Cannabis on campus Hemp for the homeless

Club looks to team with LATTC to help build plant-based structures

“The most important thing that we want to portray is that hemp is not marijuana, it is cannabis,” he said.

Units (ADUs), or ‘granny flats,’ in residents’ backyards.

perspective, Hemphill said, the benefits are numerous.

Marijuana use still not permitted on campus despite new law in place

Hemp was once a thriving piece of manufacturing and construction, but for 80 years cultivation was illegal due to its close connection to marijuana. However, the plant is making a return in the industrial world and clubs and groups in the district are looking to erase the stigma.

Pierce College’s Industrial Hemp Club President and agriculture student Andrew Hemphill plans to grow cannabis to create hempcrete, a viable building resource that Los Angeles Trade Technical College’s architecture students intend to use to address Los Angeles’ housing crisis.

Although the Pierce Industrial Hemp Club dreams big, Hemphill said the student-led organization must overcome a lot of misinformation and stereotypes that come with the plant.

“It’s the same species, but a different variety, so they’re the same family but they’re cousins.”

The difference between hemp and cannabis is that hemp contains less than .03 percent THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana.

The Industrial Hemp Club will apply to participate in pilot program in Section 7606 of the Agricultural Act of 2014, better known as the 2014 Farm Bill. The bill allows universities and private research facilities to apply for federal permits to grow industrial hemp.

Abigail Cuevas, Los Angeles Community College Industrial Hemp Alliance (L.I.H.A.) president and LATTC architecture student, said her department has been working on blueprints for structures that adhere to a recently passed policy in Los Angeles that permits the construction of Accessory Dwelling

-Andrew Hemphill Industrial Hemp Club President

Cuevas said hempcrete, a composite material made up of hempstalk and lime, is an ideal building material for ADUs because it is non-toxic, moldresistant and fire-retardant.

According to the National Hemp Association, hempcrete bricks nearly eliminate the need for a wooden frame

From an agricultural and ecological

Hemp’s growing period is relatively short with a high return, producing more oil than peanuts and paper than trees per acre. Hemp utilizes less water than cotton and one acre sequesters 12 tons of carbon from the atmosphere, more than any other plant. Hemp can be used to clean soil of pollutants, being planted around Chernobyl in the mid-1990s.

Hemp can be used to make a variety of products including paper, clothing, rope, oil, fuel and building materials.

Hemphill sees the irony surrounding hemp given the resource’s historic connections.

“Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, intended for it to run on hemp and vegetable oil,” Hemphill said. “In fact, Henry Ford’s first car was built out of plastic and ran on hemp ethanol.” roneil.roundupnews@gmail.com

Getting to know hemp

CAMERON KERN Reporter @ckernroundup

When voters went to the polls last year and passed Prop 64, California legalized marijuana for adults 21 and up, joining seven other states with laws permitting recreational use.

While the Golden State is now green-friendly, marijuana is still a red-flag at Pierce.

“People think it’s legal, but you can’t smoke it in a public place, especially on a college campus,” Deputy Isaac Jorge said. After the election, before recreational sales even began, the Sheriff’s department on campus made changes to try to nip any issues in the bud.

“Since last year we have been initiating more patrol checks, especially with everything that’s going on. Just high visibility all around.”

So far the patrols have done as intended, with Jorge reporting “no increase in drug related incidents on campus in the last year.” opinions across the country seem to move to a more favorable take on marijuana, Benne believes the drug is harmful.

“The evils of marijuana use ride along the evils of tobacco and even alcohol,” Benne said. “They’re all substances that will alter your perception. For me, it’s reassuring to know that it’s illegal at Pierce because Pierce is a federally funded campus.”

Marijuana is still a schedule 1 drug, the DEA’s most serious category of illegal substances. That puts it alongside heroin, ecstasy, LSD, peyote, and Quaaludes as a drug "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."

According to an article from popsci.com, there are many hoops to jump through in order to perform clinical studies. A DEA license is required, and the study must be FDA approved. When it comes to actually obtaining research-grade marijuana, the National Institute on Drug Abuse is the only place that researchers can go through.

A University of Michigan study has shown that one in 17 college students in the United States smokes marijuana on a daily or near-daily basis.

Believed to be the first domestically-cultivated plant, with fabric dating back to 8,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (modern-day Turkey) cultivated fabric domestically

• The first US marijuana law was enacted in 1619, requiring Jamestown Colony farmers to grow hemp

• Was used as legal tender and could be used to pay taxes in parts of the Americas

• Hemp paper is stronger than wood-based paper, is naturally acid-free and does not yellow as fast, in many cases does not yellow even after hundreds of years

• Can grow without pesticides and in many different types of soil

• Is known to kill weeds and purify soil

• A high-yield crop, producing twice as much oil as an acre of peanuts, and four times as much fiber pulp for paper as an acre of trees

• Has the strongest and longest plant fiber in the world

• Top 5 counties in hemp production: China, Korea, Netherlands, Chile and Australia

All forms of smoking, vaping and edible marijuana are included in the regulations programs and are illegal on campus. Health Center Director Beth Benne and her interns have been avidly creating presentations across campus focusing on substance abuse, not specifically on marijuana.

Benne says she is “not a fan” of college students here at Pierce and all across California having the ability to get their hands on the drug, especially with the increased potency seen these days.

“The levels of THC in today’s marijuana is so much stronger then it was when I was growing up,” Benne said. “Many medical professionals, including myself, believe it is even more of a gateway drug than it's ever been.”

While the number of states with medicinal and recreational laws on the books increases, and

Nicole Davidson, a Pierce College student and an avid recreational marijuana smoker, is in favor of legalization for the benefits the plant possesses.

“It lets people and college students sleep and relax after a long day of work and school,” Davidson said.

Benne believes the new leniency on marijuana can be attributed to the younger portion of society.

“Your generation might be kinder on marijuana then it’s been on tobacco because this new generation of students feel there’s no harm in the drug, hence the legality of it.”

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