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**Sir X** · January 7, 2010, 10:53 AM

1938 !!!!!!????!!!!! a wah di , di way how dem move , is like it illegal from time began.

**Sir X** · January 7, 2010, 06:02 PM

American Historical Notes

In 1619, America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, “ordering” all farmers to “make tryal of “(grow) Indian hempseed. More mandatory (must-grow) hemp cultivation laws were enacted in Massachusetts in 1631, in Connecticut in 1632 and in the Chesapeake Colonies into the mid-1700s.

Even in England, the much-sought-after prize of full British citizenship was bestowed by a decree of the crown on foreigners who would grow cannabis, and fines were often levied against those who refused.

Cannabis hemp was legal tender (money) in most of the Americas from 1631 until the early 1800s. Why? To encourage American farmers to grow more.1

You could pay your taxes with cannabis hemp throughout America for over 200 years.2

You could even be jailed in America for not growing cannabis during several periods of shortage, e.g., in Virginia between 1763 and 1767.

(Herndon, G.M., Hemp in Colonial Virginia, 1963; The Chesapeake Colonies, 1954; L.A. Times, August 12, 1981; et al.)

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis on their plantations. Jefferson,3 while envoy to France, went to great expense, and even considerable risk to himself and his secret agents, to procure particularly good hempseeds smuggled illegally into Turkey from China. The Chinese Mandarins (political rulers) so valued their hemp seed that they made its exportation a capital offense.

The Chinese character “Ma” was the earliest name for hemp. By the 10th century, A.D., Ma had become the generic term for fibers of all kinds, including jute and ramie. By then, the word for hemp had become “Tai-ma” or “Dai-ma” meaning “great hemp.”

The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp “plantations”* (minimum 2,000-acre farms) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton. Most of these plantations were located in the South or in the Border States, primarily because of the cheap slave labor available prior to 1865 for the labor-intensive hemp industry.

(U.S. Census, 1850; Allen, James Lane, The Reign of Law, A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields, MacMillan Co., NY, 1900; Roffman, Roger. Ph.D., Marijuana as Medicine, Mendrone Books, WA, 1982.)

*This figure does not include the tens of thousands of smaller farms growing cannabis, nor the hundreds of thousands if not millions of family hemp patches in America; nor does it take into account that well into this century 80% of America’s hemp consumption for 200 years still had to be imported from Russia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, etc..

Benjamin Franklin started one of America’s first paper mills with cannabis. This allowed America to have a free colonial press without having to beg or justify the need for paper and books from England.

In addition, various marijuana and hashish extracts were the first, second or third most-prescribed medicines in the United States from 1842 until the 1890s. Its medicinal use continued legally through the 1930s for humans and figured even more prominently in American and world veterinary medicines during this time.

Cannabis extract medicines were produced by Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Tildens, Brothers Smith (Smith Brothers), Squibb and many other American and European companies and apothecaries. During all this time there was not one reported death from cannabis extract medicines, and virtually no abuse or mental disorders reported, except for first-time or novice-users occasionally becoming disoriented or overly introverted.

(Mikuriya, Tod, M.D., Marijuana Medical Papers, Medi-Comp Press, CA, 1973; Cohen, Sidney & Stillman, Richard, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, Plenum Press, NY, 1976.)

World Historical Notes

“The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, which began to be worked in the eighth millennium (8,000-7,000 B.C.).” (The Columbia History of the World, 1981, page 54.)

The body of literature (i.e., archaeology, anthropology, philology, economy, history) pertaining to hemp is in general agreement that, at the very least:

From more than 1,000 years before the time of Christ until 1883 A.D., cannabis hemp, indeed, marijuana was our planet’s largest agricultural crop and most important industry, involving thousands of products and enterprises; producing the overall majority of Earth’s fiber, fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense and medicines. In addition, it was a primary source of essential food oil and protein for humans and animals.

According to virtually every anthropologist and university in the world, marijuana was also used in most of our religions and cults as one of the seven or so most widely used mood-, mind-or pain-altering drugs when taken as psychotropic, psychedelic (mind-manifesting or -expanding) sacraments.

Almost without exception, these sacred (drug) experiences inspired our superstitions, amulets, talismans, religions, prayers, and language codes. (See Chapter10 on “Religions and Magic.”)

