Rolling Stoned

As a hemp blog, this is certainly bound to be confused with, and share some attention with, drug sites. Hemp is, after all, Cannabis sativa, perhaps the world's most used drug, with a wide range of applications medicinally and many varieties of hash and marijuana.
However, I happen to be a drug free person; and I am also a victim of drug related violence, when here in Manhattan I was held down and stabbed on East 23rd Street at the notorious Kenmore Hotel, which was later taken over, with some assistance on my part, by local, state and federal law enforcement.
Enigma thus casts its shadow over my work, with  my hand forced to deal with a wide range of issues and characters, including marijuana. And much as I endorse making both industrial hemp and marijuana legal, I am not about to support in any way drug addiction or the sick, violent world of drug dealing.
As a victim of violent drug dealers, I am disgusted by the recent article in Rolling Stone in which not only a drug dealer, but a terrorist who has killed American citizens while living in the lap of luxury from his ill gotten gains, is interviewed by Sean Penn. This self serving thespian sees no duty to turn in a criminal; he gains attention and money from his chat with the lowlife, and does not take into account the deaths of his fellow American, many of them babies and children, who die each year due to the greed of  drug dealers.
In some countries what he has done is illegal. It is immoral anywhere. The only interaction with El Chapo should be to make an arrest, such as I performed on drug dealers here in Manhattan, after they came to my attention by slashing the face of a former Marine. Navy man that I am,  I did not see fit to let this go. And it did not have to be a fellow serviceman who was their victim; I feel the same obligation to anyone, including  babies and children, and that is the reality that Penn and Rolling Stone seem to lack awareness of. In the world of Hollywood and hip mags, drugs are just par for the course or even way cool.
They are not. Drugs kill, drugs destroy lives, and drugs are a MAJOR part of the economic woes in America today. But noting such issues and caring for them is NOT cool in some circles; in fact, it can get you sneered at.
Rolling Stone has to learn to draw the line. It does not need to give the perception of glamorizing drug dealers, terrorists and fools to remain hip. I  count myself among its readers,  partly for the music angle, and partly for works by veteran journalists such as Matt Taibbi. But I am in the mood to boycott this publication and call upon everyone in America to do the same.
A tough line against drugs and any parties promoting drugs or making them seem cool is what is needed. But before I call a boycott - standing outside their 6th Avenue midtown offices with posters and sign up sheets, I would like to talk to them and work on remedy.
If they are man enough to meet with me, we can work this out. If not, and I end up 'talking to the hand' with unanswered emails and labyrinth like phone systems to waste my time, then I am left  no choice but to get in their face, like I did when drug dealers got out of line.
I am a man. A man stands up for real issues and meets the needs in his society. Talking to El Chapo may be 'way cool' and help to sell magazines, but it is not how to meets no need. Arresting him and having information on his whereabouts is; and that part took real men, not hipster actors.
Real men, in fact, died performing that, while actors went to the bank and partied, seeking the attention they did not deserve; and Rolling Stone was a vehicle for them to grab this attention.
Enough already. Rolling Stone will be hearing from me, with an amicable remedy in hand.
Part of which will be not about what they published; which, as one politician succinctly said is grotesque, but about the conspicuous absence of any major article on C. sativa as hemp. That is  not just a cool issue, but one which affects the US economy. Hemp gives farmers an easy to cultivate crop, producing a raw material that was used, incidentally, in the making of the first American flag. Let's hope that Rolling Stone did not run short on resources giving Penn and his pal the limelight, but that they are able to allocate time and funds to a seminal piece about something that has place in America's past, present and future.
Or would that just not be their kind of cool?

