Tadhg Stopford: On Hemp as a Wonder Plant of Food Fibre & Medicine, and the Politics Surrounding it

Interviewed by Tim LynchNovember 6, 2019
Share this on  

Cannabidiol (CBD) is non intoxicating and is safe to use, yet it is heavily regulated, unnecessarily expensive, and there is much prejudice from lack of
knowledge about this product.

How it can become more easily accessible in New Zealand may be centred around whether it ends up becoming regulated as a food or as a medicine, and the
results of the upcoming referendum.

In this informative interview, Tadhg speaks in depth about this, the history of cannabis, the extensive uses of hemp, and medical cannabis.

Tadhg asks:

Are you concerned about the state of the world? I am.

Lord Rutherford, (atom splitter), said that "we don't have money, so we have to think". It's time that we did that, because the status quo is failing.
So, what do we need, and how do we get it?

A wealthy society needs good food, fibre/chemical feedstock, and medicine.

Imagine getting all of that from one plant, and it all being of the best quality.

That's the kind of crop we need in a climate changing world, a sustainable competitor to the petro-chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

Its curious to note, that despite Hemp offering us these gifts, it is that rare thing; a prohibited plant.

In NZ and much of the world, hemp is only able to be grown under strict conditions, and farmers usually struggle against hostile bureaucrats. In Canada,
for example, farmers were prevented from selling fifty two billion dollars worth of hemp products over the last twenty years. The same practices exist
here in NZ.

But Hemp is so useful, that it was a crime not to grow it in both Britain and the USA. In fact, you could even pay US taxes in hemp. Hemp was as good as
gold, and used to make everything from dollar bills to the US Declaration of Independence (both Washington and Jefferson were Hemp farmers).

Hemp clothes are tougher and more breathable than cotton, and anti-bacterial too. (Hemp does not require the water and pesticides of cotton either).

Hemp makes breathable fireproof building materials, superconductors, plastics, fuels, and produces four times the cellulose of pine in only six months.

Hemp nut foods are better than anything else nutritionally. 30% digestible protein, all Omegas (3, 6, 9) and aminos, with Calcium, Magnesium and other
essential elements in unusually generous quantities.

Most Renaissance painting was done on hemp, and with hemp paint. empen paints, hemp plastics, hemp medicines, the basis of Imperial power for millennia,
and then imagine it being prohibited on the irrational grounds that hemp is a dangerous narcotic that causes interracial rape and murder.

The removal of this premier sustainable product left world markets open for the petro-chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

Despite written records of its medicinal use dating back 4,750 years, (including fifty years where it was a major European/US medicine), the modern medical
system seems strangely opposed to the notion of hemp medicine.

This is especially curious given that hemp is full of 'our bodies own medicine'.

To clarify, Hemp contains molecules called 'cannabinoids', and so do we.

In our body we make 'endocannabinoids' (endo means 'inside').

We are cellular beings, and for six hundred million years these molecules have been natures standard means for information exchange at the cellular level.

They are 'signalling metabolites', like essential little e-mails inside us.

Without them, we cannot maintain normal function/health. Without them, we die.

That's why hemp is connected with a ludicrous array of therapeutic effects. Not because it's a magic hippy thing, but because the plant contains analogues
of the molecules we make and need to maintain 'homeostasis', or balance/normal function.

So when we use hemp properly, as a food, we are supporting our bodies ability to maintain its own health through our cannabinoid system of G-Protein Coupled
Receptors.

Its interesting to note that GPCRs are 'highly responsive to nutrition', that medical schools do not teach nutrition, and that medical schools do not teach
about GPCRs-despite them being our mechanism of health regulation and protection.

'Medical cannabis' is a bit of a swindle, because all we really need to improve health outcomes is to return hemp to the food web and markets.

You can see the impact non-advertised legal hemp flower has had on medicine sales in Italy here

https://www.york.ac.uk/media/economics/documents/hedg/workingpapers/1907.pdf

Italian medicine sales are down everywhere, and by 11% in some categories.

This is why. Here are seven of the 140+ plant cannabinoids, and their proven effects.

Niccolo Machiavelli said that "there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a
new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order." But we all know that the current order of things is destroying
our habitat and creating an authoritarian corporate neo-feudalism. To change this we must increase our economic sovereignty and environmental sustainability.
The premier natural resource for achieving this is industrial hemp, but to get it we must understand it and demand better from our politicians.

The Hemp Foundation - www.thehempfoundation.org.nz

------------------------------------------

Community Notices re 5g:

'5G Technology on Health and the Environment'

Lecture by Professor Dariusz Leszczynski

6:30pm Tuesday 19th November

Auckland University Library Lecture Theatre B15

Princes St and Alfred St corner (Building 109) across from Albert Park

Doors open 6:00pm. Donations towards costs gratefully received.

Prof Leszczynski will also be speaking in:

Hawkes Bay Sun 24 Nov

Wellington Weds 27 Nov

Nelson Fri 29 Nov.

What is known about the potential cumulative long term exposure to untested 5G technology? What does the science tell us?

Does this require invocation of the precautionary principle until it can be proven safe?

Leszczynski, is a leading International expert on Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research, who will present the Pros and Cons of 5G Technology in the academic
arena. It is a rare opportunity for the NZ public to have informed debate on the issue.

We need to raise more money for Prof Leszczynski’s tour.

You can help at the Givealittle page -

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-bring-a-world-5g-expert-to-nz-in-november

You may also like to sign our 5G petition asking for the precautionary principle until 5G is proven safe.

https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/precautionary-principle-for-5g-in-aotearoa-1

Share this on  

Tim Lynch

Tim Lynch, is a New Zealander, who is fortunate in that he has whakapapa, or a bloodline that connects him to the Aotearoan Maori. He has been involved as an activist for over 40 years - within the ecological, educational, holistic, metaphysical, spiritual & nuclear free movements. He sees the urgency of the full spectrum challenges that are coming to meet us, and is putting his whole life into being an advocate for todays and tomorrows children. 'To Mobilise Consciousness.'

You May Also Like