It Is Time The United States Join The Ranks Of Advanced Nations And Permit The P

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Term Paper Title	It Is Time The United States Join The Ranks Of Advanced Nations And Permit The P
# of Words	1796
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	7.18

It is time the United States join the ranks of advanced nations and permit the production of industrial hemp.  Industrial hemp is not an addictive drug, has a variety of uses that are environmentally friendly, and would be beneficial to our economy.

The United States is paralyzed by the belief that industrial hemp is a drug crop.  This belief has been nurtured by much misinformation. "All marijuana is hemp, but not all hemp is marijuana," said Paul Mahlberg, a professor at Indiana University in Bloomington and a molecular biologist who has studied Cannabis for 30 years (The Kansas City Star, 9/30/98).  Industrial hemp is the same species as marijuana, Cannabis sativa, but it is a different variety which, due to genetics and growing practices, has a very small amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive chemical that gives a "high" (Industrial Hemp Gaining Favor, p.1).  The THC levels in industrial hemp are so low that no one can get high from smoking it.  Marijuana contains up to 20 percent THC, where industrial hemp contains only 0.3 percent or less THC (Getting Hemp Over the Hump, p1).  Moreover, industrial hemp, while low in THC, is high in another kind of cannabinoid, cannabidiol  (CBD), which counteracts the THC psychoactivity (West, p.11).  CBD has recently been shown to block the effect of THC in the nervous system (West, 8).  Industrial hemp has relatively high levels of CBD versus THC.  Drug strains are high in THC and low in CBD.  Cannabis with THC below 1.0 percent and a CBD/THC ratio greater than one is therefore not capable of inducing a psychoactive effect.  Hemp turns out, is not only not marijuana; it could be called the "antimarijuana" (West, p.3).
"You couldn't get high off industrial hemp even if you smoked a joint the size of a telephone pole," said Med Byrd, NCSU scientist (Getting Hemp Over the Hump).  According to Professor William M. Pierce Jr., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, "To obtain a psychoactive effect with even 1 percent THC would require the user to smoke 10-12 cigarettes containing hemp in a 'very short period of time'…This large volume and high temperature inhalation of vapor, gas, and smoke would be difficult for a person to withstand, much less enjoy" (West, p.12).  Professor Pierce went on to note that anyone who ate hemp hoping to get "high" would be consuming the fiber equivalent of several doses of high-fiber laxative.  In o...

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