“Can
we smoke the clothes?” This is one of the more common questions shoppers
jokingly ask of Erin Keast, general manager of Hemp and Company in Victoria,
B.C.
“Of
course there is a stigma around the word hemp and its close association with
marijuana,” says Keast. “But we find that most people are becoming more
educated and are genuinely interested in sustainable, environmentally-friendly products.
Those who do visit us with a preconception of hemp are providing us with opportunities
to educate them on its diversity and history.”
THE
BASICS
Though
many people might think that hemp and marijuana are synonymous, they actually
aren’t at all. Hemp and marijuana are two different varieties of the Cannabis
sativa plant.
Hemp contains less than one per cent of the psychoactive constituent,
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), necessary in order to have any effect on a human.
In plain language, marijuana will get you high, and hemp will not.
While
growing, both plants look and smell similar, but compared to the smaller marijuana
plant, hemp can grow as tall as 25 feet tall. Hemp fibres are longer and
stronger than cotton, and are naturally anti-mildew, antimicrobial, and biodegradable.
Hemp
can be, and has been, used to make clothing, including denim, disposable
diapers, shoes, tarps, rope, carpets, canvas, and the list goes on. These are
just the uses for long fibre hemp, though. Alternative harvesting practices produce
a variety of raw materials which can be put to over 25,000 different uses,
including paper, margarine, shampoo, oil paint, cosmetics, stucco, cement
blocks, lube, granola, and bio-diesel fuel, to name just a few.
Bio-diesel
fuel, such as hemp oil, can run a vehicle, and has been used in some parts of
Europe for over 20 years. It emits 80 per cent less carbon dioxide and nearly
100 per cent less sulphur dioxide than fossil fuels.
Hemp
fabric has been proven to be stronger, softer, and more durable than cotton,
and uses fewer chemicals to produce. It also requires minimal space to farm,
with one acre of usable hemp fibre being equivalent in quantity to four acres
of trees or two acres of cotton. The crops are pest- and draught-resistant,
stand up against cold weather, and reap up to ten tons per acre every four
months. On top of that, hemp matures in as little as 100 days, where trees, as
we know in B.C., mature in 50–100 years.
Hemp
paper is an extremely promising product as well, as it can be recycled more
times than wood fibre paper can, and it resists decomposing with age, thereby
outlasting wood fibree paper by hundreds of years. Nearly four billion trees
are cut down every year, 35 per cent of which goes to making paper. On average,
the world consumes about 300 million tonnes of wood fibre paper every year, and
the rates are consistently rising. The pulp and paper industry is the
third-largest polluter in the world, though it also generates a significant
amount of income for the producing countries, notably $200 billion in sales
every year in the United States. However, the negative impact of deforestation
and pollution caused by wood fibre paper production could be cut significantly if
the hemp paper industry was more seriously encouraged.
Given
all of the uses for hemp that exist and the obvious environmental benefits, it
leaves a person wondering why we aren't making everything out of hemp, and hemp
supporters advocate for just that. However, once you start digging around in
hemp history, you'll see that it is only recently that hemp has been actively
discouraged.
A
HISTORY OF HEMP
As
far back as 8000 B.C., hemp was harvested by early agriculturists in Europe and
Asia, while in China, hemp was used to make rope and fish nets as early as 4500
B.C. The Japanese used hemp as their primary clothing fibre until the 17th
century, when cotton was introduced, and they continued to use hemp for many
industrial uses. There's also a long history of information-sharing between
Chinese and Japanese scholars on the many medical uses of hemp and hemp oil.
In
Europe, the ancient Romans also celebrated hemp's medical uses, with Roman
surgeon Dioscorides naming the plant Cannabis sativa and beginning documentation
of treatments. In 1150 A.D., Spanish Muslims used hemp to found the first paper
mill in the West; paper was then made of hemp for the next 700 years.
Major
European powers grew hemp to create sails and rigging for ships, and hemp was
brought to the New World for further cultivation. In 1564, King Philip of Spain
ordered hemp to be grown throughout all of his empire, from modern day Argentina
to Oregon.
Hemp
also did well in North America: in 1619, hemp cultivation was mandatory in the
colony of Virginia. By 1631, the money of the North American colonies was being
printed on hemp. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are notorious for
having been hemp farmers, and the first two drafts of the Declaration of
Independence were written on the same standard paper used for all printing in
the colonies, including bibles: hemp paper. In Canada, the Lieutenant-Governor
of Upper Canada provided free hemp seeds to farmers on behalf of the King of
England as early as 1801. Hemp continued to flourish as a cash crop, actively
endorsed by governments and politicians.
GOOD
PLANT TURNED BAD
By
1919, anti-drug sentiments were on the rise, with the introduction of Prohibition
in the United States. Films such as the now comical Reefer Madness, Assassin of Youth, and Marihuana spread fear of the plant,
warning users of potential rape, murder, and descent into madness.
