One Crop.
A Trillion Dollar Future.
Michigan Hemp.
Industrial hemp is not marijuana. It is the most versatile crop on earth, clothing, food, medicine, fuel, building materials, paper, plastic alternatives, and textiles. One plant. Dozens of industries. Thousands of Michigan jobs. A direct challenge to the Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Mega-Corporate stranglehold that has driven working families into poverty while suppressing the most powerful tool for generational wealth this nation has ever seen.
They Banned It On Purpose.
Here Is Why.
In 1937, the U.S. government criminalized hemp. Not because it was dangerous. Not because it got anyone high, industrial hemp contains less than 0.3% THC, a fraction of what it would take to produce any effect. It was banned because it was a threat.
William Randolph Hearst owned timber forests and paper mills. DuPont had just patented nylon. John D. Rockefeller’s petroleum empire was growing. Hemp threatened all of them. Hemp paper didn’t need bleaching. Hemp fiber was stronger than nylon. Hemp oil could power engines. So they used their political influence to criminalize the competition.
The result? Eighty years of corporate monopoly on clothing, fuel, building materials, medicine, and food that could have been grown right here in Michigan. Eighty years of families paying inflated prices for inferior products. Eighty years of Michigan farmland sitting idle while the corporate cartels got rich.
That era ends when Ceric Laszcwski becomes Governor of Michigan.
Big Oil
Hemp produces more biomass per acre than any other crop. Hemp biofuel is carbon-negative and fully renewable. Every gallon of hemp biodiesel is a gallon Exxon, BP, and Shell don’t sell. They suppressed it for 80 years. Michigan will revive it.
Big Pharma
Hemp-derived CBD and cannabinoids treat inflammation, epilepsy, anxiety, chronic pain, and more, without addiction, without $400 prescriptions, without corporate profit extraction. The pharmaceutical industry spent decades keeping hemp illegal to protect their patent monopolies.
Big Cotton & Fast Fashion
Cotton uses 25% of the world’s pesticides on 2.5% of farmland. Hemp needs almost none. Hemp fiber is stronger, softer, and lasts longer. The fast fashion and cotton lobbies spent decades protecting their subsidies by keeping hemp out of the market.
Timber & Paper
One acre of hemp produces as much paper as 4 acres of trees. Hemp grows in 4 months. Trees take 20 years. The timber and paper lobby criminalized the competition in 1937 and has fought its return ever since. Michigan’s forests paid the price.
“Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere.”
: George Washington, 1794, in a letter to his farm manager
One Crop.
Fifty Thousand Products.
Every part of the hemp plant generates value. The seeds feed families and produce oil. The stalks yield fiber for clothing and rope. The woody core, called hurd, makes building materials. The leaves and flowers produce medicine. The roots enrich the soil for the next crop. Nothing is wasted. Everything is profitable.
Clothing & Textiles
Hemp fiber is stronger than cotton, softer with every wash, naturally UV-resistant, and requires no pesticides. Hemp clothing lasts 3x longer than cotton equivalents. Michigan could become the center of American hemp textile manufacturing.
- Jeans, shirts, jackets, activewear
- Rope, canvas, industrial webbing
- Upholstery and home textiles
- No bleach, no pesticides, no toxic dyes required
Food & Nutrition
Hemp seeds are one of nature’s most complete foods, a perfect ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, all essential amino acids, and more protein per gram than beef. Hemp hearts, protein powder, hemp milk, hemp oil, and hemp flour are in every grocery store in the world except American ones.
- Hemp hearts, complete protein, all amino acids
- Hemp oil, richer in omegas than fish oil
- Hemp protein powder, plant-based, complete
- Hemp flour, hemp milk, hemp butter
Building Materials
Hempcrete is a concrete alternative made from hemp hurd and lime. It is carbon-negative, fire-resistant, mold-resistant, and a better insulator than standard construction materials. Hemp lumber, hemp fiberboard, and hemp insulation are already being used in Europe. Michigan construction workers could build it here.
- Hempcrete, stronger than concrete, carbon-negative
- Hemp fiberboard, replaces plywood and MDF
- Hemp insulation, no fiberglass, no chemicals
- Hemp roofing materials and acoustic panels
Medicine & Wellness
Hemp-derived cannabinoids have documented efficacy for epilepsy (FDA-approved Epidiolex), chronic pain, inflammation, anxiety, and PTSD. These are treatments without opioid addiction risk, without $500 prescription costs, and without the pharmaceutical industry gatekeeping access. Michigan farmers grow the medicine. Michigan families afford it.
- CBD oil for pain, anxiety, inflammation
- CBG, CBN, CBC, next generation cannabinoids
- Hemp topicals, arthritis, skin conditions
- Veterinary hemp products for pets
Biofuel & Energy
Hemp produces more biomass per acre than any other crop. Hemp biodiesel runs in any diesel engine with zero modification. Hemp ethanol outperforms corn ethanol. Henry Ford built a car from hemp that ran on hemp fuel. Big Oil buried it. Michigan could revive energy independence, one tank at a time, grown right here.
- Hemp biodiesel, runs in any diesel engine
- Hemp ethanol, cleaner than corn-based
- Hemp biomass for electricity generation
- Carbon-negative energy production
Paper, Plastic & Packaging
One acre of hemp produces as much paper as 4 acres of trees, and it grows in 4 months instead of 20 years. Hemp plastic is fully biodegradable, it doesn’t spend 450 years in a landfill. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. Our great-grandparents knew what Big Timber spent generations making us forget.
