CANNABIS FOR THE FUTURE

The Big Reason Why ALL Citizens must VOTE CANNABIS in Parliamentary Elections 2023.

1. The author of this article, Jeremy Acton, has been actively involved in environmental activism since the 1990’s, with a particular emphasis on research into sustainable agriculture,  future economic trends, and on the issue of energy policy. He has also been a Cannabis-rights activist since 2009, and was Plaintiff in the landmark constitutional court Case which won the Section 14 Privacy rights for citizens to carry and cultivate and use Cannabis in private (Case 108/17CCT. )

2. In this article, I will share with the public information which shall show that the legalization of Cannabis for its energy and material wealth potential is essential to avert an imminent and irreversible collapse of the global and national economy, and its consequences,  which shall occur as a result of the economic depletion of fossil carbon.

3. It has been shown in the book “ Beyond the Limits: Global Collapse or Sustainable Future” written by Meadows, Meadows and Randers , that the global economic status quo in the exponentially increasing consumption of resources and population growth,  is definitely expected to face energy and material limits within the next 100 years, more likely within the next 50 years. Their book depicts their predictions for the future until 2100, which are a result of research using a computer program called World 3, which modeled known economic data on the growth rates of the human population and the consumption of various renewable and non-renewable resources.

4. Their prediction was graphically shown in this slide: 

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The left hand  vertical side of the graph is 1900 and the middle vertical line is the year 2000, and the right hand vertical line is the year 2100.

5. The curves on the diagram show a rise from 1900 in all measures such as population, food production, industrial consumption and pollution in the top graph, and a concomitant rise in life expectancy, consumer goods per person, food/person, and services per person.

6. The graph however indicates a gradual and irreversible depletion of resources, with the measures of society’s growth overshooting the resources line as from the year 1990, rising until the approximate year of around 2015 – 2020 (see the industrial output curve) , and then falling irreversibly to an approximate level of consumption and population and economic welfare indices equivalent to levels which occurred in 1900.

7. This trend is independently confirmed by the following two slides which corroborate this information.

8. The next slide is the global annual oil consumption relative to oil resources discovered each year, from 1930 up until the year 2002, with estimated future annual oil reserve discoveries extending until  2050. (source Wikipedia “Peak Oil”, since deleted from the link)

9. This graphic clearly shows that global annual consumption of oil overshot annual oil reserve discoveries in the late 1980’s, and that global annual oil consumption has been relying on reserves discovered in the the period 1950 to 1980 ever since.

10. This graphic is further confirmed by research by various NGO’s and other organisations into the estimated year of the occurrence of Peak Oil which is the point in time of a peak in production of a non-renewable resource, after which production can only dwindle down irreversibly to economic depletion. (Wikipedia. ‘Peak Oil’)

11. Most curves estimating the occurrence of Peak Oil indicate that it possibly occurred as early as 2010, or has since occurred, or is imminent. The consequences of Peak Oil listed in this slide are conclusions resulting from research by the German Military into the Peak Oil phenomenon, and the economic depletion of the fossil carbon energy base of the global economy.

12. This slide accurately matches and confirms the point in time of the estimated peak in industrial consumption indicated on the first slide above, showing “Business as Usual = Collapse”, by Meadows, Meadows, and Randers.

13. In their research, Meadows et al, also ran their World 3 computer program with a view to determining the parameters of a positive future, and tried to ascertain from the computer various necessary policies to ensure a positive, sustainable future for the global economy, at least until the year 2100. These necessary policies are listed in the slide.

14. HOWEVER, despite the many various policy requirements determined to be necessary for a positive vision for the future, as generated by the World 3 program, the computer runs all required a fundamental assumption that humanity MUST DOUBLE ITS RESOURCE BASE without creating extra pollution. This situation was artificially created in the World 3 program by the doubling of the value of the resource line from 1990, which is not a realistic depiction of the present plight of humanity.  The World 3 program and the authors of this book were not able to suggest a technological or resource solution for the boosting of the global resource base.

15. In the next slide, I take the left hand side of the Business as Usual = COLLAPSE slide, which accurately represents the past, and the right hand side of the “Positive Vision of the future “ slide, which represents a desirable positive future, and have combined them into one graphic, with a dark vertical line, between the past on the left and the desired future on the right, which represents 5 years of change.

16. Most of the indicators require that, to achieve a positive future, all economic growth must be immediately stabilised at present levels, but the resource line has to be radically raised to the point that it occurs above the economic consumption and population figures. Ideally this resource line, depending on the resource chosen to double global resources, would be adjustable at will (within reasonable parameters) to always adequately provide for the needs of humanity.

17. In serious consideration of all possible resources that may provide for the future of humanity, I , Jeremy Acton, have come to the conclusion that the ONLY available resource that could possibly achieve such a necessary boost in quantity of resources, without creating extra pollution, is CANNABIS. Cannabis is effectively a technology that would sequester atmospheric carbon and bring it back into the economy for use as materials, or as a carbon-neutral , non polluting source of carbon for energy production that, if farmed on an adequate scale, could replace or substantially replace fossil carbon..

18. Cannabis used for this purpose is effectively a choice of a solar powered, water efficient, drought resistant, self replicating, multiplying, carbon sequestration technology that anyone could produce, and which also offers the additional multiple benefits of hempseed proteins and oils, medicine, and fibres as resources, while the part of the plant that would be used for energy production would be the insides of the sticks (the hurds) which, being about 88% cellulose, would provide the feedstock for cracking by pyrolysis into any type of hydrocarbon fuel, or industrial petroleum products like oils, and plastics.

19. The application of Cannabis as this technology for supporting a positive vision of the future, only requires a change in attitude to Cannabis, and acceptance of the Truth about Cannabis, by the State, and only requires regulation that enables the mega-scale production of Cannabis, preferably by all citizens participating equitably in such a production economy.

20. The following slide indicates a monoculture of the Cannabis crop, which might occur in areas where existing monocultures occur in agriculture, such as in the maize-growing  areas of the Free State, though Cannabis could be successfully inserted into polycultural approaches in agriculture.

 

21. The extremely concerning Peak Oil graph previously featured could suddenly develop a more hopeful curve for the future , as depicted here in the slide below. The starting point of the green line depicting Cannabis would effectively be marked as the Quantum Leap choice by South Africans for such a sustainable future.  This choice by citizens decides whether South Africa’s wealth and economy rises along the Cannabis line, or dwindles with the Peak Oil lines on the graph, and THIS is the choice to make when considering what you are voting for in Elections 2023.

22. Cannabis not used for energy could provide a resource for multiple uses that would greatly boost the manufacturing economy, as shown in the following slide, and could effectively alleviate economic collapse, wars for the last of the fossil carbon resources, inequity in economic opportunity, poverty, hunger, unemployment, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, misery, bankruptcies, hopelessness, anger, deaths by illness and starvation, agricultural collapse, and crimes arising from poverty.

legalisation of Cannabis and its appropriate regulation to enable communities to produce and value-add the resource, and interact positively with the State in documenting levies and taxes upon the resource, (for example VAT, or a fuel levy linked to cannabis production for the manufacture of motor vehicle fuel, to fund the necessary maintenance of roads), and which regulation could also facilitate bulk sales of cannabis hurds to existing fossil carbon corporations, to effectively utilise existing refinery and fuel distribution networks, remains the concern and interest of all the Plaintiffs and we claim the right to participate in the drafting of legislation which impacts upon the Cannabis plant, its correct use as a resource, the management of the Cannabis genome, and upon the rights and plight of the Dagga Culture.

Cannabis is a resource presently held by the Dagga Culture and we claim the right to create the regulations that share our resource with the rest of the nation, and we notify the state that usurpation of our rights to Cannabis, and the granting of rights to others to produce Cannabis while still prosecuting the ordinary people for its cultivation and use, shall result in opposition to any form of elitism or favour to corporates by the State. Legalization must therefore facilitate a process for the drafting of Cannabis legislation that ensures the rights and integrity of the Cannabis plant and its people, the Dagga Culture of South Africa.

If YOU support the legalization of cannabis as a resource for all citizens to grow, not only for its recreational uses, but also for its industrial and nutritional potential, then please REGISTER TO VOTE at the IEC, become a member of the Dagga Party of South Africa and support the Dagga Party during election time.