I am a brand ambassador. Get in touch to get these products.
Blog Archives
Napoleon Attempts To Block Russian Hemp Trade With Britain
July, 1807. While meeting on a raft in the middle of the Neman River, Napoleon I of France and Czar Alexander I of Russia signed the first of the Treaties of Tilsit. The second treaty was signed with Prussia on July 9. The first Treaty of Tilsit ended the war between Imperial Russia and the French Empire and began an alliance between the two empires that rendered the rest of continental Europe almost powerless.
The two countries secretly agreed to aid each other in disputes. France pledged to aid Russia against Ottoman Turkey, while Russia agreed to join the Continental System against the British Empire. The treaty created an alliance between Russia, France, Prussia, and Denmark, among others, forcing them to break all ties (mainly trade and commerce) with England in an attempt to isolate England from Russia.
This was a time when hemp was used as the basis for sails and rope, making hemp as important to a well-equipped military as petroleum is today. Britain exploited the Baltic trade in hemp. Its rise to commercial dominance depended on access to large amounts of cheap hemp, and British demand created the Russian hemp trade; in 1800, half of Russia’s hemp went to Britain. The implications of Britain’s need for hemp made the hemp trade a strategic target in times of war.
Through the treaties of Tilsit, Napoleon tried to gain control of the international hemp trade and market. Napoleon was aware that the flourishing Russian economy and stable hemp trade between England and Russia was a very real and imminent threat to France. Even though the treaty was signed by both parties, the Czar never did enforce the treaty. Russia could not keep its promise because most of their economy depended on the trade with Britain, thus making clandestine trade with Britain flourish. Although the strategy of reliance on Russian hemp was risky, without the Russian hemp trade, the British Empire would probably never have been as great.
Alexander I, known as “the Blessed”, was Czar at the time, and his refusal to enforce the treaty led to the war of 1812. Napoleon marched his soldiers into Russia, but was ultimately defeated by the cruel Russian winter.
Hemp-based Graphene-like Material
DISCLAIMER – Things are about to get scientific and futuristic. If you do not want to be on the cutting edge of science and technology, then you should probably avoid this article.
Graphene is one of those new materials that are supposed to revolutionize electronics. The impact of graphene on electronics could be similar to that of lithium’s impact on batteries.
Graphene is basically pure carbon in its thinnest form. A crystalline allotrope of carbon, Graphene is a thin sheet of carbon that measures one atom in thickness. Discovered in 2004, research has quickly been expanding in order to fully explore the potential of materials such as graphene. Researchers concluded in 2009 that graphene was up to 100 times stronger than steel.
The properties of graphene make it an ideal material for electronics. In the future graphene could be found in smart phones, batteries, solar cells, and possibly every new electronic gadget yet to be released. The capacity to be used as supercapacitors is what has people really excited. Supercapacitors are similar to batteries, but supercapacitors charge faster than batteries.
Researchers at the University of Alberta are seeking to become the first to make a graphene-like material from plant waste. Chemical engineer David Mitlin and his team naturally turned to hemp.
“Hemp bast is a nanocomposite made up of layers of lignin, hemicellulose, and crystalline cellulose. If you process it the right way, it separates into nanosheets similar to graphene.” –David Mitlin
University of Alberta researches begin by heating of the hemp bast at 180⁰C for about a day. The heating process causes the bast to breakdown. The crystalline cellulose in the plant material begins to carbonize. Potassium hydroxide is added to the newly formed carbonized plant material and increase the temperature to 700-800⁰C. This step causes the carbonized material to flake into nanosheets. These sheets are full of pores which provide charges the ability to move quickly through the material.
Researchers from other universities have pointed to the hemp based nano material as a potential low-cost substitute for graphene. Other researchers see the need for improvement before the process can become industrialized for mass production.
Whichever the case, be sure to research graphene and how hemp is becoming the new super material.
Spain Hopes Hemp Makes A Comeback
Spain is seeing an increase and comeback in the cultivation of industrial hemp. In recent years, Spain farmers and producers have ran into some issues with authorities surrounding hemp imports and regulations.
For centuries, hemp was used to produce clothing, food and products like ship sails and other military items. Particularly in Spain, hemp products experienced an upsurge during the country’s 1936-1939 civil war.
“Hemp has been planted since the beginning of time for its nutritional properties and health benefits,” said Pilar López with the Galihemp Cooperative, which makes and sells hemp products in the northeastern Spanish city of Lugo. “It’s a plant that remineralises the soil.”
Currently in the European Union, it is legal to grow hemp with a maximum concentration of 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the flowers of the plant. So what kind of problems are farmers facing in Spain, then?
On May 7, 2014, authorities closed down a therapeutic grow-shop that sold cannabis-dervied products in Calahorra (a town in the northern region of La Rioja, Spain).
The owner of the business who only disclosed his first name, Dionisio, said, “Two civil guards showed up without a warrant and closed the shop.”
Dionsio’s situation has struck some worry with other hemp producers. The president of the Spanish Assocation of Hemp Producers (AEPTC), Fernando Montero, sells hemp along with his son in their company. Even though they comply with all of the legal requirements, they are wary when they plant and are fearful that the authorities will come in at any given moment.
Another incident occurred which involved a producer named Miguel Arrilaga, who cultivates hemp to make hemp-derived products.
“Since January, the authorities have seized three of my shipments of industrial hemp when they confused it with marijuana, causing problems for shops and customers,” said Arrillaga.
Arrillaga, like other producers, is forced to buy legally certified seeds from France because Spain does not certify seeds. Arillaga then uses the seeds, leaves, and stems to make products such as hemp milk, soap and skincare products.
A big issue surrounding Spain is the authorities and their regulations. A package of industrial hemp has the same appearance and smell as marijuana. Therefore, the results of the analysis come up positive for THC, no matter how low the percentage is. This “authority check” automatically leads to confiscation of the hemp packages and is submitted to health authorities for a second lab test.
“The problem is that the initial test and identification of the product by the authorities are not reliable and must be contrasted by a second test,” said a lawyer who asked to remain anonymous.
And while the tests determine whether or not the cannabis complies with the legal limits for THC content, the product can languish in a warehouse for weeks or even months.
“Hemp production could be a green revolution that would help reduce unemployment in rural areas in these times of economic crisis,” said AEPTC president, Fernando Montero.
Illinois Senate Passes Hemp Research Bill
In April, the Illinois House voted 70-28 to approve legislation that would allow state colleges and universities to conduct research on industrial hemp.
The Illinois Senate approved the bill on May 29, 2014. The measure now awaits action from the Governor Pat Quinn.
Under House Bill 5085, any sites growing or cultivating industrial hemp must be certified by, and registered with, the Department of Agriculture. The pilot program’s purpose is for the study of growth, cultivation, marketing (feasibility and desirability) of industrial hemp production in the state. Research programs must have cultivated hemp containing 1% or less THC in the live plant, and is subject to random inspection by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of State Police, or local law enforcement agencies.
According to the Congressional Resource Service, the United States is the only industrialized nation that does not allow industrial hemp production. More than 30 nations in the world grow industrial hemp as an agricultural commodity and benefit from it as an economic crop.
“Illinois has a long history of being a producer of industrial hemp and it is time we get back to our roots and begin the process of growing this important agricultural product throughout our state once again,” said Ali Nagib, assistant director of Illinois NORML. “Hundreds of millions of dollars of hemp products are sold annually throughout the U.S., and we need to bring the production of the plant back to Illinois instead of out-sourcing it to China, Europe and Canada.”
This reform would be beneficial to Illinois, since it’s one of the leading states in the U.S. in farming production and farm real estate. A regulated and legal commercial hemp industry would provide farmers with an alternative and economically viable crop.
“Thanks to the passage of the federal 2014 Farm Bill, the differences between marijuana and industrial hemp have been established at the federal level,” said Eric Pollitt, founder of Global Hemp. “A significant opportunity for growth remains, such as in the automotive composite industry, and the time has come to take advantage of it.”
Cars Made From Hemp Eco-Friendly Driving
If you were to take a look at our History of Hemp section, you would quickly realize that hemp is an American crop. Hemp has a long and rich history in America. Our Founding Fathers grew and made use of hemp, colonists relied on it for survival, and our military used it during many of the wars that helped shaped our country.
In America, we celebrate all things American; baseball, apple pie and the automobile. At a time, America’s automobile history and our hemp history merged when Henry Ford was able to produce a car that was not only made from hemp components but also powered by hemp fuel. Be sure to read the “Henry Ford” article in our History of Hemp section.
Ford’s plans for making hemp a mass-produced material for the automotive industry had to pump the brakes when laws were passed to make the use of hemp illegal. American automobiles and American hemp had more in common as cars and hemp from the east became the more popular choices.
Now times are changing in both industries. Hemp cultivation is once again legal in certain states, and the auto industry is moving towards more sustainable vehicles. American automakers have been adjusting to meet the demands of this new sustainable market with releases such as the Chevy Volt. The Volt is a nice car and is very sustainable. One thing these new eco-friendly cars lack is style, with Tesla vehicles being a major exception.
Once again, our European neighbors might have a leg up, or should we say leaf up, on the competition. Lotus has been producing stylish, fun to drive cars for a while now. In 2008, designers and engineers at Lotus wanted to take a produce a more sustainable vehicle. The team wanted to reduce their carbon footprint by decreasing energy and water usage, using renewable materials, using local materials, increase recycling, and provide an overall appearance that would inspire drivers to adopt a more green driving experience.
The Lotus Eco Elise is that car. The Eco Elise is literally made out of hemp and other sustainable materials. The body paneling and trim is made from a hemp material that helps the car to be lighter. This means that there is less energy required to propel the vehicle.
More automakers are looking into ways in which hemp can help them make a better car. In 2010, Canadian Company unveiled the Kestrel at the VE Electric Vehicles Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver, Canada. The Kestrel is a hatchback that can seat up to 4 people. The electric car is made out of a hemp-composite material that makes it durable and lightweight. The Kestrel boasts a range of around 100 miles on a single charge.
A decorticator (from Latin: cortex, bark) is a machine for stripping the skin, bark, or rind off nuts, wood, plant stalks, grain, etc., in preparation for further processing.
The year was 1861, the place Bologna, Italy. A machine called a “scavezzatrice,” a hemp decorticator, was first invented by a farmer named Bernagozzi. The “scavezzatrice” faded in the 1950s because of competition from synthetic materials and from other more profitable crops. An example of a working hemp decorticator from 1890, manufactured in Germany, is still preserved in a museum in Bologna.
Suggestions have been made about the birth of this device, including that the first working hemp decorticator was invented in the United States in 1935,but truth is, probably hundreds of different decorticators have been developed since 1890. In 1916, there were already five different kinds of “machine brakes” for hemp in use in the United States, and still others in Europe.
One of the most talked about decorticators is the Schlichten model. George Schlichten’s machine was able to keep the alignment of the fibers in order and turned out a continuous sliver of hemp that was ready to be spun with existing machinery. The Decorticator separated the long hemp fibers from the pulpy celluloid center of the hemp stalks, dramatically reducing the exorbitant labor costs associated with cleaning and preparing hemp for further processing.
Born in Germany in 1862, George Schlichten put over $400,000 of his own money into developing the decorticator and needed to find a market where he could recoup some of that investment. In 1916, he took his first production of hemp sliver to the New York Market where it sold for a record price of $100 a ton more than any other fiber had previously. Experts had pronounced it even better than the Italian hemp.
The hemp decorticator’s performance caught the eye of one man, J. D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller owned a spinning mill and purchased Schlichten’s entire crop plus hired him to supervise spinning the unfamiliar fibers into yarn. The mill was so impressed that they tried to buy exclusive rights to the invention. Schlichten, however, he was not ready to sell out, especially not to Rockefeller.
In 1919, George Schlichten received a U.S. patent on his improvements of the decorticator for treating fiber bearing plants; but in the end, Schlichten failed to find investors for production of his decorticator and died as a broken man in 1923.
Schlichten did leave eight pages of drawings with his first patent and another page in his second and considered his work no secret. Almost everything that is known about Schlichten comes from a series of twenty-four letters once owned by Edward W. Scripps, but later donated to the Alden Library at Ohio University in Athens.
To this day, there are still companies who produce and sell new decorticators for different crops.
Click below to see some of the patent drawings of Schlichten’s decorticator:
1919: SCHLICHTEN’S DECORTICATOR
Michigan House Approves To Legalize Hemp Research
Another state legislature has approved to legalize industrial hemp research. The legislation permits universities to plant hemp for research in Michigan.
The two hemp-based bills are HB 5439, sponsored by Representative Kevin Daley, and HB 5440, sponsored by Rep. Peter Pettalia. Both bills were introduced on March 27, 2014 and were assigned to the House Agriculture Committee.
HB 5439 is known as the “Industrial Hemp Research Act.” The bill establishes a hemp research program under the direction of Michigan’s Department of Agriculture and/or a Michigan college or university to grow or cultivate industrial hemp for study. The bill also creates the framework for state’s funds to provide grants for that research. HB 5440 enacts a new definition of hemp in attempt to exclude it from marijuana laws under the Public Health Code.
On May 20, both hemp bills were passed by unanimous vote by the Michigan House Committee.
“Since the bills are for research only we still have a lot of work to do to get a farming bill in Michigan,” said Everett Swift, Director of Michigan. “This is the first time ever we have a real possibility of having an industrial hemp bill passed in our state. We have made amazing progress in the last few years.”
Michigan State Police have asked for an amendment to resolve questions regarding the proper transportation of hemp and how officers on the roadside will be able to tell the difference between hemp and marijuana. The provisions have been agreed to and an amendment will be introduced when the bills are considered by the full House.
“We have until June 12 which is the last date before the summer break,” said Steven Sharpe, a board member on Michigan NORML.
Although Rep. Daley suggested that hemp would only be grown at research institutions, Sharpe has opined on expanding that research. Sharpe has mentioned the Michigan Department of Agriculture may have the power to assign individual farmers the opportunity to grow hemp for research purposes, if universities cannot do the hemp research projects.
“We as a state (have to) get our higher education to research this,” Sharpe explained. “I am going to help make Michigan grow. We will create careers in a new hemp industry.”
Congress Takes Action To Restrict DEA’s Medical Cannabis Laws
May 30, 2014 – Congress approved a measure that would prohibit the federal government from interfering with states medical marijuana laws. On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved an amendment (H.R. 4660) which prevents the Department of Justice from using funds to go after medical cannabis and hemp businesses that are authorized by state law.
“Congress is officially pulling out of the war on medical marijuana patients and providers. Federal tax dollars will no longer be wasted arresting seriously ill medical marijuana patients and those who provide to them,” Dan Riffle, director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. “This is a historic vote, and it’s yet another sign that our federal government is shifting toward a more sensible marijuana policy.”
The House voted 219-189. This is the first time in history that Congress has taken stance against federal interference by factoring in the states’ rights when it comes to marijuana polices. The federal government is funded until September 30, 2014. The bill will now go to the Senate who could make any revisions if needed. The measure would also require President Obama’s signature.
As of now, 22 states have approved the use of medical cannabis and 15 have authorized the cultivation of industrial hemp.
Earlier this month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained the thirteen bags (250 lb.) hemp seed shipment imported from Italy. The DEA then ordered the seeds to be held for the following week at Louisville International Airport. The DEA said the imported seeds was in violation of federal controlled substance laws.
Kentucky, among other states, have approved industrial hemp growing and research for state Department of Agriculture, private farmers and at universities. This all falls under the 2014 Farm Bill, which authorizes industrial hemp production within the U.S. for research and only applies to states where hemp farming is legal under state law.
The DEA released the seed shipment and issued a permit to Kentucky after a month-long battle. University of Kentucky and other institutions have already planted some of the seeds and begin research.
“Those who suffer under current policies are not faceless,” Oregon Representative, Earl Blumenauer said. “They are not statistics. They are our neighbors and live in our communities. They are the owners of small businesses that are so important to our economy, and patients with conditions — often desperate and painful — who have turned to medical marijuana to help them get through each day. They’re not the enemy, and it’s time we stopped treating them like it.”
Iowa Legislature Passes ‘Cannabis Oil’ Bill
May 1, 2014 – Today, the Iowa Senate approved a “Cannabis Oil” bill on a 38-8 vote following the House Public Safety Committee clearing the bill two days ago.
The bill allows patients or their guardians to possess up to 32 ounces of cannabidiol for patients with “intractable” epilepsy. Cannabidiol, also known as CBD, derives from the cannabis plant and can be extracted into an oil for medical uses.
The approved bill decriminalizes possession of cannabidiol. A patient or guardian must receive a doctor’s recommendation and have a state-issued ID card. The doctors must practice in the state of Iowa as well.
However, production and sale of the oil is not legal under the bill. That means patients or guardians must travel out-of-state and bring it back to Iowa, since it’s illegal to produce in the state. Currently, there are five states where CBD oil is legalized: Utah, Alabama, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Mississippi.
“One thing I want to make very, very clear: this bill does not legalize medical marijuana in the state of Iowa. It does not do that,” said state Representative Jarad Klein. “It’s a very narrow, very tailored bill to specific group of people, people with intractable epilepsy.”
The bill will also require the University of Iowa to produce yearly reports regarding studies on the effectiveness of cannabis oil as a treatment for intractable epilepsy.
Along with being a Democratic Representative of Urbandale, John Forbes is also a pharmacist. He estimates about 100 patients in Iowa are currently taking powerful prescription drugs, which could have long-term effects of reducing their lifespan. Forbes is hoping these patients will be able to get a recommendation from a neurologist for cannabis oil.
“Patients are able to reduce the prescription drugs they’re currently on by up to maybe 50 to 75 percent, which gives them a better quality of life,” Forbes said.
Karen Sales of Ankeny has an 11-year-old son with intractable epilepsy. Her son, William takes three different prescription drugs each day for his condition.
“His doctors are actually waiting for this to pass so we can start our next course of action,” Sales shared.
Senate sponsor Joe Bolkcom issued a statement after the Senate’s meeting, calling on Governor Terry Branstad to sign the bill and raising hopes for a broader law authorizing marijuana as treatment for other illnesses.
“I urge Governor Branstad to both sign this first step, and then encourage action to help other Iowans who would live better, longer lives if medical cannabis were legal in Iowa. These Iowans suffer from diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, spinal cord injuries, glaucoma, severe chronic pain and PTSD. These Iowans should have the same rights as the residents of 20 other states to medicines that could improve their lives or, at least, make their deaths less painful.”
Governor Branstad’s spokesman, Jimmy Centers said the governor will have to review the legislation before reaching a decision to sign it or not.
speckmarketing 