Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Tennessee to grow hemp

The years of campaigning by activists in the US has paid off, and now more and more states are welcoming hemp - please continue to support the movement by signing the petition at www.minawear.com

Tennessee Governor Signs Law to Legalize Hemp
Activist Post

Yesterday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill which some supporters consider the strongest pro-hemp legislation in the country. House Bill 2445 (HB2445), introduced by Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby), would mandate that the state authorize the growing and production of industrial hemp within Tennessee, effectively nullifying the unconstitutional federal ban on the same.

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 28-0 and the House by a vote of 88-5. It reads, in part:
“The department shall issue licenses to persons who apply to the department for a license to grow industrial hemp.”
Mike Maharrey, communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center, noted that one word strengthened the bill considerably. “By including the word ‘shall’ in this legislation, it has a great deal of impact,” he said. “This means that rather than keeping it open-ended like other states have done, hemp farming will be able to move forward in Tennessee whether the regulatory bureaucrats there want it to or not.”

‘Shall’ is a legal term which creates a specific requirement far stronger than a word like ‘will.’ The former is more closely interchangeable with the word “must,” while the latter allows leeway for the object of the term to delay. In this case, the bill states that the Tennessee department of agriculture will have a mandate to license farmers for growing hemp.

Three other states – Colorado, Oregon and Vermont – have already passed bills to authorize hemp farming, but only in Colorado has the process begun. A similar bill was passed in South Carolina this week and awaits action by Gov. Nikki Haley.



Farmers in SE Colorado started harvesting the plant in 2013 and the state began issuing licenses on March 1, 2014. In Vermont and Oregon, hemp farming was authorized, but no licensing program was mandated, so implementation has been delayed due to regulatory foot-dragging.

With passage of HB2445, Tennessee will most likely become the 2nd state in the country to actively produce hemp. The legislation also ensures that not only will hemp licenses be issued, but the process for doing so will start quickly. It reads:
The department shall initiate the promulgation of rules … concerning industrial hemp production within one hundred and twenty (120) days of this act becoming law
In other words, now that the bill has become law, the process in Tennessee will start no later than November, 2014.

Maharrey called this “monumental” in comparison to Oregon. That state first legalized hemp farming in 2009 but five years later, farming and production still has not begun.

HUGE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL

Experts suggest that the U.S. market for hemp is around $500 million per year.

But, since the enactment of the unconstitutional federal controlled-substances act in 1970, the Drug Enforcement Agency has prevented the production of hemp within the United States. Many hemp supporters feel that the DEA has been used as an “attack dog” of sorts to prevent competition with major industries where American-grown hemp products would create serious market competition: Cotton, Paper/Lumber, Oil, and others.

There are as many as 25,000 uses for industrial hemp, including food, cosmetics, plastics and bio-fuel. The U.S. is currently the world’s #1 importer of hemp fiber for various products, with China and Canada acting as the top two exporters in the world.

During World War II, the United States military relied heavily on hemp products, which resulted in the famous campaign and government-produced film, “Hemp for Victory!

Even though soil, climate and agricultural capabilities could make the United States a massive producer of industrial hemp, today no hemp is grown for public sale, use and consumption outside of Colorado, which just began production.

In February of this year, President Barack Obama signed a new farm bill into law, which included a provision allowing a handful of states to begin limited research programs growing hemp. The new “hemp amendment”
…allows State Agriculture Departments, colleges and universities to grow hemp, defined as the non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis, for academic or agricultural research purposes, but it applies only to states where industrial hemp farming is already legal under state law.
The farming laws in Colorado, Oregon and Vermont go beyond research and into full-scale farming and production, effectively nullifying the federal ban once production begins. Tennessee joins them, and will likely become the 2nd state in the country to actively start an industrial hemp program.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I have heard some great benefits of using hemp! I had never heard of it or tried it. But my friend has been using it in all of these new household cleaners and I love it. I haven't used it myself yet, but I want to! I love the different ways you it is used.
Ruth James | http://hempforfitness.com/about/about-rsho/

Phil Telic said...

Back in the day, they tried to confuse hemp with marijuana, and farmers had to buy revenue stamps as a licence to grow hemp...to this day, stamps dealers refer to them as marijuana stamps.
I wonder if they will do the same thing in states like Tennesse where hemp is legal? And will Colorado and Kentucky, now that hemp is legal, have fields of hemp? Most countries allow it to be grown - it used to be the world's most traded commodity.

Mark Ski said...

Hopefully hemp will take root this year and all 50 states will follow. Time for some good economic news!

Phil Telic said...

The silence of the press here is like the strange feeling a soldier gets when his buddy has turned coward and ran away, leaving him on the front line alone. America has the press to blame for its failing economy; the journalists took too much time chasing celebs to concentrate on the reality.

Unknown said...

Are the celebs gonna bail the US out or just spend their money on drugs and whores and fancy homes?
Or drive around drunk telling the cops " do you know who I am"?
Cops and other Americans are sick of them.

Unknown said...

So far there has been no word on hemp grown in Tennessee this year, I hope that a string bag project will provide a market for hemp stems and give farmers some incentive. Sad that the government is not trying to get this going and provide jobs.

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