The world of #Hemp is emerging faster then we can stay up with, and we’ve only just begun. It’s definitely strange that hemp is safe and legal in some countries and not in others. In the United States, we import over 1/2 billion dollars a year in hemp products from countries like China and Canada and some European Countries, yet our American farmers can not grow commercially. These laws need to be changed as soon as possible, and here’s a great article to explain why Hemp is a Multi-Billion dollar Industry ready and waiting to be grown!
Leslie Bocskor, investment banker and president of cannabis advisory firm Electrum Partners, is one of the most passionate people in the cannabis industry Benzinga has come across. In a recent chat, Benzinga asked him to discuss a topic he was passionate about, an issue he found particularly interesting.
The Rise Of A Hemp-Ire – Bocskor recently became fascinated with hemp. Not marijuana, but good old-fashioned hemp, the kind that was used to make fabrics in the nineteenth century. “I have been talking to some scientists and there is a conversation about hemp for plastic,” he began, pointing out that Henry Ford — Ford Motor Company F 0.18% — had built one of his first cars using hemp plastic. In fact, that car even ran on hemp fuel.
“This could potentially create the largest carbon-negative industry in the world,” he continued.
But, what does carbon negative even mean? Nowadays, most plastics are hydrocarbon-based, which means they use fossil petrochemicals pulled out of the Earth to be made. Leaving any discussions about climate change, global warming and carbon emissions aside, it does not take much scientific knowledge to understand why the process of making plastics out of petrochemicals implies pollution.
Hemp plastic, on the other hand, is extremely useful or convenient for several reasons.
Bocskor went on.
1. “I’m told it doesn’t have any of the ‘ene’s’: Toluene, benzene, things like that, which are the most toxic byproducts of plastics that are produced from hydrocarbons.”
2. “I’m told that hemp can be engineered for biodegrading that will reduce it into much less harmful compounds than the ones that can be done with hydrocarbon-based plastics.”
3. “We can have fields, acres, and acres, hectares of hemp farms that are pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere – as plants do. Then, that carbon from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere gets used to make the plastics, and the plastics, when they are going into a landfill and they are no longer usable, will biodegrade bringing carbon back into the soil [anecdotal data and initial research have suggested]. So, it’s essentially carbon negative, pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and putting it back into the soil.”
Better Understanding Hemp – It’s important to understand the difference between hemp and marijuana. Although they both belong to the same genus and species, their characteristics differ widely. The main difference: hemp does not have enough THC to have significant psychoactive properties; this basically means it cannot be used to get high.
“Hemp is far less controversial than marijuana. So, it’s hard to understand why it isn’t supported by the U.S. government, to help remediate the soil and add to the crop rotation, and even help the farmers in states like West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee or Virginia, who have been seeing reducing crops for tobacco — which so much of their economies have been based on,” Bocskor pointed out. “This is a crop that is not only able to replace tobacco, but it even grows more easily, remediates the soil and has so many other potential areas that we can go with it besides hemp plastic, and hemp paper.
“In fact, this is a crop that would not even need subsidies, unlike so many other crops that we grow,” he supplemented. “So, this is an opportunity to not only bring economic benefit back to those regions I mentioned before but to do it in a way that has so many more positives.”
Betting On The Future
Companies in the industrial hemp industry include:
However, the valuations of these companies are pretty low. We wondered why.
“You have to say converging market forces,” the expert explicated. “On the one hand, hemp is potentially disruptive to the paper industry, to the textile industry, and to the plastics industry. And, disruption is not something that anybody in any industry that has an established, long-running, well-entrenched business likes.”
As Albert O. Hirschman points out in his book “The Rhetoric of Reaction,” defenders of the status quo conceive change as risky, and thus use this argument to fight it.
“The disruption potential of hemp combined with the fact that it’s not as glamorous, interesting or immediately profitable as marijuana makes it difficult for the industry,” Bocskor continued, calling for increased research to back the growth of the environmentally-friendly industry.
“I happen to think that the global hemp market could easily be bigger than the cannabis market in 10 years,” the specialist concluded. “When you start to look at the paper market, the textile market for cotton, the plastics market on a global scale, you realize that these are industries that dwarf what could be the cannabis market on a global basis.”
The more we learn about hemp the quicker we can get things to where they should have been all along.
Hemp is one of the most desirable, industrial plants on the planet. From its tensile strength to its hardiness, the plant can grow almost anywhere and requires half the water that wheat would require. Its seeds are incredibly healthy food and the herb, itself, is used as one of the greatest medicines on the planet.
Before the media-manipulated hemp prohibition of 1937, 30% of Americans were farming and US hemp was among the best in the world. It was a hugely popular export and the backbone of much of the agricultural economy of the time. 80 years of ignorance has left the plant on the Schedule 1 narcotic drug list, pretending as if it is more dangerous than crystal meth and cocaine (both schedule 2 drugs). Regardless, since entering the age of information, knowledge of the plant and the willingness of farmers to grow it has skyrocketed.
Canada, a front-runner in the legalization effort, is already raking in $1 billion a year on the production and sale of hemp. Many are seeing that it is the key to the revitalization of the agricultural economy and have followed suit. In 2014, Barack Obama signed the farm bill that legalized the use of industrial hemp for research purposes.
Rick Trojan, founder of Colorado-based Hemp Road Trip, has been hard at work petitioning the US government to pass the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015, which would make it legal to grow hemp for use in manufacturing a variety of products. “Hemp, as a rotational crop, leaves the ground better than it found it,” Trojan told KSNT.com in Kansas. “It is also a great alternative for farmers.”
Recent moves to reinvigorate the hemp industry has given farmers hope for a new cash crop and inspired others to begin farming. It’s an easy plant to handle and the demand is soaring.
For now, the importation of seeds must take precedence, as the supply was depleted over the 8 decades of prohibition.
Chronic stress can have serious and lasting negative effects on physical and mental health. It impairs normal cognitive function and can cause anxiety, depression, headaches, sleep problems, and weight gain. Left unchecked, people suffering from chronic stress can develop heart disease and digestive problems. Randy’s Remedy contains natural cannabinoids from hemp and may be useful in combating the negative effects of chronic stress.
Natural Cannabinoids in Hemp Improves Memory and Cognition.
Randy’s Remedy products are made from hemp. The natural cannabinoids found in hemp have been found to improve cognitive function and memory by improving symptoms related to anxiety and depression. When an individual is stressed or anxious, blood flows from the frontal lobe region of the brain as part of the fight of flight response. Bacopa monnieri, a nootropic herb that has been used in traditional medicine for longevity and cognitive enhancement, is said to improve cognition by reducing anxiety in the person. Results indicate that this is because a person is more able to think clearly when they are relaxed. When a person is stressed out, blood flows away from the frontal lobe of the brain as a symptom of fight or flight.
The frontal lobe region of our brain is where decisions are made. It is the region responsible for our “executive functions.” This includes attentional control, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. It is also where reasoning, problem solving, and planning occur. All of these activities are essential for the conscious control of behaviors. Monitoring those behaviors is necessary to facilitate the successful attainment of chosen goals. In other words, the frontal lobe is where we think about what we want, plan how to get it, and then execute that plan successfully.
So how does the frontal lobe relate to Randy’s Remedy? Well, I have mentioned how stress and anxiety can reduce blood flow to the frontal lobe of the brain. Reducing blood flow is an invitation for rash decision making; there is less room for forethought, deliberation, and careful planning. However, by using Randy’s Remedy to reduce the fight or flight stress response, proper blood flow to the brain is preserved which in turn allows for better decision making.
Chronic Stress is Bad Your Health
The ingredients of Randy’s Remedy may reduce stress and alleviate the negative effects of chronic stress. Chronic stress is more common than you might think. It has become more common in industrialized societies that seem to run on stress, hunger, caffeine, and adrenaline. Long hours at work combined with long commutes in traffic make it very difficult to escape the stress of modern life that has become part of our everyday lives.
A little stress may not bad, but chronic stress can be terrible for your overall health and wellbeing. Specifically, chronic stress inhibits the ability of your immune system to fight off infections. This increases the likelihood of becoming sick as well as the risk of weight gain and Type 2 Diabetes. Chronic stress has also been linked to peptic ulcers and other diseases of the gut as well as causing a buildup of plaque in the arteries. Chronic stress is also strongly correlated with various psychiatric conditions which may be linked to its effects on the immune system.
