reasons for hemp prohibition

Kulapavana · June 3, 2004

This article is posted in honor of our local hemp guru Shivaji Prabhu /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Source: Island Earth

Published: July 6, 2002

The overwhelming majority of the population still believes that hemp, (ok, marijuana or cannabis) was prohibited in 1937 out of sincere concern for the public's health. A much smaller, yet growing segment of the population however believes that greed alone, on the part of wealthy industrialists, explains what actually took place. In reality, I believe that neither explanation could be further from the truth. Granted, greed may have played a part in hemp's prohibition - but it certainly wasn't the driving motivation.

A Crack in the Greed Hypothesis

Without much effort one will find that the greed hypothesis fails to explain some important aspects brought forth by the evidence. That Anslinger, Mellon, Du Pont and Hearst allegedly conspired in 1937 to increase their wealth, (the accepted greed hypothesis) is all nice and neat but history shows us that 1937 wasn't even the first time that such an attempt at prohibiting cannabis (a.k.a. hemp or marijuana) was undertaken. Cannabis prohibitionist measures go back long before the turn of the century and originate in other countries such as India 1798, 1838; Egypt 1800, (French troops), 1868, 1877, 1879, 1884, 1891, 1894; South Africa 1870, 1887, 1910; Turkey 1877 and Greece 1890. In the U.S. an attempt at prohibiting cannabis was made during passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, and according to a source quoted in the timeline, there was talk of prohibiting cannabis worldwide in 1911 at the Hague. In reality, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 could be considered a cannabis prohibitionist measure as it initiated the classifying of cannabis as a narcotic in the public's eye and instilled regulatory measures towards it's use. Attempts to prohibit cannabis on a world-wide basis occurred later in 1923 (the League of Nations Advisory Committee) and again in 1925 at the Second Geneva Opium Conference. No less than 29 states successfully prohibited cannabis for non-medical use from 1914 to 1931, apparently as a result of the failure of the Harrison Narcotics Act to prohibit cannabis at the federal level. For us to accept the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 as nothing more than an "act of greed", we must also accept that such act transcended a minimum period of 25 years, (in just the U.S. alone) and that it was being pursued simultaneously, not just at the state level, but on an international level as well! An operation of this magnitude and spanning this period of time would obviously have required immense planning, coordination and many more than just the four men cited by the greed hypothesis. So, who were all these people? Did greed motivate them and their successors for 25-plus years? When and where did the planning and coordination take place? How does greed involve so many people? The all but accepted-as-fact greed hypothesis doesn't even begin to answer all of these questions not to mention others.

A New Hypothesis

Clearly, there's more to the prohibition of the plant with many names than that which meets the eye. What could have motivated the prohibition of cannabis in this country if it wasn't done out of concern for public health or done as an act of greed? A cursory scan of the events immediately surrounding the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act reveals some rather disturbing clues - The First International Congress of Eugenics in 1912, the First National Conference on Race Betterment in 1914, the Second National Conference on Race Betterment in 1915.

The history behind hemp's use and its prohibition is, without a doubt, a case-study in rewriting of history. On these pages I will ultimately show that hemp was prohibited, not because it posed any sort of danger to society nor because the men involved were necessarily greedy, but because the simple availability of hemp itself was at least perceived at the time to be a factor which could undermine the effectiveness of Malthusian policies which had been set in-motion during the 19th century. Hemp wasn't outlawed as an act of greed - if anything, it was outlawed as an act of genocide! I believe that one or more of the following were likely to have been known by the men who sought to take hemp beyond the reach of the masses:

The prohibition of hemp would likely cause people to turn to more dangerous drugs. (Indian Hemp Drugs Commission report, 1894) (88)

Cannabis medications and extracts were generally effective at relieving a wide range of ailments including opium addition. (106)

The hemp seed had historically been used as a food staple by various populations in order to survive famines. (114)

The hemp seed was used to successfully treat the consumptive disease tuberculosis, in which the nutritive processes are impaired and the body wastes away. (Czechoslovakian Tubercular Nutrition Study, 1955) (2),(114)

In the old country the peasants ate hemp butter. They were more resistant to disease than the nobility. -- R. Hamilton, ED.D., Ph.D. Medical Researcher-Biochemist, U.C.L.A. Emeritus (2)

The additional fact that almost anyone, (especially the poor) could grow hemp in almost any soil, without costly fertilizers or pesticides only hastened its fate.

