What if there was a plant that had over sixty thousand uses, a plant that would be able to cure some of the deadliest diseases known to mankind, a plant that could replace many of the chemical medicines for problems such as depression and insomnia, a plant that is illegal for reasons that do not make sense? That plant is Cannabis. That name itself invokes several thoughts in one’s mind. Perhaps you would have associated it with people sitting in a room and smoking it.

There are three species of Cannabis. Sativa, Indica and Ruderalis. All of them can be split. But mostly Sativa is used to make Hemp. This is where the industrial side of Cannabis comes in. Hemp has been used for thousands of years and its usability is unlike anything else. It can be used as oil for cooking and can be converted into fuel. The seeds of these which are one of the most nutritious seeds on the planet supply nearly every mineral and vitamin the body needs. It can also be used for clothing as it needs only half the amount of water required to convert it into fiber when compared to cotton. It can also remove radiation and contamination from water and soil.

Scientists say that Hemp can be converted into bio-diesel after it has been used to remove the contamination and radiation from the soil and water. Although the bio-diesel generated by this plant is not Eco-friendly, the ability for a plant to be used this way is amazing. But the two main resources that can be produced using Hemp that can have a great impact on our planet and our lives is paper and plastic. Hemp can be used to manufacture paper and is far more efficient and can reduce deforestation to a great extent. But not more than 1% of Hemp is being used for paper manufacturing. Hemp can also be made into biodegradable plastic which can be produced with little or no chemicals.

Hemp can be costly and time consuming to produce. But cheaper is not always the best and this can be seen with the non-biodegradable products such as plastics which we used today. Although Hemp would be costly, the overall impact it would have would be justifiable. Scientists have been able to identify over four hundred compounds in the plant of which 80 of them are called Cannabinoids. So far we do not know much about the 80 Cannabinoids since research is done only for a handful of them. The compound which is known to make you high is Delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol which is the most studied of the 80 Cannabinoids and it is the only compound in Cannabis to do so. It acts as a muscle relaxant, anti-depressant and studies show that it can be used to treat anxiety. It can also help to cure cancer growth reduction, chronic pain, insomnia and may others. The tetrahydrocannabinoic acid are still in its research stages and they are used to treat many such illnesses without making you high as it is a non psycho-active compound.

The studies related to these have not gone long enough for us to understand the full benefits Cannabis may have because it have been made illegal in every country since the 1900s. So why is Cannabis illegal? It wouldn’t be illegal if it were just for the high effect you experience because alcohol and many such items also induce the same effect and are legal. Its pretty confusing as to why it is illegal as there are a lot of misinformation that goes around about this subject. However there are three separate reasons.

The first reason would be that in 1929 Harry Anslinger, the head of the department of Prohibition in the United States was dealing with the backlash of alcohol ban and once this was removed, Harry’s department was practically non-operational. So they came up with an idea that Cannabis is a devil drug that would turn people into deadly beasts that would attack women. Apparently Harry contacted 30 scientists to show proof of this but almost 29 of them showed that there was no such effects and the drug was not dangerous. The second explanation seems to be linked with the Mexican immigration in the United States in the early 1900s. When the Mexicans arrived, they brought with them Marijuana that they would use as medicines. For the US to have an excuse to search the immigrants, Marijuana became the perfect drug to criminalize and label dangerous. Lastly, Hemp which can also be used as a nylon alternative posed threats to large industrial companies that manufacture nylon. So the government wanted to ban the use of Hemp as a nylon alternative and declared it as illegal. Its hard to prove why it is illegal as there is no authentic record to show that it is harmful in anyway.

Its only now that doctors and researchers are realizing how powerful it can be. Many say that Cannabis has the purpose of providing humans with thousands of uses with very little impact on the planet. But just because it makes you high, the law has termed it as illegal and not seeing that it is perhaps one of the most incredible materials in our planet.

DISCLAIMER – To finish off i want to say that i am not a Cannabis activist by any means. I never even thought of Cannabis apart from the fact that it can be smoked until I started researching for this article and it has helped me realize that there is so much more to it. This does not mean that Cannabis is a justifiable way to continue smoking weed as it is known to cause some social and life problems and it is seen that it could cause harm to a developing young brain.

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