Hawaiifs economy is based primarily on the tourist industry. But, there is another industry that can do even better, the hemp industry. Hemp is a tall, fast-growing plant, or scientifically, the Cannabis sativa L. Many people confuse hemp with the drug-type of this plant. They are both from the Cannabaceae family, but are very different from each other.
Many people believe that hemp may have been the first cultivated plant. For thousands of years, it has been used worldwide. The earliest known woven fabric was of hemp, which dates back to the eight millennium (8,000-7,000 b. c.) . Majority of all sails, clothes, tents, rugs, drapes, towels, paper, rope, twine, art canvas, paints and varnishes, and lighting oil were all made from hemp. It is one of the strongest and longest fibers in the world. But once William Randolph Hearst, owner of the largest newspaper chain in the US, published articles that the drug-type hemp was linked with crime, they renamed it "marijuana". This name has been stuck with all the types of this plant, including industrial hemp. Over the past fifty to sixty years, it was made illegal and seen as evil.
Hemp is divided into fiber-type plants and drug-type plants based on their tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content. THC is the chemical that produces hallucinogenic effects. Hemp may contain a level up to only 0.3% THC which is ineffective in producing any type of hallucination. The THC levels of the drug-type (marijuana or drug cannabis) that people smoke are typically between 3% and 10%.
Hemp can be grown in all climatic zones in America, including Hawaii. There wouldnft be any competition for productive farm land with food crops because it can be grown in rotation with the food crops or on marginal farm land where food production is not profitable. Reductions in sugar cane and pineapple acreage have left agricultural lands available for cultivation of
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