(Wasson, R. Gordon, Soma, Divine Mushroom of Immortality; Allegro, J.M., Sacred Mushroom & the Cross, Doubleday, NY, 1969; Pliny; Josephus; Herodotus; Dead Sea Scrolls; Gnostic Gospels; the Bible; Ginsberg Legends Kaballah, c. 1860; Paracelsus; British Museum; Budge; Ency. Britannica, Pharmacological Cults; Schultes & Wasson, Plants of the Gods; Research of: R.E. Schultes, Harvard Botanical Dept.; Wm. EmBoden, Cal State U., Northridge; et al.)

Great Wars were Fought to Ensure the Availability of Hemp

For example, the primary reason for the War of 1812 (fought by America against Great Britain) was access to Russian cannabis hemp. Russian hemp was also the principal reason that Napoleon (our 1812 ally) and his “Continental Systems” allies invaded Russia in 1812. (See Chapter 11, “The (Hemp) War of 1812 and Napoleon Invades Russia.”)

In 1942, after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines cut off the supply of Manila (Abaca) hemp, the U.S. government distributed 400,000 pounds of cannabis seeds to American farmers from Wisconsin to Kentucky, who produced 42,000 tons of hemp fiber annually until 1946 when the war ended.

Why Has Cannabis Hemp Been so Important in History?

Because cannabis hemp is, overall, the strongest, most-durable, longest-lasting natural soft-fiber on the planet. Its leaves and flower tops (marijuana) were, depending on the culture, the first, second or third most-important and most-used medicines for two-thirds of the world’s people for at least 3,000 years, until the turn of the 20th century.

Botanically, hemp is a member of the most advanced plant family on Earth. It is a dioecious (having male, female and sometimes hermaphroditic, male and female on same plant), woody, herbaceous annual that uses the sun more efficiently than virtually any other plant on our planet, reaching a robust 12 to 20 feet or more in one short growing season. It can be grown in virtually any climate or soil condition on Earth, even marginal ones.

Hemp is, by far, Earth’s premier, renewable natural resource. This is why hemp is so very important.

Footnotes:

1. Clark, V.S., History of Manufacture in the United States, McGraw Hill, NY 1929, Pg. 34.

2. Ibid.

3. Diaries of George Washington; Writings of George Washington, Letter to Dr. James Anderson, May 26, 1794, vol. 33, p. 433, (U.S. govt. pub., 1931); Letters to his caretaker, William Pearce, 1795 & 1796; Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson’s Farm Books; Abel, Ernest, Marijuana: The First 12,000 Years, Plenum Press, NY, 1980; Dr. Michael Aldrich, et al.

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**Sir X** · January 7, 2010, 06:03 PM

The (HEMP) War of 1812

United States vs. Great Britain
Napoleon Invades Russia...

This is a piece of history that you may have been a bit hazy on when you were taught about it in school. You might well have asked,” What the heck were they fighting about, anyway?”

Here we present the events that led up to the Battle of New Orleans, which, due to slow communications, was accidentally fought on January 8, 1815, two weeks after the War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814 by the signing of a peace treaty in Belgium.

TIME:
1700s and early 1800s

Cannabis hemp is, as it has been for thousands of years, the biggest business and most important industry on the planet. Its fiber (see Chapter 2, “Uses”) moves virtually all the world’s shipping. The entire world’s economy uses and depends upon thousands of different products from the marijuana plant.

1740 on...

Russia, because of its cheap slave/serf labor, produces 80% of the western world’s cannabis hemp and finished hemp products, and is, by far, the world’s best-quality manufacturer of cannabis hemp for sails, rope, rigging and nets.

Cannabis is Russia’s number-one trading commodity - ahead of its furs, timber and iron.

1740 to 1807

Great Britain buys 90% or more of its marine hemp from Russia; Britain’s navy and world sea trade runs on Russian hemp; each British ship must replace 50 to 100 tons of hemp every year or two.

There is no substitute; flax sails, for example, unlike hemp sails, would start rotting in three months or less from salt air and spray.

1793 to 1799 on...

The British nobility is hostile toward the new French government primarily because the British are afraid that the 1789-93 French Revolution of commoners could spread, and/or result in a French invasion of England and the loss of its Empire and, of course, its nobility’s heads.

1803 to 1814

Britain’s navy blockades Napoleon’s France, including Napoleon’s allies on the Continent. Britain accomplishes the blockade of France by closing its (France’s) English Channel and Atlantic (Bay of Biscay) ports with its navy; also, Britain controls absolute access to and from the Mediterranean and Atlantic, by virtue of its control of the straits of Gibraltar (see map on following page).

