In 1993, American academic and cultural critic, Brian Massumi edited a collection of essays entitled The Politics Of Everyday Fear. The purpose of this collection was to draw attention to the role played by fear under modern capitalism especially in America. Fear of the indiscriminate murder, fear of car crash, fear of failure, fear of fat, fear of uncleanliness, fear of ecological disaster. Whilst Massumi and others focussed particularly on what they term, ambient fear, the fear that lurks just out of sight and at the back of the mind, the following is a tale of latent fear - a fear that drove a plant to the status of public enemy number one, and a small select group of White, American males to fame and fortune. It is a story that shows just how important fear is to profit margins, and asks, have we matured, as a species, enough, to conquer this fear?

Is it too good to be true? A Revolution you can wear? An ecological saviour that does not require the sacrifice of our Western hedonism and consumer addiction?

Since the beginning of this century cannabis has been smoked by disenfranchised youth as a symbol of rebelliousness, funding a multimillion dollar illegal trade, but now we are beginning to discover the truth about cannabis, its history and its potential to "lead the charge out of the petrochemical age".

Cannabis is more commonly known to us as "marijuana", a term that is, in fact a Mexican slang term popularised by 1930s American newspaper magnate and wood pulp stakeholder, Randolph Hearst, as part of an elaborate scheme to separate the smoking of cannabis from the industry of producing fibre from the cannabis plant, better known as hemp fibre. Evidence suggests that Hearst played an integral part in a conspiracy to rid the world of its most popular and most versatile natural fibre.

Hearst had an ally and friend in Harry Anslinger, director of the Federal Bureau Of Narcotics 1930 to 1962, one of the original Untouchables, who, finding himself and others facing the possibility of unemployment at the end of alcohol Prohibition turned his, puritanical attention to another drug, in this case, the smoking of cannabis. Harry Anslinger may have had other reasons too. Towards the end of the 1930s the multinational pharmaceutical and petrochemical giant, DuPont was gearing up to release on an unsuspecting world its new wonder fibre - the synthetic, Nylon which was patented in 1935. DuPont had invested many millions of dollars into the research and development of Nylon and it was widely known that hemp fibre, from the cannabis plant, would be its main, natural, rival. Hemp production was declining, though, until in 1921, Scientific American announced the invention of a new harvesting machine, and in the late 30s, Popular Mechanics announced hemp now had the potential to be a "billion dollar crop" with the invention of a hemp "decorticator". Less than coincidentally, DuPont's banker, head of the Mellon Bank and the US Treasury, Andrew Mellon, had close family ties with Harry Anslinger who had married his niece, and with hemp poised to make a comeback it is almost certain that Mellon, Anslinger and Hearst conspired to crush the resurgence of this "billion dollar crop", Nylon's main rival. Utilising racism and xenophobia prevalent in American society, Hearst and Anslinger protected Mellon and DuPont's interests, spreading fear and lies revolving around the smoking of cannabis by "negroes, Mexicans and entertainers" through Hearst's vast newpaper network. It was only a matter of time until other newspaper chains and the media as a whole jumped on the bandwagon. Overnight the "billion dollar crop" became the "assassin of youth", a "demon drug" capable of inducing in the most passive, middle class White youth, deadly "reefer madness". In 1937 Anslinger persuaded the US Congress, so-called protector of liberty, to outlaw marijuana virtually destroying the hemp industry. Too much money was at stake for notions of truth or ethics - this was free market capitalism at its best, using racism as a successful marketing strategy. First was America, next was the world - global expansion, the key for any big business.

