May 27, 2008
Time for Hemp Reform in the USA
For a Party that wants an issue, the shift from a mining / petroleum economy to an agrarian / hemp economy is the positive message for the future. I still do not know happened to Ron Paul's Hemp Farming bill. We also have the flex fuels bill. Both have bi-partisan support. With people like the Farm Bureau getting behind it, it is going to happen. It is a matter of when, not if. 
The Feds need a hemp re-education program. Many people still think that hemp and marihuana are different parts of the same plant; as is defined by an outdated federal law. There is no need to go into the DuPont / Hearst conspiracy; we just need to get the scientific facts out. There are specific sub-species of cannabis sativa that are grown for fibers, oil hempseed, and nutritional hempseed. It is like the difference between growing a sweet bell pepper, and a hot chili.
There has been a lot of movement in this area the last few years. Some conservative types who once belittled Woody Harrelson have started to see the light. Still, more education about the distinction between Industrial Hemp and Marijuana is needed. Marijuana {or in the law Marihuana} actually refers to any of various varieties of cannabis sativa which are cultivated for use as a mind altering drug. These varieties contain psychoactive cannaboids such as THC. Current, ill informed US law classifies Maruhuana as a Class I narcotic, but that is another issue; one I have no interest in discussing today.
Industrial Hemp refers to any of several varieties cultivated either for the small berries, called hempseed, or the fibrous stalks. Hempseed has applications as a food, and as an oilseed. The stalks yield two different kinds of valuable fibers. Both Hemp Fibers and Hemp oilseed can be used to replace many current petroleum applications; such as fuels, cosmetic bases, plastics, synthetic rubber, and textile fibers.
The absurdly high price of oil, combined with a raising of awareness beyond the giggle factor has created a huge international demand for both kinds of Hemp Fiber, Hemp oilseed, and nutritional hempseed. American farmers and agribusinesses are slowing starting to wake up and want to get into the market. The greatest obstacle to that is the Controlled Substances Act; which is Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. This law incorrectly defines Hemp and Marihuana as different parts of the same plant. So, by law, a farmer can not grow Hemp without growing Marihuana.
Moreover, in order to grow Marihuana, a license issued by the Drug Enforcement Agency {DEA} is required. Excessive security considerations make it expensive to meet the requirements of obtaining the license. One thing I object to is that some supporters are still conflating Industrial Hemp with Medical Use of Marijuana which, in turn, gets conflated with recreational use of Pot. I think it vital to sever Hemp from the marijuana issue. The first step is a simple, legal redefinition; one based on science; not politics or superstition.
Posted by rbeck at May 27, 2008 05:37 PMThere has been huge movement:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/us/21hemp.html
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Board votes to back industrial hemp growth
Aracely Hernandez, Dekalb Daily Chronicle
SYCAMORE, Illinois — The DeKalb County Board voted Wednesday to support the growing of industrial hemp — a distant cousin of marijuana — for research purposes that could one day allow farmers to cultivate the crop on a more widespread basis.
http://www.globalhemp.com/News/2004/October/board-votes-to-back.php
14 states have introduced legislation. The Illinois Farm Bureau backs hemp reform. As do other Ag groups.
North Dakota is licensing farmers to grow hemp, setting up a clash with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/12/27/ndhemp/
It is easy to tell hemp and pot plants apart, btw.
Hemp is much taller and tree like, pot is bushy. Also, no one will try to grow pot in a hemp field. Cross pollination would ruin the pot.
" marijuana is a bushy plant that grows up to 6 feet tall while hemp resembles bamboo shoots and reaches heights of 16 feet"
The ban on hemp is rooted in utter ignorance. There are a lot of conservative Republicans who back hemp, but are afraid to speak up.
Some are out of the closet:
Ron Paul
David C. Monson
Cynthia Thielen
David Fleming
Stan Bingham
Chuck DeVore
Tom McClintock
Doug Goehring
Robin:
This issue has been of great importance to me since 1990, when I first protested at "Hash Wednesday" on the quad here at the University of Illinois. It's true that the Fed has tried to link the industrial/medical/and recreational use of this plant to obscure it's benefits and keep it illegal. I recommend the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," which documents the innumerable benefits.
The continued illegality of this plant is based on ignorance. How does one distinguish the difference between a practical hemp plant and a marijuana plant used for medicine or recreation? Well, you can't really. But there can be viable controls to ensure that this plant be exploited for all its practical benefits, while sorting out how best to get it rescheduled for medical use, and educate people on the recreational aspects, like the "drink responsibily" campaigns.
I don't see much movement on this crucial issue because of the obvious disinformation campaigns that have gone on in the name of government authority for so many decades. As you know Robin, even today, here in Central Illinois, we still have hemp springing up in corn fields from the WWII efforts to have farmers grow hemp. Every year, the local news dispatches a news tream to watch the sheriff or local police go into the fields and with great fanfare, destroy this hemp, as if it were a menace on the street. The truth is that it's all continued propaganda in the our utterly lost War in Drugs. You could smoke an acre of industrial hemp and all that would happen is that you would get a headache.
Charles
Posted by: Charles at May 28, 2008 09:02 AM