Some informations about Hemp, Weed, Shit or whatever you call it.
Hemp is a plant with an incredible history stretching back several thousand years. The recent history of hemp in the United States is a great story from a human sociological standpoint, so let's take a look at it and see why this plant is caught in a cross-fire.
When most people think of fibers for cloth, they think about things like cotton or wool. Cotton and wool are both nice, soft fibers from the start. You can comb them out, spin them and create thread. This thread is great for making cloth that is soft to the skin, but it is not very strong.
Hemp is a lot like flax, and flax is where linen comes from. In both hemp and flax, the fibers are in the stalk of the plant. The fibers are something like the threads you see in a celery stalk long, stringy and tough. To get at the fibers, you comb them out of the woody part of the dried stalk. The fibers tend to be coarser than cotton or wool, and they are very strong. This strength makes hemp a great fiber for ropes.
It is believed that the word "canvas" came from the word "cannabis." Sailcloth and canvas was made from hemp for a very long time!
The reason why hemp shows up in organic magazines and catalogs is because it is very friendly to the environment. For example, environmentally conscious people like these aspects of hemp:
Cotton raised in the U.S. requires millions of pounds of pesticides and fertilizers. It is a very intensive crop that takes a lot out of the land. Bugs like boll weevils love cotton and must be killed with insecticides. Hemp, on the other hand, is a weed. According to the World Book encyclopedia, "Fiber hemp can be sown simply by scattering the seed on the ground." You can grow hemp using much less fertilizer and pesticide.
Hemp fibers can be used in many different ways. With them you can make cloth, paper, cardboard, fiber board, etc. By using hemp for paper and construction materials, pressure is removed from forests. Hemp also grows much faster and more densely than trees do.
The problem with hemp is that the hemp plant is also known as the Cannabis plant, which is also known as the marijuana plant. The following is from Encyclopedia Britannica:
Hemp (species Cannabis sativa): plant of the family Cannabaceae and its fibre, one of the bast fibre group. The plant is also grown for its seed, which contains about 30 percent oil, and for the narcotic drugs marijuana and hashish derived from its leaves and blossoms.
This connection to marijuana is what makes hemp such a hot issue in the United States. There are varieties of fiber hemp that eliminate the drug component of the plant to a large degree, but the concern is that it would be very easy to hide drug plants in a crop of fiber plants. So at the moment, hemp production in the U.S. is stalled and is a source of continuous debate.
Cannabis sativa is perhaps the most recognizable plant in the world. Pictures of the ubiquitous green cannabis leaf show up in the news media, textbooks and drug-prevention literature, and the leaf's shape is made into jewelry, put on bumper stickers and clothing and spray-painted on walls. The leaves are arranged palmately, radiating from a common center like the fingers of a hand spreading apart. Although most people know what the cannabis plant looks like, they may know very little about its horticulture.
Cannabis sativa is believed to be a native plant of India, where it possibly originated in a region just north of the Himalayan mountains. It is a herbaceous annual that can grow to a height of between 4 to 5 meters. The plant has flowers that bloom from late-summer to mid-fall. Cannabis plants usually have one of two types of flowers, male or female, and some plants have both. Male flowers grow in elongated clusters along the leaves and turn yellow and die after blossoming. Female flowers grow in spike-like clusters and remain dark green for a month after blossoming, until the seed ripens. Hashish, which is more powerful than marijuana, is made from the resin of the cannabis flowers.
The most common way of using marijuana is smoking. Smoking is also the most expedient way to get it into the bloodstream. When the smoke from marijuana is inhaled, it goes directly to the lungs. Your lungs are lined with millions tiny air sacs where gas exchange occurs. These sacs have an enormous surface area, 90 times greater than that of your skin. So they make it easy for the compounds to enter the body. The smoke is absorbed by the lungs just seconds after inhaling.
You can also eat marijuana. In this case, the marijuana enters the stomach and the blood absorbs it there. The blood then carries it to the liver and the rest of the body. The stomach absorbs THC more slowly than the lungs. When marijuana is eaten, the levels of THC in the body are lower, but the effects last longer.
Marijuana users often describe the experience of smoking marijuana as initially relaxing and mellow, creating a feeling of haziness and light-headedness. The user's eyes may dilate, causing colors to appear more intense, and other senses may be enhanced. Later, feelings of a paranoia and panic may be felt by the user.
Research shows that marijuana is not physically addictive, but it can be psychologically addictive. It's not considered physically addictive because users show few or no withdrawal symptoms during cessation. Psychological dependence usually develops because a person's mind craves the high that it gets when using the drug. Although marijuana is known to have negative effects on the human body, there is a raging debate over the use of marijuana as a medical treatment. Some say that marijuana should be legalized for medical use because it has been known to suppress nausea, relieve eye pressure in glaucoma patients, decrease muscle spasms, stimulate appetite, stop convulsions and eliminate menstrual pain. Others claim that marijuana's negative effects outweigh its benefits. There are currently nine U.S. states that allow for the use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
Marijuana is readily available in almost every corner of the United States, according to the Department of Justice. It's found growing in homes, on farms, in the suburbs and in the city. Cannabis is frequently found growing on public land, often in remote locations to prevent observation and identification of the growers. In 1999, the U.S. Forest Service seized almost 1 million pounds (453,592 kg) of cannabis plants and processed marijuana in 35 states. Marijuana is also smuggled into the United States from Mexico, Cambodia and Thailand, among other countries.
There is a growing trend toward indoor cultivation of marijuana in the United States because of the DEA's efforts to curtail outdoor cultivation. Indoor growers cultivate cannabis in closets, fish tanks and elaborate greenhouses. Some growers have even built structures that look like real homes but lack interior walls, all to hide their marijuana-growing operations. In 1998, drug law enforcement authorities seized 2,616 indoor marijuana-growing operations.
Marijuana is the single most-used illicit drug in the United States. Despite being illegal, marijuana use rivals the popularity of browsing the Internet. In 1998, more than 76.5 million Americans logged onto the Internet, according to Computer Industry Almanac. In that same year, more than 71 million Americans over the age of 12 admitted that they have used marijuana at least once in their lifetime.
There are several ways in which people use marijuana, and the way in which it is used determines the amount of chemicals transferred into the body, according to the authors of "Buzzed." Here are the most common methods of use:
-Cigarette - Also called a joint, dried marijuana buds are rolled into a cigarette. Approximately 10 percent to 20 percent of the THC is transferred into the body when smoking a joint.
-Cigar - Some users slice open a cigar, remove the tobacco and refill it with marijuana. The marijuana-filled cigar is often called a blunt.
-Pipe - You've probably seen people smoke pipes of tobacco, but these pipes are also used to smoke marijuana. About 40 percent to 50 percent of the THC is transferred into the body when using a pipe.
-Bong - These are water pipes that typically have a long tube rising out of a bowl-shaped base. Water pipes trap the smoke until it's inhaled, raising the amount of THC taken in.
-Food - Marijuana is sometimes baked into foods, such as brownies, or brewed as tea.
With millions of users, marijuana use is not limited to one demographic group. It cuts across all racial and economic boundaries. However, marijuana use is highest among younger people. The prevalence of marijuana use in teenagers doubled from 1992 to 1999: One out of every 13 kids aged 12 to 17 were current users of marijuana in 1999. The 1998 National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse indicates that marijuana is very easy to obtain. Half of all 13-year-olds said that they can find and purchase marijuana, according to the study. Of teens surveyed, 49 percent said that they had first tried marijuana at age 13 or younger.
There are hundreds of slang words that mean "marijuana" (some refer to specific types). Here are just a few:
-Airplane
-Astro turf
-Aunt Mary
-Black Bart
-Boom
-Bud
-Charge
-Chiba chiba
-Chunky
-Dagga
-Dinkie dow
-Endo
-Ganja
-Haircut
-Hay
-Mary Jane
-Matchbox
-Maui wauie
-Sezz
-Yellow submarine
-Zambi
When most people think of fibers for cloth, they think about things like cotton or wool. Cotton and wool are both nice, soft fibers from the start. You can comb them out, spin them and create thread. This thread is great for making cloth that is soft to the skin, but it is not very strong.