Anyone who has kept their finger on the pulse of the drug war has most likely observed numerous instances of what could only be termed "strange behavior" on the part of the U.S. government over the past decade or so. Without a doubt, the strangest behavior of all however, seems to coincide with enforcing the drug laws concerning marijuana, despite the fact that most experts agree that marijuana is the least dangerous of all drugs. Similar odd behavior regarding marijuana can certainly be seen all the way back to its prohibition in 1937 and beyond. Though it might be tempting to assume that greed alone explains the observed oddities, you might want to consider the following:

Those who sought to outlaw narcotics, (including cannabis) since 1900 had significant ties to both the eugenics movement and to the order of Skull & Bones.

The order of Skull & Bones has been a powerful force of subversive influence for well over a century and a half. When you see the connections to them currently represented in the timeline, you'll begin to understand why the "talking heads" on radio and television have denied their very existence or downplayed their significance.

The eugenics movement was a rapidly growing movement in the U.S. around the turn of the century and one whose legacy continues to this day. In reality, the pseudo-science of eugenics was nothing more than a vehicle to promote population reduction, (Malthusian) policies.

Population reduction doctrine has roots that go all the way back to, and likely even precedes Thomas Malthus' disturbing essay on population written in 1798.

The first recorded prohibitionist measure regarding cannabis in modern history was likely that which took place in India in 1798, the very same year that Malthus published his essay on population. Soon thereafter, Napoleon prohibited his men from using cannabis in Egypt and sent scientists to study the cannabis culture in Egypt as well.

The existence of essential fatty acids in hempseed oil, was in large part, the reason why peasants "were more resistant to disease than the nobility". (2),(13)

The war of 1812 was fought over access to hemp. (2)

Serious research on fats was undertaken by the Frenchman, Micheal Chevreul as early as 1810. (82) In 1813 Chevreul isolated the first fatty acid - margaric acid, used later in creating margarine. (9)

Essential fats have been effectively removed from our diets using the exact same modus operandi, (of grouping the good with the bad and then vilifying both) that was employed in prohibiting cannabis. In both cases, a renaming process was undertaken to accomplish the desired goal - hemp was renamed to "marijuana" helping lead to its prohibition and likewise, vitamin F, the original identity of essential fatty acids, was dropped altogether, enabling over time their inclusion in the group known today as fats - an effective rename. Ultimately, the vilification of fats, by placing them at the tip of the USDA food pyramid has been extremely successful at also vilifying the good fats - essential fatty acids. Interestingly, the trend today is no longer to refer to the good fats as essential fatty acids anymore but to refer to them using the more abstract, omega-3, omega-6 designations which, in name, no longer implies essentiality as it did before. Here we go again!

Other sources of essential fatty acids were "drying up" around the time that cannabis was prohibited in 1937. The last remaining producer of flax oil, (Archer Daniels Midland) ending production of that "dietary staple" in 1950. (51)

The hydrogenation process - the result of which has been the removal of essential fatty acids from our diets - was perfected on a commercial scale during the 1930s.

In 1920, long before marijuana was made illegal in the U.S., the practice of printing government documents on "hempen rag paper", which was required by law, was ceased. (28)

Unfortunately, greed is the ideal scapegoat of criminal motivation in a class society. We can't help but fall victim to the notion that greed is a totally satisfactory explanation for criminal behavior exclusive of all others. When someone fingers greed as the underlying motivation of a crime, we all raise our hands in disgust and chant a collective "Aha!" and no one ever questions further whether greed was truly the real motivation. We who are of "limited means" fail to appreciate that greed is not a universal motivation - that the powerful elite, rich beyond all imagination, don't necessarily regard money in the same way that you or I do. Contrary to popular belief, the rich and powerful elite sometimes commit crimes for reasons other than greed and when they do, they know that greed will be there to save them by throwing everyone off of the trail that leads to the truth.

