orchidcup says:

“Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.”
– George Washington, U.S. President quote on Hemp

“Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.”
– Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President quote on Hemp

“We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption.”
– John Adams, U.S. President quote on Hemp

“Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?”
– Henry Ford quote on Marijuana

“I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?””
– Willie Nelson quote on Marijuana

“There’s been no top authority saying what marijuana does to you. I really don’t know that much about it. I tried it once but it didn’t do anything to me.”
– John Wayne quote on Marijuana

orchidcup says:

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.

In 1619 the Virginia Assembly passed legislation requiring every farmer to grow hemp. Hemp was allowed to be exchanged as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.

The founding fathers of this nation George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both promoters of hemp, as noted in their farm diaries spoke of their experiences as hemp farmers. Throughout Washington’s farm diary he spoke about the quality of seeds, always taking care to sow seeds in best areas on his farm. He documented the importance’s of cultivating seeds at the proper time taking care to pull the male plants from the females. In 1790’s Washington began cultivating “Indian hemp” which he said produced the best quality of plant, and noted its superior quality to common hemp mostly grown during that time. Both Washington and Jefferson disliked tobacco, and on occasion they would exchange gifts of a smoking mixtures, Washington reportedly enjoyed smoking hemp flowers, however there is no hard evidence.

Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.

Jefferson, was also a promoter of hemp, and during his tenure as Governor of Virginia he kept reserves of hemp, and in May of 1781 used hemp as currency when money from the government was in short supply.

Jefferson believed hemp to be a superior crop to tobacco, which he said exhausted the soil, used to much manure, provided no nourishment for cattle. Hemp on the other hand “was of the first necessity to commerce and marine, in other words to the wealth and protection of the country.” Around 1815 Jefferson received the first US patent for his hemp breaking machine, which reportedly did the work of ten men.

Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.

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.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp.

Refusing to grow Hemp in America during the 17th and 18th Centuries was against the law! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769.

Until the 1820s in America (and until the 20th Century in most of the rest of the world), 80% of all textiles and fabrics used for clothing, tents, bed sheets, and linens, rugs, drapes, quilts, towels, diapers, etc.–and even the US flag, “Old Glory,” were principally made from fibers of cannabis hemp.

It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until the early 1800s

Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd, came from the richest hemp-growing family in Kentucky.

Abraham Lincoln was an avowed enemy of prohibition. His wife was prescribed cannabis for her nerves after his assassination. Virtually every president from the mid-19th Century up until prohibition routinely used cannabis medicines.

Queen Victoria of England was prescribed cannabis for menstrual cramps by her personal physician Sir Russell Reynolds. He wrote in the first issue of The Lancet in 1890 that ‘when pure and administered carefully, cannabis is one of the most useful medicines we possess.’

In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs; Department of Agriculture

The Volstead Act of 1920, which raised the price of alcohol in the United States, positioned marijuana as an attractive alternative and led to an increase in use of the drug. “Tea pads,” where a person could purchase marijuana for 25 cents or less, began appearing in cities across the United States, particularly as part of the black “hepster” jazz culture.

Hemp called ‘Billion Dollar Crop.’ It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars; Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938.

Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938) published an article entitled ‘The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.’ It stated that if hemp was cultivated using 20th Century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and the rest of the world. In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp. This single resource could have created millions of new jobs generating thousands of quality products. Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought America out of the Great Depression.

The U.S. Government distributed 400,000 pounds of cannabis seeds to American farmers in 1942 to aid the war effort.

During the three years that the United States was officially involved in World War II, nearly one million acres of “Marihuana” were legally grown throughout the country. For the next forty years, every Federal Administration denied the existence of the film, “Hemp For Victory.” Finally, in 1989, independent researchers discovered two copies of the film in the Library of Congress. Yet to this day, the US Federal government refuses to admit that Cannabis Sativa has any uses, whether as medicine or as a resource.

Henry Ford’s first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the car itself was constructed from hemp. On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, ‘grown from the soil,’ had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.

In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful crop known became a drug and our planet has been suffering ever since.

The day the Marihuana Tax Act was passed, federal agents arrested Samuel Caldwell, 58, in Denver, CO, for selling two marihuana cigarettes. Samuel Caldwell became the first American convicted under the new federal law. He was sentenced to four years in Levenworth Penitentiary, and died a year after being released.

Remember, just 30 years ago, in 1978, before the “War on Drugs,” there were only 300,000 persons in American prisons for all crimes combined.