Hemp now blocked by drug addicts in Oregon

Just after posting the other day about a hemp planting in Kentucky, this news came in re Oregon, which, sadly, has the ironic fact that it is now the medical marijuana farmers who are an impediment to industrial hemp. How many of the medical marijuana users are for real? And how many are selfish drug addicts? Who might be the real reason hemp is still illegal in most states, rather than the government.

Industrial hemp is off to a slow start, and the Oregon Legislature may throw up more hurdles, but growers are optimistic.

Cliff Thomason’s goal is to be growing 10,000 acres of industrial hemp in five years. But right now he’s dealing with opposition from medical marijuana growers and Oregon legislators.

Thomason is among the first growers licensed by the state to raise hemp, which lacks the THC levels that gets pot smokers high but is valued because it can be used to make a wide variety of food, health and fiber products.

Thomason’s Oregon Hemp Co. has grow operations in Murphy and near Grants Pass, in Southwest Oregon, and he is negotiating to sharecrop space on an organic farm near Scio, in the Willamette Valley.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has issued 13 hemp licenses, but it’s unclear how many growers have a crop in the ground this summer.

Thomason said growers are hampered by infrastructure and political problems. First, it’s difficult to obtain seed, although Thomason said he has seed from China, Lithuania, Slovakia and Germany. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he said.

The Oregon Legislature is another matter. Medical marijuana growers in Southern Oregon believe pollen from industrial hemp will contaminate their potent pot and reduce THC levels. A bill in the Legislature would force a 5-mile separation between hemp and pot growers.

Hemp growers say that would essentially prohibit them from growing, because so many pot plots fill the area.

Thomason said he’s trying to be a good neighbor by keeping pollen-bearing male hemp plants in greenhouses and transplanting only females outdoors.

“I keep saying that with responsible farming practices, it will regulate itself,” he said.

Thomason described himself as “truly an accidental farmer” who was asked to help find seed and land for the hemp industry because of his real estate background.

“When I did, we formed a company to move the project forward,” he said.

He said his plants are growing rapidly and are intended for the medical market. The German seeds seem to do the best, perhaps because its climate is similar to Oregon’s, he said.

The other licenses issued so far are:

27B Stroke6 Farm, Corvallis; American Hemp Seed Genetics, Salem; Cannalive Organics, Yamhill County; Central Coast Enterprises, Seal Rock; Genesis Media Works, Baker County; Hemp for Victory Gardens, Wilsonville; Hughes Farms LLC, Bend; Integrative Health Source, Corvallis; Mark McKay Farms, St. Paul; Oregon Agriculture Food and Rural Consortium, Eagle Point; Went to Seed LLC., Bend; and Wildhorse Creek Hacienda, Adams.

Fifty Years' a not growing: America's first hemp harvest

Just in from Colorado: A story about a farmer who is challening the federal law and growing hemp. He wins this round, but it cannot just go on in legal limbo - we need every vote we can get, make your voice heard and please add your name to the White House Petition at www.minawear.com/about-us/ so farmers all over the US can safely grow this and create JOBS for everyone!

Thank you and please check out the story below:

Ryan Loflin.

America's first (known) hemp harvest in more than fifty years began this month in southeastern Colorado. This past spring, following last year's passage of Amendment 64, which legalized small amounts of marijuana for adults and paved the way for industrial hemp production, farmer Ryan Loflin planted 55 acres of marijuana's sober sister. Last week, hemp advocates from across the country came to watch as Loflin and others harvested the first plants by hand.
"It felt very historic," says advocate Lynda Parker.
See also: Free joint giveaway on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall
"We think that, obviously, this is a symbolic first hemp harvest," says Eric Steenstra, the executive director of the Hemp Industries Association.
With the U.S. Department of Justice recently indicating that it won't sue to stop states' marijuana policies, Steenstra predicts farmers in other states will soon follow Loflin's lead. Steenstra is among those who believe the DOJ's pot policy extends to hemp; although hemp contains little to none of the THC found in marijuana, the federal government doesn't distinguish between the two and considers both to be illegal.
"Our eventual hope is to see the full commercialization of hemp," he says.

Hemp Industries Association

Loflin harvests his hemp plants.

Loflin has only been able to harvest about a quarter-acre of his plot so far. He was planning to use a combine to harvest the bulk of it, but when he tested that method, he found that the combine destroyed part of the plant in the process. So now he plans to hand-harvest the entire field. That way, he says, he'll even be able to save the roots.
"We're going to try and save the entire plant and do as much as we can," Loflin says.
Since hemp was illegal for so long, there's very little seed available, making the seeds produced by Loflin's plants quite valuable. "We'll save a lot of the seed and replant it next year," says Loflin, who also plans to make a small amount of hemp seed oil.
Loflin says he isn't worried about law enforcement, especially in the wake of the Department of Justice's announcement. "It's time for this to happen," he says.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture is currently working on rules for registering hemp farmers with the aim of having them in place by early 2014. Back in May, the department issued a statement clarifying that it's not okay to plant hemp in Colorado until that registration process in in place -- a distinction that didn't stop Loflin.
The night before the September 23 ceremonial harvest, Loflin hosted a dinner at his farm, complete with hemp food. It was attended by Colorado hemp advocates, as well as national advocates from Vote Hemp, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and the Hemp Industries Association. See photos below from the dinner and of advocates in Loflin's field.

