cannabisnews.com: Hemp Car Rolls Into Minnesota on Big Trip





Hemp Car Rolls Into Minnesota on Big Trip
Posted by FoM on August 02, 2001 at 07:46:51 PT
By Matt Peiken, Knight Ridder Newspapers 
Source: Akron Beacon Journal
Grayson Sigler of Hampton, Va., wanted to visit a friend in Seattle. The trip grew into a beacon for the national call to legalize hemp.The Hemp Car, a 1983 Mercedes 300TD wagon built to run on diesel fuel, is circling the country exclusively on industrial-grade hemp oil. Sigler, his wife and two documentarians making the 10,000-mile trek spent yesterday in the Twin Cities, visiting two Minneapolis head shops and the steps of the state capitol building in St. Paul.
The project has a practical goal -- to illustrate another legitimate use for hemp. The message behind it is decades old: There's no public benefit but myriad ecological, financial and social costs to America's ban of domestic hemp and marijuana. That mantra met no opposition from the smattering of twentysomethings, middle-aged men with ponytails and two state legislators who came to cheer and chat up Hemp Car's founders.Scott Blackstock and Shane Waltermeyer drove up from Marshalltown, Iowa, after reading about the car on the Internet.``Hemp has 10,000 uses and this is just the latest, but it's like the biggest, too,'' Blackstock says, speaking of the car's size. ``If it were legal, it could save a lot of farmers in Iowa if they were allowed to grow it and it could save the world.''Diesel engines were built to run on vegetable oils, among other sources, so the Hemp Car needed no modifications. It gets 27 miles to the gallon -- the same as it does with diesel fuel, Grayson says. Industrial-grade hemp oil isn't easy to come by. Legal in the United States only as an import, the most cost-effective sources are in China. By the time it reaches consumers, Grayson says, the cloudy, emerald-colored fuel can run $4 per gallon.Around $50,000 in fuel, sponsorships and assorted services have kept Hemp Car on the road, along with sales of official Hemp Car T-shirts and wallets. The white car is festooned with stickers from dot-coms such as votehemp, sunhemp and earthhemp, along with the slogan for Hemp World -- ``Make it Hempen.'' A CD from a group called Los Marijuanos sits on the floor among bottled water, an atlas and a jar of coins.The Hemp Car, which began its trip on July 4 from Washington, D.C., carries up to 500 pounds of the fuel in clear plastic containers in the back of the wagon. When supplies run low, Grayson calls his supplier in Athens, Ohio, who ships several dozen gallons at a time to wherever the Hemp Car is headed within the next week.The effort to legalize hemp is hindered in part by the politics connecting it to marijuana. Some are trying to distinguish the advocacy of marijuana from that of hemp, which carries only traces of the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana.Note: 1983 Mercedes wagon operates on hemp oil, crosses U.S. for cause.Source: Beacon Journal, The (OH)Author: Matt Peiken, Knight Ridder Newspapers Published: Thursday, August 2, 2001 Copyright: 2001 The Beacon Journal Publishing Co.Website: http://www.ohio.com/bj/Contact: vop thebeaconjournal.comRelated Articles & Web Sites:Hemp Carhttp://www.hempcar.org/FTE's Hemp Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/hls.htmCar Fueled by Hemp Oil on Real Trip http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10244.shtmlHemp Car To Make 10,000 Mile Triphttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9417.shtmlCannabisNews Hemp Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/hemp.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by freedom fighter on August 02, 2001 at 22:23:34 PT
1acre equals 1000 gallons
of biodisel fuel..10 acres equal 10000 gallons   1 dollar per gal three times a year makes a farmer 30,000$ a year on ten acres..freethehempff
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Comment #2 posted by mayan on August 02, 2001 at 15:30:43 PT
Go Hemp!
In less than two weeks Governor Ryan has to make up his mind on the hemp study bill here in Illinois. He is stalling until the last minute as usual. Many other countries are decriminalizing cannabis or at least talking about it, but we can't even grow a plant that won't get a fly high. This war on plants has got to end!Save Hemp!http://www.votehemp.com
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Comment #1 posted by Sudaca on August 02, 2001 at 09:09:06 PT
oh man
I wrote to the Presidents office in Chile about this. You see, Santiago has a ludicrous smog problem , which years of aanalysis have pinpointed as mostly being produced by the hundreds of thousands of BUSES that provides the 6 million person city with public transit. Those Buses are not that old, and they are DIESEL engines. The problem is that the owners are relatively strapped for cash and can't afford to convert the engines (public transport is a private venture). The point unfortunately lost in this article; is that reportedly BioDiesel made from hemp oil burns 85% cleaner than petroleum diesel. Chile is very much and agricultural country... 
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