There are many benefits to pursuing hemp as an industrial crop. For far too long, hemp has been suppressed, and while it flourishes in many other countries, the United States refuses to embrace this amazing plant. Because of the United States strong influence in the world, its policies affect many other countries, and unfortunately this is the situation with hemp. If the United States and the international community would fully embrace hemp, this world could change in revolutionary ways.
The first great thing about hemp is its abundance and renewability. You can grow upwards of ten tons of hemp on just one acre of land, and it only takes four months to yield this amount. No other crop comes close to these kinds of statistics. Also, hemp is actually good for the soil and does not drain it, making it a great soil builder for crop rotation. There is no shortage of hemp, just as there is no shortage of the uses for it.
A revitalized hemp industry would create millions of jobs and spark a struggling economy. The potential for hemp industry is endless. You can make hemp paint, hemp rope, hemp foods, hemp building materials, hemp fuel… the uses go on and on. With this new source of products, businesses would emerge that would find new and more efficient uses for hemp. Some industries would be hurt by hemp existing as a competitor, but that is simply because hemp is better than many other materials, and why should we hold back something great because it would eliminate something less great? Isn’t utilizing hemp the very definition of free marketing competition? They never said hold back planes because they would put trains out of business; sometimes, something needs to die for something better to take its place.
Ultimately, the net gains from hemp would far outweigh the costs. Many more jobs would be created than lost, and as stated, those that are lost are because those industries are inferior. More importantly, totally embracing hemp will result in a cleaner, greener economy that could result in reversing the greenhouse effect and saving the planet (when hemp grows, it removes massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere). With all the incredible advantages that can be gained from growing hemp, it is horrifying to think that we deny ourselves such fortune because the THC-laden version of hemp happens to be an “intoxicant”, and a miraculously medicinal one at that.
One day, the world will look back at the period of hemp Prohibition, and weep at what was lost and what could have been. This statement applies more to the medicinal aspect of cannabis, but everything that has been destroyed is truly terrible.