Acute Stress is not the same as Chronic Stress
It’s important to remember that the amount of stress is less important than the frequency. Acute stress triggers a lasting increase in the transmission of glutamate. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter which sends signals from one neuron to the next. In response to acute stress the pace at which signals are sent across the prefrontal cortex of the brain increases for a period of time after the situation has been resolved, but not during the acute stress.
At this point it is important to note that acute stress is positively correlated with what is called associative memories, those memories which are closely tied to a particular context. This phenomenon is also called associative learning, whereby acute stress is used to reinforce a learned response to a stimulus. For example, military training often involves performing tasks under extreme stress. The tasks themselves are typically introduced under normal conditions and then tested and reinforced under stressful conditions. The results are behaviors which become second nature; behaviors that are able to be performed without conscious consideration.
Chronic stress causes elevated levels of corticosterone to be released which impairs long-term potentiation (LTP). LTP is a long-lasting strengthening of synapses between nerve cells. Impairment of LTP may cause long term depression in the hippocampus. I have found that regular use of Randy’s Remedy has helped me to reduce my stress and mitigates the negative effects of chronic stress. Many of our customers report feeling much more relaxed and less stressed when confronted by stressful situations. In addition they also report that Randy’s Remedy products are helping them to think more clearly and make calmer, more rational decisions. One customer even reported that she had been able to kick a 20 year addiction to diet soda. She said she just didn’t feel like drinking it anymore.
This makes sense given all that we know about the benefits of the natural cannabinoids from hemp which are found in Randy’s Remedy products.
How Chronic Stress…..
affects memory: Compared to acute stress, chronic stress takes a heavy toll on the brain and acts like a slow poison degrading and depressing executive functions while also impairing our ability to recognize objects and utilize our working memory. Over time, chronic stress increases your susceptibility to mental illness and reduces the number of connections in our brain.
affects anxiety: Chronic stress reduces blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for higher functioning and reasoned thought. On the other hand, it preserves blood flow to the amygdala which is the part of the brain responsible for fear conditioning and anxiety like behavior. This means that chronic stress reinforces fear and anxiety causing you to subconsciously behave and act in ways that are driven by fear and anxiety, not thoughtful consideration. These negative stress responses are not without their utility, fear and anxiety both motivate action in a fight or flight situation where the consequences may be life or death.
affects glutamate transmission: Chronic stress suppresses the transmission of glutamate in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of young male rats. The PFC, it seems, is particularly sensitive to chronic stress, particularly during the adolescent period when this region is still developing. By suppressing Glutamatergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex, chronic stress prevents it from functioning properly, hindering executive functioning. When this happens while the PFC is still developing the result can be profound and may even be permanent.
Randy’s Remedy are helpful here because they contain naturally occurring cannabinoids found in hemp which help counter some of the negative effects of chronic stress. This leads to improvements in health and overall wellbeing.
Clean, healthy water is the essence of prosperity in every society.
Yet, as we’ve seen from recent crises such as the one in Flint, Michigan, access to clean water continues to be a challenge even in a developed country like the United States. But what if there was a low-cost, quick-fix solution for the nation’s aging water systems that filters and purifies water at the tap without the need for harmful chemicals or costly systems?
Using hemp as a water filter seems to be a viable answer.
Foundation for Industrial Hemp Production & Research (FIHPR), a non-profit organization, has developed a hemp microfiber water filter after 2+ years of research and development. The new filter addresses many noticeable and unnoticeable problems, such as actively reducing rust, chlorine, and E.Coli. It contains all-natural filter media: scientifically proven anti-bacterial/-microbial hemp fiber as well as activated coconut shell carbon, achieving a more thorough purification than most standard pitcher and faucet filters.
“We have one, and it works so well! Our water is terrible fairly certain our pipes are rusted and a landlord who has no concern,” remarked one anonymous tester. “Since we got an HMF filter there has been no brassy residue and I feel confident it has improved our water quality significantly!”