Hemp Industries Association

Advocates enjoy a hempy dinner before the harvest.

Hemp Industries Association

Ryan Fletcher, communications director for HIA; Eric Lineback, board member of Vote Hemp; Patrick Goggin, board member of Vote Hemp; Eric Steenstra, executive director of HIA; Christina Volgyesi, marketing director for Dr. Bronner's; David

California governor approves hemp bill

(Editor's note: the article is mistaken about nine states cultivating and processing this plant. That number or more are considering such action, and Colorado farmers did plant hemp this spring.)

San Francisco Bay Guardian Online
28 September 2013

After being stuck in legislative limbo for 14 years, industrial hemp is now a sanctioned agricultural crop in the state of California.
The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act (SB 566) was signed into law on Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown, after years of deliberation dating back to 1999, a process that included multiple gubernatorial vetoes. The freshly signed law will allow approved California residents to grow hemp for industrial purposes by reclassifying the once-felonious plant as a "fiber or oilseed crop."
SB 566, a bill championed since 2005 by Sen. Mark Leno (D), defines industrial hemp as the "nonpsychoactive types of the plant Cannabis saliva L. and the seed produced therefrom, having no more than 3/10 of 1 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) contained in the dried flowering tops."
In simpler terms: It doesn't protect marijuana, but rather marijuana's less mind-bending cousin, which is far more useful as a raw industrial material.
"We are very pleased to have the signature," Sen. Leno told the Guardian. "It's been a 10-year effort to get here. It's a job still, but [the passing of SB 566] will help sustain family farms in California for the future and likely create more job opportunities. Hemp is a $500 million a year industry in California, and it's growing at 10 percent annually."
California now follows in the footsteps of nine other states and 30 other countries that have reclassified the innocuous plant as a crop with agricultural and commercial value. And it is quite valuable.
"This is a miracle plant that has served the planet earth well for, literally, millennia, and that we currently legally manufacture and sell thousands of hemp products including food, clothing, shelter, paper, fuel, all biodegradable products," said Leno. "It's renewable every 90 days, grows without herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, and needs less water than corn. It is the definition of sustainability."
But the reputation of hemp hasn't always had champions like Sen. Leno. Since the initial proposal of HR 32 back in 1999, the bill has been vetoed four times by three different governors. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited a "false sense of security" he feared would be cultivated amongst the growers of the crop, due to its illegality at a federal level.
Gov. Brown had previously shot down the proposed legislation in 2011, citing a gap in state and federal law as the reason. However, he did remark in his veto message at the time that "it is absurd that hemp is being imported into the state, but our farmers cannot grow it."
And it would seem that Brown's recognition of hemp’s merits finally outweighed his concern over the potential for California growers to face federal prosecution, which is a major relief for the architects of SB 566. Now Californians can stop relying on imported hemp from Mexico and Canada (among other places) and start legally manufacturing their own.
"We currently manufacture literally thousands of [hemp] products — legally — and sell them," said Leno. "This is why this issue has been so nonsensical."
The "nonsensical" issue has had deep roots, given hemp's historically ambiguous federal standing. As Brown’s 2011 veto message noted, "federal law clearly establishes that all cannabis plants, including industrial hemp, are marijuana, which is a federally regulated controlled substance."
But that isn't a universally held assertion. Back in 1970, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 "explicitly excludes nonpsychoactive hemp from the definition of marijuana," a decision that the federal government never appealed. It's a decision that Sen. Leno agrees with.
"We've always believed that there is no federal preemption, because we believe that that court case ruled that Congress had knowingly exempted industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 –because it's not a drug," said Leno.
Now the state of California can do what more than 30 countries (including Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany and China) and nine states are already doing: Cultivating and processing a plant that many have touted as the "miracle plant."
Now that SB 566 has passed, however, the looming question still remains as to how the federal government will respond. But Leno is confident that it will respect the will of California lawmakers.
"I have great confidence in a recent statement by Attorney General Eric Holder," said Leno. "He's said that if a state puts into place a legal allowance and regulatory scheme, that the federal government would not interfere with marijuana. Now, we need clarification between hemp and marijuana, but there's no sensical way that that could be interpreted that hemp is excluded, given that hemp's not a drug."
Either way, hemp is on the horizon here in California.

Oregon set to grow hemp

A historic federal decision not to challenge marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is also a green light for industrial hemp production in Oregon, advocates say.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, who co-sponsored a 2009 law legalizing hemp production that has since been on hold, said the new federal stance on marijuana should allow the state to start crafting rules on hemp.
"Sounds like we will be having a conversation with the Department of Agriculture and figuring out what the next steps are," said Prozanski.
And federal authorities appear unlikely to question Prozanski's interpretation of the Aug. 29 memo, written by the Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole, laying out the administration's new approach to state marijuana laws.
Amanda Marshall, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon and the state's highest ranking federal law enforcement official, told The Oregonian that her office would not interfere with hemp production in Oregon as long as the state creates "robust" regulatory controls and well-funded enforcement.
"Hemp is cannabis," Marshall said. "It's marijuana, and under federal law, it's exactly the same thing."
Oregon is one of seven states with laws that permit the production of industrial hemp, a non-intoxicating relative of marijuana grown for its sturdy fiber and seeds. But Oregon agriculture officials have held off implementing the 2009 law, saying they would wait until the federal government reclassified marijuana from a substance prone to abuse and lacking medicinal value.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski Tyler Tjomsland / The Oregonian

