ARPIL SHOWERS MAY BRING FLOWERS: THE MONTH IN REVIEW

This is traditionally a month for sowing hemp in northern countries. With quite a bit of that going on, and Hemcore gaining approval for its new facility in England, which the local council granted after they agreed to widen the road, we are looking forward to harvests later this year.

We can also look forward to more consumer awareness, as the bagwars, which took place in posh parts of London, have sparked major newspaper articles about the Anya Hindmarch cotton bags that people were buying for £5 to sell on E-bay for £100. On 25 April, thousands queued at Sainsburys all over the UK, but by Friday, two major publications had questions about that; the first was The Ecologist, whose May issue hit the stands that day with a mention of the protest outside the Camden Sainsburys (p.8). That same day the Evening Standard trashed the bag on their front page. Saturday somehow all the major papers had journalists who had sudden inspirations to also trash the bag, noting that it was made in China, not fairtrade, and made of cotton. They all seem to have received uniquely personal inspirations all at the same time, and so they wrote much the same thing. Poor Anya Hindmarch, whose side I was definitely not on to start with, was being blamed for it all, and Sainsburys was not happy to answer questions. It may be that she listens to some real environmentallists and pulls out of this OK, as after all, I have to say I think she was trying to do the right thing, but got bad advice from We Are What We Do, whose website I won't bother to link to.

But for all that press, it seemed at some point that the press gang were now a bunch of bullies; one paper even tried to sell its own cotton 'ecobag' after they gave her bad press. Neither side said anything about hemp, and this was after I had called the papers, especially the Independent and the Guardian to get them to cover our protest on 25 April. The former, ironically, covered the story not only without any mention of hemp, but without even bothering to spell 'Hindmarch' consistently. So much for lazy journalists.

Much more on the ball is Baroness Tonge, who sent to me an answer from Baroness Amos regarding her question about hemp as a replacement crop for heroin in Afghanistan (posed 29 Jan.). She lamented in her letter that they seemed to not know much about the subject, and ironically, I read this the same day (2 May) that Richard Bacon on BBC5 Live had a panel of 'eco-experts'. These worthies got one question about hemp from a call-in, and they could not answer it, so Bacon said that perhaps we ought to read up about hemp. I tried calling 5 Live but it was by then a dead issue with them, on to silly stuff, such as Question Time in the House of Commons, in which someone asked the Prime Minister if he grew his own.

Maybe the 'eco-experts' on 5 Live will know the answer. May may bring some enlightenment, if not from 5 Live and the other press gangs, at least from Positive News and The Ecologist, which are working with us to provide customers with 100%, made in the UK, organic hemp bags. Already I am carrying my own, courtesy of Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop, and people are noticing a bit self-consciously as they reach for their cotton bags) or, in Primrose Hill, simply use the plastic bags. PH is a 'hood where 4x4s are the norm, and dog owners foul the streets because they are too cool to care. Some of them get their kicks from cocaine (because they think that is very cool), but I get mine from cannabis, in the form of my bag. Look for me, and my bag, which I am proud to say is grey and of 'uncomplicated design' at posh places like Harrods, Harvey Nichols, and Anya Hindmarch.

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HEMP VS HEROIN IN AFGHANISTAN

In 2001, the Taliban decreased heroin production in Afghanistan so drastically that the street price soared. Then the US invaded, and lo' and behold the heroin production soared and the street price went down. Irony keeps right on rolling though, as now, while horse can be found loose on the streets of Camden Town or most other drug bazaars, heroin for the National Health Service is in short supply. You'd think that when the troops confiscate a field of poppies they might turn it over to medical authorities, but no, they just get out the flamethrowers and go to work. Not that the US troops are getting rid of that much.

The House of Lords is looking into the problem and the question came up as to what crop they could replace it with. Afghanistan is known for it orchards and nut plantations, but these take years to get started. Hemp, a perennial which could be harvested easily in 3 months, is a natural solution. This opinion has been put forth many times over the years, perhaps the best example is Marc Deeley's piece in the BBC from November 2004. Deeley, a development worker with Spirit Aid, noted then that Afghanistan produced 75% of the world's herion supply; today it is estimated to be 90%.

Comments on the piece note that the farmers only get 5% of the profits, the warlords take most of it, so eliminating herion would not hurt the farmers so much as the goons with the guns. I'm all for putting them out of business and getting horse off the streets here in Camden. All or most comments were in favour of planting hemp instead of heroin, but we did not see any action from the legislators, did we? Recently, Baroness Jenny Tonge emailed to inquire about the feasibilty of this, and I was pleased to inform her that this was an excellent idea. The British Isles Hemp & Natural Fibres Industries Association will be working on a report on this, portions of which will be published here in the near future.

HEMP FOR VICTORY IN 2007

The New Year rolled in as usual, lots of fireworks and then off to bed... and we all lived happily ever after, except for those of us who didn't, i.e., Saddam Hussein. The last day of 2006 he made the front of all the papers, and with him, so did hemp...as it was pointed out in the Times hemp was his undoing, coils of it placed around his neck, and he will not be able to dictate anymore. In days of yore they referred to the gallows as the hemp horse, and SH rode his last on the back of this beast. At least he kept his poise, but don't expect Elton John to rewrite "Candle in the Wind" for him. Oh well, someone else will be able to collect a few sixpacks from the coalition-of-the-silly as they appoint someone to preside over the land of car bombings and no running water. It was bad under SH, but not that bad, and killing him in such a cold-blooded way, on the holiest day of the Moslem year, the feast of forgiveness, whose bright idea was that? The video of it is now top-of-the-charts in the snuff movie world.

So here we are in the brave new year, sans SH, and at least we got to see hemp used for something. 2006 was the year another intelligent initiative in the US got snuffed out by the son-of-a-Nazi in the US, so the hemp bought and sold there will be mostly Chinese or Canadian in origin; unless people get on the ball and make it happen.

Here in the UK hemp at least grows, much of it made into cigarette paper or hemp oil. The government does not seem to be behind it, even though the environment secretary David Miliband moans now that environmental issues are key in politics. Just how much experience does he have in anything green anyway? We'll soon see, as one of my goals for this year is to get on the government's case about hemp, and hopefully there will be biofuel plants and paper plants all over the UK. The Lib Dems are definitely behind me on this, Baroness Jenny Tonge spent part of last year in support of this issue, making the effort to attend the Medical Cannabis presentation in a committee room in the Parliament buillding in May and asking a question about hemp in the House of Lords later in the year.

Paper and ethanol are but two of the many uses to which we could put hemp here. There is insulation, textiles, MDF boards, sails, building material, and of course, rope...in case they bring back the hemp horse.