Bid for cannabis SUPERPOWER

Drug and agriculture officials have called for the revival of mass cannabis cultivation in Russia. They say the project has a plethora of benefits, from bringing cash into state coffers to curbing pot-smoking. The counterintuitive initiative from the body, which many Russians see as an overzealous watchdog eager to forbid anything with even the most tenuous link to drugs, including poppy seed toppings for baking, has much rationale behind it. Cannabis was one of the country’s most important agricultural products for five centuries. Russia exported hemp to all major European naval nations in the age of sail, when the water-resistant rope made of cannabis fibers was a strategic commodity on a par with iron and gunpowder. Cannabis is also a source of seed oil, livestock foodstuff, pulp for paper production and dozens of other products. However, after the Soviet Union joined the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, strict regulations on cannabis cultivation were implemented and the industry was all but eradicated.Now, some officials say it is time to revive Russia’s position as a cannabis superpower. Among them is the head of the Federal Drug Control Agency, Viktor Ivanov, who has been acting as an advocate for the plant – best-known as the source of the recreational drug – at an anti-narcotics council on Wednesday. Click here for rt.com full story.