Bring On The Hemp

[DdC]

This Bud's for You By A. Barton Hinkle
CN Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch September 09, 2006 Virginia

The fight for freedom is one in which titanic triumphs can be followed by trench warfare over trivialities. Naziism is no more -- but the Norfolk city council cannot decide whether to permit tattoo parlors.

The communist empire has been consigned to the dustbin of history -- but the commissars of the drug war are still hung up on rope. And that is a pity for the nation's farmers, particularly here in Virginia.

The rope in question is made from industrial hemp, a plant with most of the characteristics of marijuana, except for the crucial one: delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, more briefly known as THC -- the actual drug in the drug of choice for the nation's potheads.

The THC concentration in high-potency "blue sky blond," "Hawaiian," and other varieties can reach 20 percent. In industrial hemp, the THC concentration cannot exceed 0.3 percent. The plants look alike, but to get high off the industrial stuff, says Roger Johnson, "would take a joint the size of a telephone pole."

Johnson is the state agricultural commissioner for North Dakota, and he thinks farmers should be allowed to grow industrial hemp. So does the California state legislature, which recently passed a bill to that effect. Seven other states have passed similar measures -- including Virginia, which approved a 1999 resolution calling on the federal government to allow cultivation of industrial hemp.

Hemp has a proud tradition here in the Old Dominion, which once -- in a 1623 statute -- actually required farmers to grow it. In those days hangings were called "hemp pullings" (guess why), and the Dismal Swamp Company planned to drain the swamp to grow hemp there. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp, and the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp-fiber paper.

For centuries hemp flourished in the U.S. ranking as the third-largest agricultural commodity in the 1800s. In 1850, the Census counted almost 9,000 hemp plantations. Then along came the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. It effectively killed off the crop, except for a brief period during WWII when the Japanese seized the Philippines and interrupted the supply of Manila hemp. The "Hemp for Victory" campaign was on, at least for a while.

With such a patriotic pedigree, one would think hemp would be as impervious to criticism as Mom, apple pie, and the first American flag sewn by Betsy Ross -- which also contained hemp fiber. Not so. The Drug Enforcement Administration objects to legalizing hemp cultivation because it fears drug dealers could let the snoppies grow in farmers' fields, between the hemp stalks row on row.

Yet those who are, ah, more than theoretically conversant in marijuana cultivation contend that mixing ganga and hemp is a prescription for disaster. Not only must the plants be spaced differently (tightly for hemp, to maximize stalks; loosely for pot, to maximize leafage), but cross-pollination would dilute the pot's potency and ruin the yield.

For that reason, hard-core drug warriors ought to embrace hemp cultivation. "Not only is it a good idea, it's a major headache for marijuana [growers]," a lobbyist for the North American Industrial Hemp Council has said. The lobbyist, who has been called a "dirtbag" in High Times magazine for encouraging hemp's use as a biological weapon against drug dealers, has said one would have to "be stark-raving mad to try to hide marijuana in the middle of a hemp crop because of cross-pollination." The lobbyist is James Woolsey, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Sadly, rational discussion of hemp is scant. When he was head of the DEA, former congressman Asa Hutchinson asserted: "Many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana."

As a writer for the Los Angeles Times riposted: "One reason many Americans do not know this is because it's not true. That's like saying beagles and collies are both parts of the same dog and that beagles cannot be produced without producing collies."

Asked a couple of years ago why the U.S. can't distinguish between marijuana and hemp when more than 30 other countries with legal hemp farming -- from China to Canada to most of the European Union -- are capable of doing so, the DEA's chief of chemical evaluation replied, "I'm not going to comment on what other countries do." Oh.

The benefits of hemp ought to be obvious to anyone contemplating the future of Virginia agriculture in the twilight of tobacco. Hemp grows rapidly with little need for pesticides; it is good for the soil; and it can be used to make a vast cornucopia of products, from paper to garments to cosmetics to salad dressings (hemp is high in protein, Vitamin E, and essential fatty oils). Virginia, this bud's for you.

In short: Hemp could put clothes on people's backs, put money in farmers' pockets, and keep pot out of children's hands. But according to the federal government, if you think that's enough reason to let farmers grow the stuff, you must be smoking something.

Complete Title: This Bud's for You:
Federal Ban on Hemp Cultivation Amounts To Reefer Madness

Website



Bring On The Hemp Editorial
CN Source: Winston-Salem Journal September 08, 2006 North Carolina 
Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both farmed it. The U.S. Navy sailed with it. And today it is used in hunreds of products, from energy bars to auto parts.

Hemp is an agricultural product with an enormous potential, especially in North Carolina, where the idea of legalizing it has been floated several times. But hemp is a cousin of marijuana, and no amount of reasoning about the differences in the two has overcome political fears of being associated with dope. The federal government will hear nothing of it, either.

California and seven other states are on the brink of forcing a showdown on the federal government's refusal to sanction hemp agriculture.

