December 27, 2009 – This article is an attempt to make an overview of some of the serious Cannabis situations in Africa. With the overwhelming numbers and dimensions of death and dying in Africa, the AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, the political problems, civil wars, smuggling, slave running, environmental disasters, and international interventions, a new approach is needed.
Can Legalization of Cannabis Hemp help solve some of these problems?

Cannabis Hemp has been in widespread cultivation in most regions, cultures, countries and ecosystems over many centuries. It has always been chaotic, but perhaps never quite as much as today. From the famous Hashish Growers of Morrocco in the Northwest, to Sudanese Slave Agriculture, to High Country Deforestation in Kenya, to Smuggling of Diamonds, Guns, Marijuana and Poached Products Trade in Zambia, to various hemp schemes in South Africa, there are serious challenges and great opportunities.

Tens of millions of the sick and dying, the displaced, the hungry, homeless and hurting humanity, who need better agriculture, secure agriculture, and good cash crops, pastures, grains, oils, materials, building materials, medicinals, and specialty products, could benefit from a new liberalization and legalization of Cannabis Hemp immediately. This would greatly increase agricultural investments, financing, developments and incentives along with a much more level playing field for farmers and people all across Africa. It also has potential to help create a climate of hope, peace and unity so dearly needed.

All the years of anti-Cannabis Hemp repressions have culminated into the narco terrorism, corruption and drug disasters we see today. Whether its collapsing old agricultural systems, land ownership, civil war or refugees, new harder drugs, virtually every situation could benefit from a complete reversal of current laws and policies against Cannabis Hemp.

As seen in Morrocco they have been increasingly dependent on cash flow from Hashish from sales to EU etc. The King realized that this cannot be supressed without collapsing the country, and inviting civil war, jihad and anarchy to take over as has happened all over Africa. An EU Million Dollar incentive to grow alternative crops was only a drop in the bucket of overall agriculture production there for export, fruits, dates etc. Hemp and Hashish production there has proven much about the benefits of Cannabis to African Culture. The rural culture and Cannabis has survived in Morrocco perhaps better than anywhere in Africa.

But over in Sudan its a completely different situation as Cannabis is grown by the poor captives of the many conflicts in the region. Highlighting this is the story about Bin Laden’s slave trade, marijuana fields and military bases in Sudan. Can this source of funding for terriorists, destablization and threats to world security be curtailed or decreased? Would it involve foreign intervention of a large degree? Or will his gang continue to profit by slave Cannabis agriculture to plunder and terrorize the Sudan and the World?

Meanwhile over 2 Million Christians have been killed and the rest are in serious danger of total starvation and disease, cut off form outside help and defenseless against the well armed Jihad. When Clinton lifted sanctions against the Kartoum Jihad, and allowed big western oil interests to make new deals, few said anything. The only reaction was when Clinton cruise missiled the Pharmaceutical Factory in retaliation for the Embassy Bombings. This gave the world a tiny glimpse of the magnitude of the Kartoum-Bin Laden Jihad Empire there and the ability of big oil and OPEC to make the US back off. Meanwhile a few Christian Orgs are flying in some supplies to the Christians, but its falling way short of saving the masses. As huge numbers of people have been displaced, lost most livestock and are living in the most inhospitable brush, deserts and scorched earth afraid to even build a hut.

As one heads out across Central Africa, a wide variety of different environmental challenges, ecosystems, terraigns, climates and agricultural challenges such as savannas, brushy forests, steep midlevel forests, wildlife preserves, and some difficult high country come into view. Each has past, present or future Cannabis Hemp Cultivation. The various populations, cultures and religions play a large role in the distribution of agriculture and Cannabis.

In Kenya there is a good example of how legal Cannabis Hemp could greatly help stop deforestation by allowing its cultivation legally on suitable farmlands, rather than illegally in ecologically sensitive areas (unless specifically for wildlife or reclamation purposes.) Cannabis income can quickly revitalize agriculture in these areas as well, plus significant tourism with better managed lands, increased wildlife, new facilities, and increased political stability.

In areas where other drugs are common, such as Khat in Somalia, and widespread Opiates and Meth, legal cannabis can help people move away from that towards good alternative agriculture. By separating Cannabis from other drugs and criminal activities, a new level of health and prosperity can begin to take shape. The hard drugs are a major source of disease and violence that can be greatly reduced with a revitalized Cannabis Culture.

