cannabisnews.com: High On Hemp





High On Hemp
Posted by CN Staff on October 25, 2003 at 10:17:41 PT
By Jennifer Campbell, The Ottawa Citizen 
Source: Ottawa Citizen 
Drive a Mercedes, Chrysler or General Motors product? If so, it's possible you have Ontario cannabis on board. But don't worry -- no one's accusing you of having drugs in your glove box or trunk. Instead, your hemp probably takes the form of a door panel, or some similar interior component.Hemp is being heralded as a miracle fibre. With more than 25,000 uses, its seeds or fibre can be found in clothing, paper, lip balm, paint and salad dressing.
And cars. More and more manufacturers are using natural fibres in the composites they use to form the basis of automobile interiors. Flax and kenaf are two popular fibres for this, but hemp is coming on strong. Above all, it's economical. It's also flexible and easy to use.Enter Geof Kime, an Ontario engineer who grew up on a farm. As owner and founder of a company called Hempline, Mr. Kime finds himself in an enviable position as Ontario's hemp pioneer. He says he was the first person to produce hemp in "modern times" in North America when, in 1994, he planted a 10-acre test plot with his original business partner Joe Strobel.It's an industrial-grade hemp that contains only minute traces of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the intoxicating substance in marijuana. Although it was illegal to grow hemp in Canada at the time, the two entrepreneurs secured a special permit from Health Canada after Mr. Strobel determined kenaf wouldn't grow well in Ontario and the two wanted to try an alternative."We learned that first year that there are things you can screw up and we also learned a lot of positive things," says Mr. Kime, who is based in Delaware, Ont., near London. "We learned that Ontario had all the right conditions to grow good qualities and high yields of hemp fibre."For Mr. Kime, southern Ontario's perfect hemp climate means big business. In the mid-'90s, while he was devoting his energy to getting the Canadian government to sanction hemp-growing (it took five years to get that far), Mercedes-Benz was starting to introduce European-grown hemp into its interiors.The timing worked well for Mr. Kime, who now is growing as much hemp as his operation's infrastructure will allow. North American manufacturers followed Mercedes' lead. They now want it, and he's conveniently situated close to the U.S. border. To add to the attraction, he is the supplier of a commodity that isn't yet legal to grow in the United States."It's not entirely new," Mr. Kime says. "It's been in vehicles here for three or four years, but it's something that people don't know much about."He sends his hemp to suppliers that then sell it to the automotive industry. For that reason, he's not sure exactly where it ends up, although he's certain there's Delaware hemp in the Chrysler Sebring. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/kime.htmNewshawk: KeganSource: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)Author: Jennifer Campbell, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Friday, October 24, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Ottawa CitizenContact: letters thecitizen.canwest.comWebsite: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Hemp Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/hls.htmAdvocates Still High on Hemp http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15898.shtmlCannabisNews Hemp Archiveshttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/hemp.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on October 25, 2003 at 22:36:07 PT
ekim
I tried to get the program but didn't have any luck. I haven't seen any news about the show so far. As far as NWI it might be a good thing for us down here but I think it will change and won't be a Canadian oriented channel anymore but I could be wrong. They will have to get NWI on cable for it to hit a broad audience since the last time I heard there were only 11,000,000 subscribers to Direct TV. Direct TV is growing and maybe Cable will put the new news on. We can hope. I don't understand the hemp question or I'd try to answer. You ask why Kucinich doesn't get air time. He doesn't have enough money is what I think. That's why we need campaign finance reform.
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Comment #9 posted by ekim on October 25, 2003 at 22:24:17 PT
in case Arnold is reading this
Sunday, November 2, 20033:00 - 4:30 p.m.Oakland, California
Congresswoman Barbara Lee presents
"Bring it to the Bay": National Leadership 2004
Open Forum with Dennis Kucinich - free to public
Taylor Memorial Church, 1188 12th St. Oakland
510-663-1207
campaign leeforcongress.org5-8 pm East Bay for Kucinich presents:
Progressives Gala Fundraiser
with Guests of Honor Barbara Lee and Danny Glover
Zazoo Restaurant, Jack London Square
For reservations or info: 415-927-2004 x 75
or ca.events kucinich.us
Contact:Lora O'ConnorTuesday, November 4, 20037:00 p.m.
