Ted Smith
By the time you are reading this I should be touring around the country promoting the Hempology 101 Textbook and the many benefits of cannabis. It seems fitting that it is coming to life just after my 43rd birthday. The first 42 years of my life have been a lot of fun. The next 42 years are going to be a lot of hard work.
There are several reasons I say this. Dealing with the Canada Revenue Agency is certainly one reason my life has become more intense lately. Incorporating the Cannabis Buyers’ Club of Canada will destroy the comfortable benevolent dictatorship I have created for myself in the early stages of the group’s existence. Changing the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations to allow for edible and topical cannabis products will have a huge impact on the ability of drug companies to control the market for cannabis-based medicines and they will fight us every step of the way. We still have to prepare for Owen’s jury trial next Feb.
My real work over the next 42 years, though, has more to do with industrial and home-made hemp products. There is no doubt legalizing cannabis will have huge benefits for both cannabis consumers and the general public. Legalizing cannabis could turn the world’s economies around when you consider the extra revenue gained from taxation and the savings in the criminal justice system. Health care costs will go down with legalization and the world should be a happier place.
Unfortunately, humanity has created an even bigger problem than the War On Drugs.
Accelerated climate changes will dramatically impact everyone on the planet. We should expect temperatures and ocean levels to rise, while facing more intense storms and UV rays. Since most of the world’s population and food sources are close to sea level, we can expect mass population movements to higher ground but are not able to move soil so easily. If I live a full life of 84 years or more, the world will be a very different place when I die.
Hemp could provide environmentally friendly alternatives to many of the harmful products we use today. Cannabis can be grown around the world, providing people almost everywhere with a potential source of food, fuel, building materials, medicine, and other products. This plant could be our saving grace when it comes to dealing with the negative impacts of climate change, as it is so easy to grow, manufacture, and use.
Here in Canada we have incredible potential for developing and marketing hemp products. Canadian farmers grow more hemp seed than anywhere else in the world, with the vast majority of it being used for food and body care products. While there is certainly more room for hemp food products like hemp ice cream to appear on the market, there are so many more to come. Paints and stains, for example, could be made out of hemp seed, replacing the extremely harmful paints used by most people today.
Using hemp seed for biofuel might seem very extravagant given what it can be sold for in stores, but for farmers who grow it on a large scale it might make a lot of sense very soon. I look forward to the day I am driving a hybrid electric-hemp fuel car. When it comes to hemp fibers, Canada is not even close to seeing large scale hemp paper, clothing, or building material production, but that will change, too.
Most people now understand the futility of the war on cannabis and are ready to legalize cannabis. Few realize how important reviving the hemp industry is. When some see how expensive hemp oil and hemp seed is, they shrug it off, underestimating how good it is for themselves and agricultural communities. As more is grown and sold each year prices will go down relative to other products, as the industry matures with more competitors and investments get paid off.
One of my main missions in life is to prove how good hemp seeds are for health. For the last couple of years I have been getting myself in better shape, adding some muscle and improving my endurance. I have been a vegetarian for almost 16 years and believe eating hemp seed has helped me avoid problems and keep me in wicked shape. In fact, I recently ran a 10 km race in Herb (our 12 foot tall and 8 foot wide pot leaf costume) and completed the race is just under an hour.
Hopefully, the Hempology 101 Textbook will help many cannabis consumers realize they are missing out on many of the plant’s most important benefits. It is also my hope it reaches out to those who are interested in saving our species from the accelerated changes to our environment that we are witnessing. Cannabis can help our species thrive, and it is my intent to see that happens.
