Legalize It or Eat Plastic.

Oh wait..we are already doing both.

Photo credit - Djilleet Mint Moulaye

What is the Difference Really?

You are already eating 11,000 pieces of plastic in your seafood. This is not a projection, this is happening.

Cannabis sativa is already legally grown in 27 countries and China is one of the largest exporters.

Most of us use Cannabis sativa in one form or the other. If you haven’t used it, more than likely your ancestors have.

Cannabis has been around.

So what is the legalization and decriminalization fuss really about?

It is about Cannabis sativa being one of the only plants made illegal because of the chemical compounds (THC) found in certain varieties.

In science language – Cannabis Sativa is the scientific name of the plant referred to as hemp, marijuana, weed, ganja, dagga and more. It is safe to say that Cannabis has the most “also known as names” ever, well in the history of plants.

Why is that?

It is because everything about this plant is not legal. The culture of nicknaming cannabis helps us cope with this madness. The percentages of THC in Cannabis Sativa have been manipulated over the years to make over 779 plant varieties. If the Cannabis Sativa plant has 0.3% of THC it can be classified as illegal. This 0.3% is the internationally accepted standard which distinguishes legal hemp from illegal Cannabis sativa.

We can use hemp and hemp products legally in all countries but it is still illegal to grow in most tropical climate countries. The extent of hemp use is evident from the increase in U.S. hemp imports by 13 times since 2005. In the U.S., the Hemp Industries Association Vs DEA case in 2004 set precedence for enforcing which varieties of Cannabis sativa can be used to create hemp products.

Hemp is what your ancestors have probably used in some form.

Before plastic there was hemp - for everything.

My point - Eating, drinking and making products with hemp defined as Cannabis sativa without more than 0.3% of THC - is legal.

Drink a hemp shake, wear hemp pants and write on hemp paper – go ahead no one will put you in jail and it won’t make you high. Promise. There are already 25,000 products made from hemp.

What is our problem really, we’ve been using it.

Cannabis Culture

However, on the topic of Cannabis Sativa with more than 0.3% THC - we've also been using Cannabis sativa for centuries before this variety became illegal.

You may have read about how the human body has cannabinoid receptors (by the way cannabinoids are the MVP chemicals in Cannabis Sativa). You may have read about how Cannabis sativa is used in many religions. In indigenous cultures around the world there is usually some plant which could be considered hallucinogenic or intoxicating, but because it is tied to religion and culture it is always used with purpose - to bring clarity before decision-making, to release the worries of the day, for health or community building.

Cannabis sativa is that sacred plant for many cultures.

From Native Americans to Rastafarians, from Taoism to Buddhism, from Sanskrit written in the Hindu faith to Hebrew written in the Old Testament - the sacred purpose of Cannabis Sativa has been documented.

The use of Cannabis sativa has always been tied to a culture - even the use of illegal cannabis sativa. Culture is learned behavior and certainly there is strong network of learned behavior when we consider the “underground” networks which facilitate access for users, producers and suppliers of illegal Cannabis sativa. It is all a culture.

Hemp Is It

Hemp is strong, anti-bacterial and compostable when used as a material; resilient to pests, restorative to soils when grown and full of health benefits when consumed.

Now, if we are looking for a culture shift when it comes to over-consumption of slowly-degrading plastic and reducing the toxicity of the products we use – lessons in hemp provide a road map for that. This hemp road map is complete with the history, science, engineering and art necessary to make the plastic culture change.

Photo - Hemp plastic degrading

I repeat, we can consume hemp legally.

Yet in most places it can’t be grown because of the illegality of other strains with high THC and a general aversion to the plant with the scientific name Cannabis sativa (which can’t be based on science or evidence of the plants productivity over time).

In the U.S., even though hemp has no/low THC it can only be legally grown in states with industrial hemp research programs - Colorado, Kentucky, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

So just because in the Caribbean and most of the U.S. we are ignoring science - we have to import Cannabis sativa to make hemp products. America used hemp to make the first engine oil. The technology of which is the basis of making plastic (remember plastic typically comes from fossil fuel oil).

Irony.

Here we are with a mounting non-degradable plastic problem which is putting more strain on our coastal ecosystems which are already dealing with all the climate change things – coral bleaching, sea-level rise, changes in species migration patterns and therefore food sources.

Time to Move

Moving away from non-degradable plastic is about undoing at least a century of over-consumption, but surely humans have been around more than a century.

This move is very possible and more necessary now than ever as climate predictions come closer and closer to our doorstep, the world runs out of landfill space (aka make believe throw away land) and our oceans become increasingly loaded with chemicals from our plastic use.

One of the main reasons we don’t have more convenient biodegradable materials is the comparison to the strength, convenience and accessibility of plastic.

Hello…hemp does that.

Hemp can be that strong, accessible, convenient and cost effective because of the rate and resilience with which it grows.

Is it that we don’t want to legalize hemp growth because Cannabis sativa WITH the THC could hide out in the midst of Cannabis Sativa WITHOUT THC, moonlighting as the illegal version of the plant?

If this is done, cross-pollination degrades the quality of illegal Cannabis Sativa - so who would do that?

What we need in the Caribbean is people who can tell the difference between the varieties of Cannabis sativa and who can test it as well. Sounds like a career and economy development opportunity to me.

Can we please legalize growing hemp aka Cannabis sativa without the THC? We can even make sure that with legalization anyone who tries to smoke hemp will be fined (as fruitless as trying to smoke it may be –since no THC obviously).

The good news is that in the U.S. precedence has been set - the Farm Bill of 2014 and The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2016 (P.L. 114-113) has created ways around the generalized assessment of the risk of Cannabis sativa.

It is time to move past these misconceptions about hemp.

If we base the legalization of growing hemp on science, it makes all the sense in the world.

If you want to continue struggling with the woes of everlasting plastic then let’s ignore the science and prepare to eat plastic in the very near future.

Yum -_-.

- Ariana Marshall Ph.D. Environmental Scientist. Avid legal hemp eater and drinker.

#Greenbusiness #greeneconomy