Elsewhere in the country, hemp advocates have reacted to the federal government's new position on cannabis by moving ahead with legal hemp production.
Kentucky's top agriculture official said the Cole memo is all he needs to move forward.
James Comer, the elected Republican commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, also a Republican, plans to fire off a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.'s office making clear that Kentucky will implement its new industrial hemp law.
"We are going to say, 'This is our how our legal counsel interprets it. We are going to proceed unless you specifically tell us otherwise,'" Comer said.
During a break from meeting with Congressional staffers in Washington, D.C. to press his case Tuesday, Comer said Kentucky has a long history of hemp cultivation. It dates to the 1800s through 1920, and then again during World War II, when hemp was a major crop used in rope.
"It grows well in Kentucky," said Comer, who opposes legalization of marijuana and medical marijuana. "We have been looking for an alternative to tobacco."

Hemp history

Hemp and marijuana are different types of the same species, Cannabis sativa.
But hemp lacks marijuana's most coveted component: THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. In hemp's case, the gene that fires up marijuana's high THC production is essentially turned off. So while hemp's sturdy stalks provide fiber for textiles and its seeds can be added to yogurt and smoothies, the plant is a lousy choice for people seeking marijuana's high.
"Basically, the breeding of hemp has removed the ability to make THC in that plant," said Jon Page, a plant biochemist and adjunct biology professor at Canada's University of Saskatchewan.
For 50 years, growers have bred strains of hemp for its seed and fiber while dramatically reducing the plant's THC content.
Countries that allow hemp production today sanction a select list of well-established strains that have been bred to have exceptionally low THC. Canada and European countries cap hemp's THC level at less than .3 percent.

Amanda Marshall

Industrial hemp in the United States was regulated beginning in 1937, then outlawed with the passage in 1970 of the Controlled Substances Act. Federal law makes no distinction between hemp and marijuana.
Traditionally, opponents of hemp have worried its cultivation would complicate efforts to enforce marijuana laws. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has said any amount of THC is a concern. The agency also has warned hemp production could be used to conceal marijuana production, because it's difficult to tell the difference between the plants, and that state-sanctioned hemp could lead to legalized marijuana.
Kevin Sabet, an outspoken opponent of marijuana legalization, said prevention experts worry acceptance of hemp "softens the attitude" toward marijuana.
But "aside from a core group activists who think hemp can be an economic boon," he said, hemp is a side issue in the marijuana debate.
Advocates envision a vast American market for the crop.
Federal marijuana policy, however, has been a hurdle. The government can file forfeiture proceedings against assets of people suspected of breaking the law.
"The biggest elephant in the room is civil asset forfeiture," said Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for Vote Hemp, an advocacy group. "You would literally be betting the farm to find out if you could grow hemp."
Last month's Cole memo, which spelled out eight priorities that will guide the government's approach to marijuana enforcement, changes the equation, hemp activists hope.
Marshall, Oregon's top federal prosecutor, shed some light on the memo's implications for hemp in an interview last week. The government, she said, would require states to provide the same stringent rules for hemp production that federal officials expect of states that allow recreational and medical cannabis.
"And if they fail to do that, then my office would come in and take action, either by criminally prosecuting individuals or civil forfeitures or potentially attacking the regulatory scheme in court," she said.

A new crop?

David Bronner, in a 2012 photograph, stands with a vat that feeds an assembly line for Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, which contains hemp oil as a key ingredient.Associated Press/Lenny Ignelzi

For a glimpse at what hemp production might mean for states like Oregon, look to Canada and China, major international exporters of hemp.
According to data provided to The Oregonian by Statistics Canada, a government agency, India is the largest market for Canadian hemp by weight, though the United States buys more hemp seed than any other country, generally for food and beauty products. China, also a major international exporter of hemp, tends to produce hemp that's used for textiles.
The value of Canadian hemp has mushroomed since 2008, government statistics show. Last year Canada exported about $20.2 million in hemp, $17.7 million of it to the United States.
However, Canadian industrial hemp production, legalized 15 years ago, remains a niche industry dwarfed by conventional crops like wheat, said Anndrea Hermann, who grows hemp in Canada and teaches a course on industrial hemp at Oregon State University.
Even if states move forward with plans for hemp production, the crop faces considerable challenges. A 2013 report by the Congressional Research Service said the international market for hemp remains small and that global competition is bound to be stiff.
And in the Pacific Northwest, hemp farmers may encounter difficulty growing the crop. A 1998 OSU study concluded hemp would likely need irrigation to maximize productivity, putting it in "direct competition with the highest value crops" in the region.

