Thoughts from the void: Cannabis and China

The oldest known evidence of cannabis usage, dating back 10,000 years, were discovered in a burial site in Taiwan, an island off China that it lays claim to. China is one of the oldest surviving cultures of the world going back in history as far as we can see. Many traditions in China have survived and continue to be practiced even today. A large part of China is rural with agrarian systems supporting the Chinese economy. Yet China is the world's second largest economy today. It is the most populous country in the world today. It has one of the largest military organizations. Its cities and industries are global and boast of the latest in technology and development. It is also one of the most polluted countries in the world with serious sustainability issues. It is currently or soon to be the largest contributor to climate change and global warming.

With the Communist revolution in China and the decades of single party rule, the country has been subjected to the policies of one political party. Unfortunately the vision of this political party does not give as much importance to ecological sustainability and protection of indigenous knowledge as it does to economic development, retaining power and military growth. China, the land of countless traditional medicines and herbs, today also believes that one of the greatest of traditional medicines and recreational herbs should be prohibited and continues to take strict steps to ensure this. Ironically China is the world's largest producer of hemp, the cannabis variant used for industrial purposes and its main export is, or was till recently, to the US, another major country largely responsible for the worldwide prohibition of cannabis. China's cannabis prohibition rules go so far as telling its nationals who visit countries where cannabis is legally available that they are likely to be prosecuted on their return if they are found to have consumed it.

This is truly a bizarre state of affairs. I am most certain that in many parts of China, especially rural areas, the cultivation and consumption of cannabis goes on as it always has. I am also certain that there exists potentially hundreds of indigenous cannabis varieties in China. The legalization of the plant would vastly increase farming revenues and improve the lives of farmers. Cannabis, as a sustainable crop, is much more likely to thrive in adverse climatic conditions as compared to rice or cotton. Cannabis based technology can power China's immense energy requirements through bio-fuels, batteries and super capacitors potentially reducing the immense dependency on highly polluting thermal power plants. Use of cannabis based paper can reduce the felling of trees. Bio-degradable plastic can replace petrochemical based synthetic plastic. Hempcrete building materials can replace concrete. Textile and fabric industries can thrive using cannabis fibers. Exports and trade in the numerous Chinese varieties of cannabis to the growing world wide cannabis markets could fuel research, industry, business, medicine, the economy and tourism of a truly sustainable nature.

Yet why does China not legalize cannabis? To me it appears to be a mixture of various reasons. The outdated thinking that cannabis for recreational and social use will incite free thinking, independent actions and rebellion among the people possibly ranks high. The success of US propaganda that cannabis has no medicinal value and the clout of Chinese pharmaceutical, military and petrochemical industries are probably other reasons. China supplies pharmaceutical raw materials to a huge number of global companies. The most likely factor is that even though Greece was where opium was first discovered and used, China soon made opium its own. Western colonial powers helped the surge of opium by trading in it, providing China immense wealth and military power through the trade, and eventually fighting numerous wars to protect Chinese opium. With the taking over of China by the Communist party, the equation has not changed. These various factors have led to a path that is highly unsustainable, leading to the increasing likelihood of a breakdown eventually in terms of environmental damage, internal rebellion or international war, all in a vain effort to try and gain economic and military domination over the world, a totally illusory goal.

Marking an even more alarming drift to Chinese society's approach towards drugs, China has emerged as one of the hubs of fentanyl , methamphetamine, novel psychotropic substance manufacture, distribution and consumption, besides the traditional opioids and opiates, in the absence of cannabis as a recreational drug. This has apparently come about through multiple home labs and backyard operations. Fentanyl, around 50 times as potent as heroin has already raised alarm bells in the US and Australia due to the death toll from its usage. Chinese drug cartels are said to work with Mexican and other international cartels spreading the manufacture, distribution and sale of opium derivatives like heroin and fentanyl. China was known for its opium dens in the past but these were banned only to lay the foundation for the more potent processed derivatives of opium to take root and spread across the world. The ban on cannabis has only served to aid the process as all these highly dangerous synthetic drugs have quickly moved in to fill the space. There has also been the appearance of synthetic cannabinoids that are particularly alarming as they mimic the appearance of natural cannabis but are deadly to use with none of cannabis's recreational or medicinal properties. Synthetic cannabis from China is said to be freely available in the streets of many of the world's cities, with young people most often falling victim to it due to the lack of availability of the safe, healthy but banned natural cannabis. Even though there are reports of Chinese crackdown on these dangerous synthetic drugs, it appears that China has merely outsourced their production and distribution to its satellite countries, namely Burma (Myanmar), People's Republic of Laos, etc. Methamphetamine, especially, has been on the rise in China according to the UNODC World Drug Report 2020. The people who are most affected by the prohibition of cannabis worldwide, as well as in China, are the poorest, the minorities, the indigenous communities, the elderly, the youth, the ill and women. Though authorities claim to be the party of the people, the people's drug, cannabis, has been taken away from them and has been substituted with deadly synthetic drugs.

