Persuasive Speech on Industrial Hemp

Do any of you know the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana? Would you like to? The purpose of this speech is to explain the differences in marijuana and industrial hemp, and to show the need to reform the present hemp laws in the United States in order to make hemp available for industrial purposes. The hemp plant shows its unique versatility by having many uses in industry and hemp has many distinct benefits over its counterpart in industry today. The usage of hemp would result in cleaner and more efficient industry. I will first discuss the differences between hemp and marijuana to avoid confusion, and then state the many ways that industrial hemp can help our economy such as; the use for fiber, the use in foods, and the use as fuel or biomass.

There is a large amount of confusion about the distinction between marijuana and industrial hemp. Hemp is an actual plant that is native to Asia. It can be used for many purposes. The hemp plant is most commonly used for extraction of the drug marijuana. Marijuana is a greenish-gray mixture of the dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant, also known as Cannabis sativa. It is typically smoked in hand-rolled cigarettes (joints), cigars (blunts), pipes, or water pipes (bongs). The active ingredient in marijuana is THC, which is responsible for the potency and effects of marijuana intoxication. Now that I have discussed the definition of marijuana, lets look at the meaning of industrial hemp. Industrial hemp is legal to grow in 29 countries worldwide (including all G7 nations except the USA) and is explicitly exempt from international drug treaties, under which it need not be subject to stricter regulations than spinach or tomatoes. Growing hemp for horticultural purposes is also exempt in the United States. Usually, varieties of cannabis are grown for fiber and seed and have less than 1% THC compared to the 2%-20% THC levels in marijuana. The high amount of CBD which counteracts the effects of THC, makes these plants completely unusable as a recreational drug, even if their THC content was as high as 1%.

An article from the GlobalHemp.com states that, "California businesses can import raw industrial hemp, a type of cannabis plant that has no drug-like properties, and they can manufacture, sell and distribute products made from it. Yet in one of the most absurd, anti-free market ironies of America's misguided war on drugs, California's farmers by law cannot grow it. Again, industrial hemp is not a drug. But because of drug-war hysteria, industrial hemp has become politically linked erroneously to the marijuana plant. Instead of paying California farmers to grow a renewable, environmentally friendly crop that is no more harmful than carrots, hemp- product manufacturers must give their business to overseas farmers, while paying pointless import and transportation fees."

Now that I have defined both marijuana and industrial hemp, let us move to the ways that industrial hemp can help our industry. One use of hemp is as a fiber. The process of converting hemp into a fiber is quite simple, and is easy to do. The stalk of the hemp plant has two parts, called the bast and the hurd. Workers can weave the bast of the hemp plant into almost any kind of cloth. It is very durable. In fact, the first Levi's blue jeans were made out of hemp for just this reason. Compared with all the other natural fibers available, hemp is more suitable for a large number of applications. It is easy to harvest hemp for fiber. The cloth that hemp makes may be a little less soft than cotton but it is much stronger and longer lasting. Hemp requires little fertilizer, and grows well almost everywhere. It also resists pests, so it uses little pesticides. Using less fertilizer and agricultural chemicals is good for two reasons. First, it costs less and requires less effort. Second, many agricultural chemicals are dangerous and can contaminate the environment-the less we have to use, the better.

Another industrial use for