HempCyberFarm Hemp Makes Comeback

Article from “The Economist” dated Oct. 5th 1996

Hemp makes a comeback but not in the States yet!

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Article is copied from “The Economist” exactly as is without modifications except for some underlined highlights:

Hemp Makes a Comeback

Even the most fervent American anti-drugs campaigners risk finding some in their pockets when they travel abroad. Dried, rolled and smoked, the leaves of the cannabis, or hemp, plant yield a high from a banned substance called THC. Pounded, pulped and rolled (differently), they make a paper often used for cigarettes, and even some banknotes (although not dollars).

Hemp’s legal uses go well beyond tough, damp-resistant paper. Refined the fibers can be woven into silky T-shirts that cost $100 or more; coarsely and more cheaply treated they make useful building materials, such as biodegradable shelters for refugee camps. The oil and juices are raw material for, among other things, soap, washing powder and cosmetics; the seeds, toasted, are said by some to be a nice snack (although others reckon they taste suspiciously like bird food).

Unfortunately for hemp-lovers (or "hempsters"), other products are cheaper (and in case of snacks, nicer). In Germany hemp products have carved our an up-market niche among greens: hemp cultivation normally requires little fertilizer or pesticide. But processing hemp plant requires a lot of hard manual work-soaking, beating, rubbing and combing to extract the fibers and get them supple-which makes it uneconomical in most western countries. This is a pity, since hemp thrives in climates like Germany's (and is all the more attractive given an EU agricultural subsidy of DM 1,500 ($980) per hectare).

After much public lobbying, the German government this year (1996) grudgingly made the cultivation of a few species of hemp, all of which contain only negligible quantities of THC, legal again. And at the end of September, thousands gathered in Berlin to celebrate the first harvest festival and to hear about the latest techniques aimed at bringing their favorite fibers to the mass market.

These include some imaginative ideas for making hemp easier to produce. One technique involves dousing the hemp straw in bubbly water and firing ultra sound at it (the ultrasound causes the bubbles to implode, and the impact frees the fibers); another, from the Institute of Applied Research, in Reutlingen, uses steam pressure. Perhaps the most elegant involves fermentation; not only is the hemp reduced to its constituent fiber by bacteria, but the by-product, methane, can fuel a power station. Pilot projects are due to start shortly.

Bring on the, er, T-shirts

Some hempsters were less pleased to hear about a new detection device, Drugwipe, produced by Securetec, a firm in Munich. This small plastic stick, costing DM10 ($6.50), can detect THC and some other drugs in the bloodstream simply by being placed on a suspect’s skin. This is fine for those who like hemp because it is so kind to the environment, but a drag for those who admire its mood-altering properties.

*Industrial-Hemp has no psychoactive properties following definition of the European Economic Community (EEC); THC content is less than 0.3%. In general, low THC-seed varieties without psychoactive properties are those that have a THC content of less than 1%. (See also No-THC Hemp-seed.) THC= Delta-9 TetraHydroCannabinol.