- Hemp paper, stronger, no bleach required
- Biodegradable hemp plastic packaging
- Hemp cardboard and corrugated boxes
- Hemp cellophane, food-safe wrapping
Hemp vs. What They Sell You
The corporations replaced hemp with inferior, chemical-dependent, petroleum-derived substitutes and then lobbied to keep hemp illegal. Here is what they did not want you to know:
| Category | What We Have Now | Hemp Alternative | Hemp Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clothing fiber | Cotton, 25% of world pesticides | Hemp fiber | No pesticides, 4x stronger, grows in 90 days |
| Building material | Concrete, 8% of global CO2 | Hempcrete | Carbon-negative, fire & mold resistant, better insulation |
| Fuel | Petroleum diesel | Hemp biodiesel | Carbon-neutral, grown domestically, no drilling |
| Protein | Factory farmed meat, soy | Hemp seed protein | Complete amino acids, omega balance, no hormones |
| Pain management | Opioids, 80,000+ deaths/year | Hemp-derived CBD/CBG | Non-addictive, no lethal dose, fraction of the cost |
| Paper | Tree paper, 20-year grow cycle | Hemp paper | 4 months to harvest, 4x yield per acre, no bleach |
| Plastic packaging | Petroleum plastic, 450-year decay | Hemp bioplastic | Fully biodegradable in months, not centuries |
| Insulation | Fiberglass, carcinogenic particles | Hemp insulation | Non-toxic, better R-value, naturally pest-resistant |
From Farmland to Fortune.
The Governor Laszcwski Plan.
Michigan has 9.9 million acres of farmland, a Great Lakes water supply, a manufacturing base, and a workforce that built the industrial economy. We have everything we need to lead the hemp revolution. What we have lacked is a Governor willing to fight the corporate lobbies standing in the way.
Remove Every State Barrier to Hemp Cultivation
Sign executive orders streamlining Michigan’s hemp licensing process from 6 months to 30 days. Eliminate redundant state regulations that go beyond the 2018 Federal Farm Bill requirements. Direct the Michigan Department of Agriculture to treat hemp farmers with the same support as corn and soy farmers. Create a dedicated Hemp Development Office within MDARD.
Michigan Hemp Investment Fund, $500M
Create a $500 million Michigan Hemp Industry Development Fund drawn from existing economic development allocations and hemp tax revenue projections. Provide low-interest loans to Michigan farmers converting acreage to hemp. Fund processing facility construction, the extraction, textile, and manufacturing infrastructure that turns raw hemp into finished products and jobs. Target the U.P. and Northern Lower Peninsula first, where economic revitalization is most needed.
Michigan Hemp Manufacturing Corridor
Partner with Michigan Tech, Michigan State University, and the University of Michigan to establish research and development centers for hemp-derived materials and medicines. Recruit hemp textile mills, hempcrete manufacturers, CBD extraction operations, and biofuel refineries with targeted tax incentives. The goal: 25,000 direct jobs in hemp production, processing, and manufacturing within 24 months.
Michigan as America’s Hemp Export Capital
Position Michigan as the leading state for hemp product export. Create the Michigan Hemp Exchange, a commodity market for hemp fiber, seed, and extract that gives Michigan farmers direct pricing power instead of being at the mercy of corporate middlemen. By year four, Michigan hemp should represent a $10B+ annual industry generating tax revenue, farm income, and generational wealth for Michigan families.
Hemp Homestead Program for Michigan Families
Create a Hemp Homestead Program allowing Michigan families to grow up to 10 acres of hemp without commercial licensing. Provide free seed stock, agronomic training, and guaranteed purchase agreements at fair market prices. A family farming 10 acres of hemp can generate $50,000–$150,000 annually, the foundation of real generational wealth that no corporation can outsource, monopolize, or take away.
This Is About Generational Wealth.
Not Corporate Profits.
The system that exists today was engineered to make you dependent. Pay your electric bill to a utility monopoly. Pay your gas bill to an oil cartel. Buy your clothes from a fast fashion corporation that pays pennies to offshore workers. Take pharmaceutical drugs at $300 a month that a hemp plant could replace for $20. Eat processed food from mega-agricultural corporations that replaced the family farm. Every dollar you spend goes up, never back down to you.
Hemp breaks this chain. When a Michigan family owns the land and grows the crop, they own the supply chain. They are not dependent on a corporation. They are not at the mercy of a cartel. They are not one layoff away from losing everything. They own something real, something that grows back every 90 days, something that can be passed to their children.
That is what generational wealth looks like. Not a stock portfolio that can be wiped out overnight. Not a pension that can be underfunded. Farmland, skills, equipment, and a crop the world needs in 50,000 different forms. Michigan has the land. Michigan has the workforce. The only thing standing between Michigan families and this future is the corporate lobby that bought the politicians who kept hemp illegal for 80 years.
That lobby does not own Ceric Laszcwski. And when he is Governor, they will not own Michigan’s future either.
“Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.”
: Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President & farmer, 1781
Michigan Will Lead the
Hemp Revolution.
I am not interested in managing Michigan’s decline. I am not interested in protecting the industries that have strip-mined this state’s wealth for generations. I am interested in building something new, an economy rooted in Michigan’s land, built by Michigan’s families, and immune to the corporate manipulation that has destroyed the middle class everywhere else.
Hemp is not a fringe idea. It is a trillion-dollar industry that was stolen from the American people by corporate lobbying. As Governor, I will give it back. To Michigan farmers, Michigan manufacturers, Michigan families. One crop. One state. The beginning of the end of dependency on the people who have been robbing us for 80 years.