1798 to 1812

The fledgling United States is officially “neutral” in the war between France and Britain. The United States even begins to solve its own foreign problems by sending its navy and marines (1801-1805) to the Mediterranean to stop Tripoli pirates and ransomers from collecting tribute from American Yankee traders operating in the area. “Millions for Defense - not a penny for Tribute” was America’s rallying cry, and the incident came to be memorialized in the second line of the Marine Corps’ hymn: “... to the shores of Tripoli.”

1803

Napoleon, needing money to press war with Great Britain and pursue control of the European continent, bargain-sells the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million, or roughly two-and-a-half cents per acre.

This area is about one-third of what are now the 48 contiguous states.

1803 on...

The Louisiana Purchase gives rise to some Americans’ - mostly Westerners’ - dreams of “Manifest Destiny.” That is, the United States should extend to the utmost borders of North America: From the top of Canada to the bottom of Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific (see map on page 81).

1803 to 1807

Britain continues to trade for and buy 90% of its hemp directly from Russia.

1807

Napoleon and Czar Alexander of Russia sign the Treaty of Tilset, which cuts off all legal Russian trade with Great Britain, its allies, or any other neutral nation ship acting as agents for Great Britain in Russia.

The treaty also sets up a buffer zone, the Warsaw Duchy (approximately Central Eastern Poland) between Napoleon’s allies and Russia.

Napoleon’s strategy - and his most important goal with the treaty - is to stop Russian hemp from reaching England, thereby destroying Britain’s navy by forcing it to cannibalize sails, ropes, and rigging from other ships; and Napoleon believes that eventually, with no Russian hemp for its huge navy, Britain will be forced to end its blockade of France and the Continent.

1807 to 1809

The United States is considered a neutral country by Napoleon, as long as its ships do not trade with or for Great Britain, and the United States considers itself to be neutral in the war between France and Great Britain.

However, Congress passes the 1806 Non-Importation Pact: British articles which are produced in the U.S., but which could be produced elsewhere, are prohibited. Congress also passes the 1807 Embargo Act, to wit: American ships could not bring or carry products to or from Europe.

These laws hurt America more than Europe; however, many Yankee traders ignored the law anyway.

1807 to 1814

After the Treaty of Tilset cuts off their Russian trade, Britain claims that there are no neutral countries or shipping lanes.

Hence, any ship that trades with Napoleon’s “Continental System” of allies is the enemy and is subject to blockade.

On this pretext, Britain confiscates American ships and cargo and sends sailors back to the United States at American ship owners’ expense.

Britain “impresses” some American sailors into service in the British navy. However, England claims that they only “impress” those sailors who are British subjects - and whose American shipping companies refused to pay for the sailors’ return fares.

1807 to 1810

Secretly, however, Britain offers the captured American traders a "deal” (actually a blackmail proposition) when they “overhaul” - board and confiscate - an American ship and bring it into an English port.

The deal: Either lose your ship and cargos forever, or go to Russia and secretly buy hemp for Britain, who will pay American traders with gold in advance, and more gold when the hemp is delivered back.

At the same time, the Americans will be allowed to keep and trade their own goods (rum, sugar, spices, cotton, coffee, tobacco) to the Czar for hemp - a double profit for the Americans.

1808 to 1810

Our shrewd Yankee traders, faced with the choice of either running British blockades - and risking having their ships, cargo and crews confiscated - or acting as secret (illegal) licensees for Britain, with safety and profits guaranteed, mostly choose the latter.

John Quincy Adams (later to become President), who was American Consul at St. Petersburg, in 1809 noted:

“As many as 600 clipper ships, flying the American flag, in a two-week period, were in Kronstadt” (the Port of St. Petersburg, once called Leningrad in the former USSR) loading principally cannabis hemp for England (illegally) and America, where quality hemp is also in great demand.

(Bemis, John Q. Adams and the American Foreign Policy, New York, NY, Alfred A Knopf, 1949.)

The United States passes the 1809 Non-Intercourse Act which resumes legal trade with Europe, except Britain and France. It is soon replaced with the Macon Bill resuming all legal trade.

1808 to 1810

Napoleon insists that Czar Alexander stop all trade with the independent United States traders as they are being coerced into being illegal traders for Great Britain’s hemp.

Napoleon wants the Czar to allow him to place…station French agents and troops in Kronstadt to make sure the Czar and his port authorities live up to the treaty.

1808 to 1810

The Czar says “Nyet!” despite his treaty with France, and turns a “blind eye” to the illegal American traders, probably because he needs the popular, profitable trade goods the Americans are bringing him and his nobles - as well as the hard gold he is getting from the Americans’ (illegal) purchases of hemp for Great Britain.

1809

Napoleon’s allies invade the Duchy of Warsaw.

