The Hemp Report

Near the Ural Mountains, 1910
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

     There is a wonderful story in today's edition of The Baltimore Sun about hemp researcher Dr. Sergey Grigoryev of the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry. Unfortunately I can't get permission to reprint the story or the picture. So, I have an image in the public domain above and the first three paragraphs are below.

     There are a couple of excellent papers on hemp by Dr. Grigoryev on the institute's web site. First is the highly recommended Collection of Hemp Genetic Resources at VIR and the second is Cold - resistance of hemp (Cannabis Sativa) and is a more technical paper.

     ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The sign on Sergei Grigoryev's office door says "Narcobaron," or drug baron, over a faint picture of a marijuana leaf. That's his way of weathering the joshing he gets for doing nothing more than showing up for work each day.

After all, Grigoryev promotes hemp.

The scientist at the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in St. Petersburg is quick to draw a distinction between the connotations the word brings to mind - pot, weed, maryjane, hashish, ganja, herb, chronic - and the plant he calls one of the most valuable ever cultivated.

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