HNT

Hemp for Victory during World War II,

Grown and harvested for thousands of years, hemp has numerous industrial uses which benefit mankind.  However, in the United States hemp is illegal due to it being a cannabis plant, and its legality is also in question in many other countries.  Its important to note that hemp only contains minute amounts of THC, its cannot be used as a drug like marijuana.  However due to zero tolerance laws, even trace amounts of THC make hemp illegal to grow in the US. 

The banning of hemp began in 1937 with the Marihuana Tax Act.  It is often theorized that hemp was included in the law in order to destroy the hemp industry, which threatened DuPont’s business of manufacturing artificial materials.  The prohibition of hemp was short lived, it would take a world war to bring about the resurgence of the American hemp industry.  With America’s entry into World War II, there was an exploding demand for raw materials and industrial goods.  This included hemp, which during World War II was used to produce rope, canvas, and uniforms, all necessary items for the war effort. 

Whereas once there was hemp was illegal, within the blink of an eye the US Government was issuing thousands of licenses to grow it.  Various propaganda campaigns were instituted to convince farmers to grow hemp nationwide.  Many of these former hemp farmers had been driven out of business, fined, and even imprisoned a mere handful of years ago when was initially banned.  One of the most famous pieces of propaganda from the hemp campaign was a film entitled, “Hemp for Victory”, which extoled the virtues of the hemp plant and hemp growers.  It was a complete 180 degree departure from the 1930’s when the government issued propaganda demonizing hemp and hemp growers.