in any ban, someone's dollar is bigger than the issue the ban is sold with...

[acroyear]

Hemp Is the Far Bigger Economic Issue Hiding Behind Legal Marijuana | Drugs | AlterNet:

Hemp may be the real reason marijuana is illegal. In the 1930s, the Hearst family set out to protect their vast timber holdings, much of which were being used to make paper.

But hemp produces five times as much paper per acre as do trees. Hemp paper is stronger and easier to make. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper, and one of Benjamin Franklin’s primary paper mills ran on it.

But the Hearsts used their newspapers to incite enough reefer madness to get marijuana banned in 1937. With that ban came complex laws that killed off the growing of hemp. The ecological devastation that’s followed with continued use of trees for paper has been epic.

Comments

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

Ain't that the truth!

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

I've also seen info that the marijuana ban was a knock against the Mexican migrant workers, who tended to grow their own and get stoned instead of buy alcohol and get drunk like pure blooded Americans.

Interesting issue. I also think that if hemp had still been used, a fair number of trees would have been cut down to create fields for the hemp, just like what is happening with soy bean production. The trees always lose out in the end. :(