The time has come for the Georgia General Assembly to get off that obselete notion that HEMP is a ‘gateway to hell’ like we were all taught in high school back in the 1950′s and 60′s. No, it isn’t. Hell, you can’t even kill yourself with it like you can with alcohol or aspirin. You can get pretty stoned on the hallucinogenic version and males can make themselves sterile sometimes with long term heavy use, but that’s about it.
Not all Cannabis is alike either. In fact, MOST is not hallucinogenic at all. You could smoke the stuff all day and not get high. But it CAN have other uses-industrial, commercial, and medicial (yep, the hippies were right).
It is claimed that Hemp (the common name for the plant) can cure cancer but the jury is still out on that one. However, it IS known to be very useful in pain management, epilepsy and seizure control, control of the symptoms of diseases such as SLE, sclerosis, MS, and other autoimmune disorders, arthritis, some depression, and some others. Studies are underway to find out what exactly it can be used for and how.
That’s besides the uses for things such as rope, rugs, fabrics, and other materials that the plant can be made into. It may turn into a cash crop for Georgia-and not one that is grown in patches raided by the DEA to be torched in rural areas. Wouldn’t that be ironic-and profitable?
