The following was recounted by Jack Herer in "The Emperor Wears No
Clothes," Available at Hempware, etc 1090 S. Wadsworth, Lakewood,
Colorado
     WHY NOT USE HEMP TO REVERSE THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT AND SAVE THE
     WORLD?
     In early 1989, Jack Herer and Maria Farrow put this question
to Steve Rawlings, the highest ranking officer in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture who was in charge of reversing the
Greenhouse Effect at the USDA world research facility in
Beltsville, MD.
     First, we introduced ourselves and told him we were writing
for Green political party newspapers.
     Then we asked Rawlings, "If you could have any choice, what
would be the ideal way to stop or reverse the Greenhouse Effect?"
     He said,"Stop cutting down trees and stop using fossil fuels."
     "Well, why don't we?"
     "There's no viable substitute for wood for paper, or for
fossil fuel."
     "Why don't we use an annual plant for paper and for biomass to
make fuel?"
     "Well, that would be ideal,"he agreed."Unfortunately there is
nothing you can use that could produce enough materials."
     "Well, what would you say if there WAS such a plant that could
substitute for all wood pulp paper, all fossil fuels, would make
most of our fibers naturally, make everything from dynamite to
plastic, grows in all 50 states and that one acre of it would
replace 4.1 acres of trees, and that if you used about 6% of the
U.S.d land to raise it as an energy crop--even on marginal lands,
this plant would produce all 75 quadrillion billion BTUs needed to
run American each year? Would that help save the planet?"
     "That would be ideal. But there is no such plant."
     "We think there is."
     "Yeah? What is it?"
     "Hemp."
     "Hemp!" he mused for a moment. "I never would have thought of
it...You know, I think you're right. Hemp could be the plant that
could do it. Wow! That's a great idea!"
     We were excited as we outlined this information and delineated
the potential of hemp for paper, fiber, fuel, food, paint, etc.,
and how it could be applied to balance the world's ecosystems and
restore the atmosphere's oxygen balance with almost no disruption
of the standard of living to which most Americans have become
accustomed.
     In essence, Rawlings agreed that our information was probably
correct and could work very well.
     He said,"It's a wonderful idea, and I think it might work.
But, of course, you can't use it."
     "You're kidding?" We responded."Why not?"
     "Well, Mr. Herer, did you know that hemp is also marijuana?"
     "Yes, of course I know, I've been writing about it for about
40 hours a week for the past 17 years."
     "Well, you know marijuana's illegal don't you? You can't use
it."
     "Not even to save the world?"
     "No. It's illegal," he sternly informed me. "You cannot use
something illegal."
     "Not even to save the world?" we asked, stunned.
     "No, not even to save the world. It's illegal. You can't use
it. Period.
     "Don't get me wrong. It's a great idea,"he went on,"But
they'll never let you do it."
     "Why don't you go ahead and tell the Secretary of Agriculture
that a crazy man from California gave you documentation that showed
that hemp might be able to save the planet and that your first
reaction is that he might be right and it needs some serious study.
What would he say?"
     "Well, I don't think I'd be here very long after I did that.
After all, I'm an officer of the government."
     "Well, why not call up the information on your computer at
your own USDA library? That's where we got the information in the
first place."
     He said,"I can't sign out that information."
     "Well, why not? We did."
     "Mr. Herer, you're a citizen. You can sign out for anything
you want. But *I* am an officer of the Department of Agriculture.
Someone's going to want to know why I want all this information.
And then I'll be gone."
     Finally, we agreed to send him all the information we got from
the USDA library, if he would just look at it.
     He said he would, but when we called back a month later, he
said that he still had not opened the bos that we sent him and that
he would be sending it back to us unopened because he did not want
to be responsible for the information now that the Bush
administration was replacing him with their own man.
     We asked him if he would pass the information to his
successor, and he replied,"Absolutely not."
     In may, 1989, we had virtually the same conversation and
result with his cohort, Dr. Gary Evans of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and Science, the man in charge of stopping the global
warming trend.
     In the end, he said,"If you really want to save the planet
with hemp, the you (hemp/marijuana activists) would find a way to
grow it without the narcotic (sic) top--and then you can use
it." 
     This is the kind of frightened (and frightening)
irresponsibility we're up against in our government.
END