One of the most valuable crops that could be grown as a replacement for tobacco is hemp.
Although similar in appearance to its intoxicating cousin, it is not itself an intoxicant.
It can produce 4.1 times the fiber of trees per similar acreage, and is a source of edible oil and seed.
So many times we see articles about the legalization of medical marijuana, but hemp gets scant attention.
Yet, the real value of cannabis is in paper, clothing and food production.
This is a plant that could be saving forests and helping to eliminate hunger.
It is a plant that produces paper that doesn’t decay, durable fabrics and synthetic fuel oil.
I suspect that it could be smoked. It would probably take a pound and the effect would be mostly carbon monoxide.
Careful licensing would differentiate between legitimate growers and those clandestine farms producing “medical” marijuana.
Our farmers would have a real cash crop replacement for king tobacco.
Sometimes laws just aren’t well conceived and those prohibiting hemp production need to be revised.
This is too useful a crop to ban simply because it looks like marijuana.
By Emory Davis
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