the hemp industry is no friend of ours

[flipster]

Hey pipeman, hope you're not so angry anymore.

 

In all honesty I don't think the hemp industry expects support from stoners just because we are using the same plant. I think they are just trying to get support from whoever they can, and stoners seem like an easy target.

 

For them to start condoning the smoking of THC laden pot would undo alot of their hard work. Most hemp organisations go on about how their 'industrial grade hemp' is 'extremely low in THC'. Giving support to us stoners would be shooting themselves in the foot. Imagine what the media would do if they got a hold of info like that? They have enough hype to deal with as it is just to grow these plants with next to no THC! They simply can't do it.

 

Secondly, I don't think there are too many rich hemp farmers out there right now. If there are, please let me know. And as for people getting rich (regardless of their cause), it's an inevitable thing with any new and emerging industry. It simply has to happen. For whatever reason, certain evens take place that cause one company to stay in the lime light for that little bit longer, and their products become well known, sell more, and make higher profits. Just because a company makes shite loads of cash, that doesn't make them bad either.

 

I just think its hypocritical for the hemp insudtry to ask for support from stoners (they are at the Nimbin Mardi Grass with a sales pitch every year for example) but not give their support for us.

 

All of the people in the hemp industry, or just a select few?

 

If hemp ever takes off it will be because it breaks the association with stoners and pushes the marijuana culture further underground.

 

Yes, that will be one of the reasons. Some of the others will be support from the media, support from the public, and support from our governments of the world.

 

... because lets face it, a fair % of support for the hemp industry comes from pot smoking hippies.

 

And where did you get that information from? I have friends that use hemp based moisturisers and the like. I use hemp products. I would hardly consider us 'pot smoking hippies'.

 

The hemp industry is about making money, not saving the environment, and certainly not about reforming cannabis laws. These fuckers use the environmentally friendly angle to sell their product, the'yre not trying to sell the product because its environmentally friendly. They are happily trampling cannabis law reform into the ground in order to secure their own financial success. Good luck to them, but they'll get no help from me. I do not consider the selfish greed of others a worthy cause to support.

 

Name me one industry that does not exists to make money? An industry of any sort can not survive without money! By the very definition of the word 'industry', it means that what they do is commercial by nature. 'Environment friendly angle' can also mean an intelligent marketing angle. How else do you expect such a versatile plant to get into main stream society?

 

I suppose many people have assumed this link between hemp products and the drug side of things would go hand in hand. They don't.

Edited June 4, 2006 by flipster

[pipeman]

nah I'm not angry just think the hemp industry are hypocrites.

 

if you think hemp is great then fine go out and support it all I'm saying is don't do it because you think it will help stoners or the hemp industry will return the favour in any way.

[flipster]

nah I'm not angry just think the hemp industry are hypocrites.

 

if you think hemp is great then fine go out and support it all I'm saying is don't do it because you think it will help stoners or the hemp industry will return the favour in any way.

 

Fair enough.

[everest]

..... and on a personal note

 

i was in the funky town of pahoa on the big island and popped into the hemp museum & shop .... very nice shit for sure , i did the usual tourist crap buying paper & envelopes and the like ... and almost fell for the ganja jog pants @ 175 us there was a bit of buyer resistance ... ha ..

 

on the till was a young hip dude , so i did the tourist thing again ... any pokalola with my hemp mate ?

 

prick nearly died .... wanka yank ..... oh no drugs are so ilegal here in hawaii !

 

no shit sherlock , stick ya ganja pants up ya arse

 

strolled over to the pub , asked the barman for a bottle of mgd & a quatre of pokalola .... he smiled nodded me in the stoner direction .... problem solved

 

ev

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Saying Hemp isn't illegal, you just need a lisence to grow it, is the same as saying opium isn't illegal, you just need alisence to grow it. But they're both very controlled, very difficult plants to get permission to grow.

 

And on that note, opium growers in Tasmania have no sympathy for heroin users, as do Hemp growers have none for pot smokers (that's a very broad statement).

 

Farmers are just businessmen, trying to make a buck. I want the world to turn onto hemp and save us from the cancerous cotton crops, water depletion of our rivers, degredation of our soil, loss of trees etc etc etc...

 

Gays used what they needed to use to get what they wanted, women did what they had to do to get the vote, equal pay etc, we'll do what we have to do to get grass past the bar, and Hemp farmers will do what they have to do for their end.

 

people are egocentrical by nature.

 

rob

[pipeman]

Saying Hemp isn't illegal, you just need a lisence to grow it, is the same as saying opium isn't illegal, you just need alisence to grow it. But they're both very controlled, very difficult plants to get permission to grow.