1810

Napoleon orders the Czar to stop all trade with the American traders! The Czar responds by withdrawing Russia from that part of the Treaty of Tilset that would require him to stop selling goods to neutral American ships.

1810 to 1812

Napoleon, infuriated with the Czar for allowing Britain’s life blood of navy hemp to reach England, builds up his army and travels over 2,000 miles to invade Russia, planning to punish the Czar and ultimately stop hemp from reaching the British Navy.

1811 to 1812

England, again an ally and full trading partner of Russia, is still stopping American ships from trading with the rest of the Continent.

Britain also blockades all U.S. traders from Russia at the Baltic Sea and insists that American traders have to now secretly buy other strategic goods for them (mostly from Mediterranean ports), specifically from Napoleon and his allies on the Continent who, by this time, are happy to sell anything to raise capital.

1812

The United States, cut off from 80% of its Russian hemp supply, debates war in Congress.

Ironically, it is representatives of the western states who argue for war under the excuse of “impressed” American sailors. However, the representatives of the maritime states, fearful of loss of trade, argue against war, even though it’s their shipping, crews, and states that are allegedly afflicted.

Not one senator from a maritime state votes for war with Great Britain, whereas virtually all western senators vote for war, hoping to take Canada from Britain and fulfill their dream of “Manifest Destiny,” in the mistaken belief that Great Britain is too busy with the European wars against Napoleon to protect Canada.

It’s interesting to note that Kentucky, a big supporter of the war which disrupted the overseas hemp trade, was actively building up its own domestic hemp industry.

At this time, 1812, American ships could pick up hemp from Russia and return with it three times faster and cheaper than shippers could get hemp from Kentucky to the East Coast over land (at least, until the Erie Canal was completed in 1825; shortening travel time dramatically by as much as 90%).

The western states win in Congress, and on June 18, 1812, the United States is at war with Britain.

America enters the war on the side of Napoleon, who marches on Moscow also in June of 1812.

Napoleon is soon defeated in Russia by the harsh winter, the Russian scorched-earth policy, 2,000 miles of snowy and muddy supply lines - and by Napoleon not stopping for the winter and regrouping before marching on Moscow, as was the original battle plan.

Of the 450,000 to 600,000 men Napoleon starts with, only 180,000 ever ake it back.

1812 to 1814

Britain, after initial success in war with the United States (including the burning of Washington in retaliation for the earlier American burning of Toronto, then the colonial Canadian capitol), finds its finances and military stretched thin - with blockades, war in Spain with France, and a tough new America on the seas.

Britain agrees to peace, and signs a treaty with the United States in December, 1814. The actual terms of the treaty give little to either side.

In effect, Britain agrees it will never again interfere with American shipping.

And the United States agrees to give up all claims to Canada forever (which we did, with the exception of “54-40 or Fight”).

1813 to 1814

Britain defeats Napoleon in Spain and banishes him to Elba, but he escapes for 100 days.

1815

Britain defeats Napoleon at Waterloo (June 18) and banishes him to St. Helena Island off Antarctica where, in 1821, he dies and his hair and private parts are sold to the public for souvenirs.

January 1815

Tragically for Britain, more than two weeks after the December 24, 1814 signing of the Ghent peace treaty between the United States and Britain, Andrew Jackson defeats a huge British attack force at New Orleans (January 8, 1815) while news of the treaty slowly makes its way across the Atlantic.

20th Century

American, British, French, Canadian and Russian schools each teach children their own, completely different versions of history with virtually no mention of hemp in this war (nor, in the American versions, at any other time in history).

Author’s Note:

I wish to apologize to history buffs for all the nuances I have left out from this outline of the 1812 Wars (for example, the involvement of the Rothschilds, the Illuminati, stock market manipulations, etc.), but I did not want to write “War and Peace.” It’s been done.

My intention is that our children are taught a true, comprehensive history in our schools, not watered-down nonsense that hides the real facts and makes the War of 1812 seem totally unintelligible and without rhyme or reason. But it’s no wonder. Our American school teachers themselves often haven’t the foggiest understanding of why this war was really fought. If they do know - or have recently learned - they are generally much too intimidated to teach it.

In 1806, it cost $50,000 to build the U.S.S. Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” and $400,000 to make the sails and rope for that ship. They needed to be replaced every two years. In 1850, it cost $50 to build an uncovered Calistoga wagon in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It cost $400 for the hemp canvas to cover it.

For a broader overview of the subject we’ve outlined in this chapter, read Alfred W. Crosby Jr.’s America, Russia, Hemp, and Napoleon, 1965.

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