History of Hemp

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Between 1840 to 1900 at least 100 major articles were published recommending Cannabis as a therapeutic agent for various health problem and disorders (32 ).

Queen Victoria used it to relieve menstrual cramps, the year she died (1901)a Royal Commission report said cannabis was relatively harmless and certainly not worth banning (33 ). Queen Victoria personal physician Sir Russell Reynolds wrote in the Lancet in 1890 that "when pure and administered carefully, cannabis is one of the most useful medicines we possess." (34 ).

Cannabis was the number one analgesic for 60 years before the rediscovery of Aspirin in around 1900. From 1842 to 1900 cannabis made up half the medicines sold(35 ).

Newspaper man William Randolph Hearst declared war on hemp(36 ). Hearst also popularized the word "marijuana" a foreign sounding name instead of hemp. This was to help in the banning of the plant(37 ).

Hearst financial interest in his timber stands and also in his paper manufacturing company Kimberly Clark, were threatened. When technology in the 1930s advanced enough to make hemp fiber-stripping machines and machines that conserved hemp's high-cellulose pulp available and affordable. Overall the timber for paper industry stood to lose billions. Also chief munitions maker for the U. S. federal government, Lammot Du Pont developed synthetic fiber nylon and wood-pulp paper sulfide process. Both processes were threatened by hemp. Du Pont chief financial backer in these projects was Andrew Mellon of the Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh, who in his role as secretary of the treasury, appointed Harry Anslinger to the head of Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Anslinger would become his nephew-in-law(38 ).