In Ethiopia, the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster is beyond anything mankind has ever witnessed. An estimated 8 Million people have lost almost everything in the widening drought and environmental diasters. The land has died, it’s a barren red dust bowl, the forests have been burned to the ground, all the brush has been cut for fuel and shelter, livestock ate the last thorny brush and weeds then died. There is no way that so many people can survive another year. With the inability of Ethiopia to defeat Eritrea and gain access to the ports on the Red Sea, the Jihad control of the coast means that these people are doomed. And when the Ethiopians tried to bereak through last year the entire international community and UN came down hard on them and forced them to stop and pull back when victory was in sight. This blatant genocide is beyond description, and will lead to the largest loss of life since WWII. There is still considerable potential to start to turn things around there with Cannabis and other reclamation projects, to supply much needed soil stability, fodder, fuel, nutrition and medicine. All traditional crops such as corn and millet may not return until the drought ends, Cannabis and other drought and pest tolerant crops and edible weeds could at least help people survive.

The situation in Western Africa is so bad as it descends into almost complete Anarchy, that its now overrun with kids with guns and headed towards Somalialization. There is a virtual free for all running battle between Jihad and Christians, and numerous old rebel rag tag armies and smugglers and slave runners. Restoration of civilization seems to have been disgarded as a viable option at this point. Only a few things remain like Nigerian Oil, the Cocoa Plantations and scattered Diamond mines as the rest has been destroyed. The Anarchy is so widespread that even crops such as Cannabis are difficult to achieve without great risk. Rapidly decreasing potable water supplies, food, medicines and real money is degrading life there at an alarming rate. The Diamond Cartel’s efforts to ban “Blood Diamonds” from Sierra Leone and Angola are not going to make things any better and recent attempts by the British to restore some order have met with heavy armed resistance and failed terribly. Refugees are everywhere, the Congo is disintegrating fast and all civilization in Western Africa is on the brink of collpase worse than Rwanda where a million were killed almost without notice.

In South Africa there are several major hemp projects and illicit marijuana crops already, so making a smooth transition to legalization would enable considerably better farming practices, coordination of development, support and needed infrastructure. It could employ millions in reclamation projects, wildlife and livestock projects, commercial products, oils and fuels and building materials. These projects could make great inroads on the many intractable cycles of war, famine, disease, degradation of the land and cultures, financial and political collapse across Africa. But all we have seen lately is the destruction of poor squatters shacks and widespread unemployment and poverty as real land reform seems impossible under current ANC philosophy. Things are even worse though in neighboring Zimbabwe as Mugabe’s “Kill Whitey” Ranch Siezures have collpased production and turned once prosperous ranches into non functioning squallid squatter encampments and the rest are running the border to get into S.A. and away from this insanity. Tell me where is sanity on this Continent?

But special mention is needed for the vast numbers of the sick and dying, especially AIDS which can be helped with Cannabis in several ways. The latest research in AIDS and use of cannabis in a wide variety of medical cases prooves its great value. The UN’s recent call for AIDS Drugs for Africa and the additional funding that has been arranged will be of much less value and impact wihtout a comprehensive and concurrent improvement in Agriculture, Environment, Peace and Standard of Living which Cannabis Legalization can play a major role in.

The recent plans to arrange for cheaper AIDS drugs will be enhanced by Cannabis and help make this program much more successful. It forms a vital part of the new attitudes and social aspects of these major medical interventions and treatments. The current anti-cannabis conventions of the UN and others, seriously interferes with this new medical plan and should be immediately reconsidered at least for Africa, if not globally. Cannabis could ease the suffering and pain for millions of the poor, starving, dispossessed and unemployed, and for a very low cost and wide spread easy availability.

A resurgence of health and prosperity could also generate a resurgence of hope and faith of all sorts, of renewed culture and resepct for human life so dearly needed in Africa. Cannabis legalization in Africa could create one of the world’s great agricultural and reclamation revitalizations, greatly decrease the many conflicts, and allow many dispossessed to return to pastoral life instead of being forced into overcrowded towns and cities. Africa could have genuine beneficial growth of vast proportions in actual terms and in relative terms with others Continents. Increased prosperity is known to bring the population more into balance and sustainability fairly quickly, but the current criminal chaos and anti-cannabis program is sending the Continent spiraling into total disease, death and destruction.