Recommended Reading

Keep in-mind that my conclusions were drawn after having read numerous books and other publications supporting the above overall hypothesis. I highly recommend that before drawing any rash conclusions that you read some of these same documents yourself. If this seems like an overwhelming task, then consider teaming-up with others who share similar interests in an effort to confirm my conclusions more readily. Following is a list of the more significant books that should be read in-order for you to fully appreciate my viewpoint. Note that of these books, only three are currently fully represented by events entered into the timeline - The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Murder By Injection and America's Secret Establishment. The other two sources, sad to say, are only minimally represented and are thus waiting in-queue to be entered, along with a stack of other publications as well. All of these books are fascinating reading just on their own merit, but the fact that they complement one another in support of the aforementioned hypothesis makes them even more fascinating. Here they are:

To begin with, for those who have any doubts at all that hemp was prohibited for reasons other than out of concern for public health, read Jack Herer's The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Aside from helping to justify the belief that hemp was not outlawed solely for public health reasons, it provides some important clues on which I based my hypothesis. If you're not suspicious about the hemp prohibition issue prior to reading this book, you will be afterwards, guaranteed.

Next on the list is George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography by Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin. This book will contribute the foundation needed to understand not only the significance of the eugenics movement but also its place in the scheme of things and the machinery by which the movement was carried forward over time. To best appreciate the contribution made by this book regarding the eugenics movement, one must see the eugenics movement for what it truly was -- not a movement to improve the human race as it was advertised, (which is absolutely absurd) but rather, a vehicle for garnering widespread support for Malthusian policies, of which the real objective was ultimately to reduce human populations. Both the wider eugenics community and the public took the bait - hook, line and sinker. If I had to list one book as being most pivotal and significant in helping to lead me to my conclusions, it would have to be this one; to a large extent because I read it fairly early-on in the sequence and it thus aided me in selecting subsequent publications.

The third source, America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones by Antony C. Sutton is also a foundational addition to the list. Besides adding new characters to the plot and showing that politics is nothing more today than an effective vehicle used to arrive at desired long-term goals, this book also introduces some of the techniques by which power is seized control of and it shows us how members of the Order used this power to control the directions of various institutions, including education, medicine and others. This book will help to remove any lasting doubt that you may have at this point about the existence of the order of Skull & Bones. Other sources referenced by the timeline should also help.

Next up is Murder By Injection by Eustace Mullins. This book builds on the foundation laid by the previous two books as it brings into the picture other historical figures such as Rockefeller and Carnegie and it shows how such men, along with others introduced by the earlier publications, used their wealth through philanthropic endeavors to control the direction of the medical establishment in the U.S. and abroad, in an effort to achieve their long-term goals. Aside from that already stated, this book was also important in that it, along with the next book on the list, helped to lead me to the profound observation that, to discover the cause of a disease is also to discover how to cause the disease! Obviously, a funding organization, backed by someone merely posing as a philanthropist could take advantage of this situation and no one - not even the medical researchers involved - would be any the wiser. Ultimately, I think that you will come to this very same conclusion once you've scrutinized the events in the timeline.

Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, by Udo Erasmus, goes a long way to add substance to my proposed hypothesis that there exists a connection between hemp's nutritional aspects and its prohibition. Indeed, this book, (actually it's predecessor, Fats and Oils - The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils in Health and Nutrition, now out of print) played a pivotal role in helping me arrive at this conclusion. I began reading this book after having personally discovered the incredible therapeutic role that just olive oil alone can play with regard to one's health. Without going into details, suffice it to say that this personal discovery rocked my understanding of nutrition - as only a personal event could. It led me to return to a quote that I had read in Jack Herer's book that hadn't struck me as particularly significant when I first read it:

In the old country the peasants ate hemp butter. They were more resistant to disease than the nobility. - R. Hamilton, ED.D., Ph.D. Medical Researcher-Biochemist, U.C.L.A. Emeritus

By the time I had returned to re-read the quote, I had all of the prerequisite background, (the prior-listed books) to comprehend it's true significance. Whereas before the quote was almost silent, it now spoke volumes.

June 4, 2004

Interesting.

But I think we can deduce that as part of the puzzle, not the whole thing.

Someone may ask why were old rich people in the 18th-19th centuries concerned about population overgrowth ?

If they were cruel and cold hearted enough to want to develop a mass eugenics programs through malnutrition we would have to wonder why ?

What would they gain ? Their theories of fear of overpopulation were surely for the distant future when they would no longer be living, and even then their wealth would insulate them from any problems.

We see these eugenicists,malthusians and darwinists all mingling together and forming a peculiar milieu of "scientists" all around the same time and socializiing and working and being supported within the same circle of the super wealthy.

What else do we see at the beginning of this group ?

