Sativa Liberation Organisation

[Dags Gone Wild]

The 23 June episode of Catalyst (copyright ABC TV Aus), it had a really hilarious segment about agricultural hemp (video only available in Aus or by proxy):

 

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3251949.htm

 

The gist is in the introductory transcript anyway.

 

I tried alerting ABC to their error, but they were insistent that they never said C. sativa wasn't psychoactive (see transcript - it's exactly what they said) and that a botanist in Sydney had provided the information [which they persisted in doggedly misinterpreting].

 

I thought again before getting too locked in.

 

I now realise the researchers at ABC were quite correct and I was horribly wrong. Any psychoactive effect anyone claims to be experiencing from consuming C. sativa must be merely a placebo effect.

 

That being so, the governments of Australia have absolutely no reason to not make sativa hemp available for food, fodder and fibre.

 

With a cleanskin gmail account (probably not as anonymous as I think) I'm going to be sending a form email to a number of politicians and persons of influence, so we can free up C. sativa for all sorts of things.

 

People claim smoking it has helped them give up tobacco - will the miracles of the placebo effect never end? - but I would probably use it in cooking and beverages, because it's rich in omega 3 as well.

 

Anyone similarly inclined can copy, rewrite with less pretentious words than I run to, and send on to anyone they think might be gullible enough to fall for it.

 

 

 

FORM EMAIL:

 

Dear_____

 

I saw with interest the Catalyst programme on ABC, Thur 23 June this year, specifically the segment about hemp. http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3251949.htm

 

I learned some interesting things, such as that there is a strain of cannabis that is not psychoactive, and is very nutritious for humans and animals, and also a great source of natural fibres.

 

This strain is C. sativa, as opposed to the C. indica strain that some people smoke to get high on pot.

 

If this benign C. sativa were legal to grow in back yards and on farms, like vegetables, it would be a new agricultural industry with export potential.

 

I read a few weeks ago, on the Fairfax web site, that the criminal growers hate the other sort of hemp - which I now know is C. sativa - because it can cross-pollinate their drug crop and ruin it, so encouraging farmers and gardeners to grow C. sativa would help wipe out illegal drugs.

 

You could even grow some in public parks and other municipal plantings, and along country roadsides, as many plant-lovers consider the hemp plant to be aesthetically pleasing.

 

In your capacity as ______, please campaign for this valuable agricultural resource to be made legal, and readily available for anyone keen to help end the war on drugs.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

[name]

Edited July 9, 2011 by Dags Gone Wild

[STONEDAJ69]

um... sativa not psychoactive? WTF are u smokin'?

[mjfish]

This might have actually worked in 1942 hehe

Gave me a good laugh tho two points for trying

Edited July 10, 2011 by mjfish

[Dags Gone Wild]

This might have actually worked in 1942 hehe

Gave me a good laugh tho two points for trying

 

If I did not already have some enthusiastic and reality-based views about the virtues of Sativa, I may well not have noticed Catalyst making such outrageous slanders against her good name.

 

Nevertheless, it would be funny if any politician ran with this even for a short while, based on ABC's reputation for doing good science, which seems to be going up in smoke.

 

I doubt the Greens will fall for it, but I thought they would crack a smile. I'm hoping for better luck with Barnnaby Joyce, Bill Heffernen, and Mr. Wabbitt, and any other egregious politicians who might seriously propose this, based on trusting the ABC to have done adequate fact-checking.

 

Revised and updated email sent to Greens Senators Brown, Milne, Siewert, Hanson-Young and Waters, and MHR Adam Bandt, and possibly Rhiannon:

 

Dear Senators and MHR,

 

I viewed with interest the Catalyst programme on ABC1, Thur 23 June this year, particularly the segment about hemp, or Cannabis sativa, which is a valuable source of foodstuffs and time-honoured industrial materials.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3251949.htm

 

I learned from Catalyst, that this strain of cannabis is not psychoactive, and is very nutritious for humans and animals, and also a great source of natural fibres.

 

There is not reason to maintain the illegal status of C. sativa, as opposed to the non-agricultural C. indica strain that people smoke to get high on.

 

If C. sativa were legal to grow in back yards and on farms, like fruit and vegetables, it would be a new agricultural industry with export potential, and a boon to amateur gardeners everywhere.

 

I read a few weeks ago, on the Fairfax web site, that the criminal growers hate the other sort of hemp - which I now know is C. sativa - because it can cross-pollinate their drug crop and ruin it, so encouraging farmers and gardeners to grow C. sativa would help wipe out illegal drugs.

 

You could even grow some in public parks, verges and other municipal plantings, as many plant-lovers consider the hemp plant to be aesthetically pleasing.

 

In your capacity as pivotal law-makers, please campaign for this valuable agricultural resource to be made legal, and readily available for anyone as keen to help wage the war on drugs as I am.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

[Fake Name]

 

 

BTW "as keen to help wage the war on drugs as I am" means down to and including being implacably against it.

 

The reason I'm doing this is because ABC more or less told me to F*** off when I pointed out they had made a mistake.

 

It's a thought exercise in "What would happen if people took Catalyst at their word?"

[Dags Gone Wild]

Ok, also sent to Senators Joyce and Heffernan, and to MPs Bob Katter, Tony Abbott and Bronwyn Bishop who might just conceivably give it a trot, and to Malcolm Turnbull, who will definitely get the joke.

 

I didn't try Wyatt Roy, Julie Bishop, or Joe Hockey because they look like people who would at leastknow someone who knows their weeds (and I don't think they deserve to enjoy any of my jokes), and I haven't even thought of any Labor recipients yet.

 

I'm pooped out for sending stupid emails to politicians for today. Any suggestions for other politicians who might fall for or will laugh at said email?

 

I don't know much about state pollies, so any suggestions there would be handy. Remember, I only have to have one polly make one gaffe on record, and I my cup will runneth over with a heady rush of dopamine and serotonin.