The incessant propaganda against cannabis by authorities and media has been so effective that most Chinese believe that cannabis is the most dangerous drug in the world. One of the examples of this propaganda was when the iconic Bruce Lee died controversially in Hong Kong. Even though his death was ultimately diagnosed as an allergic reaction to the painkiller Equagesic, the authorities did not waste the opportunity to spread the message among the public that it was cannabis that had killed him, despite medical experts clearly stating that cannabis was as lethal as a cup of tea.

Instead of walking the path of a sustainable and inclusive future, China has in recent times taken aggressive steps to block cannabis legalization on the global stage. From creating a pandemic hoax to promote its pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries to opposing cannabis vehemently at the UN, China's anti-cannabis action has the most vocal, making the US of the 1960s and Russia appear mild in comparison . At the recent UN meeting to review the rescheduling of cannabis held in March 2020, China was one of the key opponents to cannabis. According to MJBizDaily, 'China hoped “the WHO will continue to strengthen its research on the dangers and risks of abuse of cannabis.”' It along with Russia, Japan, Singapore, Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia pushed for and welcomed the postponement of the cannabis rescheduling review to December 2020 thus extending the protection they offered to the businesses opposing cannabis, namely the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. It meant that the people of China and the rest of the world, the majority of whom stand to gain from cannabis legalization for recreational use, continue to live in dependence of the poisonous products of unsustainable big businesses while authoritarian leaders live out their fantasies of immortality and the world hurtles towards a fast and painful extinction.

If China were to legalize cannabis for recreational use, it would be a truly meaningful way to address the health of its people, industry and environment. Being a country the size that China is, this would also mean addressing the health, industry and environment of a significant part of the world today. That is why it is probably as important for China to legalize recreational cannabis as it is for US. The US legalization would have a ripple effect on the worldwide cannabis laws. The Chinese legalization would have a ripple effect in the global battle against climate change and warming. Will China shed its obsession with economic and military domination, ideas that have become irrelevant and in fact outright dangerous for life on the planet as we move towards precarious times because of climate and environmental damage and will it take a step towards the protection of life on earth especially of its own nation?

In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It does however still remain in Schedule I, which is the least restrictive. This one move by the UN itself should be sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws, given that most nations cite the UN treaty to keep cannabis prohibited.

It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization has happened it took the efforts of the people who mobilized themselves through grassroots level movements to bring about this change. Left to lawmakers legalization would have been impossible, as the main interests of lawmakers concern the protection of the big industries opposed to cannabis such as pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, medical, alcohol and tobacco. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.

Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.