The next steps

Oregon agriculture officials said they plan to research whether the federal memo has implications here. Lindsay Eng, a certification manager with the agency, said officials will seek a legal opinion from the Oregon Department of Justice. The chief concern, she said, is marijuana's outlaw status.
Prozanski, the state lawmaker, said he hopes to arrange a meeting with top agriculture officials this month.
Hemp supporters are watching closely what happens in Oregon and elsewhere.
David Bronner, co-owner of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and a major financial backer of the hemp lobby, said his Escondido, Calif., company imports 40,000 pounds of unrefined hemp seed oil from Canada each year. Hemp makes Dr. Bronner's soaps smoother and less drying, said Bronner.
Bronner said he hopes the Cole memo clears the way for an American hemp industry to take root.
"There is no way that the feds could justify a hands off approach to recreational marijuana and then interfere with industrial hemp," said Bronner. "It makes no sense."
-- Noelle Crombie

Philadelphia Flyer Cote Riley for hemp

 

 

Justin Klugh, Sports Producer

Posted: Friday, September 6, 2013, 5:33 PM

Would you give the stink eye to somebody pounding O’Douls in the parking lot before work?
I mean, yeah; probably. You might also just walk by quickly and try not to make eye contact. But one thing you couldn’t do is accuse them of showing up to work drunk.
Nobody’s really confusing O’Douls with alcohol, except maybe tragically clueless teenagers, but there are debates in this country that use a similar brand of ignorance to continue.
When people hear “hemp,” they assume it’s being said to them by somebody with at least one pot leaf hoodie in their closet. But while hemp is a form of cannabis and gets a lot of eye rolls, there is one thing it doesn’t get: people stoned.

 

There’s no THC in hemp – which is to say, there’s no aspect of the plant that would get someone high, like marijuana would; just like O’Douls, without any alcohol, can’t cause you a drinking problem. The misconception is that hemp and marijuana, coming from the same plant, are one and the same. They are not. And naturally, it’s up to former Flyer Riley Cote to spread the word.
His playing days behind him after retiring from the NHL at 28, Cote is an assistant coach for the Adirondack Phantoms, when he isn’t campaigning for the health benefits of hemp. Back in 2007-10, Riley Cote would try to get his point across with intense punching, or perhaps throwing his body into a man’s head. These days, Cote takes a far more diplomatic approach to problem-solving, organizing events to advocate the value of hemp as a replacement for plastic, textiles, fuel and as a healthy dietary supplement. Hemp Heals strongly argues that the consumption of hemp seeds will aid in the healing process, as well as act as a preventative measure against getting sick.
That’s why the Hemp Heals Music Festival is coming to Penn’s Pier this Saturday, Sept. 7, and Cote is an active force in getting it there.
“I really believe this could help heal bodies, the environment, and the economy,” Cote said in an interview last year.
His involvement in the hemp movement was triggered by a desire to keep his body healthy after a career of getting abused, as well as his sister’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2000, after seeing hemp have a positive effect on her after every other treatment failed (The Multiple Sclerosis Foundation denies hemp’s value as a treatment). But the misconceptions of hemp’s cannabis influence, and laws in the United States that prevent it from being grown domestically, presented obstacles.
So, Penn’s Pier will be the temporary home of the hemp movement in Philly on Saturday, with acts like Matisyahu and Rebelution, as Cote and Hemp Heals do their best to convince the masses that hemp and marijuana are two different things.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/pattisonave/Hemp-movement-in-Philly-headed-by-Former-Flyer.html#saqqw3iMPDRJml07.99

Grow Hemp or Die: News from Vermont

Vermont...Kentucky...Colorado...and 12 other states are now causing DC some trouble. Hemp, which was part of American life for centuries, is set to make more waves as American haters in DC try to confuse the issue so that Americans will not have raw materials and create jobs. Many senators and congressmen are in this anti-American league and will lie and act stupid to jerk Americans around. It is an ongoing saga, this is like inning 34,578 of the game. Enough to cause a revolution!
But at least it is good news, Vermont  (Live Free of Die) is standing up for America and for hemp.
This in from Lisa Rathke at the Associated Press:

WAITSFIELD, Vt. — Some Vermont farmers want to plant hemp, now that the state has a law setting up rules to grow the plant, a cousin of marijuana that’s more suitable for making sandals than getting high. But federal law forbids growing hemp without a permit, so farmers could be risking the farm if they decide to grow the plant that the Drug Enforcement Agency basically considers marijuana. Hemp and marijuana share the same species — cannabis sativa — but hemp has a negligible content of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. Under federal law, all cannabis plants fall under the marijuana label, regardless of THC content. To grow marijuana for industrial purposes or research, a grower must register with the DEA and meet specific security requirements, such as installing costly fencing for a field of hemp. A national nonprofit group is pushing to change current law and move regulation of hemp farming from the DEA to the state. In the meantime, the group, Vote Hemp, does not recommend growing hemp while state and federal laws conflict. “It’s literally betting the farm,” says Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for the group. Farmers who grow it, or even conspire to grow it and import the seeds face jail time and the forfeiture of their land, he says. But it’s unclear how seriously the DEA will enforce it. Murphy says he’s heard that people have planted hemp on leased land in Colorado. “Now if somebody chooses to do it as civil disobedience, knowing full well what’s going to happen, then that’s on them,” he says. So far, 19 states have passed hemp legislation, including nine that allow its production. Eight states have passed bills calling for the study of hemp, while three states passed bills setting up commissions or authorizing the study of it, according to Vote Hemp. The states hope to nudge the federal government to change its law. John Vitko would like to grow hemp on his Vermont farm to use as feed for his chickens, now that Vermont has passed a law setting up rules to grow it. He doesn’t know where to find seed and knows he would be breaking federal law if he finds some and grows a small amount of the plant. With the cost of feed continually rising, he says hemp provides an economical way to feed and provide bedding for his 100 birds, whose eggs are used in the custard-based ice cream he sells to restaurants and in a dessert shop in Waitsfield, Vt. “It’s one of the few things that are manageable for a small farmer to handle,” he says of hemp, which doesn’t require large equipment to plant and harvest like corn does. “It’s complete protein,” he says. “It has all their amino acids. It’s a seed which birds like.” Hemp has been grown in the U.S. in the past to make rope, fabric and even the paper was used to draft the Declaration of Independence. Missing outNow most hemp products in the U.S. are imported from Canada, China and Europe and some farmers think the U.S. is missing out on a lucrative crop. U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado was granted a request to fly an American flag made of hemp over the capitol in Washington on the Fourth of July. He held the flag during the U.S. House debate in a hemp amendment to the farm bill that he introduced with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.The measure would have allowed colleges and universities to grow hemp for research in states where its cultivation is permitted. The amendment passed but the farm bill failed. “Support for our recent farm bill amendment demonstrated that there is growing consensus to revisit the antiquated drug laws that now keep U.S. farmers from participating in the $300 million hemp retail market,” Blumenauer says. “A hemp flag flown over the Capitol on the Fourth of July is a powerful symbol of this reform movement.” The bill that Democratic Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law last month is intended to push the federal government to change its law after Canada reintroduced industrial hemp in the late 1990s. “The reason we want to push for a change is that hemp is potentially a valuable crop,” says Democratic Rep. Caroline Partridge, chairwoman of the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture and Forest Products. “People want to grow it. Hemp oil is a valuable product, and there’s so much of the hemp plant that can be used for very, very productive purposes.” - See more at: http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/21329/#sthash.qsbyQ5fN.dpuf

