class=quot;p1quot;In the 17th century, American farmers were required by law to grow hemp in Virginia and the other colonies. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, and Benjamin Franklin owned a mill that is rumored to have used hemp paper. Meanwhile, his own newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, espoused the benefits of the crop for multiple uses. For hundreds of years in the U.S., hemp was used to make rope, sails, lamp oil and clothing, until production dropped to zero in the late 1950s over anti-drug sentiment and competition from synthetic fibers. - The Huffington Post