'According to United States authorities, most of the fentanyls destined for the North American market have been manufactured in China in recent years, from where they were either shipped directly to the United States, mostly through postal services, or were first shipped to Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Canada and then smuggled into the United States. However, after the introduction by China in May 2019 of drug controls based on generic legislation with regard to the fentanyls, which effectively brought more than 1,400 known fentanyl analogues under national control in China, early signs suggest that fewer fentanyls were smuggled from China to North America. At the same time, attempts to manufacture fentanyl and its analogues inside North America are increasing, notably in Mexico, by means of a method using precursor chemicals smuggled into the subregion from East Asia and South Asia.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'After marked increases over the 2009-2012 period, the overall quantities of synthetic NPS seized have shown a downward trend since 2012, most notably when they fell from 44 tons in 2017 to 10 tons in 2018. This may partly reflect the fact that some of the most widely used and most harmful NPS have been put under national and international control in recent years and therefore, according to the current definition, no longer belong to the NPS category. Moreover, a number of countries in North America, Europe and Oceania, where major markets for NPS are located, have introduced various controls on NPS trade in recent years. In parallel, China, which is frequently mentioned as the main country of origin or departure for various synthetic NPS (with 27 per cent of all such mentions over the 2014–2018 period, ahead of India with 10 per cent), has introduced controls in various waves on the manufacture of and trade in such substances. This and other developments appear to have had an impact on the proliferation of NPS at the global level, reducing the quantities of those substances on key markets.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'While China does not report data on drug treatment admissions, the majority of registered drug users (nearly 60 per cent) in 2018 comprised users of synthetic drugs (mainly methamphetamine)' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'A small number of countries continue to account for a large proportion of the total global number of PWID [persons who inject drugs] living with HIV. In 2018, for example, PWID living with HIV in China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation accounted for almost half of the global total (49 per cent), while PWID in those three countries comprise only a third of all PWID worldwide.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'The clandestine manufacture of fentanyls within North America is thus not really a new phenomenon and has the potential to increase in importance following the recent control of fentanyls substances in China. - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'The most significant trafficking activities worldwide of opiates not of Afghan origin concern opiates produced in South-East Asia (mostly Myanmar), which are trafficked to other markets in East and SouthEast Asia (mostly China and Thailand) and to Oceania (mostly Australia). Seizures made in those countries accounted for 11 per cent of the global quantities of heroin and morphine seized (excluding seizures made by Afghanistan) in 2018, down from 15 per cent in 2015. This went in parallel with reported reductions in opium production in Myanmar of 20 per cent over the period 2005–2018.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'The decline in the domestic supply of methamphetamine, indicated by the falling number of manufacturing facilities dismantled in the United States, going hand in hand with increasing use and an overall increase in the supply of the drug, can be explained by the increasing importance of rapidly growing illegal methamphetamine imports from clandestine manufacture sites in neighbouring Mexico. According to the United States authorities, the latter phenomenon appears to have resulted from attempts by Mexican organized crime groups to diversify their drug portfolio as they attempted to reduce their dependence on cocaine produced in countries in South America, preferring instead to source the required chemicals from China and produce methamphetamine themselves. Methamphetamine shipments intercepted along the south-western border of the United States increased almost fourfold between 2013 and 2018.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'The region with the next largest number of methamphetamine laboratories dismantled was Asia, accounting for 6 per cent of the global total in the period 2014–2018. Most of these facilities were dismantled in China and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which together accounted for 94 per cent of all reported laboratories dismantled in Asia, while some clandestine methamphetamine laboratories were also dismantled, in descending order of importance, in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, the Republic of Korea, Myanmar and Hong Kong, China. In addition, the clandestine manufacture of methamphetamine has been reported in recent years by Afghanistan and Iraq.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'Countries identified as significant source countries for methamphetamine shipments in Asia in the period 2014–2018 included Myanmar, followed by China, Thailand, India and Iran (Islamic Republic of). Clandestine methamphetamine manufacture in Asia seems to be still largely based on the use of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine as precursors, although reports from Afghanistan suggest that ephedrine is extracted from ephedra plant material and used as a precursor for methamphetamine.80 The authorities in Myanmar and Thailand have reported the seizure of increasing quantities of sodium cyanide and benzyl cyanide in recent years. These substances can be used for synthesizing P-2-P, which is then used to manufacture either amphetamine or methamphetamine.