SMOKING CANNABIS

After following up some research on hemp grown in the UK, I came to the conclusion that about half the population in the UK is smoking cannabis, bought legally at newsagents, petrol stations and supermarkets. It started with a discussion last month with a hemp farmer in Devon, who told me he bought his seed from Hemcore and then dew-retted the fibre when it was mature. After retting, he sold it back through Hempcore to Robert Flethcer, a paper maker.

Further research led me to see that RF makes cigarette paper. Thus, UK smokers are indeed partaking of cannabis, and I might add, a homegrown variety with the blessings of Her Majesty's Government.

On a "news of the weird" type story, the farmer told me that after WWII the Germans had lots of concentration camp uniforms left over. As they were made of hemp, they were suitable for making paper (though, one might imagine, not the latest in fashion), so Robert Fletcher bought them up and pulped them into paper.