by Bob Leonard | Jan 11, 2023
Scientists say that if we planted one trillion trees, we could naturally solve our climate crisis. The issue is… that’s a lot of trees! Trees don’t grow in any type of soil. Trees are prone to insect infestations. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a tree hugger. I love trees. But there’s a plant better designed to draw down CO2 from our atmosphere.
Hemp grows very quickly and can be planted close together. Trees take significantly longer to grow and require much more space than hemp. A plot of land growing hemp therefore absorbs more carbon dioxide than almost any plant. Scientists estimate that for every ton of hemp grown, 1.63 tons of carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. Plus, hemp crops can be grown in nearly any type of soil. They require very little water and don’t need any fertilizers or insecticides to stay healthy. And hemp begins sequestering carbon the moment it is seeded.
Growing more hemp crops would make a substantial positive impact on global warming. The rise in average temperatures on earth is caused by higher concentrations of greenhouse gases; specifically, an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere and prevents it from being released into space. Warming temperatures cause negative effects including freak weather conditions, droughts and a rise in sea levels due to the melting of glaciers.
Hemp cultivation also encourages biodiversity in the soil, by regenerating farmland that has long been depleted from the use of toxic chemicals. Hemp is a “weed” and grows like one, ubiquitously, beating out other plants without pesticides; and its long tap root holds the soil, channeling moisture deeper into it. Unlike trees, hemp can be grown on existing agricultural land and included in a farm’s crop rotation. It improves the quality of the soil with positive effects on the yields and the profits from other rotated crops.
Industrial hemp permanently bonds carbon within the fiber which then can be used for anything from textiles, to paper, to building materials. It is currently replacing plastics in car production at BMW.
Hemp grows to 13 feet in 100 days, making it one of the fastest CO2-to-biomass conversion tools available. It can be grown on a wide scale on nutrient poor soils with very small amounts of water and no fertilizers. Hemp is a very leafy, dense plant. As such, hemp releases more oxygen into the atmosphere than most other plants.
Hemp can also sequester carbon back into the soil through a process called, biosequestration. When the hemp crop is harvested, it can be slow-smoldered, not burned, to create biochar. This charcoal-like product is then tilled into the soil adding nutrients and sequestering carbon. According to a paper provided by Holon Ecosystem Consultants, hemp can produce as much as 13 tons of biochar per hectare annually, which triples the output of Salix (a popular biomass crop) plantations.
Other advantages of hemp:
- Hemp can be grown in a wide range of latitudes and altitudes.
- Hemp can produce three crops per year.
- Hemp replenishes soil with nutrients and nitrogen, making it an excellent rotational crop.
- Hemp controls erosion of the topsoil.
- Hemp makes paper more efficiently and ecologically than wood, requiring no chemical glues.
- Hemp converts CO2 to oxygen better than trees.
- Hemp produces more oil than any other crop, which can be used for food, fuel, lubricants, soaps, etc.
- Hemp can produce bio-fuel and ethanol (better than corn).
- Hemp fibers can make very strong ropes and textiles emitting less CO2 in production than cotton or nylon.
We need to promote hemp cultivation as an effective and integral part of a holistic approach to solving our climate crisis.
by HempingtonPost | Nov 30, 2020
The United States will soon be sandwiched between two nations with federally legalized marijuana. Just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, Mexico moved forward with legislation legalizing the cannabis plant for a variety of uses.
This comes on the heels of Canada’s historic legalization several years ago, which has created a viable international marketplace, channeling funds through the Canadian markets and effectively mobilizing the global cannabis industry.
When Canada legalized, the U.S. missed an opportunity to ensure that NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange would have a role in controlling the financial markets and dollars funneling into cannabis. This was expected since Jeff Sessions was in control of the Department of Justice (DOJ). We didn’t necessarily have a pro-cannabis Administration under Trump and certainly not under the leadership of Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, no friend to marijuana. Despite this, what are the implications for America doing business with partners directly to the north and south?
At first, you might think none of this matters as the U.S. has legalized adult-use marijuana programs state-by-state. While this dispensary models still violates federal law, it has garnered bipartisan support from American politicians to prevent the DOJ from interfering with legal, state marijuana businesses. But the issue is much larger.
We’re talking about a global cannabis economy, with Mexico as the largest country in the world, by population, to legalize marijuana. Mexico will boast the biggest consumer market for cannabis products — with a population of more than 125 million people – representing an enormous leap forward for the developing international cannabis marketplace.