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'Similar to the situation in the United States, where the manufacture of methamphetamine declined while increasing in neighbouring Mexico, both China and Iran (Islamic Republic of) reported declining domestic production, reflected in the decreasing numbers of methamphetamine laboratories dismantled in recent years, going hand in hand with the expansion of methamphetamine manufacture in their neighbouring countries. Indeed, by 2018 the Islamic Republic of Iran reported that most of the methamphetamine found on its territory originated in Afghanistan and was trafficked either from there directly or via Pakistan. Similarly, China reported that methamphetamine seized in recent years has originated primarily in Myanmar. In contrast to many other countries, however, the marked declines in the domestic manufacture of methamphetamine in China appear to have more than outweighed any increase in clandestine manufacture and imports from neighbouring countries. This is revealed in the decline in methamphetamine found in the wastewater in cities across China, with wastewater-based estimates suggesting a fall in methamphetamine consumption amounts of 26 per cent over the period 2014 –2018' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'The largest quantities of methamphetamine seized in 2018 were the quantities seized in the United States, followed by Thailand and Mexico. Marked increases in the quantities seized from 2017 to 2018 were reported by the United States and Thailand, while the quantities of methamphetamine seized in China declined, in line with reports of wastewater analysis that showed a significant decline in methamphetamine consumption in that country.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'The United States, for example, has been reported by other countries as a country of departure of methamphetamine for Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), Asia (Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China and Mongolia) and Europe (Ireland). Moreover, methamphetamine trafficking has been reported not only from Mexico or from Canada into the United States but also from the United States to those two countries, suggesting a number of two-way trafficking flows across the countries of North America. Methamphetamine trafficked from Canada has been reported in the United States, South America (Chile), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and a few countries in Europe (Iceland and Latvia).' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'Quantities of methamphetamine seized in East and South-East Asia increased eightfold over the period 2009–2018, to close to 100 tons, and preliminary data for 2019 show further strong increases in the quantities of methamphetamine seized, in particular in South-East Asia, with increases reported in 2019 by, among other countries, Brunei Daraussalam, Cambodia. Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam. In most years in the past decade the largest quantities of methamphetamine seized in East and South-East Asia were reported by China. In 2018, by contrast, 66 per cent of all the methamphetamine seized in that subregion was seized in Thailand, followed by Indonesia (8 per cent) and Malaysia (8 per cent) and only then by China (6 per cent), reflecting underlying shifts in the methamphetamine market in South-East Asia, that is, a decline in the methamphetamine market in China in parallel with ongoing increases in the ASEAN countries.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'This shift from China as the main location of methamphetamine manufacture and trafficking to other countries in East and South-East Asia is also indirectly reflected in trafficking data reported by Australia. China and Hong Kong, China, were the two main embarkation points for methamphetamine trafficked to Australia in 2015, whereas in the fiscal years 2016/17 and 2017/18 the most important embarkation points were the United States, followed by Thailand and Malaysia. In fact, in 2018, the Australian authorities reported that the importance of China as a source country for methamphetamine had declined while there has been an emerging trend in the growth of quantities of seized methamphetamine originating in South-East Asia, mainly in the Mekong region, including the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Thailand.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'Most of the methamphetamine available in East and South-East Asia is sourced within the subregion. The dynamics of methamphetamine manufacture and trafficking within that subregion are, however, less well understood than in others as the available indicators show partly contradictory patterns. Although in previous years, China and Myanmar were identified as the most frequently identified countries of “origin”, “departure” and “transit” in East and South-East Asia, manufacture of methamphetamine may now be more widely spread across the subregion, although it is not clear whether frequently mentioned departure countries, such as Malaysia or Thailand, are also the countries of origin or mainly transit countries for methamphetamine manufactured in Myanmar. In fact, Myanmar reported Thailand and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic as main destination countries for methamphetamine shipments in 2018, while Malaysia reported Thailand as the main departure country' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'While methamphetamine trafficking flows from East and South-East Asia to countries outside the subregion remain modest, some smuggling to destinations around the world was reported, mainly smuggling from Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar in 2018 or, when the period is extended to the past five years, mainly from China and Thailand. Destinations outside the subregion included countries in South Asia, the Near and Middle East (Saudi Arabia as well as Israel), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), North America (the United States as well as Canada), Western Europe (notably Switzerland as well as Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Iceland), Eastern Europe (notably the Russian Federation) and Africa (notably South Africa) over the period 2014–2018' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