Vermont sets guidelines for growing hemp

Photo credit: AP | Farmer John Vitko picks strawberries in Warren, Vt., who says he would like to grow hemp to feed his chickens. (June 24, 2013)

   

 

WAITSFIELD, Vt. - Some Vermont farmers want to plant hemp now that the state has a law setting up rules to grow the plant, a cousin of marijuana that's more suitable for making sandals than getting high.
But federal law forbids growing hemp without a permit, so farmers could be risking the farm if they decide to grow the plant that the Drug Enforcement Agency basically considers marijuana.
Hemp and marijuana share the same species — cannabis sativa — but hemp has a negligible content of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. Under federal law, all cannabis plants fall under the marijuana label, regardless of THC content.
To grow marijuana for industrial purposes or research, a grower must register with the DEA and meet specific security requirements, such as installing costly fencing for a field of hemp.
A national nonprofit group is pushing to change current law and move regulation of hemp farming from the DEA to the state. In the meantime, the group, Vote Hemp, does not recommend growing hemp while state and federal laws conflict.
"It's literally betting the farm," said Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for the group. Farmers who grow it, or even conspire to grow it and import the seeds face jail time and the forfeiture of their land, he said. But it's unclear how seriously the DEA will enforce it.
Murphy said he's heard that people have planted hemp on leased land in Colorado.
"Now if somebody chooses to do it as civil disobedience, knowing full well what's going to happen, then that's on them," he said.
So far, 19 states have passed hemp legislation, including nine that allow its production. Eight states have passed bills calling for the study of hemp, while three states passed bills setting up commissions or authorizing the study of it, according to Vote Hemp.
The states hope to nudge the federal government to change its law.
John Vitko would like to grow hemp on his Vermont farm to use as feed for his chickens now that Vermont has passed a law setting up rules to grow it. He doesn't know where to find any seed and knows he would be breaking federal law if he finds some and grows a small amount of the plant.
With the cost of feed continually rising, he said hemp provides an economical way to feed and provide bedding for his 100 birds, whose eggs are used in the custard-based ice cream he sells to restaurants and in a dessert shop in Waitsfield.
"It's one of the few things that are manageable for a small farmer to handle," he said of hemp, which doesn't require large equipment to plant and harvest like corn does.
"It's complete protein," he said. "It has all their amino acids. It's a seed which birds like."
Hemp has been grown in the U.S. in the past to make rope, fabric and even the paper that used to draft the Declaration of Independence. The country even launched a "Hemp for Victory" campaign during World War II as supplies for other overseas fibers dwindled.
Now most hemp products in the U.S. are imported from Canada, China and Europe and some farmers think the U.S. is missing out on a lucrative crop.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado was granted a request to fly an American flag made of hemp over the capitol in Washington on the Fourth of July. He held the flag during the U.S. House debate in over a hemp amendment to the farm bill that he introduced with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. The measure would have allowed colleges and universities to grow hemp for research in states where its cultivation is permitted. The amendment passed but the farm bill failed.
"Support for our recent farm bill amendment demonstrated that there is growing consensus to revisit the antiquated drug laws that now keep U.S. farmers from participating in the $300 million hemp retail market," Blumenauer said. "A hemp flag flown over the Capitol on the Fourth of July is a powerful symbol of this reform movement."
The figure Blumenauer referenced comes from a Congressional Research Service report that says the industry estimates that U.S. retail sales of hemp-based products may exceed $300 million per year.
The bill that Democratic Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law last month is intended to push the federal government to change its law after Canada reintroduced industrial hemp in the late 1990s.
"The reason we want to push for a change is that hemp is potentially a valuable crop," said Democratic Rep. Caroline Partridge, chairwoman of the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture and Forest Products. "People want to grow it. Hemp oil is a valuable product, and there's so much of the hemp plant that can be used for very, very productive purposes,"
The Vermont law sets up procedures and policies for growing hemp. A grower must register with the state agriculture secretary and provide a statement that seeds used do not exceed a certain concentration of THC.
The grower also must allow the hemp crops to be inspected and tested at the discretion of the Agriculture Agency, which warns growers that cultivating and possessing hemp in Vermont is a violation of federal law.
It's too late this growing season in Vermont for Vitko to grow hemp, but he hopes to plant just an acre of the plant next spring if the rules are worked out.
"I'm going to be a little farmer that's growing hemp, they've got bigger problems than me," he said of the DEA.

