We're told constantly about the massive influence of corporation within our government. You mean to tell me there's a chance they could make massive profits, the likes of Budweiser profits or much more, but they're not lobbying for such endeavors?
Pot is not illegal because it is "dangerous". It is illegal because it is an entheogen, period. Most narcotics and depressants are all legal on some level. Stimulants are all legal on some level. The only drugs that are purely illegal under US law (Schedule 1), even for research, are hallucinogens and entheogens.
There is something about the idea of widespread access to hallucinogens and entheogens that is very frightening to the "powers that be". They don't mind people having wide-spread access to depressants and narcotics because they shut parts of the brain completely off. They don't mind people having access to stimulants because they generally turn their users into tweeked-out zombies that make good wage-slaves.
But the idea that people might have access to a substance that has been used for millenia by people of dozens of different cultures to reach some sort of spiritual revelation or insight is a VERY scary idea to the people who make and enforce these laws, and to the corporations that profit from the drugs that are legal...
I don't smoke pot. Apparently you don't either. But if you think that Jack Herer's research on the industrial uses of cannabis are flawed, you are seriously misinformed.
The original Model T was made from hemp--it had hemp-reinforced polymer body panels, hemp upholstery, used hempseed oil for lube and the engine was designed to run on hemp-derived biodiesel. Ford himself called it "The automobile grown from the earth.'
Hemp was considered such a valuable fiber crop that it was actually MANDATORY in many states in the beginning years of the USA for farmers with large farms to dedicate a certain percentage of their acreage to hemp.
The War Department got special waivers for farmers to grow hemp for fiber and lubricants during WWII. Most of the parachutes used in the Pacific Theater used hemp rigging, and nearly all the lines used on Pacific Theater Naval vessels were made of US-produced hemp.
There is no "better modern substitute" for hemp products. Unlike cotton, it is extremely durable (hemp clothing can be 3-5 times more durable than cotton), requires no pesticides (hemp has no natural insect predators or parasites) or herbicides (hemp grows so fast and has such dense cover that weeds can't get a foothold under it). Hemp fiber is naturally almost pure white, so it requires no bleaching like cotton, to make white cloth or paper.
Hemp paper is hundreds of times more durable than wood pulp paper, and has a "shelf life" more closely resembling woven linen than modern paper. It takes ALL inks better than wood pulp paper (oil, acrylic, rubber and water-based). It can be recycled more times than wood-pulp-based paper, and subsequent papers are stronger, more print-friendly, and longer-lasting than modern recycled paper.
Hemp seeds have more protein, amino acids, E and B vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids than ANY other plant-based food on the planet, and are almost completely hypo-allergenic for humans.
You are COMPLETELY and unequivocally wrong on the issue of industrial hemp.
The "Marijuana Tax Act of 1938" was nothing more than a corporate power grab wrapped in Jim Crow Racism. Even if you don't think pot should be legal, you have to admit that what the Hearst empire and Harry Anslinger did was reprehensibly racist, and their Congressional testimony on the issue was one of the most sickening episodes of American history ever committed to paper. (BTW, the Congressional Record that those testimonies were printed on was--you guessed it--hemp-based paper...)
Get over it...
