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Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States and one of our nation’s Founding Fathers. He was also an inventor, philosopher, educator and farmer. One of the crops he chose to farm in large quantities at Montecello happened to be hemp. Like many colonial farmers, Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, acres and acres of it. The crop was used for cloth, rope, and other essential industrial products.
An article in Marijuana News, published by an Ohio chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, points out that some years Jefferson raised over 100 acres of hemp -- over 70 million plants.
Discussing this in the June issue of Reason, Jacob Sullum notes that
"Under the 1995 Omnibus Crime Control Act, anyone who cultivates more than 60,000 plants is a 'drug kingpin,' subject to execution. In a
single year, then, the author of the Declaration of Independence
qualified for the death penalty a thousand times over."The Democratic Party's platform applauds the death-for-dope law. Thus, says Marijuana News, "If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, Our Government would execute him."
(Sources: Reason / Marijuana News)
