THE BEST PEOPLE IN HISTORY USED HEMP

by Kenyon Gibson

It is an honour to be here today in front of the column honouring one of the most famous of all time, Admiral Nelson.

He, like many of the best people in history, was a hemp user; with his hemp he achieved outstanding naval victories that have made the UK one of the leading nations in the world today. With 200,000 pounds of cannabis hemp on every ship he commanded, he could well be with us on the march today. I don't think Bush and Blair would get away with their cannabis suppression if they had to face Nelson or any of the other figures in history who used hemp.

In fact, we know that Moses not only used hemp, but that it was one of the anointing oils for priests to wear in the temple. Paul, speaking to the Christians of his day, notes that in the end times people will come and outlaw the good things that God has given us to use. The twelve disciples must certainly have used hemp, as that was the most used fibre for fishing ropes, and certainly one of the strongest. Cana, the town in which Christ performed, was most likely named after hemp, the Hebrew equivalent of "Hemptown", which we see so much in England and America.

Catherine de Medicia, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Rabelais, Leornado da Vinci, George Washington, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Queen Victoria, these people were all hemp users.

But what would their fate be today? Would Moses, Christ and Admiral Nelson all be put in jail today? Turned in by some snitch for using a hemp rope or wearing it in a religious ceremony?

For many people who are in jail today, this is not joke; some people are facing the death penalty today for minor infractions involving cannabis. We might remember Woody Harrelson's arrest a few years ago for planting a few seeds in Kentucky, but for many who are not so famous and rich, the reality is different. Some who have usesd a joint or two to alleviate the pain of AIDS have been thrown in jail where they have died. Others have had their homes confiscated, not even for so much as smoking a joint, but for mere suspicion, and at times they have been proven innocent, yet after all the government persecution, they still lost their homes, their jobs, and in effect, their lives.

This is set to get worse; the US government is actually considering
sending people to prison for ten years for passing a joint to a friend, and has labeled cannabis smokers as terrorists, in one TV advert which aimed public opinion against cannabis smokers.

Is this madness or what? We need to exercise Common Sense; listening those who had common sense and not be led away by hype and hysteria. Nelson, when he led his people to victory, raised the famous signal "England expects everyman to do his duty".

With hemp in their hands, they did, and victory was theirs'. Follow his advice today and we will have a victory of a greater dimension, not fighting to hurt other people, but fighting to win rights for ourselves and our neighbours, fighting for a hemp based energy supply rather than petrol, fighting for the right to affordable cannabis for medicine and for laws that protect the people, not the rich.

Hemp was there for Nelson and his sailors to use, and hemp will be there for us.