock. Banning all nightshade plants because some are deadly would deny consumers of many health benefits.
By the same token, Marijuana and Hemp are also two different plants in the Cannabis family. Banning the cultivation and use of industrial hemp in order to make laws against Marijuana, only benefits a few industries at the expense of the people and the planet. Hemp was widely used as an industrial fiber, used to make rope, sacks and clothing. It makes no sense, nor is it Constitutionist to apply restrictive laws to Hemp. It is a far better industrial fiber than cotton or synthetics. We need to repeal this law.
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