I'm going to be honest, the argument that hemp is a generally great material has always seemed weak to me. There are plenty of countries where growing hemp is legal, and it still never seems to get much use.

It historically has had tons of use. It was pretty much the only material used for making rope for centuries in Europe, and was used widely in building construction too. Hemp cultivation was a crucial piece of colonial Virginia’s economy, heavily promoted by the British government, and it was used for clothing, sails, and even fine textiles as far back as the Viking age (eg, https://www.nature.com/articles/srep02686).

I could provide more references but I’m typing with thumbs - they are easy to find, though.

Sorry, should be clearer. It did indeed have historical uses. Not sure if it has much current ones.

As the bootleggers and baptists phenomenon has shown, the drive for prohibition can come from multiple, disparate sources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleggers_and_Baptists