Cannabis as hemp
Pot Night - The Book, Channel 4 Television, 1995
by Simon Firth
Hemp truly is an extraordinary useful plant, with an estimated 25,000 uses. Listed below are just wome of them. All have the attraction that they come from a renewable resource which can be grown without fertilisers or pesticides, and which are biodegradeable.
ROPE Hemp fibre is naturally tough and can be made into strong twine. The fibre strands are extracted from the plant and spun into thread, which can be used to make anything from fine lace to thick rope. Ropes ca then be made into netts or rigging. You probably climbed up a hemp rope in your school gymnasium.
Most hemp for industrial purposes is now grown and processed in the old Iron Curtain countries (Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Poland) and China. But it is now being grown again in France and the UK. Hemp twine is currently distributed in the UK by Vendcord (tel: 01252-727272).
CLOTHING According to the Columbia History of the World, the earliest known fabric (c. 8000-7000 BC) was woven from hemp. The word 'canvass' is derived from the Dutch for 'cannabis' - indeed canvass is traditionally made of hemp fibre. For thousands of years everything from sacks to sails and from thread to trousers was made of hemp. In the UK, Evergreen Recycled Fashions (tel: 01924-453419) use British-grown hemp to make a variety of fabrics and yarns, including mixes with recycled cotton/wool.
There are several British compaines producing clothes made from either pure hemp or hemp blends. Union Hemp in Hull (tel: 01482-225328) make jeans and jean jackets, ans Slins in Sheffield (tel: 01742-6603982) makes hats, waistcoats and hooded tops. The House of Hemp in London (tel: 0171-359-8351) will have a clothes catalogue available soon.
There are many producers in Europe and America. Among them are Heavytex (tel: 0031-20615-1548) in Holland and the Hanf Company in Germany. In the US, there's ECO Lution in Virginia (tel: 0101-703-207-9001), the Hempstead Company (tel: 0101-714-650-8325) and CHA: The Coalition for Hemp Awareness (tel: 0101-602-988-9355), both in California, and Wise Up Reaction Wear in Arizona (tel: 0101-602-293-8005).
Even the big boys are getting in. Esprit is selling a hemp bag and, this season, will feature hemp clothes in its Ecollection collection. Clark's have a shoe in development with a high hemp content.
PAPER Paper is one of the oldest of hemp products. Certainly, the Chinese knew two millenia ago how to make paper from hemp that was both strong and long lasting. More common until this century was paper made from worn-out clothes, sheets, curtains, sails and rags (hence the name 'rag paper'), all still made essentially from hemp. until relatively recently, nearly everything that was written or printed, from the Decleration of Independence to the King James Bible was printed on paer made from hemp.
Today hemp paper is becoming available again through a variety of sources. CHT of Lyme Regis in Dorset (tel: 01297-443082) produce 'treefree' in a variety of weights, watermarked with a cannabis leaf design. The Wookey Hole Mill (tel: 01749-672243) has been making paper since 1610, and among its products today is a fine hand-made hemp paper. Ecologically Sound Papers (ESP) in Oxford (tel: 01865-749707) make a hemp/straw mix paper.
Foreign manufacturers are also using hemp to make cigarette papers, bank notes and fine stationery. Researchers are looking at ways of producing tea bags and vacuum-cleaner bags in the future.
Hemp is an ideal additive for newsprint. Because hemp is so strong, if you put just 5 per cent hemp pulp into newsprint, you could reduce the thickness by at least 20 per cent.
HORSE BEDDING Since 1993, when it became legal again to grow hemp in the UK (but only THC-free hemp and only under a Home Office licence), a group of farmers in the Essex area have been cultivating a British crop. They jointly own Hemcore (tel: 01371-820066), a company set up to process and market hemp and its related products.
At the moment Hemcore's principle product is horse bedding, which they make from the soft core of the plant's stem. It is more absorbent than straw, dust free and rots down quickly to compost. Hemcore also supply UK fabric makers with fibre for weaving.
BUILDING MATERIALS Hemp fibre pulp can be used to make pressed board, particle board and concrete construction moulds. The walls od a traditional house are not porous and therefore do not 'breathe'. This can lead to problems with humidity, dampness and, eventually, rot. Because hemp lets water vapour through while also insulating, it can make an energy-efficient and comfortable living environment.
Chevenotte Habitat (tel: 010-33-43-97-45-18) in France have made about 700 houses using hemp. They make Isochanvre, a material made from hemp hurds (non-fibrous woody material) mixed with lime which, over time, petrifies into a mineral state.
COSMETICS Hemp seeds can be pressed to obtain oil that is nutty flavoured and high in essential fatty acids. The newly opened Hemporium in Bristol (tel: 01272-298371) sells a number of hemp cosmetics. Owner Tim Barford can offer you hemp massage oil, lip balm, and salve made in the US from Chinese hemp oil and soap, shampoo and bubble buth made in Belgium from Hungarian hemp. The Body Shop is currently researching how hemp oil might be used in their products.
ACCESSORIES/TOYS The Bristol Hemporium (see above) sells hemp juggling balls, reusable coffee filters, boot laces and guitar straps. Bags wallets, hats, etc. are available frommany clothing companies.
OTHER CELLULOSE PRODUCTS About 77 per cent of the woody hurds left after the fibre has been stripped off the plant is cellulose, and this can be used to make anything that employs cellulose in its manufacture. At present, there is a total of some 25,000 such products - including dynamite.
ANIMAL FEED Hemp seeds have long been used to catch carp. Seeds that have bean steamed (so they will not grow) are available in the UK and US for fish and bird feed. The seeds are high in protein and will be picked out first by birds when they are presented to them in a mixture. Hemp oil (see above) could well have a future as an additive to breakfast cereals and as an edible oil.
PAINT AND VARNISH Until this century, hemp seed oil and linseed oil were the drying agents in nearly all paints and varnishes made in the West. This trade went to the petro-chemicals (principally Du Pont) when hemp was outlawed in the 1930s.
ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANSER The Bristol Hemporium will soon be selling hemp washing-up liquid (with a hemp oil base), but hemp can be used to clean up the environment in a more direct way. The plant is very absorbent, so it can easily soak up pollutuants. The potential for 'socks' of hemp to soak up oil from water or petrol at petrol stations is currently being researched. Itis also possible that living hemp plants could soak up pollutants from contaminated ground. What has yet to be resolved is what would then be done with the resulting, now polluted, plants.
FUEL Last of all, hemp is highly calorific and combustible. It could be made into briquettes for burning. It is also highly attractive as a renewable biomass resource which can be composted or turned into charcoal to create methanol, methane or petrol.