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Webguy to WorldwidePlaying in the cannabis fieldsWhen I first started playing in the cannabis field, just five short years ago, I could still amaze friends and relatives with stories of "cannabis hemp", a plant that could be made into food, clothing, cosmetics, fuel, paper, plastic, and buidling materials. Not only that, but this was the same plant people called "pot," and due to a decades-old corporate conspiracy, the plant had been wrongfully outlawed. "What a wonderful story," they said. "The boy's been smoking pot," they whispered. Actually, they hadn't a clue about the truckloads of bud we'd turned into spliffs and inhaled. I remember passing thumb-sized joints to the left and to the right, until I got too high to handle the constant crossovers. "Hempology 101" meetings with Dana Rozek were very smoky affairs in those days. But the weed was fuel to fire our dreams of hemp farms in a happier, healthier world. Hemp could save the planet. I had high hopes in hemp but not for the planet, back then. I was idealistic but somewhat jaded. Maybe, if we kept working, we might see a change someday, but I didn't expect much, and I didn't expect it soon. We were fighting the man, and I had come to expect a lot of resistance and little progress from the man. Which is why I nearly fell over a few months ago when I saw hemp beer at the BC liquor store. This was the government-controlled liquor distribution branch - dealer #1 - peddling an item out of our arsenal. Experimental hemp farms, hemp clothing, and medical marijuana, - these grassroots efforts I could expect - but hemp beer at the LQ? Things were starting to turn around. Officially. The Moral of this story is that if you can demonize a millennia-old human crop in a few years, you can sanctify it just as quickly, even after the better part of a century. I wouldn't have thought it was possible. This also means we can save the planet, I think, but we have to keep working. Thanks for reading CConline. I think the freedom of the information in this issue and those that came before has been a big part of beating back demonization with the tool of education. That means that you, the reader, have been the biggest part. Now if you'll excuse me, my typing hands are required for another burning matter. Karlis, Internet Liason 
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