Jacinda called climate change our nuclear moment, and now we have given her the power to face that challenge.
Will she? Can she? How? We need to fill the foreign student/tourism holes with billions of dollars of activity and resources. So, here’s what I think she should do. Create a Ministry of iHemp/iCannabis, and kick start some SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises) to enable Kiwis to innovate. Hemp’s coming back, let’s lead the pack. (We are behind).
If we can have a Minister of Racing, we can have one for Cannabis; it’s much more valuable. Here’s the thing - more than thirty countries grow ihemp (Cannabis Sativa) as an agricultural crop for food, fibre, medicine, and more. The UN recognises the right to grow ihemp as a crop. The corruption of US capitalism saw ihemp prohibited under the guise of ‘marijuana’ in the 1900s. Ihemp was cast out and its use was made a crime.
Toxic monopolies flourished in its absence. President Carter installed solar panels on the White House because ‘peak oil’ and the looming energy/climate crisis was known and accepted then. (And not because he had read the 1912 Wanganui Chronicle article on fossil fuel was causing climate change). But the conservative order struck back. Oil & Gas, war on drugs, divide and conquer, culture wars, class wars, privatise public wealth, cut social services; all short term thinking and pure self centred greed. Reagan ripped those solar panels off as soon as he moved in. Nothing much has changed since.
So, our nuclear moment is here. It’s time to progress independently and sustainably as a country. Growing better food, fibre, and medicine will help.
But, even as the world is turning back to hemp, all our models are based on monopolies again and our government still won’t acknowledge its disruptive potential. Should our team of five million have a stake in our new green economy and help it bloom and ecourage Hemp SOEs as honest competition to private monopolies, to fund essential national infrastructure, and to ensure that the public share in the dividends of providing life’s essentials?
Or should we just be consumers?
What do you think? Write in. (TADHG STOPFORD)
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