 

Putting hemp in the same class as opium is overstating things a little. It is not that difficult to grow hemp, and the sale of it is unrestricted. the reason it isn't being done on a widespread basis is its just not commercially viable.

 

As for the legalisation of marijuana, I don't see it happening. Gay rights and womens rights gradually became more acceptable and had strong support from the majority of people. Weed is becoming less and less acceptable and although a lot of people have smoked it at one time or another, there's not any significant support/need/desire for law reform.

 

Everyone was saying in the 70's its inevitable weed would be legalised. Well, its 2006 now, time to wake up.

 

Activism is still a worthy cause IMO, but I think the best we can hope for is that things don't get any worse. If I'm wrong please tell me why, but I can't see anything out there that leads me to believe we are on the road to legalisation.

[nirvana]

What could you really expect? They're trying to form an industry out of a stigmatised and villified plant for purposes other than ours. Of course they're going to do whatever it takes to keep their own arse floating.

 

The marijuana + hemp union that stoners are aiming for isn't really the way to go about this. We should be fighting to legalise marijuana for its own merits, not because we can try and sneak it in along with hemp. Support hemp, sure, but marijuana isn't the same thing and we need to get realistic about this.

 

 

Very well put.

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Yeah I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for grass to be legalised, but things can change quick, and we have no way of knowing what the future holds. Being negative is always easy.

 

As for claiming that it's an over-statement to place lisenced growing of opium against lisenced growing of Hemp, I challenge you to establish a help farm in Tasmania, then try to do the same with an opium farm. You'll get the opium go ahead o so much quicker....

 

My son's school had a spare 10 acres off to the side in Nth West Tas.; the whole lot was under opium every year. Right in the middle of a primary school. At the same time (we only spent a year and half there), one single lisence was granted for hemp that year in all Tasmania.

 

Trying to compare them else-where is stupid, because extensive tests have shown Tas is the only place that poppies will grow commercially. They tried in several other states, but settled on Tas on the 40th parallel or there-abouts. That's the only significant difference, geographically. So apart from geographical differnces, I'm quiet sure getting lisence for growing opium is much easier.

 

I don't know when it all became so damned easy to get permits to grow hemp, but the last time I watched shows like A Big Country, Landline etc when they mentioned this subject ; there were plenty of farmers wishing they could get authority to grow hemp but were declined.

 

You're right on one thing, and that's the fact of activism being benificial, even if legalisation is a dream. A freind of mine was busted for a stem about an inch long, and a piece of paper that was burned on the edge, as in a rollie paper.

 

Both pieces of "evidence" were so deteriated and the fact the person busted grew hops complicated testing, and so was told if he resigned from teaching (USA) and surrended his lisence to councilling; they'd just drop the charges. The charges were "matterial suspected to be marijuana was found in his car while on school grounds."

 

He agreed, they gave him a severence, then a month later the detectives fronted and arrested him charging him for possesion on school grounds, a penalty in Michigan that carries a max of 4 years!

 

Ok, so they're mad over there ok...He was arrested on Friday just after court finished, so he had to sit in the cell until Monday morning. They figured it would scare him. It worked against them. he's very active with Normyl etc, and by monday activists had travelled from all over and packed the court in this little hick town.

 

They kept the pressure up, and it became a news item aired even in florida, right across the other side of the country. Eventually, after 4 different attempts, the court dropped it because of the adverse re-action, and the fact that Normyl were using it as a case to generate a lot of publicity, on the fact that the material couldn't even be properly identified. They had about a hundred people booked into motels for the day of the court case.

 

Pressure can make a difference, even if it isn't legalisation. In the end, he kept his lisences and had no conviction recorded.

 

Sometimes you fight against a thing because it's the right thing to do; not because it's a sure win.

 

rob

[pipeman]

I don't really know hemp licences are easier to get. I'm just going on the hemp presentation at Nimbin Mardi Grass in 2005 and basically the guy was saying the major obstacle to hemp farmers was simply the commercial viability of hemp and the legal problems are really a thing of the past, and one thing hemp farmers had done in years gone by to get licenses through was to remove any percieved association they had with marijuana, and as I said actually boasted that they would seed any crops being grown in the area.

 

Thats what kinda put the idea in my head. I thought hang on, these guys are at Nimbin Mardi Grass trying to get support from pot smokers and this guy has just said he boasts about ruining MJ crops to get his license approved. So again, fuck the hemp industry.

 

PS - If you were in Nimbin Town Hall in Mardi Grass 2005 the guy who interrupted the hemp guy's speach to argue with him was me.

[F420]