Hemp is a lot like flax, and flax is where linen comes from. In both hemp and flax, the fibers are in the stalk of the plant. The fibers are something like the threads you see in a celery stalk long, stringy and tough. To get at the fibers, you comb them out of the woody part of the dried stalk. The fibers tend to be coarser than cotton or wool, and they are very strong. This strength makes hemp a great fiber for ropes.
It is believed that the word "canvas" came from the word "cannabis." Sailcloth and canvas was made from hemp for a very long time!
The reason why hemp shows up in organic magazines and catalogs is because it is very friendly to the environment. For example, environmentally conscious people like these aspects of hemp:
Cotton raised in the U.S. requires millions of pounds of pesticides and fertilizers. It is a very intensive crop that takes a lot out of the land. Bugs like boll weevils love cotton and must be killed with insecticides. Hemp, on the other hand, is a weed. According to the World Book encyclopedia, "Fiber hemp can be sown simply by scattering the seed on the ground." You can grow hemp using much less fertilizer and pesticide.
Hemp fibers can be used in many different ways. With them you can make cloth, paper, cardboard, fiber board, etc. By using hemp for paper and construction materials, pressure is removed from forests. Hemp also grows much faster and more densely than trees do.
The problem with hemp is that the hemp plant is also known as the Cannabis plant, which is also known as the marijuana plant. The following is from Encyclopedia Britannica:
Hemp (species Cannabis sativa): plant of the family Cannabaceae and its fibre, one of the bast fibre group. The plant is also grown for its seed, which contains about 30 percent oil, and for the narcotic drugs marijuana and hashish derived from its leaves and blossoms.
This connection to marijuana is what makes hemp such a hot issue in the United States. There are varieties of fiber hemp that eliminate the drug component of the plant to a large degree, but the concern is that it would be very easy to hide drug plants in a crop of fiber plants. So at the moment, hemp production in the U.S. is stalled and is a source of continuous debate.
Cannabis sativa is perhaps the most recognizable plant in the world. Pictures of the ubiquitous green cannabis leaf show up in the news media, textbooks and drug-prevention literature, and the leaf's shape is made into jewelry, put on bumper stickers and clothing and spray-painted on walls. The leaves are arranged palmately, radiating from a common center like the fingers of a hand spreading apart. Although most people know what the cannabis plant looks like, they may know very little about its horticulture.
Cannabis sativa is believed to be a native plant of India, where it possibly originated in a region just north of the Himalayan mountains. It is a herbaceous annual that can grow to a height of between 4 to 5 meters. The plant has flowers that bloom from late-summer to mid-fall. Cannabis plants usually have one of two types of flowers, male or female, and some plants have both. Male flowers grow in elongated clusters along the leaves and turn yellow and die after blossoming. Female flowers grow in spike-like clusters and remain dark green for a month after blossoming, until the seed ripens. Hashish, which is more powerful than marijuana, is made from the resin of the cannabis flowers.
The most common way of using marijuana is smoking. Smoking is also the most expedient way to get it into the bloodstream. When the smoke from marijuana is inhaled, it goes directly to the lungs. Your lungs are lined with millions tiny air sacs where gas exchange occurs. These sacs have an enormous surface area, 90 times greater than that of your skin. So they make it easy for the compounds to enter the body. The smoke is absorbed by the lungs just seconds after inhaling.
You can also eat marijuana. In this case, the marijuana enters the stomach and the blood absorbs it there. The blood then carries it to the liver and the rest of the body. The stomach absorbs THC more slowly than the lungs. When marijuana is eaten, the levels of THC in the body are lower, but the effects last longer.