RISE UP BY SITTING DOWN AND PROTESTING

As I sit and blog, I am protesting. And I am hearing protest outside the window at 53rd & 7th in Manhattan. Hundreds of marchers have convened on the Sheraton while Obama is in town. For many reasons, I am not going to quit my protest and join theirs. So much for their claim that they are the 99% - of what? And what are they accomplishing? How many of them are wearing hemp? Just about 0%; but how many of them support violence? 31%, one poll says. And how many of them even know the name of their reps and have written a letter to them?
After spending time with this bunch of arrogant rich kids - many may not know this, but far from being poor the leaders are so filthy rich that they sleep in $700-a-night hotel rooms - I came to the conclusion that it would lead to nothing. Journalists became very opinionated, either for or against them, with outlandish claims made on both sides, the New York Post in an all-out war with the New York Daily News over this, but did any of the reporting do any good? I talked to journalists about the hemp issue while I was there, but the journalists wanted outlandish images, and I ahd to challenge one by asking if he was an American and if so, would he not want to report on something that would make a difference to Americans? Hell no, he just wanted weird images of so-called protesters. To hell with America was the press response.
Ron Paul's bill for hemp farming in the US was not once discussed by any of these journalists or rich kid bagels-n'-lox eating louts. Or the poor louts among them who slept rough and defecated on people's doors. Instead, they ran around and many of them, including Joshua Fellows, broke the law in the most hypocritical of ways. The 'peaceniks' actually managed to get arrested for having unlicenced handguns. Great. Welcome to NY, you're here to save the world. But getting a licence for your gun, or even for you car, is beyond your capabilities.
What would happen if this lot were granted power? Things are bad. And they would change. For the worse.
So anyone reading this who thinks the OWS is out to save you, please do not waste your time with them. Instead, join the real protest and write a letter to your reps in support of hemp and Ron Paul's hemp bill - making sure you point out that this would give jobs to Americans.
Jobs is something the OWS does not seem to get their heads around. It's not about $700-a-night hotel rooms for spoiled idiot organisers, it's not about illegal guns and driving dangerously and illegally, it's about the economy stupid...and hemp is a viable part of that, well worth protesting about. Please do; but in a fashion that is effective.

FIELDS OF GREEN

In 1900, James Lane Allen of Kentucky wrote about the hemp as "fields of living emerald". He might be seeing red today if he knew about the status of hemp under the law; his book was titled Reign of Law, but today he would not have hemp to write about; just lots of lawlessness as the politicians rip off the taxpayers. It's called 'organised crime'.

The hemp issue and other environmental issues are now hot topics, even hotter than the weather (which has been rather cool here in the UK and many other parts as well, with monsoon rains here and villages under 9 feet of water - water, water everywhere). So of course the Big Green Gathering will have someone there talking about hemp, namely me. I am already laying out my green clothes, from Braintree trousers to a Minawear limited edition tie-dye shirt to a pair of green sunglasses (for a trip to the Wizard).

So look for the jolly green hempster at the Moon Marquee on Friday, 3 August, at 8:30 pm. This year the event will be at Fernhill Farm above the Cheddar Gorge in Somerset. Last year there were 20,000 attendees, and it looks like we will have quite a crowd again. For info click here. Tickets can also be ordered over the phone at (44) 01458 830 281.

BTW, it may be a cool idea to have a hemp bag to carry around the farm, and this month The Ecologist has a reader offer on one that says: "REAL ECO BAGS ARE MADE OF HEMP". It is 100% organic hemp, made in the UK. It is the real thing, no cotton involved in it, unlike the Anya bags and other ersatz bags being foisted on us by the cotton lovers. (see related posts for full story on cotton and the bag wars). The bag can be ordered from The Hemp Shop while supplies last, click here for info.

I got this bag in the post last week, delayed a bit by the strike, but soon after I was using it I got mugged; just like when you wear an Rolex in a rough neighbourhood, my bag got taken off me. The perpetrator was one of my co-authors, as a matter of fact, who wanted it to walk around Manhattan with. So if you are in the Big Apple, an you see a woman with a burlappy grey bag sporting the above-mentioned logo, quite possible hanging out at the Galaxy Global Eatery on 15th & Irving, that is one of the hemp team from London (though she is actually from New Jersey, but likes lots of rain, so she moved to London, where she lives with her husband Nick).