Page 3247 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Apart from being impressed with the way these people did not know the concept of waste, it occurs to me that if these palm trees were banned, simply because they also provided a euphoric substance, it would be a travesty. Our culture, like theirs and every other culture around the world, has its opiates and its relaxants. That was recognised and valued in that society, along with many uses of the rest of the plant.
Instead of recognising the full range of uses of the cannabis plant, we have a prohibition on it. Mr Stevenson outlined some of the economic and environmental benefits that can result from commercial use of cannabis, but they are not more aptly described and more effectively portrayed than in the film Hemp for Victory. For those of us who have seen that United States World War II propaganda movie, it is quite extraordinary that the Americans could talk in that movie about the wonderful uses of hemp as a war support system and then, only a few short years later, as stated in a recent newsletter by the person Mr Stevenson referred to, sentence people to serve over 50 million person years in gaol as a result of prosecutions associated with cannabis. Just imagine what that would cost.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the movie Hemp for Victory talked about the full range of uses of hemp in war - as rope, twining, fabrics, tarpaulins and so forth - but one of the most interesting things in the American propaganda - there is a lot of propaganda about anything associated with cannabis - is an article that I have in front of me entitled "When Hemp Saved George Bush's Life". It states:
One more example of the importance of hemp: Five years after cannabis hemp was outlawed in 1937, it was promptly re-introduced for the World War II effort in 1942.
So, when the young pilot George Bush bailed out of his burning airplane after a battle over the Pacific, little did he know:
. Parts of his aircraft engine were lubricated with cannabis hemp seed oil;
. 100% of his life-saving parachute webbing was made from U.S. grown cannabis hemp;
. Virtually all the rigging and ropes of the ship that pulled him in were made of cannabis hemp;
. The firehoses on the ship (as were those in the schools he had attended) were woven from cannabis hemp; and,
. Finally, as young George Bush stood safely on the deck, his shoes' durable stitching was of cannabis hemp, as it is in all good leather and military shoes to this day.
Yet Bush has spent a good deal of his career eradicating the cannabis plant and enforcing laws to make certain that no one will learn this information - possibly including himself ...
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .