Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 Hansard (15 May) . . Page.. 1238 ..

development and provision of much needed community sporting facilities by the Belconnen Soccer Club at the intersection of Owen Dixon and William Slim Drives in McKellar.

Your petitioners therefore request the Assembly to approve the above lease and development application as soon as possible.

Petition received.

MR MOORE (10.34): I present the Drugs of Dependence (Amendment) Bill 1996.

Title read by Clerk.

MR MOORE: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

Mr Speaker, cannabis hemp is the oldest cultivated crop in the world. Until 1870 it was the most cultivated non-food crop and its fibre was the globe's most traded commodity. Paper, textiles, oil, grain, fuel and construction material can all be made from cannabis hemp. For at least 12,000 years it has been used to supply fibre for essential goods, including clothing, paper and oil products. In fact, people used to be fined for not growing their fair share of hemp. So important was this crop that a fine of five gold sovereigns was first introduced in 1533 by Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth I in 1563 decreed that every farm of 60 acres or more had to have at least one acre devoted to the growing of hemp.

In 1619 America's first marijuana law was enacted in Virginia. In that case the law ordered all farmers to grow cannabis hemp seed. More recently, the United States ran an encouragement campaign to grow hemp during the last war and produced, in fact, a movie entitled Hemp for Victory. Sails, parachutes, ropes and lubricating oil are only a few of the things that were manufactured by the United States from hemp during the war. Although the cannabis plant grown for fibre is of the same species as that which is cultivated for drug use, the varieties that I am encouraging to be grown for fibre are so low in tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, as to be totally useless for drug purposes. The varieties that would be allowed to be grown under this legislation would be grown differently from those cultivated for drug use and would give one nausea and a headache if someone tried to smoke it.

Cannabis is the strongest, most durable and longest lasting natural soft fibre on the planet. Its economic and environmental advantages must also be considered. While trees take 100 and in some cases 1,000 years to mature - even in plantations maturation can take up to 40 years - hemp plants can be harvested within three to six months of planting. Hemp produces two to three times more fibre than cotton per hectare and can be grown entirely without herbicides or insecticides. Imagine how much healthier the River Murray catchment area would be if farmers there grew hemp instead of cotton.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .