Hemp & The Economy

Hemp's Role In Economic History

Hemp is regarded as probably being the first crop cultivated by humans, as early as 8,000 B.C. in the Middle East.
It provided the sails for ships that allowed commerce and made Columbus' trip to America possible (other fibers would have decayed somewhere in mid-Atlantic). Hemp replaced papyrus as the source of paper that fostered the spread of written knowledge. Hemp was the largest cash crop in the world until the late 19th century, when new technology began to replace it. But marijuana is again the largest cash crop in America; it generates almost four times as much revenue ($41.6 billion/yr) as does it's closest competitor, corn ($13.37 billion), according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
But this is only a small fraction of the potential revenue that will be generated when hemp again takes it's rightful place in the agricultural, textile, food, fuel, cordage, fabrication, pharmaceutical, paper and other affected businesses.
Currently, enforcement of the prohibition and eradication programs cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, has created a non-taxed black market of tens of billions of dollars and has increased the domestic marijuana crop, according to the DEA. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimated that there were 29 million regular users of marijuana and hashish in 1985 and 21 million in 1988. Most sources regard these federal figures as being low. However, even based on the low figures, it is clear that there is a lucrative market in smoking paraphernalia worth billions of dollars that is suppressed.