Using Hemp for Building and Insulation

By David Kretzmann on June 25th, 2012

Some of the building and insulation uses of hemp.

Just a few of the products hemp is capable of making. Due to excessive regulations and abstract and inane laws (if not outright prohibition as in the U.S.), countries that have somewhat legalized hemp still heavily limit the amount of hemp that is able to be grown and processed into products such as textiles, building materials, food, and many other items.

In Quebec, which I have had the pleasure of visiting numerous times, hemp is lightly legal but it cannot be grown within a mile of any educational establishment, the hemp leaves have to be burnt twice every year, the government constantly tests the hemp’s THC, and farmers are restricted to growing only certain amounts of hemp. It is no wonder with these frivolous and meaningless regulations that only low capital hemp products are available in the marketplace.

Hemp cannot ever be used as a psychoactive drug, yet in the best circumstances today hemp’s growth is still heavily restricted and needlessly limited by governments around the world. The U.S. federal government (through the DEA) maintains its complete regulatory prohibition of hemp, which has been in place since World War II (when the government released a propaganda film, Hemp for Victory, encouraging Americans to be patriotic and grow hemp to help the government’s war effort).

So long as hemp is hindered by needless regulations, controls, and prohibitions, few (if any) hemp products that require extensive capital and investment will make it to market. Farmers will not take the risk to grow a crop that requires such expensive upkeep due to rigid governmental rules. If farmers accidentally break one of the many arbitrary rules they may lose their farm and even be thrown in prison. To flourish, hemp must be free of intrusive and unnecessary government regulations.