A few steps remain to federally legalize marijuana in Mexico, but the bill has been approved by the Mexican Senate. The bill will establish a regulated cannabis market to allow those eighteen and older to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana. It also allows a personal cultivation provision for individuals to cultivate up to four plants for personal use. Some technical requirements still need to be hammered out before outright passage, including whether or not personal use cultivation needs to be tracked by the government.
All this was supposed to happen earlier in 2020, as two years ago the Mexican Supreme Court struck down a marijuana ban as unconstitutional and required lawmakers to pass legalization measures.
I travelled to Mexico this past February, pre-COVID, to consult with the Mexican Senate on the considerations for hemp and marijuana policy. The timeframe for moving the legislation forward was pushed back by the pandemic. With full passage of the bill now imminent, what can we expect?
Mexico is not the first country with a narco or cartel trafficking history to pass cannabis legalization. It’s happened in numerous Latin America countries that made up part of the black market drug trade. This makes the cartel implications for federal marijuana legalization extraordinarily interesting.
Mexico seeks to regulate and legalize the plant, put strict controls on ownership and the supply chain in place, and to engage in domestic and, most importantly, international commerce surrounding marijuana. The dollars invested in this industry must comply with all forms of financial source verification — theoretically mitigating the opportunity for organized crime to participate in this business.
Something that seems counterintuitive to Mexico’s legalization campaign is that hemp may or may not be included in its final version — as it may pose too much of a threat to existing Mexican industries. I’d argue that this is precisely why hemp is so important – its versatility and multitude of industrial uses go far beyond the singular focus of being cultivated for cannabinoid extraction.
Until late 2019, the Hoban Law Group had registered a number of cannabinoid CBD manufacturers’ products with COFEPRIS, Mexico’s FDA, when things were put on pause to finish up the legislation. If hemp is indeed excluded from the final bill, it would have ramifications for the cannabinoid and CBD industry in Mexico.
Why would those other industries see industrial hemp as a threat? A significant sector of Mexico’s economy is the maquiladoras: local factories run by foreign companies, generally tapping into Mexico’s cheap labor and manufacturing goods for export. Some large maquiladoras have already begun utilizing hemp, including BMW and Levi’s, which have facilities in Mexico. Automotive and textile Industries are major players in the world, but industrial hemp would not displace them. It would complement the existing operations and provide farmers with a more versatile plant requiring less water.
Mexico has a well-documented history of cannabis usage, but will these consumers move their buying habits into a legal, commercial marketplace? The answer is likely yes — if there are medical marijuana distribution outlets selling products created through a regulated system. And will this system displace some of the large illicit cultivation operations across Mexico?
Mexico hopes to join other Latin American countries in becoming major forces in the global cannabis industry and to address the cultural and historically illicit implications of cartel and criminal activity surrounding the plant. How this will roll out and its effectiveness remains to be seen.
Pair the skill set of Mexico’s farmers and agricultural industry with the country’s manufacturing capabilities and an international cannabis marketplace and the pieces could fall into a very favorable place for the nation’s economy and citizenry.
For the now-sandwiched U.S., this will have major implications for American drug policy and cannabis reform moving forward — while perhaps generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the participants. Perhaps this will give U.S. policy makers the push they need to approve federal cannabis legalization, especially in the midst of a pandemic-induced, global economic downturn.
By Robert Hoban. This story first appeared at Forbes.com
by HempingtonPost | Mar 26, 2020
Amid the swirl of information or misinformation being aired and shared regarding the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has been discussion about whether cannabinoids — mostly CBD — has the capacity to kill the virus or stop its contagion.
Is there any truth to such claims? If not, what leads people to make or repeat them?
The short answer is that as of now, there is no cure, treatment, or vaccine for the COVID-19 disease from the coronavirus. Does that mean that cannabinoids are completely ineffective against the virus specifically, or against viruses in general? What about things like bacteria and fungus?
First things first: Cannabinoids have been found to be potent antimicrobials, meaning they work well against many types of bacteria and fungus, with the main “killer app” (pun intended) being the demonstration that cannabinoids can fight superbugs like MRSA and many common fungal infections including Candida. It is a well-known concept that goes back hundreds if not thousands of years and is recently supported by modern science and medicine. Second, cannabinoids do help certain types of viral infections. So, everything’s good, right?
