What's the big deal about hemp products?

Hemp can fulfill the fiber and oil needs of the entire world, and do it more cost effectively and with less harm to the environment than wood and petroleum.

Archival-quality paper, clothing, building materials and plastics are just a few of the uses for this remarkable plant. Deforestation could end tomorrow if a national hemp industry was reintroduced and American farmers would be reaping the profits instead of corporate clear-cutters.

The introduction of a hemp retail industry is the first step in establishing a demand, so when you buy a hemp product you are showing your support for the reintroduction of the most prolific agricultural resource on Earth.

Why should I pay more for things made from hemp?

Three words: Strongest natural fiber.

Doesn't it make sense to pay $50 for a hemp shirt that will last at least twice as long as a $35 cotton shirt? The lack of a domestic hemp supply and the support of fair labor practices also adds to the cost of hemp products. Hemp is cultivated without the use of toxic pesticides that are used so excessively in the production of cotton. When you purchase hemp, you support continued production of the most eco-friendly fiber crop in the world.

Why is hemp illegal to grow in the United States?

We must travel back to the turn of the century to answer this question, and it's not a simple one. During this period, hemp was being grown extensively in this country for cordage, textiles, paper and oil, yet it was loosing favor due to the labor intensive processing required to separate the fiber from the inner hurd. Then came an invention which was to hemp what the cotton gin was to cotton: The decorticator. With the processing problem solved, hemp, the standard fiber around the world, was poised for a serious comeback in the American economy. A 1938 Popular Mechanics article touted hemp as a "Billion-Dollar Crop" that could be grown in any state in the Union.

Then came the passage of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Stamp Act. This legislation effectively outlawed the plant in all forms under the pretext of saving Americans (almost all of which did not know that hemp and marijuana were both cannabis) from what Federal Narcotics Bureau Chief Harry Anslinger called "the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind." It turns out that Anslinger was hand-picked for the job by his uncle, who happened to be the largest stock holder in the bank that financed DuPont's development of nylon (which was being billed as "synthetic hemp"). These facts, along with the plethora of lies that were used to convince Congress to ban cannabis, point to a simple conclusion: Marijuana was used as a pretext for the removal of hemp from the competitive fiber market.