'Methamphetamine found in Australia and New Zealand is both locally manufactured and, to a larger extent, imported from North America and Asia. In the fiscal year 2017/18, methamphetamine was mainly smuggled into Australia from the United States, followed by Thailand, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, China (including Hong Kong, China), Mexico, Lebanon, Viet Nam and India. The United States was also the main source country of the methamphetamine found in New Zealand in 2018, followed by Canada and, in SouthEast Asia, by Malaysia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

Afghanistan and Mexico source the heroin and morphine. Mexico, Thailand, Myanmar and China source the methamphetamine. The Middle East and Eastern Europe sources the amphetamine. The US consumes heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Europe consumes heroin, morphine, methamphetamine and amphetamine. Asia consumes heroin, morphine and methamphetamine. Australia consumes methamphetamine. The Middle East consumes heroin and amphetamine. West Asia consumes heroin and methamphetamine. All countries grow and consume cannabis. Opioids, methamphetamine and amphetamines kill the most in terms of drug deaths, cannabis kills none. Who are the leading opponents to cannabis legalization and leading enforcers of global anti-cannabis policy? The countries involved the most in heroin, morphine, amphetamines and methamphetamines. They put on a mask of concern about harms from drugs, produce, sell and consume the most dangerous synthetic drugs and vehemently oppose cannabis legalization worldwide while clandestinely feeding their habits and protecting their sources. They use arms and armies to protect and promote their synthetic drug habits, and drug money to fund and wage a war on cannabis everywhere, pushing man and planet ever closer to death on massive scales and away from the safe, healing cannabis herb...
Jul 10, 2020, 1:14 PM

'China hoped “the WHO will continue to strengthen its research on the dangers and risks of abuse of cannabis.”'
https://mjbizdaily.com/postponed-vote-on-who-cannabis-recommendations-reveals-international-disagreements-uphill-battle-ahead/

'—Cannabis seeds macrofossils were found attached to pieces of broken ceramic in central Japan dating back about 10,000 years.
—Shen Nung, a Chinese emperor around 2,700 BCE who is also considered the father of Chinese medicine, reportedly regarded marijuana as a “first-class herb” that was not dangerous.
—According to Vedic texts from around 800 BCE, cannabis was used in religious rituals but also for its “analgesic, anesthetic, antiparasitic, antispastic, and diuretic properties” and “as an expectorating agent, as an aphrodisiac, to treat convulsions, to stimulate hunger, and to relieve from fatigue.”
—Marijuana was considered a “holy plant” in Tibet and was used in Tantric Buddhism to “facilitate meditations.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/study-documents-humanitys-use-of-marijuana-over-10000-years-of-history/

It's easy to identify authoritarian governments these days...you're most likely to find them on top of the international arms trade lists as well...

'A statement posted on the website of the Chinese consulate in Toronto reminds citizens in its jurisdiction to avoid using marijuana to ensure their physical and mental health.'
https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/cannabis/china-warns-citizens-against-using-marijuana-in-canada-254826/

The very nature of synthetic drugs make them a constant moving target, impossible to detect and control since small changes in chemical composition can be easily achieved even by the smallest manufacturer, proving them undetectable for enough time to cause damage. The US, China and India can curb the menace only by providing consumers with a healthier alternative and manufacturers with a more profitable legal business. The answer quite obviously is legalizing cannabis so that consumers in the US can access it freely and manufacturers in China and India can switch to the healthier, greener and more profitable business of cannabis cultivation.

'Felbab-Brown says China's new stance on fentanyl-related substances stems partially from a desire to be a global enforcer on drugs. "From a public relations perspective, it's difficult for China to be accused of being a source of drugs," she says.

China does not have a monopoly on fentanyl production, she adds. "Even if tomorrow the United States wouldn't get fentanyl from China, others would step in. Most obviously India, a major source of addictive drugs."'
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/01/708801717/china-to-close-loophole-on-fentanyl-after-u-s-calls-for-opioid-action

The Chinese government is losing out on the herb's tourism, recreational and medicinal value. There is surely a huge illegal marijuana market especially in rural China. China has been in the news recently as a major source of novel psychoactive drugs, synthetic cannabis and fentanyl that is killing people worldwide. By legalizing marijuana, the Chinese government would do the right thing for its own people and the world. The Chinese people would have access to traditional medicine, international tourists would visit China for its ganja and people worldwide could enjoy Chinese ganja. Isn't that how it should be?

