Blinded by the Light

Free Market Foriegn Policy

Economic Stability in Afghanistan: A Practical Solution

Sustainable economic opportunity is essential in Afghanistan to build political stability. The largest current source of revenue for the Afghan farmer is the cultivation of poppies for heroin production. The illegal nature of poppy production requires that the farmers pay for the protection of various militias, war lords and power brokers to ‘allow’ them to grow poppies. The product is then sold to the same agents that are protecting them from government intervention. At the end of the day the farmer gets very little but has no other practical option.
The solution is to replace poppy production with industrial hemp production and have the new government guarantee the price, market and processing of the raw hemp. The farmer would end up with more revenue from the legal openly grown hemp than he currently does from growing poppies. This eliminates a problem crop and the illegal cash that it generates and replaces it with a sustainable, high value crop that can be used to create energy, fiber, oils, medicines and many other essential products. All of that with the added benefit of freeing millions of farmers from dependence on armed protection.
31 countries currently cultivate hemp for industrial and medical use to provide for a growing demand for this renewable resource including Canada, China and France.
The case for Hemp is this, the short growing period, hardiness and drought tolerance of hemp, combined with the already existing cultural knowledge and experience of the Afghan farmers make the substitutional process ‘Poppies for Hemp’ a plausible and possible agricultural strategy with predictable social, economic and political results, prosperity and peace.
It is time to rethink the value of Hemp for the same reason we suspended the Marijuana Tax Act during World War II, we needed hemp then to defend freedom and we could use it again to establish economic sustainability for some of the most vulnerable and freedom loving people on the earth.
If our foreign policy is to win the minds and hearts of an oppressed and distrustful people try starting with and honest opportunity.

Path to Prosperity

A New Economic Foundation,

Renewable Energy and the Social Contract

We have an opportunity to create a new economic foundation based on renewable natural resources, yielding thousands of green jobs, producing a sustainable replacement for oil and the restoration of social consent and confidence in the body politic. All of that and more made manifest by a stroke of the pen, simply by properly classifying hemp as the medicine and beneficial resource that over 100,000,000 Americans already know it is. Hemp, cannabis is good.

The social benefit of a rational hemp policy would be to restore social consent and confidence in the body politic. Currently, over 100,000,000 Americans have used marijuana and have decided that it is a good thing, not dangerous and should be free, not used to ruin peoples lives by arrest, confiscation and disenfranchisement. Thinking people do their own research and many times conclude that the laws against marijuana are arbitrary, unjust, wrong and that the only people who support them are either uninformed or their jobs depend upon the mandatory acceptance of marijuana prohibition. This is the true silent majority, citizens who think that the marijuana laws are irrational and are afraid of persecution and discrimination if they express their opinions publicly.

Industrial hemp production could provide a domestic and renewable source of fuel, fiber and jobs. Hemp can be grown, produced and processed all across the land by thousands of urban farmers using land, lots, parks and public lands lying fallow and unused. These green jobs are about the growing, harvesting and processing of locally grown organics for food and fuel and could constitute the bedrock of a truly independent economy, intrinsically secure, renewable and stable, sustainable and most importantly doable.

The benefits of a rational hemp policy are financial, social and moral.

The economic impact of is three fold; first is the creation of Jobs based on a sustainable, clean source of fuel, fiber and medicine, estimated at over One Trillion dollars. Good jobs that produce energy and tax revenue that is

The second is the savings to taxpayers by eliminating the money spent on law enforcement, the courts and prisons, estimated at over 8 billion a year. The third is the cost to individuals and families who are criminalized by a system that encourages law enforcement to arrest people, fine them, confiscate their property, and disenfranchise them from the vote, healthcare, professional licenses and credit. This cost is measured in the billions of dollars. All totaled the war on marijuana and the lost opportunities to develop hemp; combined with the needless suffering of those persecuted is over 2 Trillion dollars a year.

The moral benefit is simple; the truth will set us free.

We need to decriminalize marijuana and repel the effects of the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act to restore the production, development and use of the most sustainable, renewable natural resource recorded in history. Hemp production can replace the use of oil as a fuel quickly, efficiently and at low cost. Hemp is a renewable crop that can be grown on land not used for food, improving the land and providing a carbon neutral source of fuel. Hemp production and processing will create jobs all across the land while providing a local and domestic source of energy.

The use of marijuana for medical purposes is the oldest and most universally documented use of any substance in medical history. 13 states have decided that marijuana is a beneficial plant and it is time allow and encourage the use and investigation of medical marijuana and industrial hemp.

Hemp production was the economic foundation of colonial America because it was readily grown and used for over 25,000 different purposes; Hemp was grown for sails, rope, oil for lamps, clothing and high quality paper. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper by Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of hemp for commerce, medicine and recreation. George Washington was one of the largest hemp growers in the colonies and the renewable income produced by this plant sustained our first president and his family before, during and after the revolution. It is fair to say that the spirit to be free and independent was made possible by the ability of our fore fathers to be economically independent and free. Hemp production was the backbone of liberty, freedom and economic independence for colonial America and could once again be the keystone of a renewable, sustainable and yes, Independent economy.

Potriots of the Revolution