Legalize Marijuana

SORRY YOU MUST BE 18 YEARS OR OLDER TO SIGN PETITION.
One Moment for Marijuana/Cannabis/Hemp petition 2005

To: U.S. Congress

We ask for the legalization for Marijuana/ Cannabis/ Hemp in the United States.

FACT

· Deaths per year resulting from alcohol: 100,000
· Deaths per year resulting from tobacco: 430,000
· Deaths per year resulting from aspirin: 180- 1000
· Deaths per year resulting from legal drugs: 106,000
· Deaths that have ever occurred in direct result of Cannabis: 0 (that’s right zero)

FACT

· Farming 6% of the continental U.S. acreage with biomass crops (Hemp) would provide all of America’s Energy needs.
· Biomass can be converted into methane, methanol, or gasoline (which could eliminate our ties with the Middle East) at a cost comparable to petroleum and hemp is much better for the environment.
· Hemp fuel burns clean. Petroleum causes acid rain due to sulfur pollution.
· The use of Hemp Fuel does not contribute to global warming

FACT

· Hemp seed can be pressed into nutritious oil, which contains the highest amount of fatty acids in the plant kingdom. Essential oils are responsible for our immune system responses, and can clear the arteries of cholesterol and plaque.
· The byproduct of pressing the oil from hemp seed is a high quality protein seed cake. It can be used to bake into cakes, breads and casseroles. Hemp seed protein is one of mankind’s finest, most complete, and available-to-the body vegetable proteins.
· A Vegan or vegetarian can get all of the days required protein from a handful of hemp seed.

FACT

· Hemp is the oldest cultivated fiber plant in the world.
· Low-THC fiber hemp varieties developed by the French and others have been available for over 20 years. It is impossible to get high from fiber hemp. Over 600,000 acres of hemp is grown worldwide with no misuse problem.
· One acre of hemp can produce as much usable fiber as 4 acres of trees or two acres of cotton.
· Trees cut down take 50-500 years to grow, while hemp can be cultivated in as little as 100 days and can yield 4 times more paper over a 20 year period.
· Until 1883, from 75-90% of all paper in the world was made with cannabis hemp fiber including that for books, Bibles, maps, paper money, stocks and bonds, newspapers, etc.
· Hemp paper is longer lasting than wood pulp, stronger, acid-free, and chlorine free (Chlorine is estimated to cause up to 10% of all Cancers).
· Hemp paper can be recycled 7 times, wood pulp 4 times.
· Hemp particleboard may be up to 2 times stronger than wood particleboard and holds nails better.
· Hemp is a softer, warmer, and more water absorbent, than cotton and doesn’t stretch out.
· Half of the U.S. pesticides are used to treat cotton, while hemp has a natural pesticide.

FACT

· Almost any product that can be made from wood, cotton, or petroleum (including plastics) can be made from hemp. There are 25,000 known uses for hemp.
· For thousands of years virtually all good paints and varnishes were made with hemp seed oil and/or linseed oil.
· One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees, making hemp a perfect material to replace trees for pressed board, particle board, and concrete construction molds.
· Heating and compressing plant fibers can create a practical, inexpensive, fire-resistant constructions material with excellent thermal and sound-insulating qualities.
· In 1941 Henry Ford built a plastic car made of fiber from hemp and wheat straw. Hemp is biodegradable, as synthetic plastic is not.

FACT

· Presidents Washington and Jefferson both grew hemp. Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic.