Decriminalize Cannabis
Too many people are being prosecuted for petty charges.
Too many good people are being prosecuted and torn from their families due to charges of possession. Cannabis is one of the most useful natural resources. Paper, fabric, rope, food, hair products, medicine, and many many more products can be derived from cannabis. The Constitution was written on paper made from Cannabis. Cannabis is the strongest natural fiber on the face of the earth. It cures Glaucoma it Greatly helps with the effects of Cerebral Palsy. It relives stress and pain. Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food. It has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s.George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.When US sources of "Manila hemp" (not true hemp) was cut off by the Japanese in WWII, the US Army and US Department of Agriculture promoted the "Hemp for Victory" campaign to grow hemp in the US. Because of its importance for sails (the word "canvass" is rooted in "cannabis") and rope for ships, hemp was a required crop in the American colonies.Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products.Kimberly Clark (on the Fortune 500) has a mill in France which produces hemp paper preferred for bibles because it lasts a very long time and doesn't yellow.uch of the bird seed sold in the US has hemp seed (it's sterilized before importation), the hulls of which contain about 25% protein.Construction products such as medium density fiber board, oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts could be made out of hemp. Because of hemp's long fibers, the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood.The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000.The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa varieties as "marijuana." While it is theoretically possible to get permission from the government to grow hemp, DEA would require that the field be secured by fence, razor wire, dogs, guards, and lights, making it cost-prohibitive.The US State Department must certify each year that a foreign nation is cooperating in the war on drugs. The European Union subsidizes its farmers to grow industrial hemp. Those nations are not on this list, because the State Department can tell the difference between hemp and marijuana.Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp. While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana, as it's successor the US Drug Enforcement Administration, does to this day.Over 30 industrialized democracies do distinguish hemp from marij
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