Colonialism.

This was the age of empire, the european potentates were dividing up the world, soon to be followed by america when the U.S colonized Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Phillipines.

This was a new world, iron ships, steam engines, powerfull weapons, the world was being seen in a new light by the wealthy rulers and financiers, the old world was sitting there with stockpiles of wealth for centuries, but now with the new industrial revolution of the early 19th century in weaponry and shipbuilding the fabulous wealth of the east was being drooled over by western elites.

So this is where these population reductionists of the malthusian type and the "science" of darwinism comes into play.

The problems of empire maitainence are twofold, first you must have a steady supply of soldiers and workers, perferably the workers should be from your own country or a country that is not being ruled over by colonial masters, this is because you don't want your workforce to be dependent on an unstable potentially unsustainable population.

Secondly the colonial population in the the countries they wanted to keep control over were larger then they needed in order to exploit those countries wealth, e.g plantations, mines, products from the earth which would be shipped back home and manufactured by the peasents in the home countries.

The populations size especially in India as India was the jewell in the crown of the british empire, the prize catch among colonial aquisitions, was that anymore people then the basic minimum required posed a constant threat of revolt.

So while Darwin was used to convince the home countries that white people were more evolved then dark people and that the natural order was that white people should rule over them, Malthus was used to create the fear of a lack of resources by overpopulation, which meant that the less evolved people were expendable.

These ideas were pushed out and promoted extensivly in the 19th-20th centuries by the worlds leaders of the colonial empires, they needed the cooperation of the class of people under them, the ultra rich exploiters were not in the same mindset of those who did the actual management of empire, the generals, politicans, bishops, etc, these people were for the most part religious believers of one sort or another.

Slavery was abolished because of the wealthy management class of society, christian believers who took up the cause in the name of their faith were the class of people who needed to be propagandized in order for the ruling elites plans to succeed. Their colonial empire was doomed if they couldn't convert the class right beneath them of the "science" that was at the heart of their plans, their goal was the scientific dictatoship, the transformation of faith in God and creation and sin into faith of the survival of the fittest, the scientific superiority of white people and their destiny to rule over or even kill off the dark skinned people for the good of the earths future, atheism or impersonalism at the most was necessary to replace fear of sinning, all for wealth and power and the elimination of threats to their empires.

So ganja was a small part of this scenario, the biggest fear was that it would create apathy and indolence among the lower classes in the home countires slowing down the workers and making them not want to be slavish workers, they felt this way because ganja was popular among the elites themselves, it was very chic to smoke hashish among the elite class, and ganja was used extensively in medicines, people in the west who could afford it were very much desiring ganja, it was not a small percentage of people, it was very well known and desired, especially in the asian colonies.

So from experience they feared that soldiers would be inaffective, especially in India where ganja was everywhere, they also feared it at home but not nearly as much as for the military effects, this is why India is where they tried to ban it at the very beginning of the british Raj, soldiers were taking ganja and shacking up with indian girls and "going native", something had to be done, it was well known that ganja is a strong aphrodisiac and tends to make you very liable to not want to lead a soldiers life.

This was the reason for attempts at ganja prohibition in the beginning, and these two reasons remained the main reasons until the empires were lost.

The next phase was when ganja was actually criminalized, and that has been gone over by many in the economic studies and conspiracies of petro chemical industrialists etc, which came about right after the first machine was invented that made processing ganja for such uses easy and cheap.

So the two reasons merged and it became finally enough to go through with criminalization, they could have criminalized it earlier if they wanted, but it never developed into the problem they feared with the military and worker force, they were able to keep the supply down and they were satisfied with the minor steps they had taken.

But the final straw was the potential for ganja to become an alternative to the control over the worlds economy by the petroleum industry, the new petroleum industry and it's associated petro chemicals were needed by any industry in the world and it was controlled by a very few people who knew the potential of ganja as an alternative to petroleum, when it was made public knowledge in magazines extolling the industrial potential of ganja that was when the boom was lowered, these guys controlled the entire worlds economies and militaries through the control of petroleum, ganja would make any nation or industry independent.

June 22, 2004

the british where afraid of the way cannabis thc opens the mind up to new ideas and inspires people to follow new directions.

the british wanted it banned and hugely increased the amounts of ALcohol sent from britain in an effort to get the native indians hooked on the booze and forget that they ever used cannabis.