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The hemp plant has for millenia been man's best friend among plants.

The outer bast fibres have clothed us, given us rope and sail for our ships, been used for string, and, often after being worn and used, they have been recycled into paper. This would seem like a rather efficient programme; but that is the problem. The tycoons who benefit from over consumption grow rich as they get us to use more.

Without hemp fibres in our clothing and paper, we use cotton and wood instead. Both demand a much greater use of chemicals; cotton uses up to 50% of the world's pesticides, and wood pulp processing uses more chemical treatments and bleaching than does hemp.

The fibres are not all that the hemp plant gives us. Its non-fibrous inner core, which is from 35-50% cellulose, provides industry with the raw material for plastics, paper and building materials. It can also be turned into charcoal, which is of great use in areas where trees are being chopped for firewood. This inner part is known as the hurd(s). It is easliy processed, as it does not need to be carefully removed as does the outer fibre, known as bast.

The seeds, or more technically achenes of the hemp plant, provide us with a nutritionally valuable alternative to meat. Omega 3 and 6 EFAs are containted in them, which may be the reason fish love them so much. Fish are also high in EFAs, so they reach out for a source, coming to the surface when hemp seeds are cast by cunning anglers. Birds also love hemp, for many species it is their favourite food; pigeons and finches especially.

The buds of some varieties provide THC and cannabinoids, which are useful in medicine. But again, this goes up against expensive pills the pharmaceutical industry would rather sell us. In Scotland, for instance, doctors are recommending cannabic medicine even if the law is not yet on their side.

The cultivation of hemp was recommended by English regents King Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. In the US, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew it. There was never a problem with it until the 1930s, when the Hearst media whipped up public hysteria. William Randolph Hearst at that time was working with Hitler, who was also a journalist and publisher. It was these type of people who were 'in bed' with the military industrial complex, which Eisenhower warned the US public about. But did anyone listen?

It appears not. So now Americans, including Dave Monson, a GOP leader in the state of North Dakota, cannot cultivate the crop that would make them money.

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