DID YOU KNOW?

HEMP FOR VICTORY

IN EARLY 1942, JAPAN CUT OFF OUR SUPPLIES OF VITAL HEMP AND COARSE FIBERS. MARIJUANA, WHICH HAD BEEN OUTLAWED IN THE UNITED STATES AS THE "ASSASSIN OF YOUTH" JUST FIVE YEARS EARLIER, WAS SUDDENLY SAFE ENOUGH FOR OUR GOVERNMENT TO ASK THE KIDS IN THE KENTUCKY 4-H CLUBS TO GROW THE NATION'S 1943 SEED SUPPLY. EACH YOUTH WAS URGED TO GROW AT LEAST HALF AN ACRE, BUT PREFERABLY TWO ACRES OF HEMP FOR SEED.

(University of Kentucky Agricultural Extension, Leaflet 25, mar.,1943)

THE NAME 'hemp" FROM THE OLD ENGLISH 'hanf", CAME INTO USE IN MIDDLE ENGLISH BY 1000 A..D. AND STILL BELONGS PRIMARLY TO CANNABIS SATIVA. IT IS ALSO USED TO DEGISNATE THE LONG FIBER OBTAINED FROM THIS PLANT:: THE EARLIEST , BEST KNOWN AND,UNTIL RECENTLY, THE MOST WIDELY USED TEXTILE FIBER ON EARTH.

(Derived from the 1913 USDA Agriculture Yearbook section on hemp by Lyster Dewey, p.283-293)

FIRST KNOWN HEMP USERS

ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORIANS, ARCHAEOLOGISTS, ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND PHILOLOGISTS CITE PHYSICAL EVIDENCE (artifacts,relics,textiles,cuneiform,languages, etc.) INDICATING THAT CANNABIS IS ONE OF THE OLDEST CULTIVATED CROPS. THE WEAVING OF HEMP FIBER AS AN INDUSTRY BEGAN 10,000 YEARS AGO, AT APPROXIMATELY THE SAME TIME AS POTTERY-MAKING AND PRIOR TO METAL WORKIN.

(Columbia History of the World, Harper & Row, New York, 1981)