The New York Times reports that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must decide whether he will allow a recently passed hemp bill to become law. He could veto it, sign it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

His decision won't be politically easy. The Office of National Drug Control Policy and California narcotics officers are both opposed. The federal government has been adamant about anything having anything to do with marijuana, even medical marijuana.

The main fear expressed in news articles on the topic is that hemp cultivation would mask marijuana farms. A huge crop of hemp planted alongside marijuana would make it difficult for police to find the marijuana.

That's why North Dakota officials, who want to allow hemp farming, say they are ready to enact tough regulations for hemp growers. They'd register any such farms, open them to inspection, and require their owners to be fingerprinted by authorities.

Back in California, those who support the bill passed by the California legislature contend that a federal appellate court decision backs their position that the federal government has no authority to block hemp cultivation.

More than 30 countries allow the cultivation of hemp. The United States already imports a great deal of that hemp to use in the manufacture of a wide range of products. It appears to make no sense to block hemp production just because it is related to marijuana, especially since it contains only a tiny amount of the chemical that brings about a marijuana high.

There's no certainty that legalized hemp cultivation would be a big hit in North Carolina, or in any of the other states. China controls about 40 percent of the world's production already. But there are big parts of this state that could use a crop that produces a good income, and if the climate and soil here are good for that crop, then farmers should be able to give it a try.

There are ways around the problems associated with hemp's similarities to marijuana. The federal government just has to decide that it wants to pursue those remedies.

Contact: letters@wsjournal.com * Website



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Can He Do That?
posted by mayan on September 09, 2006

From the "Will "The Terminator" Terminate Cannabis Hemp in California? Hemp Pioneer Opposes Bill on Schwarzenegger's Desk" article
(scroll down)...

"Dave West (Ph.D), a plant breeder who ran the Hawaii Industrial Hemp Project from 1999-2003, predicted Schwarzenegger will send back the bill until it’s watered down to a study, as happened in Illinois. “That’s not a victory,” West said. “It will mold in some university papermill.” West does think the scarce remaining germplasm of native U.S. hemp needs to be collected and studied at the University level."

Can Arnold send the bill back? I thought he had to either sign it,veto it, or just let it sit and become law. I must say, if Jack Herer is opposed to California's bill then I must have second thoughts about it. By the way, the Illinois hemp study bill(s) were both vetoed by then Governor Ryan. He was just sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison on corruption charges. I find it hard to have sympathy for him.



Eradicated Marijuana Is 98 Percent Ditchweed

There is no exception to Czar Waldo, it's all "marijuana" nationwide. It's all Ganja body counts, each with a number, add up the numbers and it's all Tandy's DEAth care about. You might think that your dope is better than schwagg, that doesn't make one bit of difference. You might even think the ditchweed can't get you high, and so why is it eradicated along with the kyndbud? Body counts, it's all the same to the Ganjawar profiters..

In reality, if 98% of the nations eradication's are non psychoactive, then 98% of the money value they assign to the plants they bust is bogus. So Waldo gets his cake and gets to eat it too, by simple lies and flim flam. He claims both the street value dollar amount and the ditchweed count. All to justify bloated budgets and keep hemp out of the trade market. Making the DEAth Merchants happy.

Another reason for DEAth mongers to include hemp and Ganja in the same lump. Is for more Tandy propaganda lying to kids and their parents about potency and medicinal value. Using hemp for patients, saying it's Ganja, gets results DEAth flaunts. Comparing ditchweed thc to street pot ends with ridiculous ratio's to scare more politicians and voters. 30,000 times stronger than your parents! Yes I guess today's Ganja as yester years, is hundreds of times stronger than ditchweed. Or old evidence used to compare the thc levels to freighten Alaskians in the nick of time.

Probably thousands of times more thc in Ganja than apples too. So when Souder tells Congress they tested "marijuana" for pain and spasm control and it did not work. They can say they did it scientifically, using ditchweed because its all the same thing to them and the Substance Abuse Act. As long as ditchweed hemp is listed as a schedule#1 narcotic, it won't be hording in on the meat, grain, steel, tree lumber, paper, fossil fools polyfiber and cotton industries profits. Like they keep booze and Pharm drugs free of an alternative competition banning Ganja. DEAth business as usual.

I'm a little surprized this is surprising news, it's been happening since Czarbarry busted the truck loads bird seed coming from Canada. Protecting Klintoon campaign financers from the meat and grain competition after Erasmus' book and a few articles from Andrew Weil and the Osburns in the mid 90's. Jack Herer and Chris Conrad books informing the advocates in the fringe. Though ditchweed has been supplimenting local copshops numbers since Nixon. Not to the extent of Klintoon sucking up to the WoD Junkies. Along with his busting hundreds of thousands of Americans a year for possession, regardless of inhaling. Numbers is what it's all about. Instead of the normal 70,000 Ganja plants it went to 400 million. Klintoon arrested more for possession than Nexxon, Rayguns, and Bushit Sr. combined. I hope no one thinks DEAth plays by the rules.
DdC

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