International trade in Cannabis and Cannabis products could be spectacular and of great variety and creativity. The Billions now generated by illicit activity for the bad guys could be shut off and cash could flow towards accelerating growth in a legal free trade environment, and more importantly, go more to the farmers, good folks and the needy across the board. Better economics and balance of trade can quickly turn things around also. Couple this with substantial debt cancellation based on negotiated milestones, goals and objectives real progress is possible, (rather than a tightening of credit, high interest, austerity and counter productive cannabis law enforcement).

Yes many other crops and new agriculture projects are needed everywhere, but there is no way they can happen without a complete change in policies and attitudes. Cannabis is the main key that an open these doors. Cannabis is uniquely suited to every country, every ecosystem, climate and culture across the continent. It is very widespread already, and accounts for billions in sales, but not for the purposes for which it is most needed. It is not going to be stamped out but it can be turned towards many beneficial uses. This multi-use plant’s versatility can impact all the medical, food, wildlife, livestock and environmental situations and in so doing it can greatly improve the disastrous economic, social and political crises.

A special session of the UN would be needed to even begin to untangle all the legalities, but a straightforward full legalization date would allow for gearing up and planning of all sorts of projects. It should only be a matter of when and not if. The future of Africa and Africans is at stake and along with it the fate of the world’s health, prosperity, peace, and security. Cannabis Culture can be applied across the world to solve the many similar problems billions of people face elsewhere, as described in the articles referenced below about such places as Lebanon, Albania, Siberia etc. where war, poverty and environmental destruction combine to collpase civilization.

The Legalization of Cannabis in Africa is the wise choice, followed by the rest of the world, which will reverse the trend towards collapse, crime, anarchy, destruction and disease. If we can give this real help and hope to save the suffering masses of Africa we can save the rest of the world soon after. Cannabis could create a new climate of cooperation, brotherhood, health, revitalization, peace and prosperity. Source.

December 26, 2009 – Remember when in 1903 the head honcho of the Michigan Savings Bank advised Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in his car company: “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.” Or when in 1968, IBM’s Robert Lloyd said of the microprocessor: “But what … is it good for?” OK, you don’t. So we’ll bet you don’t think the South Africa’s energy needs can be fuelled by a weed’s first cousin.

We admit up front, it’s hard to find any credible science and economics for the energy-versus-costs debate over hemp. And this theory won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (organic hemp tea, that is). But look at it this way. Betamax fell to VHS. IBM out-spent and out-marketed everybody else in creating fewer PCs and operating systems. And oil companies long ago chose to produce oil instead of ethanol, smearing and bullying competitors along the way.

Here’s the idea. Let the mighty marijuana trade morph into growing hemp. You can smoke it, but nothing will happen – the psychoactive ingredient is minute. This stuff can fuel electricity plants. It’s sort of legal in the EU, Canada, Australia and the US (needs some paperwork). So, use the spin-offs – rope, clothing, paper etc. – to create jobs and bridge the rivers and gorges that too often stop kids from going to school (kids dressed in hemp clothes, crossing hemp bridges, and using hemp paper for their homework – and in their PC printers).

Ford made a car using hemp, and ran it on the by-product. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson cultivated it. Benjamin Franklin started the first American paper mill using hemp. Even the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp fibre paper. Industrial hemp can grow in many climates on marginal soil. It doesn’t need much by way of herbicide and needs no pesticide. It uses water quite sparingly. You can eat the oils, and it sucks up water pollutants, too. Heck, we’d like to say it’s the silver bullet for cancer, but we’re not there yet.

So, the benefits to South Africa are not as pie in the sky as you might think, despite the fact that many hemp proponents belong in the realm of science fiction, and even places much more left-field than that. But, hey, humans got to the moon in their imaginations long before it became a reality, and Einstein would have said that’s why they could.

Biomass can also be used for insulation, or can be cut into logs for heating. Oilgae, which dubs itself one of the most well-known brands in the biofuels industry (it’s not Coca-Cola, we know), is into algae fuels (more about that later). But it also says hemp plants produce about half a ton of seeds an acre. These seeds contain 30% oil, which is higher than the 18% in soybeans, is equal to canola, and is slightly exceeded by flax at 40% oil. And while hemp oil degrades more quickly than other vegetable oils, and is much more expensive to produce than current oil crops, it’s basically a weed that grows like crazy, sucking up carbon and producing oxygen.

