Economic recovery from legal marijuana ?
59Is is safe? Is it viable? Is it real?
Well, after many comments on several of my articles, including on hubpages.com I had decided to look into the uses of Marijuana , AKA hemp, sativa, pot, weed, trees, and many other wonderfully deceptive names. I will make one thing clear before I begin on this subject. I personally do not use any product consisting of marijuana. I have in the past and don't mind admitting it. It has been many years since I have indulged in such pleasures. With that said, Please keep in mind, this is NOT an endorsement from me to simply make all things pot legal and unregulated nor do I agree that making it legal will magically resolve every economic issue we have , or solve the unemployment issues on it's own. I personally feel anyone who tries to argue otherwise has not educated themselves on economics, employment and industry. While I am NOT a professor or professional economist I do try to educate myself as much as possible on all matters in which I write.
Now as stated before I have had several mails and comments sent to me asking me to touch on this subject more. I agreed to study it a bit and then come back and write about it. What I have found actually surprised me. Being someone who knows the about marijuana from the smokers perspective, and reading things previously about other uses of the plant, I thought I had a good foundation to go on when writing about it. I found I was wrong.. In fact I initially only looked at the basic uses such as , consumption, rope, and clothing.
After further research I have uncovered many many more uses for this plant, from textiles, to soap, to perfumes, to food. And even a new type of ceramic tile that seemingly is better than a normal ceramic tile , absorbing more heat and being more durable than your normal ceramic. However, I also looked at each thing I found and had to determine whether or not I felt these ideas were legitimate arguments for making the plant legal. For many uses, I do not see a large enough economic value to make a valid argument about making it legal.
However, the findings I did find that surprised me were the areas in which building materials could be made from it. The fibers in this plant are stronger than most other similar products, and cheaper as well as renewable. In fact, In most cases I have found that it could replace man made materials like nylon used in ropes, replace wood fibers for hemp fibers and you now have a cheaper, stronger and more easily renewed source for fiber boards normally made with low grade wood particles. These hemp boards could be used to build houses, furniture, audio boxes and many more things.
Insulation made from hemp is far more earth friendly, and by far more cost effective. Tiles made in part by hemp infused into a ceramic compound are stronger and may even last longer in homes costing less to keep a house in good repair. If properly combined with materials these tiles could be used in the aerospace industry. Something to look at...
I found viable used for byproducts of the plant such as animal feed for birds. Oils that could be turned into soaps, cleaners and even facial scrubs. Yes there are truly a ton of things that can be made from this plant. But how viable most of these products are would all depending on consumer responses. Will you by dove, or will you by hemp soap. Some will choose hemp soap just because its hemp soap. Not because it is superior. And that is where some of the arguments for hemp start to fail. Most of the products proposed would be of very poor quality as appose to their counterparts. Soap made from hemp oils are dry, and would not fair well on most peoples skin. You could use a moisturizer but then you would have to hit a niche market because the costs at that point would be greater than the more mass produced soaps.
I do not see a viable market at all for hemp perfume, I feel personally this idea is just a thirsty horse looking for a pond to drink from. While there may be tens of thousands of things we can make from this plant, when you take a deeper look at it, there are only a handful of things that are legitimately marketable as viable products.
My honest opinion based off of what I have found so far is that the main reason anyone wants Marijuana to be legal is to smoke it. And that's fine, I like my beer once in a while, or a glass of wine, I see nothing wrong other than law breaking, with smoking responsibly. I feel bad that people have tried to use every excuse in the book to make it legal when there are a few very strong and legitimate reasons. The frivolous reasons only make the movement look stupid and desperate. I suppose some of them simply smoke too much pot to realize it.
Building materials, textiles, and consumption are really the only three economically sound reasons for making it legal. Now it's up to the people who fight for this cause to pick their fights, and stop pushing a long list of bogus stuff into the hands of the government. In fact I'm willing to bet by doing so, they have only harmed the chances of making it legal.
As far as safety, well it can't be any more unsafe than having Mexican mafia busting down our doors killing entire families to get the pot. And well as far as consumption, it's definitely safer than alcohol by a LONG shot.
Please also, read my article " Economic Recovery ? " to fully understand where I stand with this subject.
In closing I still feel making it legal would greatly impact the the economy in a positive way, but I will not endorse reasoning to make it legal that I feel is not a reasonable. And anyone reading is welcome to disagree with my findings.
God Bless America !
CommentsLoading...
Thank you for taking the time to enjoy my writings. I agree that it may take a while for this to make more sence to our population. While I feel that this is a way to help us grow as a country, I also have given several other ways to help in other writings. I encourage everyone to read through my few articles and get a better idea of where I stand on things.
As well as building materials hemp can be used to make biodegradable plastics. Foam cushioning for cars, chairs. matresses. Henry Ford built a car from hemp products that held up better than steel for side panels and body parts. There are just too many things that CAN be made better with hemp than most people know about just because they have been lied to for so long.
Well, self education is key in todays world. Even if we think we know a lot about a subject sometimes we find we know less than we thought when we go looking for answers. As was the case with this subject for me. While I knew it had many uses I did not realize the complexity of it fully until I took the time to check into it more. Unfortunately in many cases the arguements for making it legal are half witted and not thought out very well. It's really no wonder to me now why it isn't. You must build an honest case and back it up with facts and real research, not just throw out a bunch of things and hope people believe it. As I have found, when you keep it simple, and factual you go further than if you slam a ton of stuff down and say, ok make this happen.
The community of people who want to push for this to become legal first need to stop trying to hide behind its medical uses and materials uses, because when they do it's just insulting the law makers intelect. I know as well as anyone the number one and main reason people want it legal is to smoke it. And thats fine. But they need to first admit to that, and present it as such, and then add to this arguement the legitimate medical research which does show not only medical uses for it, but it shows that it is prooven to be a far less dangerous substance than many of the things we consume right now legally. When this point is fully established, then you can go on into the other things that are good benifits for many industries.
Now to get industry to accept it, you need to proove to them that the product can be used by them, it will be cost efficent, safe to use, and perhapse even better than the current products they use. Thing is, no one has done this. They simply shove paper and protests at the government and expect results. This won't work at all. Until the figureheads of theese groups get together and stop being mad and think rationaly and logicly and put together a real peice of legislation, they will be in stalemate.
It's not about what we can tell the people, it's about what can we proove to the people. convincing industry is key to making this legal like it or not. They have the money and connections to either stop, or push through this idea. Convince the right companies, and it will fly, if not. Good luck.
Ask Queenmother Level 1 Commenter 3 months ago
Greetings ShawnMeyer
I enjoyed reading your article and found it a compelling argument for legalizing marijuana. I believe that when this current senior generation leaves the earth this economic position will make sense to younger people that understand that marijuana is not the problem; the conservative prunes that want to control others are the real problem. They would rather keep it illegal so they can put people in jail for it. Legalizing it would create tremendous profits, but I don't think they care.