Well, no. Unfortunately, a little knowledge is dangerous, and decades of prohibition of foundational investigative research on Cannabis and cannabinoids have bred some misleading assumptions, including some topics covered elsewhere:
Alas, bits and pieces of otherwise very valid cannabis science can be taken out of context and presented in ways that make people jump to conclusions or on bandwagons claiming that cannabinoids are able to cure every variety of illnesses, including the very unfortunate and scary Covid-19 disease. Conversely, relying on incomplete or bad information could potentially prove to be harmful or even lethal if followed as fact.
The truth is that cannabinoids and terpenes are potent small molecules that act by binding and signaling through the G-coupled master protein receptors (GCPR). The GCPR network includes hundreds of receptors that interact to modulate intracellular cascade signaling networks that are responsible for promoting cellular homeostasis or balance. Cannabinoids, terpenes, and hundreds of other phytochemicals interact through the network, triggering different interactions, via the second messenger (or cascade) system, which elicit responses from the pathways that control a number of different important functions in cells. One such function is a buzzword these days: Apoptosis (i.e., programmed cell death) is how our bodies turn over old cells, kill cancer cells, and use other cells such as macrophages and other killer cells to capture invading cells, viruses, or antigens and render them as non-harmful/nonpathogenic.
There are a host of second messenger systems (e.g., cAMP, AKT, AMPK, Mapk, NF-kappaB, notch, tgfB, etc.), each of which has many control proteins that then respond to trigger or affect other pathways/proteins to achieve the necessary outcome. One of these key pathways is tied to inflammation (of which we know CBD is extremely beneficial): as previously alluded to, apoptosis is involved in anything that is necessary to kill diseased cells, including microbial or virally infected cells. While providing a complete review of cannabinoids and second messenger signaling is beyond the scope of this brief article, suffice it to say that cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system are like the proverbial “one ring to rule them all”: The endocannabinoid system, through cannabinoids (plant or endo), interact with every other system in the body via second messenger signaling to bring everything into balance.
So, if cannabinoids do work, what is the issue?
Part of the problem is that in some cases specific cannabinoids can in fact help against certain types of viruses, at least in vitro. Some studies have forwarded claims of efficacy in mice or monkeys. Unfortunately, no such studies have been allowed on humans, and the number of viruses studied were small and very specific to types of viruses that are not the novel coronavirus now causing casualties and concern. The viruses that have been studied include mouse hepatitis C (a betacorona virus), human and simian immunodeficiency virus (HIV or SIV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), and influenza viruses. The silver lining is that certain cannabinoids were in fact found able to inhibit the replication of a betacorona virus (MHV) in vitro, so that should motivate further investigation.
The issue remains that there just is not sufficient information. CBD helps with some viruses, but not all. CBD helps reduce inflammation. Some viruses need and cause systemic inflammation in the process of taking over the hosts and easing their transmission to the next set of cells for infection. For those viruses that need and cause inflammation, CBD may indeed help reduce the severity of infection. Is coronavirus a virus that causes or needs systemic inflammation? The answers are not yet clearly known.
Cannabinoids can also be immunosuppressive. Unfortunately, use of CBD or another cannabinoid which reduces inflammation against a virus that doesn’t need inflammation as a mode of host invasion causes a degree of immunosuppression in the host, ergo making any chances of beating the virus worse. That is a vital problem. So, without further study and understanding of the full route of infection, or more understanding of each and every pathway that cannabinoids trigger (including immunosuppression or inhibition of inflammation) — much less all the potential cross interactions — it is premature and potentially hazardous to assume that all cannabinoids will work the same way and achieve the desired effect, based on the premise that someone might have shown a connection in a petri plate or a monkey that a certain cannabinoid is effective against a certain type of virus.
CBD also has been shown to inhibit cytochrome P450 enzymes, which exist in the liver and are responsible for metabolizing up to 60% of currently prescribed pharmaceutical drugs. Combined with the fact that many people do not tell their medical practitioners about their use of cannabinoids, and adding pharmaceuticals that may be prescribed by doctors, the potential to have compounds working at odds with each other increases significantly.
Cannabis is an amazing plant, and it is highly likely that methods can be found to trigger the systems as intended, to achieve desired effects; it is also likely that potent antivirals can be found. Cannabis has potential for products effective against viruses, and the very short list of data presented here should be encouraging toward a call for increased cannabis/cannabinoid research on many different medical fronts. That is especially true in the U.S., whose researchers have been hamstrung by cruel restrictions against researching some of the most fascinating set of molecular assets to present themselves to modern medicine. Science just needs to keep looking for answers and follow the proper route toward new drug discovery and evaluation of new medicines.
