Time for change

I just started doing some research on cannabis hemp as an energy source. In addition to its potential to solve our energy crisis, it would also impact: poverty, pollution, war and political instability, global climate change, national debt, soils degradation, deforestation, desertification, just to name a few.

The first cars were run on hemp gasoline. From what I read, it can be refined using our current infrastructure with only a few alterations and could take us off imported oil well within TWO YEARS. It grows pretty much everywhere. It is drought-tolerant and a nitrogen-fixing "weed" that improves soil integrity. We all know the reasons it has been illegal all these years, right? Several supporting social factions include but are not limited to: timber owners; cotton farmers; churches; law inforcement; prison system; local state and federal governments; car manufacturers. I've heard stories for many years about William Randolph Hearst and his timberland and newspapers; what a nifty little capitalist combo.

But why it is still illegal to grow this non-medicinal version of the marijuana plant? Banning cannabis hemp would be exactly the same thing as making the California Poppy illegal. This is only a related plant and does not contain any appreciable THC, the substance in cannabis sativa, marijuana. There is a native American tribe in one of the Dakotas that has been attempting to grow it to support themselves, but have continually run into trouble with The Law.

I maintain that legalization of the cannabis hemp plant could solve a lot of problems and would not create the additiional dangers we see in nuclear power.

I'd love to see some comments.