hemp gains ground in the US

This year has been dramatic for hemp awareness, and in the US many legal battles have been won. A petition is under way to the White House - www.minawear.com/about-us/ if you care to sign - and there is a good chance that hemp will ge cultivated again soon. Some setbacks have occured this year however, and the press as usual has ignored the story - but yesterday more good news pushed it back into the papers - see below:


An amendment to legalize industrial hemp for research purposes was included in the Farm Bill yesterday – and passed the United States House by a vote of 216 to 208.
Representatives Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky and Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon sponsored the amendment.
It allows colleges and universities to grow hemp for academic and agricultural research purposes, but applies only to states that have already legalized industrial hemp production. Colorado legalized industrial hemp in November, when it also legalized recreational use of marijuana.
And even the representatives who disagreed with the Republican version of the Farm Bill, were pleased that the industrial hemp amendment passed.
“This commonsense amendment will allow colleges and universities to grow and cultivate industrial hemp for academic and legal research purposes,” Polis said.
Industrial hemp legislation has been introduced in 20 states: Alabama, Colorado, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
It’s estimated that the United States imports $500 million in industrial hemp products for food, hygiene products and clothing every year.
Two other stand-alone industrial hemp bills have been introduced in Congress as well – one in the House and Senate. If passed, the bills will removed feral restrictions on the domestic cultivation of industrial hemp, which has no THC, the chemical that induces the “high” in marijuana.
Colorado is one of nine states that have removed barriers to hemp production.

More from the Huffington Post

Hemp sprouts.

More from the Huffington Post by Ryan Grim and Lucia Graves: This venue started to take up this issue rather late and reluctantly, it is one that we have contacted many times in the past and have been totally ignored, so we do welcome the fact that they are finally working on it, but truth to tell, they only did so when it started to go viral and they had no other choice. They did little more than the mainstream press - in fact less, as the LA Times has had an excellent feature on hemp a few years back and this year in an editorial wholeheartedly endorsed it. But for what (little) it's worth, here is the HP contribution, better late than never...for those of you really willing to work on this, there is a petition to the White House to sign at:
www.minawear.com/about-us/

WASHINGTON -- A chance encounter at last weekend's Kentucky Derby may have given the hemp industry the break it's been looking for since the crop was banned in 1970, when the federal government classified it as a controlled substance related to marijuana.

Kentucky's Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer, a Republican, told The Huffington Post that he was at a private pre-derby party on Saturday when he found himself chatting with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his chief of staff Mike Sommers. Comer talked shop.

The topic at hand was the fate of the hemp industry in Kentucky, which could become the first state in the nation to successfully lobby for federal approval. Boehner and Sommers were interested enough to invite Comer and the chief supporters of the state's legalization bill to a meeting in Washington.

On Tuesday night, Boehner sat down with Comer and the bill's lead backers, Republican state Sen. Paul Hornback and Democrat Jonathan Miller, a former Kentucky state treasurer who currently serves on the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission (and who also moonlights as a HuffPost blogger). Sommers confirmed the meeting took place.

According to Comer, Boehner told the trio he would talk with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about how a federal bill might be moved forward to remove hemp from the list of controlled substances. On Thursday, Comer and the Kentucky legislators plan to meet with McConnell, who surprised observers back home by endorsing Hornback's hemp bill, a move that quickly brought the state GOP in line.

The most likely path to passage for hemp legislation runs through the farm bill, as an amendment. That bill goes up for debate in the Senate Agriculture Committee next week -- fortuitous timing for hemp.

"I was impressed with his knowledge of this issue," Comer said of Boehner. "At the end he said, 'This is funny, because this issue's been around a long time. My daughter was talking about this 15 years ago.' So this is something he knows a lot about. And the difference today, as opposed to 10 years ago, is the only people who were pushing this issue 10 years ago were the extreme right or left, or people who wanted to legalize marijuana." Comer spoke with HuffPost and a Roll Call reporter in the office of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), their home base while they're in Washington, working with the group Vote Hemp, which advocates on behalf of the industry.

Kentucky's hemp bill, Senate Bill 50, became law in April and allows Bluegrass State farmers to grow industrial hemp for the first time in decades. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and local police have expressed concerns that allowing farmers to cultivate hemp would enable them to disguise the cultivation of illegal marijuana, which looks very similar to hemp but contains much higher levels of THC, the psychoactive agent in cannabis. Experts dismissed that argument, noting that cross-pollination between hemp plants and marijuana plants would significantly reduce the potency of the marijuana and devalue the crop. Beshear and Kentucky police remained skeptical, though the governor did not ultimately veto the legislation, letting it become law without his signature.

The chief objection, Miller said, came from a small element of law enforcement who feared "that this is a slippery slope, that they would lose money with marijuana eradication." The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, however, backed the bill.

Now Kentucky awaits federal action to approve the plant's cultivation. The Drug Enforcement Administration currently classifies hemp as a Schedule I substance with "a high potential for abuse," alongside heroin and LSD, despite the fact that industrial hemp has zero potential for abuse.