This story originally appeared at New Frontier Data.
by HempingtonPost | May 29, 2019
The HIA® Launches National Campaign Aimed at Changing Facebook’s Advertising Policy for the Hemp Industries
‘These are the times we can stand together in support of Our freedoms to flourish and Hemp’s freedoms to flourish!’ Darlene Mea
FACEBOOK STOP CENSORING HEMP
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PHOENIX, May 21, 2019 —
“With the passage of the farm bill, it seemed there would be a new dawn for stakeholders of the hemp industries absolving them from confusion over whether hemp was indeed a controlled substance — it’s not,” said Colleen Keahey Lanier, Executive Director of the Hemp Industries Association.
“But hemp entrepreneurs nationwide are currently being denied access to one of the most powerful marketing platforms in the world for small businesses restricted to outdated policies that continue to conflate hemp with marijuana. Not all of Cannabis is considered a drug, and Facebook’s new AI technology is already obsolete if it continues to recognize images of Cannabis as a controlled substance generally.”
Hemp Industries Association® (HIA®), in association with Hoban Law Group, Bluebird Botanicals, and Bish Enterprises, is launching a national campaign aimed at addressing Facebook’s current advertising policy of prohibiting the marketing and promotion of industrial hemp via Facebook and Instagram.
Marketing limitations posed by Facebook actually exceed what is required by law and have had a significant impact on hemp companies’ capacity to develop their digital presence. Facebook, with its 2.38 billion monthly users, represents a massive market for small businesses. For new entrepreneurs looking to break into the growing hemp industry, being denied access to the social media platform’s advertising capabilities represents a massive roadblock.
“But hemp entrepreneurs nationwide are currently being denied access to one of the most powerful marketing platforms in the world for small businesses restricted to outdated policies
that continue to conflate hemp with marijuana.
Not all of Cannabis is considered a drug, and Facebook’s new AI technology is already obsolete if it continues to recognize images of Cannabis as a controlled substance generally.”
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“Our goal is to change Facebook’s current policy by applying pressure in the most public way possible,” said Lanier. “They use a wide-reaching platform to communicate and so are we.”
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The digital advertisement, which simply reads “Facebook: Stop Censoring Hemp” will run daily in Times Square until August 24. In addition, the Association is coordinating a massive grassroots campaign among its more than 1,500 members in support of the much-needed policy change.
“We are asking all hemp supporters — advocates, farmers, processors, manufacturers, retailers and consumers — to join the movement and help us turn Facebook green,” Lanier said. “Hemp advertisements are allowed in Times Square, so why not on Facebook? Hemp is completely legal under federal law.”
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by Hempington Post | Apr 5, 2019
We are finally beginning to see and speak the truth – Industrial Hemp Is The Answer To Petrochemical Dependency. It’s time to Hemp the world!
This just in from FORBES –
Over the last three weeks, the Houston, TX area has been besieged by chemical fires—the latest resulting in the death of one person and the hospitalization of two others. A few weeks ago, another petrochemical facility caught on fire, consuming 11 storage tanks and sending toxic materials spewing into the air and Houston ship channel. During the initial fire, smoke billowing from the facility created a dark cloud that stretched over 20 miles across the City of Houston.
These types of incidents cast a pall over the petrochemical industry and reinforce the urgency of finding more environmentally-friendly—and human-friendly—solutions. Nonetheless, our dependency on petrochemicals has proven hard to overcome, largely because these materials are as versatile as they are volatile. From fuel to plastics to textiles to paper to packaging to construction materials to cleaning supplies, petroleum-based products are critical to our industrial infrastructure and way of life.
Smoke rising from a petrochemical fire at an Intercontinental Terminals Company facility drifts over Houston on Monday, March 18, 2019. Photo: David J. Phillip, STF / Associated Press
Although there are numerous companies and researchers attempting to use synthetic biology to obsolete our petro-industrial complex, much of this research is a long way from commercialization. Interestingly, however, there is a naturally-occurring and increasingly-popular material that can be used to manufacture many of the same products we now make from petroleum-derived materials—and you have undoubtedly already heard of it. That material is hemp.
Industrial hemp, not to be confused with marijuana, was recently removed from the federal government’s schedule of controlled substances in the 2018 Farm Bill. The crop can be used to make everything from biodegradable plastic to construction materials like flooring, siding, drywall and insulation to paper to clothing to soap to biofuels made from hemp seeds and stalks. Porsche is even using hemp-based material in the body of its 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport track car to reduce the weight while maintaining rigidity and safety.
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