DEA overruled on hemp bill

The DEA, often called DEA/LER - is an agency which many think is full of drug dealing morons who hate America. It may well be the truth. Congress finally opposed them and their stupid contention that they could not tell hemp from pot - anyone else in the world can, and the first American flag was made of hemp - so these guys may be either bozos or drug dealers or both. For a full account read below:

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives on Thursday overcame last-minute lobbying from the Drug Enforcement Administration to pass a farm bill amendment that would legalize the growing of hemp for research purposes. The 225-200 vote came after a flurry of opposition from the DEA, which argued that it would be too difficult for the agency to differentiate legal hemp from illegal marijuana, both varieties of the cannabis plant.
The House amendment, proposed by Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), is far more modest than a Senate effort by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to fully legalize growing hemp for industrial purposes. McConnell had hoped to have his measure inserted into the underlying farm bill or approved on a simple voice vote, but neither path proved open.
Polis said he'd been unsure whether the amendment would pass, but was gratified by the final tally. "We're having a hemp milkshake," he joked to HuffPost afterward. "Break out the hemp ice cream."
"On the merits, this is a no-brainer. Industrial hemp is an important product," he added. "It's perfectly legal, but currently we require that it be imported from other countries. Basically it's taking jobs away from American producers."
Allowing hemp to be grown in this country for research purposes, said Polis, would likely pave the way for Colorado State University to take a closer look at the crop.
Other hemp advocates were bullish about House passage, having had a chance encounter with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) at the Kentucky Derby in early May. The state's agriculture commissioner, James Comer, bent the ear of Boehner and his chief of staff, after which the speaker invited Comer and others to Capitol Hill for a meeting. Boehner was receptive to their pitch, Comer told The Huffington Post later.
On Wednesday, HuffPost obtained a copy of talking points the DEA was circulating among members of Congress to press them to oppose the amendment. "I saw that ridiculous, inaccurate letter. I'm glad my colleagues in the Congress saw through the bogus attempts to discredit" the hemp amendment, Polis said.
Hemp is legal in many countries, including Canada, and is legal to import but not to grow in the United States. Nineteen states have passed pro-industrial hemp legislation, and nine have removed barriers to its production: Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
Polis waved an American flag made of hemp on the House floor during debate over the measure.
The next task for hemp advocates is to keep the provision in the farm bill when the House and Senate versions are melded. "We just wanna make sure this language remains in the conference," Polis said. "We hope that with the help of [Senators] Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and others, we'll be able to keep it."
A recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found that by a 56 percent to 24 percent margin, most Americans think it should be legal to grow hemp.

Anndrea Hermann on hemp in Colorado

Colorado is one of two states that have ruled that the federal ban on hemp is unconstitutional - the other is Maine. The following report on Colorado appeared on 18 June in Steamboat Today, written by Tom Ross:

Steamboat Springs — If industrial hemp can grow on the plains of Manitoba, it can grow in semi-arid Northwest Colorado, Anndrea Hermann said Tuesday.

#Hermann is recognized as one of the foremost experts in North America on the cultivation of industrial hemp for its valued fiber and oil, and she will be teaching a groundbreaking e-course on the subject at Oregon State University this fall.

#“Can it grow there?” Hermann asked rhetorically during a phone interview with the Steamboat Today on Tuesday. “Absolutely. Do we know the cultivars — the varieties and parental lines that will do the best? No, we don’t. We’d have to test them. But in Manitoba, hemp grows with 8 to 13 inches of (annual moisture) without any worries. We have dryland production in Manitoba and we get our share of winter.”

#Industrial hemp is distinctly different from the type of cannabis sativa that produces the psychoactive chemical in marijuana that pot smokers covet. Industrial hemp does not yield significant amounts of THC. In other words, when grown properly to take advantage of the plant’s practical uses, industrial help won’t make people high.

#Steamboat Springs receives on average of 24.5 inches of precipitation, and Hayden, with a milder climate, receives 18.6 inches annually. A research paper done at Oregon State in 2008 suggested that hemp thrives in climates with at least 25 to 30 inches of water, fertile loam soils and extended growing seasons.

#But the study also reports that young hemp plants can tolerate some frost, and Hermann said the plant’s deep taproots help with its water needs.

#Hemp was an important industrial crop in the United States during World War II when its tough fibers were relied upon heavily for cordage, or rope. It subsequently was banned by the federal government along with marijuana, but the crop has come to the forefront of public awareness in Colorado since voters’ passage of Amendment 64 in November legalized industrial hemp at the same time that it legalized the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana.

#More recently, the Colorado Legislature passed a bill intended to regulate industrial growing of hemp, and Gov. John Hickenlooper signed it into law at the end of May. The potential of the industry and for Colorado to become the sole state producing hemp domestically garnered bipartisan support in the Legislature.

#The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union submitted a position piece that was published in the Steamboat Today in April. It pointed out that the new state law regulating production of industrial hemp here requires that crops produced in Colorado go to processing plants in the state. In addition to rope, hemp is used in a wide range of products, from clothing to cosmetics. Keeping hemp processing in state should create jobs beyond agriculture, the Farmers Union pointed out.

#Farmers Union spokesman Mick McAllister said Tuesday that the biggest barrier to reviving industrial hemp as a cash crop in Colorado isn’t the amount of available annual moisture but the continuing federal ban on the plant. The logical place to explore the varieties of hemp that could thrive on the eastern and western slopes is in the agronomy labs at Colorado State University. But from universities to individual growers, it’s difficult to assume the risk that they will be cut off from USDA funding programs and subsidies if they cultivate the crop.

#“No one is coming right out and saying it, but Colorado State can’t do it; it would jeopardize their federal money,” McAllister said. “Until the federal legislation is passed that legalizes industrial hemp nationally, chances are it won’t get the macro attention we need to make it a viable crop.”

#The Farmers Union is lobbying actively for decriminalization of industrial hemp at the federal level, and bills were introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate late this winter.

#Has anyone ever farmed hemp in Routt County?

#“Not that I can recall,” former longtime Routt County Extension Agent Sam Haslem said Tuesday. “I grew up as a cowboy in Moffat County. I remember using ropes from the Plymouth Cordage Company (founded in Plymouth, Mass., in 1824). I’m still a cowboy.”