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• Fiber Wars: The Extinction of Kentucky Hemp The seminal history of the American hemp industry and what happened to the seed of this once highly valued crop, wherein was first written: "Hemp is not marijuana."
  
 
• Hemp and Marijuana: Myths and Realities NAIHC whitepaper discusses the distinction between these varieties of cannabis.  [PDF VERSION] 
  
 
• Hemp as Weed Control, A short examination of the literature on hemp's ability to clean fields of weeds
  
 
• Ecce Granum ("Behold the Seed") A Manifesto on Seed (HEMP PAGES, 1999)
  And Ecce Granum Revisited, from Cannabis Health Magazine, Winter 2006
 
• The Low, Dishonest Decade, What was going on in the 1930s that formed the background to the Marihuana Tax Act (HEMP TIMES, Fall, 1999).
  
 
• Hemp in Wisconsin This is the full version of the article that appeared in Hemp World.
  
 
• Histories of Hemp  A personal retrospective on James Hopkins' "History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky" with reference to other Histories of Hemp. J. International Hemp Assocn. (1998) 5(2): 112-115.
  
 
• UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. ALEXANDER WHITE PLUME, et al. AFFIDAVIT OF DAVID P. WEST, Ph.D.(DOWNLOAD PDF)
  
 
• What happens when you cross hemp and marijuana? A piece written to answer the most frequently asked question. (Spring, 2002)



• With John McPartland,
  • Killing Cannabis with mycoherbicides by John M. McPartland and David P. West. J. International Hemp Assocn. (1999) 6(1):1-8.
    

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• Additional Background Materials, some of it out-of-date:

  • America's Hemp King: Matt Rens by Dennis Rens. Good local history of the Wisconsin industry, with pictures. Used with permission.
     
  • Hawaiian Industrial Hemp Report, 1996, by Gertraude Roth-L. Of historical interest.
     
  • Market Analysis for Hemp Fiber as a Feed Stock for Papermaking. Anonymous. The report the government has tried to suppress.
     
  • Procedings of the 1938 Marihuana Conference The heretofore unpublished procedings of the FBN's 1938 conference on marihuana (as it was spelled in 1938). I scanned it from a mimeo held by the DEA's library. This document reveals that the new industries in Minnesota were the target of the 1937 law. Good stuff for the history buff. Check out Low, Dishonest Decade.
     
  • Industrial Hemp Farming: History and Practice by David P. West, Ph.D. A draft of a new history of industrial hemp and practical aspects of farming the crop. Rehashes much of Fiber Wars with more emphasis on farming. Maybe I'll get back to it someday.
     
  • Kentucky 4-H Project for growing hemp during the war emergency. Thanks to Eric Skidmore for this detailed account of hemp seed production in that era.
     
  • The Union Grove Sun, Union Grove, Wisconsin, July 26, 1944. (Things they don't tell you in school.) NEWSPAPER ARTICLE (31K IMAGE)
     
  • Annex C: THC assay procedures prescribed in Europe THC assaying is a process to be applied at the variety development stage, not to farmers' fields. (This protocol is dated.)
     
  • Technical Data: re: seed, agronomics; still useful information
     
  • Introductory Statement on Technical Obstacles faced in the re-emergence of fiber hemp as an agronomic crop by David P. West, Ph.D. An essay, somewhat dated.
     
  • Article from Winona (MN) Republican Herald, Dec. 31,1937 A newspaper article describing the new hemp industries in Minnesota which were the object of the FBN's campaign.
     
  • A matter-of-fact letter written in 1913 by W.W. Stockberger, Physiologist in Charge of Drug Plant Investigations,USDA, in response to an inquiry regarding Cannabis. Contributed by John Lupien.
     
  • Richard Lawrence Miller on industrial hemp for Missouri A discussion of states' legal position regarding their right to grow industrial hemp by R. L. Miller
     
  • 1909 Children's Encyclopedia entry on HEMP An unknown writer (could it have been Lyster Dewey?) wrote a learned dissertation on hemp for the 1909 edition of The Children's Encyclopedia. Contributed by David Pletcher.
     
  • Treason's Peace by Howard Watson Ambruster, 1947. PDF of an obscure, out-of-print exposé of the rise of the organic chemical industry with special reference to IG FARBEN. A treasure of insight into the Thirties. What was Morgenthau's Treasury Dept really about? If you want this, write to me. Background material for Low, Dishonest Decade.
     
  • Civil War: Battle of Hemp Bales by Guy Kinnison. The hemp bales at the Lexington, Missouri, hemp mill were perfect protection for the Grays during the War of Northern Aggression. Historical vignette.
     
  • What did the poet John Greenleaf Whittier think about all this on the eve of the Civil War?
     
  • Auden's poem, September 1, 1939, is the source of the title "Low, Dishonest Decade" He gets the last word:
     
  Defenseless under the night
    Our world in stupor lies;
    Yet, dotted everywhere,
    Ironic points of light
    Flash out wherever the Just
    Exchange their messages:
    May I, composed like them
    Of Eros and of dust,
    Beleaguered by the same
    Negation and despair,
    Show an affirming flame.