Propelled by a wave of hysteria begun for dubious reasons in the 1930s the United States has been waging a world war against hemp. Leading the charge was, not surprisingly, Harry Anslinger who reappears in our story this time as US representative on the UN Drug Committee. Anslinger attempted to initiate a series of UN Conventions to prohibit the growing of hemp worldwide. Fortunately these faced strong resistance from the hemp growing nations and were not passed, however US foreign aid has frequently been withheld from hemp growing nations on the grounds of hemp production. As drug war researcher, Paul Brancato says "historically drug wars have been used by imperial powers as smokescreens for foreign intervention. For the US this has taken the form of sending military aid to corrupt allies who use the weapons not against drug traffickers, with whom they are often in league, but to crush their internal political enemies". Ever since the ëre-naming' of hemp and cannabis as marijuana, an attack on marijuana has effectively meant a war on the Blacks, the Hispanics, the underclasses, within the United States, and a war on non-allied, read non-US dependent, developing world countries such as Bangladesh whose very name refers to the growing of hemp. Interestingly, in 1942, faced with a fibre shortage for the war effort, the US Government produced a short film called "Hemp For Victory", whose existence they strongly denied until taken to court in the 1980s. This film legitimised and encouraged the growing of hemp for a short period of time before, once again, hemp was condemned to the status of "demon weed" at the end of the war.

But the question remains, why was hemp so feared by Mellon, Anslinger and Hearst?

For thousands of years the cannabis sativa, cannabis indica and other strains of cannabis, provided people with a source of food, medicine, oil, and hemp fibre for textiles and paper making. Up until the 19th century the vast majority of the world's paper was produced from hemp, most famously the American Constitution was written on hemp-based paper, sails and rigging were made from hemp cloth without which Western colonialism would never have set sail. As a food and oil, the hemp seed was a major source of protein and of essential fatty acids. Cannabis extracts were used in medicine to treat menstrual cramps, epilepsy, migraine and as an analgesic and anti-spasmodic. Current, albeit limited, medical research suggests that cannabis may indeed be the only known drug that is helpful in slowing the wasting disease associated with HIV/AIDS. Popular Mechanics of 1938 states "Hemp is the standard fibre of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than five thousand textile products, ranging from rope to fine lace, and the woody ëhurds' remaining after the fibre has been removed contain more than 77% cellulose, and can be used to produce more than twenty-five thousand products ranging from dynamite to Cellophane". Indeed the fabric, canvas, has its roots, as the name suggests, in cannabis.

Having been effectively ignored, replaced, and smothered in a blanket of misinformation, Sydney doctor and hemp researcher, Dr Andrew Katalaris, gives an indication of where hemp stands now in 1994; "over five thousand different items have been made from the hemp plant but now we are focussing on maybe a dozen potential uses".

With the fibre yield standing at 30%, up from 15% in the 1940s the fibre extracted from the stem of the hemp plant can be used for fabrics ranging from coarse sail cloth to high quality linen for clothing. The "toe" can be woven into industrial strength fabrics, or combined with the "hurd" to make high quality writing paper. The "hurd", on its own, can be used as a non-allergenic and anti-fungal animal bedding, or be processed into fuel or Cellophane. In France it has been mixed with lime and petrified to make a type of concrete called iso-chanvre, which is as strong as regular concrete but only at a sixth of the weight. In terms of solving the problem of wood pulping for paper, the waste after the fibre is removed, alone, will produce 6-8 tonnes of paper per hectare, as a totally renewable resource. Tasmanians Fritz and Patsy Harmsen have been exploring the potential for hemp as an alternative to wood pulp. Having campaigned against the Wesley Vale Pulp Mill and seen the devastation of widescale indiscriminate logging, not surprisingly denied by the logging industry who run a rhetoric of controlled logging, they have grown trial experimental crops under the close supervision of the Tasmanian government. At this stage they have garnered the support of Australian Newsprint Manufacturers to explore the potential for using hemp fibre as a reinforcer for newsprint and recycled paper, a role currently fulfilled by imported hardwoods. On a farm it would even be possible to power farm machinery upon alcohol fuel derived entirely from the waste of a hemp crop for true self-sufficient farming.

