Nexus - 0215 - New Times Magazine-pages

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The marijuana debate is beginning again ... but this time the debate centres on the commercial and industrial use of the plant's fibre. Fibre Hemp is a better source of pulp for paper- making than timber ... and that's not all... in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in November of last year. One of the main items discussed at the conference was the Dutch government's hemp project. This is a four-year project investigating the potential for developing an ecologically benign and long-term sustainable non-wood paper industry utilising Indian hemp, Cannabis sativa, as the principal feedstock. The Dutch government has seriously committed itself to reduc- ing the volume of toxic chemicals used by the agricultural com- munity, and at the same time providing farmers with an additional source of income. They have identified cannabis as the crop most likely to achieve these objectives, by providing a rotation crop between beet, potato and cereal crops to reduce the soil nematode load and other pests—and paper as the most likely profitable product, due to dwindling forest resources and increasing world demand for paper products. The project is comprehensive and includes plant breeding, agronomy, logistics and pulping technologies. Included in this last category is detailed evaluation of mechanical, alkaline chemi- cal and organosolv pulping methods. The Kraft paper-making process, which is the method proposed for new Australian mills, is now thoroughly discredited in Europe, with a total ban on plan- ning and construction of this type of mill. The United Nations Single Convention on Drug Use specifical- ly exempts the industrial cultivation of cannabis from prohibition (see Article 28.2 of the Convention). The European Community, mindful of the economic potential of Indian hemp and in accor- dance with the intentions of the Single Convention, has formulat- ed regulations for the industrial cultivation of cannabis. Cultivars producing less than 0.3% total alkaloid content are scheduled as a fibre crop, and cultivation is not only permitted but in some cases subsidised. Ts first European Conference on Industrial Crops was held i In France, 8,000 hectares are cultivated annually under the guidance of the Fédération Nationale de Producture Chanvre for the production of speciality papers. In the Ukraine, annual pro- duction is over 60,000 hectares, used mostly for heavy-duty fab- rics, though research is now being directed to paper manufacture. Hemp stalks are composed of 30% bast fibre, the premier paper-making fibre used for best stationery and archival purposes, or for banknotes, filter paper and the like. The remainder is hurd, or short-length fibre. With modern methods of production, all grades of paper can be produced by blending these in various pro- portions. Cannabis hemp will produce approximately three to four times as much fibre per hectare as our current forest prac- tices. Cannabis cloth is of a high quality and rivals the best linens produced from flax or cotton. Cannabis yields two to three times as much fibre per hectare as cotton, and has the added important and that's not all... by Dr A. J. Katelaris 16*NEXUS AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1993