Michael Crippen, the founder of FIHPR, started researching water purification with the use of hemp micro-fibers at the request of an ex-navy entrepreneur about 2 years ago. Originally starting on a project on hemp biodiesel, he discovered the antibacterial nature of hemp fibers that could be utilized in the consumer market.
Ever since this discovery, Michael has spent the past two years on research and prototyping. As a student at University of South Florida majoring in chemical engineering, Michael has dedicated most of his research and free time on developing the hemp filter.
Michael bemoans the use of toxic chemicals and non-organic materials, as these methods may persist into the consumer’s’ drinking water and cause illness. Instead, his organization seeks to make available a healthier alternative that helps to reduce harmful components of municipal filtration. None of the filters contain any harmful materials.
THE ADVANTAGES OF A HEMP WATER FILTER
According to FIHPR, there are numerous upsides to the use of the hemp microfiber water filter. This includes a near endless resistance to mildew and mold, along with all the capabilities of standard filters. The vision behind the filters is to assist households around America and the world with an easy-to-use, effective in all environments filtration solution.
Currently, the only purification method to achieve anti-bacterial/microbial results are solutions such as UV-radiation and chlorine. The former option in incredibly expensive and bulky, while the latter is incredibly toxic. Hemp as an alternative is truly an attractive option that makes purification affordable and non-toxic.
The hemp water filter is more than just a filter. It’s a softener and purifier that cleans drinking and cooking water for the whole family. The hemp microfibers capture and kills 95% of bacteria and microbes without leaving a toxic residue. It also effectively reduces natural gas, dyes, and tannins.
HOW THE HEMP FILTER COULD BE A REAL GAMECHANGER
According to the UN-Water, “783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. ” This figure, along with the National Resource Defense Council’s study on copper and lead violations, provide a good view of the global water situation.
With the adoption of hemp filters as a viable purification solution, we can hope to positively contribute to solving this crisis. As a non-profit, FIHPR’s goal is to provide filters at no-cost to in-need communities and to help modernize aging and developing infrastructure around the world.
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan was a critical reminder of the importance of the quality of drinking water in society. With contamination and water scarcity becoming an increasingly bigger issue around the world, an eco-friendly and affordable solution such as hemp filter should be seriously considered.
Is Western Medicine and Big Pharma killing Americans? This is a question, not a statement. Reports from around the world continue to point to the Cannabis Plant as having the healing properties and the food our body requires to heal itself.
Yet the plant is still illegal in most states and on the federal level… Up until recently most of us didn’t know we had an endocannabinoid system in our body. This endocannabinoid system which exists within each of us has receptors throughout our body, receptors for Cannabis. Our Body has a system set up for the richness of the cannabis plant. Endocannabinoid system acts as a regulator of immune homeostasis in the gut. Discovering this fact alone, three years ago, was the primary reason I became the founder of HempingtonPost.com. How could something so majorly important be kept from the American public for over 70 years? No more secrets – no more lies – we have human rights!
(This story was written and posted by By Erin Elizabeth –
Since 1974 studies have shown that cannabis has anti-tumor effects. The results of the 1974 study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974, Washington Post newspaper feature, were that cannabis’s component,THC, “slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent.” In 1975 an article in the Journal of the National cancer institute titled “Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids,” they reported that “Lewis lung adenocarcinoma growth was retarded by the oral administration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabinol (CBD). Mice treated for 20 consecutive days with THC and CBD had reduced primary tumor size.”
In 1998, a research team at Madrid’s Complutense University Led by Dr. Manuel Guzman discovered that THC can selectively induce programmed cell death in brain tumor cells without negatively impacting surrounding healthy cells. They reported in the March 2002 issue of “Nature Medicine” they had destroyed incurable brain cancer tumors in rats by injecting them with THC. And in 2007 even Harvard Researchers found that compounds in cannabis cut the growth of lung cancer. There is also an organization called The SETH Group that showed compounds in cannabis can stop the growth of human glioblastoma multiforma (GBM) brain cancer cells. The SETH Group says “No chemotherapy can match this nontoxic anti-cancer action.” Even last year in 2012 a pair of scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco found THC stops metastasis in many kinds of aggressive cancer.
Watch as the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, kills cancer cells:
