go, scientists, go

[plantgirl]

I spent part of last night listening to NPR. They had a discussion of the supreme court's current examination of California's medical marijuana laws. I was frustrated because none of the panelists seemed to know about (or at least did not refer to) the research our own government has done: research which (I believe) supports the effectiveness of

Comments

[owlmoose]

re. politcs of pot research: I know of someone who says that publication of her research on THC was surpressed because she showed it to shrink tumors in rats (I think that was it). This would have been in the late '80s or early '90s. It's pretty depressing that such a potential area goes unresearched. What are they so afraid of?

re. the history of anti-pot legislation: my conspiracy-minded brother once told me that this largely backed by the petroleum industry. Polyester had just been discovered, and they feared that better, cheaper fabric could be made out of some part of the plant (I forget whether it was the leaf fibers or the seed oil). An interesting theory, I don't know what truth there may be in it.

[plantgirl]

I hadn't thought of that aspect. Hemp fiber is great stuff. The cloth, paper, and cording that can be made from it are strong & last a really long time. It grows with less water than cotton, and you can often grow more crops of it per year.

Yet it's illegal to grow it in our country, even if you have a strain that contains essentially none of the cannabinoids (sp?) that are necessary if it's grown as a drug.

People wonder what the poor tobacco farmers are going to plant when tobacco stops being so heavily subsidized (hah) and is no longer a profitable crop (see above comment about subsidies). Hemp would be an excellent alternative, and should grow well, with fewer pesticides, in all the regions where tobacco is grown.