HEMP
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CHAPTER 2, THE CONSPIRACY: Sanford wasn’t buying it.: “How the hell do you control hemp, Andrew? It’s grown all over the country – all sorts of uses. You can’t take away people’s livelihoods!” “No, but you can persuade them to grow something else,” Worth interjected. “You can tax hemp, and license growers. Make hemp expensive, and impractical to farm, which in turn will curb production, of hemp and marijuana. Good for us. Good for the public. Everybody wins!” “Except the farmers!” Sanford argued. “We’re in the worst depression ever, for Christ’s sake!” “It’s the lesser of two evils,” Jackson maintained, “and I think we can make it happen. There is a catch, though, and this is crucial. We’ve got to keep the whole thing under cover. We can’t let it out that hemp and marijuana are one in the same, at least not now, in the middle of a depression. We’d have a revolution on our hands. Like you say, hemp is everywhere – a lot of uses.” “As I told Mr. Hearst,” Worth put in, “we need to build a stronger case against this drug as well. Now, before the news that marijuana is hemp gets around. What we’ve got so far is weak, mostly hearsay and conjecture. “Also, as any doctor will tell you, medicinal hemp, cannabis, is a sedative and a pain reliever. It puts you to sleep, friends; makes you feel better. Damned effective, too! I’ve tried it! But it doesn’t work as a violence argument. Unfortunately. All it ‘kills’ is our case!” “As I told you, Worth,” Hearst responded testily, “nobody smokes medicinal hemp! They take it in tinctures, infusions – has nothing to do with our case!” “Maybe so,” Worth rebutted, “but we can’t be guessing…” “Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Mellon interrupted, motioning for quiet, “Let’s not worry about the case right now. Let’s leave that to Harry. He’ll make us a stand-up case, I promise you. Besides, we’ve got no beef with cannabis. Let them grow all the medicine they want – tax free!” “I’m in,” Du Pont declared, “at least for a ‘wait and see.’ …Unless someone has a better idea?” He looked around. No one responded. “I’m in, too,” said Sanford, insipidly, “something’s got to be done.” “It’s unanimous, then,” Mellon summed it up. “Bill Hagar gave his blessing this morning; the lawyers – the best in the business,” he nodded toward Jackson and Worth,” are at our service. It’s been a pleasure, gentlemen. We’ll meet in three month’s time, barring an emergency…” CHAPTER 4, THE HEMP-MOBILE: “The Model H, By Henry Ford! Dreams Do Come True!” Kate headlined her diary that night, and entered: “Dear Diary, Daddy and I drove a ‘hemp-mobile’ today – one of only ten in existence! It was a thrill, to say the least. And daddy agreed, it inspired us with hope for the future. Ironically so, as we could hardly tell that we weren’t in an ordinary car! And the good news kept coming! Mike is working for THE Henry Ford, and has signed us up to grow ‘fuel’ for Ford, once the new model goes into production! Can you imagine?” CHAPTER 6, HR6385: Kate let out a sigh, and turned to face the men fully. “Blackmail…” she uttered, with a distant look in her eyes, and placed the report back on Mead’s desk. Mike scanned the room nervously, trying to hide his frustration. He raised his eyebrows toward Mead, looking for help, but Mead, too, was at a loss. “I thought you understood, Kate,” Mike said finally, “these hearin’s are a formality. The powers that be have already made their decision. “I won’t be a party to blackmail,” she insisted. “If that’s what it takes to ‘win,’ as you define it, I’d rather lose.” “We don’t think of it as ‘blackmail,’ Kate,” Mead responded readily. “And the irony is, neither would Hagar or Anslinger. It’s simply the way the game is played here in Washington. And, if people like us don’t learn how to play it, people like them will continue to win, and to run the country! Is that what you want? …We don’t think so!” “This is only the beginnin’, Kate,” Mike took over. “You see that, don’t you? The beginnin’ of the end. First, it was the licensin’ – local, now they want federal. Then came the taxes, same deal. Then the bans, local, and from here, unless we act, they will get federal! Hemp’ll be a memory in this country, before we know it! That’s their goal! “And they think it’s justified! They believe their own lies! They’ve convinced themselves that if they go down, the country goes down. Better to get rid of hemp, in the name of marijuana… They’re doin’ it, as we speak, Kate! The biggest American growers did not get county permits this year! Who do you think was behind that?” Kate shook her head despondently. “Mike, Congressman,” she looked to one, and then the other, “if you’re right about the conspirators, and I think you are, how can you ask me to stoop to their level? My principles be damned? As long as I beat them at their own dirty game? …Which is not a given, by the way. Witnesses can be bought, or worse, threatened! Or harmed! … I don’t even want to think about that… I’m sorry; there must be a better way!” “It’s too late, Kate!” Mike argued. “The verdict is in! Unless we take them down – now!” “Then history will have to rescind the verdict in its own time… I cannot do what you’re askin’.”
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About the Book
Fifth generation hemp-farmer, Noble Burnett, and his beautiful, unconventional daughter, Kate, are struggling to keep their farm intact through the throes of the Great Depression. They discover to their dismay, however, that the failing U.S. economy is the least of their problems. A powerful anti-hemp lobby is at large.
With recent breakthroughs in hemp-processing, and rumors of Henry Ford’s ‘hemp-mobile’ materializing, hemp is now an imminent threat to Big Oil and its allies. The war on hemp begins, wrought with coincidence: The repeal of Prohibition leaves its disciples without a cause; and the vilified drug, marijuana, is falsely equated with industrial hemp. A frustrated prohibitionist, Harry Anslinger, is appointed chief of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics; and Prohibition is back – hemp, tagged as marijuana, its new target!
The Burnetts’ loss becomes the reader’s outrage, as “HEMP” uncovers an ugly American secret: Acting solely to further their own interests, a conspiracy of powerful, greedy tycoons and their fanatical, federal pawn systematically outlawed the industrial hemp plant, and with it, the world’s greenest, cheapest, alternative source to petro-chemical and tree-paper products! …And got away with it – 72 years, and counting!
Based on actual events, and documented Congressional testimony.
“TIMELY AND RELEVANT – END THE DEBATE! THE ANSWER TO OUR ENERGY WOES IS, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, HEMP!”
About the Author
Nini Martino has been an instructor/practitioner of yoga, meditative and natural healing for thirty years, and has written on these subjects throughout. Her first novel, “THE MYTH,” (2005), co-written with members of Netti’s Circle, a meditation group she founded, was also published with iUniverse. Zack DiLiberto is an actor, musician and freelance writer, living and working in Los Angeles, CA. He and Nini Martino partnered previously to write the screenplay, "The Hemp-Man's Daughter," on which this book is based.