Further exploring alternate history scenario re hemp law in 1776

The sci fi character in Star trek the New Generation was called "Data" and was an android. He seemed to be from the archetype of the Asperger's Syndrome man. An episode that again has come to mind is where Data is trying to learn about "normal" people, and keeps a journal communicated to his maker, about these questions and data he had found involving the subject. I think I have written re this in prior blog posts here, although not recently.

I have been occasionally idly thinking more about my post http://www.kestsgeojedc.blogspot.com/2012/01/fragataggle.html which also was of the type of trying to comprehend the doings of "normal, non-Asperger's" people, and written a bit more politely than my more frequent posts about "what people really do do."

Although, it is a hot potato topic, inviting retaliation from somewhere. Nonetheless, it seems a unique opportunity to discover something about the workings of American politics, business, laws, and just plain egos in action.


And so, like Data might have perused in his journal, I explore further part of what I had started exploring in the referenced post, "Fragataggle."

What if the hot-topic illegalizing the growth of hemp in American agriculture, were to have been on the books back in the early days of the American colonies. I had briefly pointed out that George Washington would have been thrown in prison and his plantation's major crop burned. So following this thread, what would have happened.

Well, it depends on when this happened. Early enough, he would have been in prison before the American Revolution, and thus not have played his essential parts as General Washington in winning that war for independence.

And as pointed out earlier, without the use of hemp as the raw material for making our own paper when the British source of paper was stopped, war's communications would have been quite crippled, and knowing that, the war for Independence would not have been started, knowing it could not be waged successfully.

Whichever, there would have been no Declaration of Independence, no Constitution of the United States; we would have remained a colony of England, like Canada and Australia, among others.

And of course, without being an independent nation, the Civil War would not have been fought, so the intercontinental railroad system would not have happened to help open up the rest of America, and similarly slavery would still be the norm for colored folks. Surely President Obama would thus not be President, but more likely would be a slave on someone's plantation or manufacturing plant. Today's "Tea Party" would like that; but then, there would never have been the Boston Tea Party in the first place, knowing that we could not fight a successful war for independence without either Washington's participation nor hemp's utility available, as explored above.

Thus without the drive to expand our resources across the American continent, we would not have gotten tangled with Mexico and thus no Gadsen Purchase, and no Arizona would be, since it would still be part of Mexico.

The early Russian colonization of the northern part of California would maybe have become formed into a Russian state there; Japan had similarly made early colonization of the Southern California coast such as near Los Angeles, so Southern California might be part of Japan now. Those depend on the waning influence of Spain in those areas, of course. Otherwise the West Coast of America would be part of Spain, instead of part of Japan and Russia.

And the rest of what is now America would probably just be part of Canada now.

All because the current harsh law against cultivating and utilizing the hemp plant, had been put on the books back then instead of relatively recently.

So trying to figure out why that law got hatched up and put there, it could be useful to figure out who benefits by it. Not so much the toughs who derive fame and fortune by enforcing it, but the larger picture - thugs can go beat up on something else, does not matter to them who.

But most likely some big power and wealth gambit was what got the law against hemp on the books. And they might be those who would want the scenario explored per the above if the law had been put on early in American history. A Russian plot? Not a German plot because they would have known better than to start WWI and WWII, with the resources of America at instant disposal of Great Britain.

Who then? Mexico? Well, hemp's cousin marijuana has been having profound influence on Mexico, lots of people dying violently, but clearly lots of people getting wealth and power thereby. So, that is a possibly of instigator instead of fallout benefactor.

Or, one of the favorite games of powerful business people is to create a squeeze on some common low-cost part of American life, and force an increase in price to the consumer, thus gaining much wealth thereby, without need for increasing value-added. The famous example of soybeans in the stock market, as an example, and considered quite fair to do.

Since hemp has been part of American life since the beginning, even back in prehistoric times, it was a common item, low cost, and a major agricultural crop, such as even of President George Washington's plantation, back then. Its uses for making paper, clothing, rope, sails from its fiber is well known. The outstanding nutrition of its seeds, a grain, was probably intuitively known back long ago, but was not until scientific analysis techniques to show just how outstanding its protein blend is, and how well it is assimilated by the digestive system. And there are numerous medical uses of parts of the plant, and more being discovered, which could cut way down on medical costs as well as have a more functional population otherwise handicapped by unnecessary health problems. And of course the increase in sociability from smoking parts of the plant, called marijuana, although apparently it is concentrated enough only in a certain strain of the hemp plant. But strangely all hemp got lumped together in the same current law, and so that seems likely is the main purpose of why the whole hemp illegalization scenario was instigated.

Am sure this blog post would simply be stamped with some derisive name like "roper" - and thus not read and understood thereafter - by those who need it to be illegal, so as to continue their fame & fortune through lawfully attacking Americans.

Data might well ponder all this too, in the Startrek future, attempting to ask how to make sense of what people were doing back when.