"Hemp History"

"The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, which began to be worked in the eighth millennium (8,000-7,000 BC)"
-----The Columbia History of the World

The ancient Asian word for cannabis, Ma, predates written language. The Chinese emperor, ShenNung, recorded the many medicinal properties of cannabis in his pharmacopoeia compiled in 2,737 BC. Remains of hempen fibers, rope and thread have been found in the earliest archaeological sites from China to Egypt, dating from 4,000 BC.

The word canvas – early man's shelter, clothing, sails, and the cloth which holds our most treasured works of art – is derived from the word cannabis hemp!

For more than 1,000 years before Christ until the late 1800's, cannabis hemp was our planet's largest crop.

In our country, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and virtually every other colonial farmer grew hemp and could even pay their taxes with it! Ben Franklin started America's first paper mill with hemp. The first draft of the Declaration of Independence and our first flag were made from hemp.

Extract of Cannabis was a major part of our pharmacopoeia until hemp's illegalization in 1937. It was also mandatory, by law, to grow hemp during certain periods in our history – from the Jamestown Colony in 1619 to as late as 1942, when farmers in the Midwest were asked to grow 350,000 acres a year to aid in the war effort!

If we truly want to bring peace to our streets then we must END THE WAR!!

REPEAL PROHIBITION!!

August 1994
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