'Marijuana use in China is strictly forbidden. In fact, when Canada legalized cannabis last year, the Chinese government sternly reminded its citizens living in or visiting the country to “please avoid contact or using marijuana.”

Yet, despite their nation’s strict views on marijuana, research shows that significant numbers of Chinese tourists are heading to Amsterdam to take part in its prolific cannabis culture. A new study published in the journal Current Issues in Tourism sheds light on some of the motivations for the cross-continental cannatourism.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/marijuana-tourism-from-china-to-amsterdam-study-sheds-light-on-motivations/

'Our results showed that 100 hemp varieties from China could be classified into 3 distinct clusters, and that the 3 clusters were consistent with the cool temperate, warm temperate, and subtropical zones in China, respectively. These indicated that the climate, created by latitude, temperature, and day length, is a key factor affecting the germplasm diversity of hemp. Although the three clusters from China were physically closer, hemp in Northern China had a greater similarity coefficient with European hemp than with the other two clusters. This is most likely because these two regions are at similar latitudes, and thus have similar climatic conditions... Our results provide a new insight into the study on germplasm resources and systematic classification in hemp, which may be helpful for the introduction, germplasm development, and utilization in different climates, countries, or continents.'
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0110638

'When thinking of the booming legal cannabis industry, the majority of analysts are following the developments in the United States, Canada and Israel. It makes sense, since these world superpowers are already bringing in billions of dollars annually on both medical and recreational pot.

But there is another cannabis powerhouse quietly developing that you may not expect—China.

According to a recent report from the South China Morning Post, a small number of Chinese provinces, including Heilongjiang, near the Russian border, and Yunnan to the south, now make up nearly half of the world’s legal hemp cultivation.'
https://hightimes.com/news/how-china-quietly-became-a-legal-hemp-powerhouse/

'Given both its size and cultural experience of centuries’ worth of cultivation of cannabis sativa for the plant’s strong fibers used to manufacture paper, fabric, and rope, it is not surprising that China is the world’s leader in hemp cultivation, processing, manufacturing, and exports. Until recently, China maintained half of the world’s total planting area for industrial hemp, along with half of the world’s cannabis-related patents. In 2017, Chinese domestic consumer sales of hemp were estimated at $1.1 billion (USD), or more than 1/3 of the global market. Already boasting such a substantial hemp-derived textile industry, the country’s growing CBD market is likewise poised to dominate as consumers become more familiar with the increasingly destigmatized product’s versatility.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/fresh-perspectives-arising-from-the-pacific-rim/

Weekly CannaBit from New Frontier Data

With global demand for hemp surging, China’s sector is poised for years of dramatic growth.
In 2017, Chinese hemp sales totaled $1.1 billion (USD), approaching 1/3 of the $3.1 billion global market, with sales forecasted to grow to $1.5 billion (up 36%) by 2020.
In 2017, textiles accounted for about 3/4 of China’s overall sales of $823 million (USD).
Hemp-derived CBD accounted for Chinese sales of $53 million (USD) in 2017 but is forecasted to more than quadruple (by 4.3x, to $228 million) by 2020.
Demand for CBD products in both Japan and South Korea – countries with high relative spending for wellness and cosmetics – could further catalyze demand for China’s hemp-derived CBD

As Grateful Dead sang in Truckin' - What in the world ever became of sweet Jane? She lost her sparkle, you know she isn't the same. Livin' on reds, vitamin C, and cocaine, All a friend can say is "Ain't it a shame?...Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been.

'From China, coastal farmers brought pot to Korea about 2000 B.C. or earlier, according to the book "The Archeology of Korea" (Cambridge University Press, 1993). Cannabis came to the South Asian subcontinent between 2000 B.C. and 1000 B.C., when the region was invaded by the Aryans — a group that spoke an archaic Indo-European language. The drug became widely used in India, where it was celebrated as one of "five kingdoms of herbs ... which release us from anxiety" in one of the ancient Sanskrit Vedic poems whose name translate into "Science of Charms."'
https://www.livescience.com/48337-marijuana-history-how-cannabis-travelled-world.html