Fueled
by public hysteria, 1937 saw the Marihuana Tax Act passed by the United States Congress,
insuring anyone convicted of growing, using, or distributing marijuana would be
charged, imprisoned, and fined. In his book Hemp Horizons, author and hemp advocate John
Roulac notes that numerous hemp historians and researchers have suggested
various conspiracy theories that helped the Marihuana Tax Act find legal
footing. Among the most popular are the idea that newspaper tycoon and forestry
owner William Randolph Hearst used political influence to remove competition to
his own products.
General
public confusion over the difference between hemp and marijuana helped
contribute to the decline of hemp production in the United States, with other
Western countries following suit. In Canada, the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act was
passed in 1938. According to the government's website, it was for the purposes
of the “combined international battle against the abuse of THC and other
controlled substances.”
The
United Kingdom banned hemp production in 1971, Germany in 1981, while France
continued production, as they had been growing hemp for 600 years to date. By
the early 1990s, almost every industrialized country except France and China
had banned industrial hemp production, with world wide production the lowest in
history.
HEMP
REVIVAL
Awareness
of hemp as an alternative crop began again in the 1980s and '90s. The
environmental benefits of hemp were increasingly being brought into the
limelight by vocal advocates of the environmentalist movement, including actor
Woody Harrelson and singer Willie Nelson. Currently, the majority of industrial
countries allow for industrial hemp growth, with Germany and the United Sates
as noted exceptions, despite demand for imported hemp fabric in both countries
remaining high.
By
1996, the Canadian government passed bill C-8, removing mature hemp stalks from
the government's list of banned substances, and in 1998, full legality was
given to commercial hemp growing, ushering in a new era of hemp production.
On
their website, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada states that “as the world's
premier renewable resource, hemp has been the source of food and fibre for the
past 10,000 years.” The website goes on to state that by 2007, 900 tonnes of
industrial hemp were being exported from Canada, with nearly 60 per cent of
that being sold to our neighbours in the United States. According to the
Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, “in 2010 it was estimated that 25,000 [acres]
were grown. Hemp has been grown with success from coastto- coast.”
For
businesses like Hemp and Company, there are definite drawbacks to the 70 year
hiatus of the Canadian hemp industry. Keast notes that while her company has
begun creating an in-house clothing line, obstacles remain.
“Currently,
there exists no facilities in North America to process hemp into fibre,” says
Keast. “So, we still import our cloth from fair-trade, fair wage suppliers in
China, which has never had any regulations against hemp.”
Keast
explains that at this point, “most [Canadians] are well aware of [hemp's] uses,
especially for eco-conscious British Columbians. While we are fortunate in this
respect, hemp is still illegal to grow in the United States, which comprises
much of our tourist base.”
The
Internet has assisted the flourishing of hemp product supply and demand;
however, drawing customers from Australia and all over Europe, though their
biggest clients outside of Canada are by far from the United States.
A
WORLD OF GOOD NEWS
Increasingly,
knowledge about the health benefits of hemp have also been brought to attention.
Agriculture and Agri-food Canada states that “recent scientific research
indicates that essential fatty acids (EFAs) cannot be manufactured by the human
body and deficiencies can cause undesirable chronic conditions such as obesity,
cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and eczema … Hemp seed and its
by-products can be used to supplement diets poor in EFAs in order
to maintain health. One by-product, hemp seed oil, contains 30 per cent of its
weight in EFA-rich oil, delivering an ideal combination of omega-3 and omega-6
fatty acids for long term use. Hemp seed oil may have potential health benefits
for diabetes, cancer, lupus, asthma rheumatoid arthritis, depression and
hypertension.” The fatty acids found in hemp seeds and oil have become a hot commodity
in the nutrition world, furthering demand for production.
Manitoba
Harvest was founded in 1998, and according to the Canadian Hemp Alliance, are
the “world’s largest vertically–integrated, farmer-owned hemp food
manufacturer.” They, too, have embraced the demand for hemp products, producing
everything from hemp protein to hemp butter to hemp beverages.
GOING
MAINSTREAM
When
hemp was reintroduced to the market in the 1990s, companies such as The Body
Shop, with their line of hemp body creams, were openly using the symbol of the
hemp leaf to attract consumers. Without being armed with more information, it
is easy to see why this symbol is often still associated with marijuana and
“stoner” culture.
When
asked if Hemp and Company has ever felt pressure to cater business to a certain
demographic in order to maintain success, Keast says that “the diversity of our
product array appeals to all demographics … [The stigma] is usually because of
misinformation or lack thereof. The uses of hemp are becoming more known and
widespread in Canada and around the world … It is only a matter of time before
the stigma no longer exists.”
When
looking at the quality of hemp products and the myriad of uses and
environmental benefits, it is easy to see why hemp producers are keen to put
prejudice and hysteria in the past.
//Lindsay Flynn, writer
//Graphics and cover by Katie So
//Lindsay Flynn, writer
//Graphics and cover by Katie So
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