Comer said that the DEA has so far declined to meet with him or the Kentucky lawmakers, so they are hoping instead to meet with the Department of Justice, which oversees the DEA. He said that meetings with the Departments of Energy and Agriculture went well.

Paul and McConnell are co-sponsoring federal legislation that would remove the plant from the DEA's list of illegal drugs. A similar effort is also underway in the House, boosted by members of Kentucky's congressional delegation, with the exception of Rep. Harold Rogers (R). Should those efforts fail, the senators have vowed to seek a waiver from the DEA granting Kentucky special dispensation to grow hemp.

Other states that have also passed local laws allowing hemp licensure include Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia and Colorado. While some have sought federal validation of state laws from the DEA, those efforts have been unsuccessful to date.

Hemp now legal in Colorado

An article by Joe Hanel in the Cortez Journal gives us the latest on hemp in Colorado:

DENVER - Voter approval of legalized marijuana last November caused a national celebration among pot aficionados, but it is also drawing an enthusiastic reaction from Colorado farm country.

That's because Amendment 64 also legalized hemp, a crop that has many uses but won't get people high if it's grown properly.

"I've probably had more people stop me on the road in my area of the country asking me about hemp than anything in the last several years," said Rocky Mountain Farmers Union President Kent Peppler.

Legislators on the House Agriculture Committee were just as interested Monday, and it's little wonder why.

Hemp's strong fibers can be used for clothing as simple as a T-shirt or complex as a fireproof suit, witnesses said. Businessmen told the committee that they have built houses out of it.

Adam Dunn, a marijuana entrepreneur who moved to Denver from Amsterdam, Netherlands, two years ago, dazzled legislators with his hemp jacket, which he said can stop a .357-caliber bullet. His company made its first bulletproof coat for the rapper Snoop Dogg, he said.

Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, sponsored Senate Bill 241, which sets up state regulation of hemp growers in the Colorado Department of Agriculture. It passed the House panel 11-0 Monday.

Coram said 75 people showed up to his town meeting at a Montrose John Deere dealership this year, wanting to hear more about hemp.

"We may be on the cutting edge of a great agricultural crop for rural Colorado," Coram said. "I think it's an opportunity for a new crop that has an old history."

That history remains a problem today. Although the U.S. government encouraged farmers to grow hemp during World War II, it has been illegal for decades under federal law. Members of Congress are pushing a bill to remove hemp from the federal list of illegal drugs, Coram said.

Even though hemp is now legal in Colorado, farmers are hesitant to grow the crop because they don't know if it will disqualify them for benefits from the federal farm bill, Peppler said. However, legislators are anticipating that Congress might soon legalize hemp cultivation. If it does, then the bill would turn over hemp regulation to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and end the state program.

The legislative controversy over marijuana is nowhere to be found over hemp. The bill passed 34-1 in the Senate last week, and it has bipartisan backing in the House. Coram's fellow sponsor is House Agriculture Committee Chairman Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins.

The bill has to go to the House Appropriations Committee, and it must clear the full House by May 8, when the yearly session ends.

Coram said he is likely to ask for an amendment in the House that allows inspections to make sure farmers are not growing hemp with too much THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Coram doesn't think there will be problems with farmers confusing hemp for marijuana - knowingly or not. The crops look different, he said.

"I'm not an expert, but I can see the difference very easily," Coram said.

joeh@cortezjournal.com

Hemp plants under cultivation in Colorado

Brandon Rittiman on 9NEWS in Colorado reports on the latest on hemp:

 

DENVER - The Colorado Senate recently did what the voters asked, passing SB241.

Senate Bill 241 would legalize growing of industrial hemp in Colorado.

That vote was unanimous, but the bill still needs to pass the House.

In a warehouse North of Denver in Lafayette, 9NEWS toured a small operation growing about a dozen hemp plants.

The plants are Cannabis sativa, the same species as some marijuana plants, but this would be the marijuana equivalent of non-alcoholic beer.

When grown to produce an intoxicating drug, the plant's weight is typically five to 15 percent THC. By definition, industrial hemp must contain less than 0.3 percent of the drug.

"It'd be like smoking cabbage," Erik Hunter with non-profit group HempCleans said. "You'd get a taste in your mouth and nothing else. You wouldn't get high."

Because of the trace amounts of THC, hemp remains illegal to grow under federal law.

That wasn't always the case.

A 1942 film title "Hemp for Victory" was produced by the US Department of Agriculture to encourage farmers to grow more hemp crops for the war effort.

The stalks of hemp plants contain fibers that are useful in textiles and rope.

Without textile mills geared for hemp production, Colorado's first hemp crops will likely be harvested for hemp seeds.

Seeds can be pressed for oil, used whole in food, or ground into meal. The THC is eliminated in processing.

"Nobody has ever failed a drug test from eating hemp seeds," Hunter said.

There have been concerns that the low amount of THC in hemp could be concentrated into a drug-grade material, or that hemp crops could be used to disguise fields of drug-grade marijuana.

The bill working through Colorado's legislature would require hemp farmers to register and pay a fee with the state to cover mandatory sampling of plants. Farmers would also need to show they have an agreement with an in-state processor who will take the crops.