'Hong Kong police, it's said, fear local youth might discover the pleasures of grass, and what is currently a minor problem might mushroom. They quickly grabbed the "killer drug" image of cannabis and tied it to Lee as an anti-drug message. Lee's image, of course, suffered for it.' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

'In Hong Kong however, where there is almost no marijuana use, the drug conjures up images of harder drugs, much as "grass" used to be considered the "devil weed" in the United States before its usage spread in the late 1960s. Police in Hong Kong, even now, tend to pay more attention to hash or grass, it seems, than heroin or opium, simply because the substances are less familiar and have come to be associated with the dreaded "hippie tourist Europeans" (anyone in Hong Kong who is not Chinese, and who has white skin, is called a European, just as all Japanese and Chinese are lumped together in America with Vietnamese and others as Orientals).' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

'Even as Bruce was being buried in Seattle, more headlines about him were appearing in the Hong Kong press. First lab tests from the autopsy, not done until thirty-six hours after death, were just coming in, and the big sensation was again "cannabis." Eventually the fact that there were traces of cannabis, or marijuana in Lee's stomach was completely discredited as a reason for his death. A doctor later said that it had as much meaning as telling him Lee had drunk a cup of tea the day he died.' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

'The top expert brought in on the case was Professor R D Teare, the professor of forensic medicine at the University of London. He ridiculed the theory that cannabis contributed to the collapse the actor suffered on May 10 or to his death on July 20. He said cannabis had been taken in various forms for centuries, and deemed it pure coincidence that shortly before the onset of Lee's collapse in May and his death he had taken cannabis. "It would be irresponsible and irrational to ascribe the causes of death to cannabis sensitivity, if over the years there had been no previous record of such a happening," the professor stated. Professor Teare said that his opinion was that the cause of death was acute cerebral edema (brain swelling) due to hypersensitvity to either meprobamate or aspirin, or possibly the combination of the two, contained in the drug Equagesic.' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

'Clinical pathologist Dr. R R Lycette of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong testified Lee's death could not have been caused by cannabis poisoning, but was more likely due to hypersensitivity to one of the elements of Equagesic. Dr. Lycette, who performed the autopsy on Lee, explained hypersensitivity is an adverse reaction of a body to a foreign substance. "The substance which Lee could have been hypersensitive to might have been contained in Equagesic - a tablet he took - but I can't definitely say which compound in the tablet Lee was hypersensitive to," said the doctor.' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

Hey junkie, this dope is not against you. Of course he believes that his dope is a much better intoxicant, more versatile medicine and more useful to the planet than your junk but that doesn't mean he intends to ban your junk in retribution for you helping to get his dope banned. What he does want, however, is that you start growing your own plant at home like him. In this way, you source your junk directly from the plant instead of putting money in the pockets of chemists who increasingly make more and more toxic stuff that destroy you, me and the planet. Your money is making the chemist pay the government to arm itself and protect him while pushing you and me closer to death. Growing your own plant will give you organic healthy junk in the best possible way, directly from the plant, like how it used to be for thousands of years, making you sustainable and the planet sustainable..yes, you can go green too..don't remain snowblind..we need your eyes too, to steer the planet away from man-made chemical disaster...

'Among the rural folk of the western hills of Bajura, Bajhang, Rolpa, Rukum and Darchula, hemp collection is an important pastime. Shepherds spin the fibre into thread while grazing their sheep and cattle.

Cannabis plants grow to a height of 20 ft. After harvesting them, villagers shred the leaves and soak the stems in water for up to 20 days. When they are tender the bark is separated from the rest of the plant, smoked above a fire and boiled in ash water. Thin strips are then removed from the bark by hand.

"The older generation used to have holes in their thumbnails through which they passed the strips of fibre and wove them to make thread," says Prem Dahal, proprietor of Hemp House. Dahal has been in the hemp business for over 19 years and is one of few who still use Nepali hemp for his products, even after the emergence of Chinese hemp in the market'
http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=879#.XxU3JxJS_IV

Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

With no scientific basis global drug laws are invalid
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-scientific-basis-global-drug.html

A Look At The NDPS Act 1985 From A Cannabis Perspective
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-look-at-ndps-act-1985-from-cannabis.html

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