Australia - marijuana being considered for new building material

[beentheredonethatagain]

The Australian
AAP


CANNABIS could soon be going up in buildings rather than going up in smoke.

The hemp plant is one of six identified by Department of Primary Industries (DPI) scientists in Queensland as a source of natural resin to reduce the building industry's reliance on resins produced from fossil fuels.

DPI project officer Dr Andries Potgieter said generating resins from renewable sources such as plant oils could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and result in a smaller carbon footprint.

Currently most resins and adhesives used in aerospace structures and in structural building materials are ultimately derived from crude oil.

Cannabis sativa, also known as marihuana or hemp, was very widely used in the past.

James Cook's Endeavour and ships of its era had all their sails and ropes made of hemp.

Industrial varieties, which have a negligible content of the active ingredient tetra hydra cannabinol (THC), are grown under licence in Queensland.

"The first step in the project was identifying which of the plant oil species are best suited to the Australian environment,'' Dr Potgieter said.

"Initially, we tested 13 plants for their suitability to Australian agronomic conditions and unsaturated oil content.

"We were able to narrow the selection down to eight species straight away due to the classification of some as weeds and their limited exposure to the Australian broad-acre cropping environment.

"We now have a final list of six plant species that show high potential for the extraction of oil for resin, and are currently not part of an existing oil production and refinery system.''

Research will continue into the suitability of hemp; Calendula officinalis (pot marigold), Camelina sativa (false flax); Pongamia pinnata (pongam tree); Lesquerella fendleri (desert mustard); and Crambe abyssinica (abyssinan mustard).

The joint project between DPI, the University of Southern Queensland and Loc Composites could to lead to the production of fibre composites which can be used in sustainable high technology building products used in, for example, the production of railway sleepers and small bridges, Dr Potgieter said.

The main challenge is to make it financially viable for farmers to grow crops for this purpose.



Note from beentheredonethatagain: " stoners could break off a piece "

[dr. swim]

I'm almost positive that marijuana is not hemp. Industrial hemp is not psychoactive. Marijuana is only one species of the plant that happens to be psychoactive. Cannabis sativa is definitely not hemp, since hemp can be legally imported into the U.S. because it's not psychoactive.

EDIT: ok I checked wikipedia and I'm partly wrong, Cannabis sativa is in fact the species used for industrial hemp. It is only psychoactive when crossbred with indica.

But still it doesn't change the fact that marijuana is not hemp. Marijuana refers specifically to Cannabis that is grown for it's psychoactive products, and is very ineffective as a textile. Hemp is typically only used to refer to industrial hemp which has such a small concentration of THC that you'd actually get better results from the oldest stale ditch weed you can find.

[doggy_hat]

Actually both sativa and indica can be psychoactive. Industrial hemp isn't a seperate species, it's just been breed (or genetically modified? I'm not sure.) to have incredibley low THC content. But the best time to harvest the hemp fibers is before the plant even buds, so it really wouldn't make a difference if it was psychoactive. In addition to low THC content, Industrial Hemp is either breed to be very tall with thick branches that produce plenty of Fibers, or is breed to give buds that produce lots of seeds.

I think it's rediculous that we have such a wonderful plant that's great for making papers, plastics, cloth, and so many other things, yet for so many years we've chosen to cut down forests that take decades to grow, or drill oil that'll take millions of years to regenerate. Hemp was so important that it used to be illegal to NOT grow hemp in some states in the early years of the United States. It's nice to see we're making turn (back) into the right direction.

[DynoMiTe]

Taken from the NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL HEMP COUNCIL
"Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time. The large volume and high temperature of vapor, gas and smoke would be almost impossible for a person to withstand.'

[Pickpoke]

Originally Posted by DynoMiTe

To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time.'

if its possible, you can garrentee somebodys' guna try it

[dr. swim]

"Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time. The large volume and high temperature of vapor, gas and smoke would be almost impossible for a person to withstand.'

You could probably do it with a bong. The really big ones where one rip is like a whole joint.

[Jasim]

We had a big fire downtown Indianapolis today. Imagine one of these buildings catching on fire. Nothing would really happen, but funny to picture a whole city getting high from a burning building.