Marijuana users often describe the experience of smoking marijuana as initially relaxing and mellow, creating a feeling of haziness and light-headedness. The user's eyes may dilate, causing colors to appear more intense, and other senses may be enhanced. Later, feelings of a paranoia and panic may be felt by the user.
Research shows that marijuana is not physically addictive, but it can be psychologically addictive. It's not considered physically addictive because users show few or no withdrawal symptoms during cessation. Psychological dependence usually develops because a person's mind craves the high that it gets when using the drug. Although marijuana is known to have negative effects on the human body, there is a raging debate over the use of marijuana as a medical treatment. Some say that marijuana should be legalized for medical use because it has been known to suppress nausea, relieve eye pressure in glaucoma patients, decrease muscle spasms, stimulate appetite, stop convulsions and eliminate menstrual pain. Others claim that marijuana's negative effects outweigh its benefits. There are currently nine U.S. states that allow for the use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
Marijuana is readily available in almost every corner of the United States, according to the Department of Justice. It's found growing in homes, on farms, in the suburbs and in the city. Cannabis is frequently found growing on public land, often in remote locations to prevent observation and identification of the growers. In 1999, the U.S. Forest Service seized almost 1 million pounds (453,592 kg) of cannabis plants and processed marijuana in 35 states. Marijuana is also smuggled into the United States from Mexico, Cambodia and Thailand, among other countries.
There is a growing trend toward indoor cultivation of marijuana in the United States because of the DEA's efforts to curtail outdoor cultivation. Indoor growers cultivate cannabis in closets, fish tanks and elaborate greenhouses. Some growers have even built structures that look like real homes but lack interior walls, all to hide their marijuana-growing operations. In 1998, drug law enforcement authorities seized 2,616 indoor marijuana-growing operations.
Marijuana is the single most-used illicit drug in the United States. Despite being illegal, marijuana use rivals the popularity of browsing the Internet. In 1998, more than 76.5 million Americans logged onto the Internet, according to Computer Industry Almanac. In that same year, more than 71 million Americans over the age of 12 admitted that they have used marijuana at least once in their lifetime.
There are several ways in which people use marijuana, and the way in which it is used determines the amount of chemicals transferred into the body, according to the authors of "Buzzed." Here are the most common methods of use:
-Cigarette - Also called a joint, dried marijuana buds are rolled into a cigarette. Approximately 10 percent to 20 percent of the THC is transferred into the body when smoking a joint.
-Cigar - Some users slice open a cigar, remove the tobacco and refill it with marijuana. The marijuana-filled cigar is often called a blunt.
-Pipe - You've probably seen people smoke pipes of tobacco, but these pipes are also used to smoke marijuana. About 40 percent to 50 percent of the THC is transferred into the body when using a pipe.
-Bong - These are water pipes that typically have a long tube rising out of a bowl-shaped base. Water pipes trap the smoke until it's inhaled, raising the amount of THC taken in.
-Food - Marijuana is sometimes baked into foods, such as brownies, or brewed as tea.
With millions of users, marijuana use is not limited to one demographic group. It cuts across all racial and economic boundaries. However, marijuana use is highest among younger people. The prevalence of marijuana use in teenagers doubled from 1992 to 1999: One out of every 13 kids aged 12 to 17 were current users of marijuana in 1999. The 1998 National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse indicates that marijuana is very easy to obtain. Half of all 13-year-olds said that they can find and purchase marijuana, according to the study. Of teens surveyed, 49 percent said that they had first tried marijuana at age 13 or younger.
There are hundreds of slang words that mean "marijuana" (some refer to specific types). Here are just a few:
-Airplane
-Astro turf
-Aunt Mary
-Black Bart
-Boom
-Bud
-Charge
-Chiba chiba
-Chunky
-Dagga
-Dinkie dow
-Endo
-Ganja
-Haircut
-Hay
-Mary Jane
-Matchbox
-Maui wauie
-Sezz
-Yellow submarine
-Zambi
posted by Raysa @ 11:44 AM
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