Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jul 2002
Source: Pensacola News Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2002 The Pensacola News Journal
Contact:  http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1675
Author: Tim Handley

ENDING PROHIBITION ON HEMP PLANT WOULD HURT BIG BUSINESS

The movement to end the prohibition of a plant called hemp is turning a 
blind eye to the negative consequences. An end to this prohibition would 
hurt big business!

The timber industry would be hurt because you get 4.1 times the wood pulp 
from an acre of hemp compared to an acre of timber. It takes one-sixth the 
chemicals to process hemp into paper as compared to timber.

The fossil fuel industry could vanish. Because the hemp plant is one of the 
most efficient with photosynthesis, it produces potent biomass products 
(methanol for fuel cells) which would reduce our need for petroleum.

If Americans could grow their own medication so they didn`t need to buy 
drugs for pain, anxiety, blood pressure, glaucoma, etc., the drug companies 
would lose sales.

Next is the correctional business. Hundreds of thousands each year are 
incarcerated because of possession of this outlawed plant. What would we do 
with all that excess prison space?

Hardest hit would be the funeral industry. Countless Americans die early 
from alcohol-related mishaps, and if Americans could be inebriated in 
another, less dangerous fashion, they would.

Keep prohibition! It`s America, we answer to a higher authority: big business.

- - Tim Handley, CEO/Chairman, Advantage Companies, Gulf Breeze
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom