3Dom USA releases new bio-based 3D printing filament made from hemp

By Tess
Source: 3ders.org

While some of us may automatically think of the drug marijuana when the word hemp is mentioned, the material, which does indeed come from the same cannabis plant that marijuana does, has been used since at least the 18th century to manufacture such products as wax, rope, twine, cloth, paper, and even fuel. Now, in the tradition of using the versatile plant as a manufacturing material, innovative 3D printing filament company 3Dom USA have just launched their new product, Entwined, an eco-friendly hemp based 3D printing filament.

Entwined is the third product launched as part of 3Dom USA’s partnership with fellow North Dakota based bio-composite company, c2Renew. Together, the companies have been developing truly unique bio-based and sustainable 3D printing filaments, which include their coffee based filament, Wound Up, and their beer based 3D printing filament, Buzzed. You might also remember 3Dom USA for having developed a popular Glass Filled PLA 3D printing filament earlier in 2015.

Their new release, Entwined, is made from industrial hemp that comes from a nearby Manitoba, Canada hemp producer. Compared to corn crops, which are often used in PLA filaments, hemp crops grow denser and no not require herbicides or pesticides, making them a more ecological option for manufacturing purposes. Additionally, the company claims that their new material stands up against PLA materials in both quality and ease of 3D prints.

As you can see in the photos of objects made from the hemp 3D printing filament, Entwined does not contain any artificial dyes and has remained its natural golden-brown color. As Jake Clark, 3Dom USA CEO explains, “It’s almost iridescent in its ability to showcase different shades and densities within the same printed object. There’s a large amount of visible bio-fill, something you don’t get with standard PLA.”

While the color and grain may be distinct from PLA filaments, Entwined can still be used on any 3D printer that is equipped to 3D print in PLA materials. 3Dom USA has even tested their new material on a variety of 3D printer brands, such as MakerBot, LulzBot, and FlashForge, to assure that Entwined will work for you. Through testing, the company found that the bio-based filament prints best between 180-210 degrees Celsius, and they recommend starting off 10 degrees cooler than what you would use to print in PLA. If you are using a heated bed, which is not required, they recommend setting it to 45 degrees Celsius.

Entwined which is being launched today, can be purchased through 3Dom USA’s website. Each 1kg spool of filament, which is available in either 1.75mm diameter, or 2.85mm diameter, retails for $59 and will be shipped from 3Dom USA’s local production facility in Fargo, North Dakota. The filament itself comes spun around the 100% bio-based Eco-Spool.

Excitingly, the company has also given us a useful tidbit of information, as we have another innovative bio-based filament to look forward to in the spring, made from switchgrass. The switchgrass filament will be officially ready for shipments in April 2016, though preorders are possible through 3Dom USA’s site.

After coffee, beer, hemp, and switchgrass based filaments, we can hardly imagine what 3Dom USA will print with next!

Posted in 3D Printing Materials

Organic Cannabis? One Colorado Hemp Farm Has Earned The USDA’s Blessing

By LUKE RUNYON
Source: kunc.org

Hemp grows at Colorado State University's research farm in northern Colorado during a first year variety trial.

LUKE RUNYON / KUNC, HARVEST PUBLIC MEDIA

Colorado is now home to some of the nation’s first certified organic cannabis, which comes with a blessing from federal regulators. CBDRx, a Longmont, Colorado cannabis farm, has secured a certification to market its products with the organic seal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a major coup for the plant’s enthusiasts.

“As long as the industrial hemp is grown according to the Farm Bill, it can be certified organic to the USDA National Organic Program,” wrote Penelope Zuck, the agency’s organic program accreditation manager, in an email correspondence obtained by KUNC.

Catch that? We’re talking about hemp here, which is still considered cannabis under federal law. The distinction, and USDA’s decision to certify it, throw the plant into an even larger legal gray area.

“Marijuana may not be certified organic under the USDA organic regulations,” Zuck wrote in October 2015.

Part of the problem is semantics. “Hemp,” “cannabis,” “marijuana,” and the plant’s countless nicknames are used interchangeably and as shorthand to denote the chemical makeup of different varieties. As it stands now, the Farm Bill makes some varieties of cannabis, colloquially known as “hemp,” federally recognized and legitimate crops as long as they're below a THC threshold.

But a lack of nuance in the Controlled Substances Act means “cannabis” -- hemp included -- still remains an illegal drug, with no redeemable value and a high level of abuse. The Farm Bill’s language even acknowledged the conflict [.pdf], where lawmakers nodded to the plant’s status under the CSA but effectively ignored it.

News organizations and consumers still throw around the term “marijuana,” which has its own racist, anti-immigrant origins. Industry types are pushing for the plant to be rebranded under the scientific umbrella of “cannabis.” Linguistics experts are already watching how legalization efforts are changing the way we talk about it.

Claims of “organic” cannabis have gone relatively unchecked in Colorado. In September 2015, Colorado attorney general Cynthia Coffman said she was ready to send consumer fraud investigators to examine whether cannabis grow facilities' organic claims withstood scrutiny, and matched consumer understanding of what the term “organic” is meant to convey. The issue has become even more pointed as more commercial Colorado growers are cited for misuse of pesticides.

The latest Farm Bill, signed into law in 2014, gave hemp a legal definition and allowed university researchers and state departments of agriculture to conduct research on the plant, and create registration programs for farmers clamoring to get it into their fields.

“We at CBDRx decided to challenge the norm and request USDA certification for our hemp. And through some true passionate efforts we succeeded,” said Tim Gordon, a member of the CBDRx research team. The company’s certification was completed by OneCert, a Nebraska-based third party auditing firm.

Hemp is a low-THC variety of cannabis, meaning it won’t get you high if you smoke or ingest it, but can still contain other chemical compounds with potential medical uses. Its fiber and seeds are marketed to makers of industrial ropes, beauty products, high-end garments, and health foods.

CBDRx’s organic certification means that while one arm of the federal government, the Drug Enforcement Administration, still considers cannabis a schedule I drug with no accepted medical use, another, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is ready to step in and certify the cultivation methods of cannabis are up to organic standards.

Nature’s Root: The Fruits of a Hemp Economy

By Ellen Holland
Source: cannabisnowmagazine.com

When Colorado voters opened the door for adult-use cannabis in November 2012 they also ushered in a new chapter for American hemp. Unlike other states, which are reliant upon the restrictions of the 2013 U.S. Farm Bill requiring state permission as well as university oversight, Colorado farmers are free to grow hemp provided that it contains less than .3 percent THC.

With large bundles of stalks and seeds on display, one booth stood apart from the others at a 2015 cannabis industry convention in Denver. The creators of Nature’s Root joined in the gathering, quietly transforming the face of U.S. agriculture by selling some of the first hemp products grown on American soil in nearly 60 years.

Colorado’s first legal hemp crops, harvested in 2014, have now resulted in the release of hemp products onto the marketplace made with hemp grown in the U.S. The Colorado Hemp Project, based out of Sterling, created the Nature’s Root body care line. It all started with a desire to cultivate hemp for the healing powers of the cannabinoid CBD, but shifted gears into the realms of body care, paper and plastic. This fluctuation in direction came when the first crop, starting as 45 pounds of hemp seed, resulted in a mixed offering of 15 different hemp cultivars.

“Some were 3 feet tall, others were 10-12 feet tall, some had super thick stocks, some had no leaves branching out, some had nothing but huge branched out leaves, it was completely different,” Danielle Billings, co-founder of the Colorado Hemp Project, explains.

With such a mixed offering, those behind the project knew they wouldn’t be able to achieve the consistency required for hemp extracts used for supplements. So, for their first product the project turned towards topical applications.

The scrubs and lotions created by Nature’s Root are crafted with hemp-infused coconut oil alongside other organic ingredients such as shea and cocoa butter. They leave skin feeling incredibly soft and moisturized and the sore muscle rub is excellent for pain relief.

“You’re getting Omegas, you’re getting all of the amazing moisturizing effects, UV ray protection effects, all the good things that hemp has in the seed and in the flower that it provides for your body,” Billings says of the body care line.

The Colorado Hemp Project’s first harvest, derived from 2.5 acres, resulted in 22 pounds of hemp – broken down into 3,000 pounds of fiber, 1,000 pounds of flower and 2,000 pounds of seed. Products such as the paper and plastic the project is now producing are derived from the hemp fibers processed into a pulp. Nature’s Root products, salves, lotions and scrubs, are created using the flowers and seeds of the hemp grown on local farms.

While the semantics of growing the crop for fiber or flower initially designated hemp from cannabis, the distinction between the two grows murkier as hemp flowers are harvested for supplemental healing. Essentially the same plant, the inclusion of more than .3 percent THC is the arbitrary designation that changes the plant’s name from hemp to cannabis.

“Cannabis sativa L is a plant. It’s not two plants like a majority of the people believe it to be,” Billings explains. “It is one plant that has different features. Over hundreds of thousands of years it has been used for industrial, supplemental and medicinal uses. There are benefits of the plant that are for industrial and there are benefits of the plant that are supplemental and medicinal. It depends on the type of cultivar you have and the purpose you are growing it for.”

Last June the project also harvested the first of its supplemental CBD offerings, grown in 1 million square feet of greenhouse space, in order to produce pills, patches, tinctures and dabs.

“We only need five percent of American farmers to grow hemp in order to sustain the United States,” Billings says of hemp’s promises in terms of job creation and profits. “At the end of the day our goal is to have every state be legalized with hemp.”

Bodhi Urban works on research and development for the project in terms of genetics.

“I’m developing more agricultural strains that are accepted at the .3 range,” he said during the month leading to harvest. “The further I take these new males and incorporate different generations, multiple pollinations, it just opens up consistency and stabilization to where more seeds will be consistently tested at that percent. So, it’s a time thing. I’ll take a male, I’ll pollinate it with one particular female and then I’ll get seeds from that and take those females and hit them with the same pollen just to continue the process.”

Billings sees the products produced by The Colorado Hemp Project as supplemental additions to a daily health regime.

“I think that [industrial hemp] can be used in a supplemental way, I think that THC is essential,” she says when explaining the applications of hemp versus the medical applications of cannabis. “I think hemp is the best supplement to get people on track and balanced as far as their body period. It will help with inflammation, it will help with so many things, sleep and cancer, but you can’t necessarily say that it heals it, because what really heals it is THC and CBD as a team. You can’t say that one or the other does it independently, because really, it’s the team that does it. So I think our goal with helping people nutritionally and health-wise with the hemp is really more of a supplemental way, versus a complete healing way because you really need that medical side. That THC is a god, it helps people.”

Billings also looks forward to the many applications for industrial hemp as the project continues to move forward. They are currently at work on a business enterprise using hemp fibers to create supercapacitors, the size of a pinky nail and 500-1,000 times more efficient than a graphene battery, that can power electronics, including cell phones and electric cars.

“It’s going to revolutionize the way that we drive, the way that we do energy, the way that we do everything, off of these hemp supercapacitors,” Billings says.

For now, the transformative healing of hemp crafted by Nature’s Root can be purchased online and at select Whole Foods markets.

“Supplements from hemp and the CBD and CBG and CBV that you can get out of hemp is an everyday use that is a non-psychoactive way for people to feel better,” Billings says. “This is not going to get you high, it’s going to actually help your body function better.”

How a Centuries-old Poem Hints at Shakespeare's Herbal 'Muse'

By Francis Thackeray
Source: huffingtonpost.com

Material unearthed from William Shakespeare's garden and hometown suggests that the famed British playwright smoked cannabis. Now a 400-year-old poem offers literary evidence to support this hypothesis.

The person behind the poem is a "John Taylor". British engraver George Vertue spoke of a person named John Taylor, whom he described as an actor and painter - and perhaps the very artist responsible for the famed "Chandos portrait" of Shakespeare. This was painted some time between 1600 and 1610 and is now on display at London's National Portrait Gallery. Vertue called Taylor an "intimate friend" of Shakespeare.

Then there's the poem, published in 1620 and entitled "The Praise of hemp-seed". It was penned under the name John Taylor, although he was perhaps not the same individual as the artist described above.

"The Praise of hemp-seed" refers to Shakespeare in the context of the use of hemp (cannabis) for paper on which famous writers' plays and poems were printed. On deeper reading, it may suggest that hemp was more than just a material for paper - it was a "muse" for Shakespeare and his peers.

The poem in question

Here is the relevant text from Folio Part III, page 72, with modernised spelling based on Taylor (1620):

In Paper, many a Poet now survives

Or else their lines had perished with their lives.

Old Chaucer, Gower, and Sir Thomas More,

Sir Philip Sidney who the Laurel wore,

Spencer, and Shakespeare did in Art excel,

Sir Edward Dyer, Greene, Nash, Daniel,

Silvester, Beaumont, Sir John Harington,

Forgetfulness their works would over run,

But that in Paper they immortally Do live

in spite of Death, and cannot die.

Taylor argues that writers "survive" through their work, which was published for posterity on paper produced from hemp, or cannabis. It is worth pointing out here that the cannabis plant was illustrated and referred to as "hemp" by botanist John Gerard as far back as 1597.

This is analogous to verse in Shakespeare's own sonnets. I have previously found that in Sonnet 11 when the poet writes "Nature ... meant thereby thou should'st print more, nor let that copy die", he could be appealing metaphorically for the reproduction or propagation of hemp - from which paper was produced - and the publication of poetry ("copy") into the future.

I also referred to a line in Sonnet 76:

Invention in a noted weed

[so] every word doth almost tell my name,

Showing their birth, and where they did proceed

Shakespeare may be saying here that his writings were "born" from the use of "a noted weed", a term associated with tobacco, which can include cannabis.

Apart from paper, cannabis fibre was also used for clothing in 17th-century Europe. It is pertinent to mention that in Afrikaans, a language derived from 17th century Dutch and Flemish dialects, the word hemp refers to a shirt as an item of clothing.

Thus "weed" in Shakespeare's time referred to both clothing and tobacco, and The Bard is famous for his wordplay. In Sonnet 76, there is clearly a link between clothing and poetry, as in "All my best is dressing old words new". This is the same sonnet in which Shakespeare writes:

... invention in a noted weed.

There is absolutely no doubt that "invention" can refer to creative writing, potentially associated with a source of inspiration - or Muse - in the context of cryptic wordplay.

A muse of a different kind

Taylor's poem, too, refers to the "Muse" in the context of hemp:

But hollow Muse what mounted to the sky,

I'll clip your soaring plumes for you and I

Must talk of Paper, Hemp, and such as this,

And what a rich commodity it is.

My interpretation of this verse is: "I must talk of cannabis (hemp) only in the context of its use as paper. I can't talk about cannabis as a source of inspiration since the wings of the Muse are clipped."

This view could well relate to prohibition and censure associated with cannabis. It had been condemned by the church long before Shakespeare was active.

All of these observations are relevant to my view that Shakespeare may have smoked cannabis and perceived it as a source of inspiration. This is supported in part by chemical analysis of clay "tobacco" pipes from Shakespeare's garden at New Place and elsewhere in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon indicating the smoking of cannabis.

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Author's note: I am most grateful to Chris Bennett for directing my attention to the "The Praise of Hemp-seed" by John Taylor (1620).

Francis Thackeray, Phillip Tobias Chair in Palaeoanthropology, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.