Lighting Up The Grassroots: Why Hemp Legalization May Backfire On Activists

Lighting up the Grassroots: Why Hemp Legalization may Backfire on Activists Michael C Ellis Sept. 24, 2014 Hemp Legalization Does Not Create New Jobs Thus far hemp legalization has really created no new jobs. Medical marijuana aside, only farmers retooling their fields and a few research facilities have created a few jobs in the mid 10's range in Colorado. With the research-legalization of hemp alone, we can expect slow job growth until industrial hemp infrastructure is fully realized into its own economy. A New Elite Class may be Created or Sustained Only Industrial Giants will Be able to Adapt to Meet Demand Small scale production may be dwarfed by larger corporate interests come legalization. While many farms may convert infrastructure, they too, may be bought out by larger corporations. Small farms may be able to adapt quickly, but they will lack the processing infrastructure available to large corporate farms and industrial giants. Money almost always rules in the adaptation game. Large Corporations will Eventually Out-Compete Small Businesses Tobacco companies are already making large investments in real estate in California's Emerald Triangle to begin raising Cannabis plants when (not if) federal legalization takes place. They will have no hard time retooling existing tobacco plants to developing cannabis cigarettes. Not only will they have an easy time gaining public acceptance, but their new products may be just as dangerous and addictive as tobacco, and just as socially detrimental as their corporate empires existing today. Lumber and oil companies will naturally also have the advantage to retool their existing infrastructure to support hemp product processing, leaving us, the consumers, to foot the bill of yet another resource raid. If you think Walmart is destructive, wait until your organic medicines and food products are made by these types of corporations that have had a historical past of unconscionable actions such as strip mining, deforestation, and fracking at the expense of our environmental safety. With the mainstream media on their side, these large corporations will have not nearly the difficulty small farms and manufacturers have advertising and distributing their likely sub-par and possibly even dangerous new 'greener' products. The New Ruling Class will Naturally Distance itself from Its Origins As with any new corporate class, as we have seen with the Web 2.0 technocracy, the likelihood that the new ruling class will turn its back on its people is all too real. Betrayal is no new trait to the human condition. Industry will Have to Retool Itself at Great Expense Hemp Cannot be Grown on Existing Infrastructure While hemp can be grown like a weed (hence the nickname), it is incredibly resource intense if grown for nutritional use. To grow truly medicinal marijuana requires even more intense cropping and management. Unfortunately most modern agriculture is poorly equipped to handle such a venture and it is better left to experienced growers with existing infrastructure – for example most medical marijuana requires indoor growing conditions for optimal results. This limits the start-up potential for modern farmers and the transition to hemp and medicinal marijuana may be costly and difficult.

Hemp Climate Zones are Already being Utilized Most farmers are quite pleased with their current crops in communities that would sustain hemp growth. It would take massive education initiatives to convert existing farmlands into hemp and marijuana fields. While there are great benefits to converting crops to hemp, as has been done in the past, it ultimately requires incentives and guarantees of greater profit. There is currently no motivation to convert farmland into hemp acreage, as corn largely meets many (but not all*) of hemp's uses. *hemp is a great fiber and bio-oil crop Marijuana is another Opiate of the Masses The State will Retain Control The state is the entity that will most benefit from the end of prohibition. Recreational and medicinal marijuana can be taxed to fund further drug control efforts that will ultimately benefit law enforcement. Crime rates have been demonstrated to naturally decrease, freeing up further tax dollars. The Population will be Sedated Marijuana is just another sedative that the elite can use to dumb down the population and use distract them into accepting an unacceptable way of life. A pot high creates a passive acceptance that is dangerous to a free society and ultimately will engender a lack of respect for the human will to survive our chaotic times. The Drug War Will Continue Legalization is a thorn in the side of the DEA, but prohibition is still active to this day on the federal level. If and when federal legalization takes place, it will only take place to further tighten the police state that exists over humanity in the free countries today. Treatment funding was never an option, though great strides have been made on the local level. The true function of the drug war was to fill the prisons and to lead the population into accepting the normalcy of government control over their way of life as free consenting adults. For this reason the drug war will continue even after marijuana prohibition ceases. Look how far they made you jump just to get access to a plant! Like Alcohol, Control will Tighten Over Time Intoxication detection kits are already under research and development within the US and abroad, and are planned to be used by highway patrol officers to further encroach on existing civil liberties already endangered by the developing terror-state. With the end of prohibition, one can expect incrementally tightening laws much like with driving and alcohol consumption to the point of tyranny over time.