But we better tell you about the legality of hemp. Most industrial strains have less than 0.3% of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, comparing it with dagga’s 3% to 15% , which means kids can’t pluck it on their way home from school and get high. And while the law currently backs South Africa’s health authorities, who still worry because it’s a cousin of marijuana, many government departments and universities have joined hands to research hemp cultivation for at least a decade, helping fund companies such as House of Hemp to sell hemp clothing, home décor, stationery and cosmetics, made by previously disadvantaged entrepreneurs. Other retailers such as Hemptons are licensed to sell imported finished hemp products, including nutritional oils and foods.

University research shows that hemp is one of the fastest growing biomasses known to man. It produces up to 25 tonnes of dry matter a hectare a year. Hemp biodiesel can theoretically be a source of energy, even though Oilgae says it doesn’t offer significant advantages over other sources of biodiesel. The trick (a word that got the University of East Anglia into big trouble) is to raise octane levels from such biofuels. But again, hakuna matata. Even though the guys at Oilgae say that hemp doesn’t offer significant advantages over other biodiesel sources at present, that also means that it doesn’t lack advantages. And hemp production is only expensive in places like the US, where tractors, combine harvesters and other mod-cons are driven around by relatively well-paid farmers and their wives (with the odd bit of cheap Mexican labour thrown in). In South Africa, one just has to throw the seed at the ground and, hey presto, it grows like the weed it is.

Now, South Africa also has huge problems with soil erosion, so this could solve that issue too. So, on to pyrolysis, where one applies high heat to biomass, or plant and tree matter, using little or no air. Currently you get low-grade fuel oil with energy output of about 40% that of petroleum diesel. But the hemp gurus say emissions from coal-fired power plants and cars can be reduced by converting biomass to fuel using pyrolysis. This produces power through resultant fuels such as charcoal, synthetic gas, ethanol, methane and methanol. There’s lots of variety here, depending on the scientific approach, which provides plenty of latitude over input and output costs.

Converting hemp cellulose into ethanol can be done in several ways, including gasification, acid hydrolysis and converting cellulose to glucose, which is fermented to make alcohol. The costs of this process are vital. But these have already drawn the attention of US federal tax credits among other incentives. Conversion rates range from 25 to 100 US gallons a tonne of biomass (the Brits measure this slightly differently). Cellulose provides hydrocarbons necessary for fuel production. Low-moisture hemp is 80% cellulose and some believe the added cost of drying high-moisture crops such as sugarcane and corn, make them a less-efficient source of products such as ethanol and methanol, whatever the Brazilians might think.

Ethanol’s cousin, methanol, can power very cheap cooking stoves. It’s highly toxic, but pretty easy to handle. The University of Hawaii bio-methanol facility says 95,000 acres planted under hemp will produce 1.7 billion litres a year of methanol, at a cost of $335 million to build the plant. At retail sales of US 50cents a litre (which is pricey), that’s a good return over time. No less an authority than the Stanford Research Institute said in the late 1970s already that woody or low-moisture herbaceous plants – such as hemp — better convert into liquid fuels such as methanol. The rules of Monster Trucks (a typically American pastime) require the use of pure methanol, and it’s also used in dirt track series such Motorcycle Speedway, and until recently, the Indianapolis 500.

To be sure, there is much science that still needs to be done. But ethanol is already widely used as a vehicle fuel and fuel additive. Henry Ford’s famous Model T Ford was built to run on pure ethanol, which he said was the “the fuel of the future”. It’s also the pure alcohol used in medicines and lots of foodstuffs. Brazil has the largest fuel ethanol industry made from sugarcane and more than 90% of new cars sold in that country can run on ethanol. But while sugarcane plantations have high carbon sequestration capabilities, which help combat climate change, ethanol also produces chemicals that boost ozone levels when ignited in internal combustion engines.

While biofuels provide a fraction of conventional fuel needs, places as diverse as Malawi and Sri Lanka have produced cars that run on raw biofuels or mixes. And energy majors are researching this, too. Exxon Mobil is to spend more than $600 million on researching and developing biofuels from photosynthetic algae, which are compatible with petrol and diesel products. And while there are currently far more questions than answers over biofuels, they don’t differ too much from the technologies and market incentives that the Copenhagen summit needs to deliver on. And they’re not much different from how wrong others were over the future of the car and the microprocessor.

So, the government doesn’t want to have to apologize to the people of South Africa the way The New York Times apologised to Robert H. Goddard the day after Apollo 11 went to the moon in 1969, when it said sorry for its deeply offensive 1920 editorial that told Goddard his, or anybody else’s, rockets wouldn’t fly. No wise man should bet against hemp to solve a few of our problems in the future.

By Mark Allix