Sunday, August 14, 2011

RON PAUL REPLIES TO A CONSTITUENT

This summer Mina Hegaard of Minawear, who lives in Victoria, Texas - where Ron Paul has an office - wrote to her Congressman and here is his reply:

Dear Mina:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp.

I have introduced my bill HR 1831, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. Please see below my speech announcing the introduction of HR 1831.

http://www.paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1863&Itemid=60

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS

BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Statement Introducing the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, HR 1831

May 11, 2011

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. The Industrial Hemp Farming Act requires the federal government to respect state laws allowing the growing of industrial hemp.

Nine States--Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, and West Virginia--allow industrial hemp production or research in accord with state laws. However, federal law is standing in the way of farmers in these states growing what may be a very profitable crop. Because of current federal law, all hemp included in products sold in the United States must be imported instead of being grown by American farmers.

Since 1970, the federal Controlled Substances Act's inclusion of industrial hemp in the schedule one definition of marijuana has prohibited American farmers from growing industrial hemp despite the fact that industrial hemp has such a low content of THC (the psychoactive chemical in the related marijuana plant) that nobody can be psychologically affected by consuming hemp. Federal law concedes the safety of industrial hemp by allowing it to be legally imported for use as food.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that prohibits industrial hemp cultivation. The Congressional Research Service has noted that hemp is grown as an established agricultural commodity in approximately 30 nations in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. The Industrial Hemp Farming Act will relieve this unique restriction on American farmers and allow them to grow industrial hemp in accord with state law.

Industrial hemp is a crop that was grown legally throughout the United States for most of our nation's history. In fact, during World War II, the federal government actively encouraged American farmers to grow industrial hemp to help the war effort. The Department of Agriculture even produced a film "Hemp for Victory'' encouraging the plant's cultivation.

In recent years, the hemp plant has been put to many popular uses in foods and in industry. Grocery stores sell hemp seeds and oil as well as food products containing oil and seeds from the hemp plant. Industrial hemp is also included in consumer products such as paper, cloths, cosmetics, carpet, and door frames of cars. Hemp has even been used in alternative automobile fuel.

It is unfortunate that the federal government has stood in the way of American farmers competing in the global industrial hemp market. Indeed, the founders of our nation, some of whom grew hemp, would surely find that federal restrictions on farmers growing a safe and profitable crop on their own land are inconsistent with the constitutional guarantee of a limited, restrained federal government. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to stand up for American farmers and cosponsor the Industrial Hemp Farming Act.


Sincerely,

Ron Paul

4 comments:

Mark Ski said...

Ron Paul is being ignored by the press as they pay attention to clowns - which make it very dangerous as the more attention clowns get, the more chance they will get voted in, and America is in trouble.
Paul knows about banking and has suggested ways to reduce the federal interest payments but does the NYT or Post or Daily News listen?
No. They are reckless and stupid and the journalists they employ spend their time jerking off to the DVDs they buy at all the porn shops on 8th Avenue.
Then they just publish the rubbish their editors want, or do easy stories that take an hour or two to write, leaving them time to jerk off.

Jokerman said...

The press likes clowns...
If Pee Wee Herman ran he'd get
in with the journalists giving him
front page articles. Scary.

Carlos said...

Ron Paul is now retiring, and the part of his district in which Minawear operates has been allocated to another district.

Unknown said...

And we will be writing to his replacement, and making the new rep aware of the peition at www.minawear.com/about-us/

There are quite a lot of signers from that district, so the new rep would be foolish to ignore the hemp issue.