 
Boston, Mass.
Rock the Vote Presidential Town Meeting
Faneuil Hall 
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Comment #8 posted by ekim on October 25, 2003 at 22:12:53 PT
FoM i did not hear Barneys interview 
Gee FoM it has been a couple days and i have read nothing here about Barney Franks radio interview at WMU at widr.org i was unable to hear it, but felt sure that someone would post someof it. I can not get how Barney has been at this for the last few years and has many people interested in his bills but not one of these supporters read this page and no one tuned in last thurs nite at seven to hear what he had to say about how many co-sponsers he has gotten so far and how many are from the GOP i think last year it was one or two i beleive.  I want to say again how much i enjoy reading the posts from everyone here --the hemp uses are great, has anyone tryed to get the six bill boards from thehia.org i could not. Fom i wonder if you could get a list of the namebrands and product list of the six boards. I think that would shock many here. [plus who better to understand what and who will be the new millionairs as Hemp gets kicked up another notch. With many cutbacks in local boards keen interest in new tech and less cost ways of doing things are now being looked at more then ever. Farmers around here are building digesters for nat gas to run generators cause prices got to high. If like the story says fiber glass cost more and harder to recycle then its a nobrainer, around here many make money building and repairing boats what will the kids be using in the near future. If the six boards could be sent around to College and Univerisity and Jr Colleges we would see something. Fom you said that NWI might be sold to Al and Company i just finished watching Hot Type and next week he will have on Molly with her book bushwacked. I do wish that someone in the GOP would come out like Gov Johnson did. Maybe that will be Arnold. If it is Arnold than please go to Oakland when Dennis Kucinitch is there in Nov and stand up for changing Fed Laws against 215, and the other 9. Why is it that Kucinitch the only Dem calling for Fed Change in those laws never gets any play, when 80 % of the people want change. 
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Comment #7 posted by Virgil on October 25, 2003 at 18:21:28 PT
A little story
I know an old man that is on Social Security and fixes appliances to make use of his time. He is really pretty incredible considering smoking cost him one lung when he was 76 last year.He was born near Asheville and is part Cherokee on his mothers side and bald and bearded on his fathers. He did some time in his 50's for killing a man pouching on his ganja crop, but nothing like Brian Epis's term for opposing the upside down policies of the fascists. Now in real life I am as outspoken of the country going broke and the industries that are to be regulated having a revolving door to institute their policies now that the CSA belt buckles no longer stand for Confederate States of America and are appropriate to our present Corporate State that opposes renewable resourses or a plant that has untold benefit to the half of the world that lives on $2 a day.So once I give him the Great Right Dope is a complete dickhead and corporate puppet he is interested in things I read on the Internet and of course he has his own conversational currency that come with 8 decades of living. So people give him washing machines and stoves and he recycles metal. He pointed out this old stove from the 30's that really belonged in somekind of museum or needed to be saved for a period movie for when the graduates of the North Carolina School of the Arts get critical mass. Anyway, the chord on this thing had a date from the early 30's and the material in the cord that keeps the copper and rubber from stretching to prevent the thick wires from becoming narrow resistors was hemp. Damned stuff was strong I tell you. And where the casing on the wires was crumbling and a fire waiting to happen the hemp could have been recycled or used for wrapping packages. The stuff was impressive and it did not drive up the price of $1.69 kerosene either like the white plastic they now use.The price of oil from now to when it runs out makes it uncompetive on cost and when it runs out your grandchildren will ask what was oil as many now ask, what is hemp.Now one thing this man says is that dandilions has THC in them which I find bogus as words coming from Walters. But he swears it will give you one big buzz and he said he had one turned upside down so the resin would flow to the leaves and dry out. He says eating the roots will give you a buzz to. He told me about polk berries too and I ate 4 of them. He says they are good for your kidneys. There is not much on polk berries on the Internet except about making ink and dyes and a few statements that they are poisonous, which is why I never ate any before.Anyway, dandelions have long roots and pick up trace elements and I am going to eat some next spring along with polk leaves as they both grow in the yard. I think I will go see him tomorrow and smoke those leaves. I really could use a good joint. It has been a long time and all this talk of hash and BC buds and grow ops is really getting to me. I sure will be glad when we throw the upside down people out of office, the goddamned murderous, treasonous bastards.
