A History of Hemp
20th Century Hemp
1937: industrial hemp companies spring up across the US mid-west overshadowing Kentucky and Missouri as the nations major hemp producers. There were several important firms in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The February issue of Popular Mechanics notes that a large paper company, which had been paying more than a million dollars a year in duties on foreign made cigarette papers, has switched to hemp grown in Minnesota. Although the magazine down played the connection with Marijuana, it is too late to stop the presses because at the same time, the government is passing the Marijuana Tax Act, a death blow to the hemp industry. As a result of it's red tape measures, hemp growing and production fell off sharply, despite it's supposedly permitted licensing. Obtaining a federal government license is so difficult that most hemp farmers and processors simply give up.
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