Cannabis is naturally resistant to many plant diseases and is not affected by a wide variety of insects thus reducing the need for herbicides and pesticides; as a source of fibre for paper making it can be grown and harvested in between three and six months compared to thirty or forty years for plantation wood; it produces twice as much yield per hectare than cotton and so halves the amount of water required for growing; and because most of its nitrogen content lies in the unharvested part of the plant, nitrogen remains in the soil if the waste is used as a self-fertiliser. Nitrogen run-off from farm land is the primary cause of algal bloom which is destroying much of Australia's waterways. Hemp, as a source of cellulose, has the potential to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses in the air around us. Dr Andrew Katalaris estimates that growing 1000-2000 hectares of hemp would reduce the amount of dioxins in the air by a massive 95000 tonnes - more efficient and swifter than any tree planting scheme. Unfortunately, though, most of the items once made from hemp are now made from petrochemicals. Instead of renewable annual fibre crops we have chopped down, logged, wood chipped, and pulped our old growth forests; instead of using hemp as a smother crop we have poisoned our land with all manner of pesticides and herbicides, much to the glee of the chemical companies, for whom land repair means more chemicals and, not coincidentally, more profits.

Currently hemp is legally grown in England, Hungary, Ukraine, Netherlands, and China. China and the Ukraine supply the vast majority of the world market for hemp but cannot keep pace with demand as Western nations begin to come to their senses. England legalised hemp production in 1993, most of Europe throughout the mid 80s, and Canada is on the verge of doing so. Although hemp production is legal in these countries, the most used varieties of the cannabis plant are the so-called low drug cultivars. Again, because of the anti-drug propaganda begun in the 1930s selective breeding has reduced the THC, or active drug, content to below 0.3% THC. However there is some evidence to suggest that the higher THC content strains are in fact more insect repellent. Fortunately, by using selective breeding procedures rather than genetic engineering, and through a degree of moral fortitude, none of the popular low drug cultivars have been patented . . . yet. Dr Katalaris suggests that this is largely due to the distinct lack of US research or US-influenced research in the field, however he fears that to hesitate on the development of a local Australian cultivar, would be to tempt fate. To highlight the strange situation in the US, Dr Katalaris gives the example of synthetic THC, manufactured by the large pharmaceutical companies for medical use, which is approved by the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) whilst hemp is classified as a "dangerous plant with no medical use".

So what stands in the way of reform in Australia?

In terms of drug policy Australia has always toed the line of ëone of our most powerful allies', the United States. Our politicians have, by and large, been fed a strict diet of hysterical US propaganda. NSW Upper House Democrat, Richard Jones speaks out, "we have a crop that can be grown organically, has high value especially with the current worldwide shortage, can be used for many purposes, and it has been ignored because of the drug issue . . . we have a ridiculous situation where you can import hemp legally into NSW and Australia but you cannot grow it here locally . . . we have Australian technology [which is used overseas] capable of processing hemp and to add value locally to the product [through local treatment and processing] which has not been done in the past with either Australian wool or cotton. These are exported to China and other countries for processing only to be imported back as finished product. The only thing that is hindering us are entrenched conservative attitudes".

Richard Jones is optimistic, "[hemp] is the material for the late 90s. Wearing hemp is a statement that you really care for the environment". Together with the Democrats some members of the National Party have expressed great interest in the development of a hemp industry as have the signatories to the Parliamentary Group For Drug Law Reform which currently comprises over 80 signed members across Australia. Lobbying has begun for cannabis with a content of less than 0.3% THC to be taken off the register. As Dr Katalaris, who is has been negotiating with limited success with the NSW Departments of Health, Agriculture and the Police, says "Let us have hemp and marijuana will fizzle as an issue . . . NSW will have a license shortly - by next year there will be no stopping us barring a fascist backlash".

However, the information war continues. A great deal of money has been invested in the industries that have replaced the age-old uses of hemp with high-tech, high-cost and high-environmental cost synthetics. "No one in the mainstream media, especially the print media, has run a story on fibre hemp" Dr Katalaris says wistfully. "Kerry Packer owns a lot of cotton ginning machinery" he adds, his voice tailing off.

Ironically there is to be found a thank you to the "Andrew F Mellon Foundation" at the end of the Preface to "The Politics Of Everyday Fear".

Yellow Peril (1994)

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