Purple haze. In the US, sixteen states and Washington, DC,  have legalized medical marijuana, and 16 other states have pending legislation.  This means that pot is one thing that some Republican states like Mississippi or Nebraska and some Democrat states like Maine and Connecticut can agree on, uniting divided America in a purple haze of red and blue…

Much farming takes place in sunny California, with a value of pot crops estimated at $14 billion, and growing competition also: the police discovered last summer North of San Francisco 121 pot farms, up from 37 the year before, most of them illegal.

Since unemployment is high, more and more white former private school students choose to work as pot farmers, trimming the plants, chopping them down and letting them cure in heated warehouses for three to four weeks, after which more temporary workers are imported to cut the dried leaves and prepare them for the market. A growing state matter!

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Building with hemp. Industrial hemp comes from Cannabis Sativa, the same plant species that produces marijuana, and therefore the production of industrial hemp has been long prohibited in the United States. Even in Santa Barbara, California, a state where medical marijuana is legalized, the authorities haven’t yet decided whether to allow the building with hemp to proceed.

Hempcrete is a mixture of hemp, lime and water, a very sustainable material that is energy-efficient, non-toxic, resistant to mold, insects and fire. It also absorbs carbon dioxide, purifying the air from city pollution inside the structure.

“NauHaus”, a North-Carolina project  by Hemp Technologies, has homes built in Hawaii, Texas, North-Carolina and Idaho, and has received the LEED platinum status.

By Emmanuelle Linard

www.hemp-technologies.com