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on October 25, 2003 at 15:53:52 PT:
I submit its' total uses have yet to be counted
The more I researched industrial hemp, the more convinced I became of it's extraordinary utility. For example, one of the reasons roads wear out is that the fibers that are used to shore up the asphalt are only a half inch in length. With SINGLE fibers up to 15 feet long, hemp could make substrates for roads that would have huge elasticity and last for years longer than the present form does.The French already use it in shelter construction: http://www.isochanvre.com/It's got so many uses...one of which would be in reducing the clear-cutting of old growth hardwood forrests. Hardwoods like oak and cherry are becoming more expensive all the time, while replacing them with 'trash' pines is cheating future generations. Replacing common pine 'farms' with industrial hemp would save the soil (pines give off terpines which kill anything else around them, so you can imagine what it does to the soil) and preserve our old forrests as 'insurance policies' against total loss. Just a (very practical) few of a literal myriad of uses.Anything that can draw in dangerous radionucleotides like the hemp at Chernobyl does and leach them out of the soil is a miracle plant. To deny humanity the use of this plant is to clearly demonstrate the criminal intent of our so-called leaders. 
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Comment #5 posted by ErikGhint on October 25, 2003 at 14:46:49 PT
It's a shame
A fairly good article talking about cannabis's uses in automobiles, however they left out the most important one. Cannabis can produce biomass energy, which can power the automobiles, less exspensive, and more environmentally friendly then our current way of powering automobiles. Nonetheless any positives about cannabis is a good thing.
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Comment #4 posted by CorvallisEric on October 25, 2003 at 14:03:29 PT
Bye, bye boutique
The important point about cars, and eventually building materials, is that hemp may finally get away from being a "boutique" product (a legitimate complaint about every consumer hemp product I know of). This will happen when it sells on quality and cost to people who aren't particularly aware of hemp's presence and don't care about its association with marijuana or politics. Then you'll get an expanding spiral of production, dropping cost, new uses and markets, what they call commodification, and hemp's potential as an environmental and economic "miracle" will get a fair test.So, will our struggling farmers be allowed to grow it in the USA, or do our strange, neo-con, cretin leaders force us to import it from their dearest friends Canada, France, and China?
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on October 25, 2003 at 11:31:56 PT
Mark
I don't have an active e-mail for CNews. I haven't sent you an e-mail. I'm sorry but I don't understand.
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Comment #2 posted by Mark Tide on October 25, 2003 at 11:21:09 PT
FoM: email address you sent isn't working
howdy,just a quick note to let you know that 2 emails i sent were undeliverable to that address.also, that material is now online at Arcata Journal,
if that info suffices.i received your email, so just just send another note to let me know if you need me to email to another address.thanks and best wishes,
mark tide
Arcata Journal
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Comment #1 posted by jose melendez on October 25, 2003 at 11:09:02 PT
hemp video online
Nader/LaDuke 2000, Ralph Nader newsconference on Industrial Hemp
 Ralph Nader, Green Party presidential candidate, speaks and answers questions on Industrial Hemp.
Length: 1 hr.
   http://cspanrm.fplive.net/ramgen/cspan/idrive/c2k090500_nader.rm
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