re: If legalized, marijuana demand would exceed ice cream and movie tickets

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We look out the window at them and see the exact same people, over and over, all day long.

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A new report from Marijuana Business Daily estimates that the total demand for marijuana, including the black market, is $45-$50 billion.

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Eh. More so the alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical, and cotton lobbies. They are the ones that want Mary Jane to stay illegal.

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Hemp > cotton.

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Hemp has twice as much usable yield per acre.

Hemp doesn't need nearly the same amount of pesticides as cotton.

Hemp uses a quarter to half as much water to grow as cotton.

Hemp fiber is much more durable than cotton.

Hemp is more breathable than cotton


I could go on... But I feel like you get the gist. It's better for the environment, it's more durable, it's more breathable, etc.

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Cannabis' industrial uses are also bogus. Hempcrete? Hempcrete requires you grow plants. Concrete requires you dig dirt out of the ground. Abundant dirt. Inexpensive dirt. Dirt that doesn't require fertilizer or pesticides to grow because dirt doesn't need to be grown it just is. Also, concrete works better. Hemp paper? Hemp paper sucks balls. You can buy some right now on Amazon.com and try it out. Don't run it through your printer unless your printer can deal with construction paper without jamming. Hemp rope? Every so often on climbing forums some patchouli-smelling hippy will ask about switching to hemp ropes. Hemp doesn't stretch so if you fall while climbing you'll break your neck. Hemp rope also doesn't float, isn't waterproof and decays in sunlight so it is useless for nautical or construction applications. Manila hemp rope which used to be used on ships IS NOT cannabis (it comes from a banana-like plant) but apparently the fact that Manila hemp rope fell out of favor is evidence of a conspiracy by "big rope" to ban cannabis.

People can legally grow hemp plants almost everywhere on earth. Here's a freaking map: LINK France and China produce hundreds of thousands of tons of it every year. France and China have entire agricultural university departments tasked with studying its cultivation.

Those agricultural organizations, through decades of experience, have found that: contrary to hemphead beliefs, hemp cultivation does require fertilizer contrary to hemphead beliefs, hemp cultivation does require pesticide use, especially in areas where Psylliodes attenuatus (the Hop/Hemp Flea Beetle) is present It requires less of both compared to certain alternatives and more of both compared to others. The fact that most of the 6.7 billion people on earth who AREN'T Americans can already grow it and use it for industrial purposes can only mean one of two things:

1.Every single person in every single country on earth who isn't an American is stupidly incompetent and can't figure out how to manufacture hemp products superior to the alternatives and only the good 'ole US of A has the brains and talent to do it and hemp's legal status in one country on earth is holding back human progress because everyone else is stupid, or

2. Hemp isn't the industrial wonder people make it out to be. I'm betting on number 2.

Other myths about hemp:
-hemp can prevent erosion: yes it can, but it would be an invasive species that would overwhelm native ones and kill biodiversity if planted on a large scale to prevent erosion (just like Kudzu in the south).

-the constitution was printed on hemp paper: the constitution was printed on parchment

-Thomas Jefferson loved smoking it: the quote attributed to him about "smokin it up" is fake

-Hemp oil can be used as a biofuel: there are several better candidates all of which aren't invasive species in the areas they would be grown in, the best candidates turn most of the sunlight, water, and soil nutrients available to the plant into sugary seeds or fruits that are easy to process-- hemp turns most of those ingredients into tough fibers that take more energy to break down

-Hemp seeds are a wonder food: numerous foods are equally as good, many are better. Compare the Nutrition Facts label for 30g of hemp seeds and 30g of plain old regular unsalted peanuts. Are peanuts a "wonder" food? Jojoba oil is infintely better in every single way than hemp oil for biofuel use, and jojoba is a native species to the southwestern United States that grows out in the arid rough country where the conditions would kill hemp. Jojoba produces 194 gallons of oil per acre compared to hemp's 39.

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