Kentucky governor allows hemp bill

Today was the day many were waiting for - to see if Kentucky governor Steve Beshear would appove
or veto the hemp bill. He did neither. He took the coward's way out and just let it go. But at least we can't complain. Next step is federal approval, and for that we now have almost 1,000 signatures on the petition to the White House - www.minawear.com/about-us/ Feel free to add your name if you have not already. Below is the article by Joseph Gerth in the Courier-Journal:

Gov. Steve Beshear will allow legislation permitting hemp production in Kentucky to become law without his signature, and supporters of the measure say they plan to turn their attention toward Washington in hopes of knocking down federal barriers to the crop.



The bill will officially become law at the end of the day today but will have no real effect unless the federal government declassifies hemp as an illegal drug or grants Kentucky a waiver that would allow people to start growing the plant, which is native to Kentucky.
“We’re going to be figuring out a strategy about going to Washington and trying to get a waiver or trying to get them to lift the ban,” said state Rep. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, the primary sponsor of the bill.
Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, a key proponent of the legislation, said he plans to talk next week with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth about how to obtain federal permission to grow the crop. “I hope farmers can start putting seeds in the ground next spring.”
Hemp fiber, oil and seed have a variety of uses, including clothing and fuel. Hornback said the market for hemp products in the United States is more than $400 million annually, which he expects to increase if cultivation resumes in the country.
Hornback and Comer argued that, as one of the first states to allow hemp farming, Kentucky could attract processors they speculate could employ hundreds. Opponents have been concerned that legal hemp would complicate efforts to spot illegal marijuana plants. The two are identical in appearance, but hemp has a fraction of marijuana’s intoxicating ingredient THC.
Hornback hopes to arrange meetings with people from the White House, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and hemp processors to demonstrate how Kentucky would license hemp farmers and conduct tests to make sure they are growing hemp and not marijuana.
Beshear said he was torn between Kentucky’s need for more farm income and concern about hemp’s similarity to marijuana.“I strongly support efforts to create additional legal cash crops for our farming communities. At the same time we have a tremendous drug problem in Kentucky, and I want to make sure that we don’t do anything that will increase that drug problem,” he said.
Hornback said it’s understandable that Beshear wouldn’t sign the bill because State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer has opposed the measure, saying that it’s impossible for officers to tell the difference between hemp and marijuana.
“I still share some of the same concerns that our law enforcement officials have about the impact that hemp cultivation may have on our drug eradication efforts,” Beshear said. “But the bottom line is that (Senate Bill) 50 won’t allow industrial hemp to be grown or sold unless and until the federal government takes the very big step of legalizing the crop in some way.”
“I don’t take offense to that,” Hornback said. “I understand his position.”
Comer said he’s not surprised Beshear didn’t sign the bill. “The whole time I’ve been in Frankfort, nobody has rolled out the red carpet for me on this,” he said.
Under the law, the University of Kentucky will house the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission, which will oversee hemp production. But the state Department of Agriculture can — at the commission’s request — test industrial hemp to ensure it’s not marijuana, process license requests, coordinate commission meetings and provide financial accounting for the commission.
The plant is still classified the same as marijuana by the federal government and producing hemp in Kentucky would require either a change in that classification or a federal waiver. Kentucky’s two senators, Yarmuth, D-3rd District, and U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-4th District, support changing the classification.
Paul and Yarmuth have promised to work to get a waiver for Kentucky that would allow hemp production to begin when the framework set out by the new law is in place.
Massie has filed a bill that would nullify the federal prohibition of hemp in states that have laws allowing it.
The measure was one of the most contentious of the 2013 legislative session, with Senate Republicans giving strong support in the early days but House Democrats blocking passage until the General Assembly’s final hours.
Democrats argued that the bill wasn’t necessary because an earlier law tied Kentucky’s hemp policy to whatever federal law is at that time.
But the bill, which Comer shepherded through the legislature, passed after a last-minute compromise.

US Army arrests General George Washington, send him to Purgatory

General George Washington is in BIG trouble! The US Army is now banning soldiers from using anything with hemp in it. Hemp is legal. So how is this ban legal? The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) does not ban hemp. So how can this be applied? They ought to remember the Hemp for Victory film in WWII, or the fact that the US Armny fed hemp to its carrier pigeons (as noted by Capt. Wendell Levi who wrote The Pigeon).



The United State Army has recently released an article on their website urging people away from the alcoholic drink Purgatory, a vodka. Not caring about the fact that it’s a strong alcoholic drink, which is entirely fine for soldiers to take part in, the Army instead takes issue with the fact that this particular vodka is made with 20% hemp seeds. The product is sold legally throughout the U.S.; it goes through a stringent process to ensure that it contains no amount of THC. Like other hemp products, there’s nothing illegal about the drink on the federal level.
However, the Army doesn’t care, stating: “What must be stressed among military personnel is that even though Purgatory Vodka is said to be free of THC, and even though hemp byproducts are not illegal in the civilian world, this gives zero justification to those in the military…It is the ‘prohibited use’ that soldiers need to remember.”
The article points to AR600-85, the “Army Substance Abuse Program”, which explicitly disallows the use of hemp products by soldiers, including any of its derivatives: “this regulation prohibits Soldiers from using hemp or products containing hemp oil.”
This is brainwashing at its absolutely worst. There’s no reason for them to deny soldiers the use of hemp products any more than they would object to their use of aloe vera. Even among this ridiculous prohibition on cannabis, it’s entirely legal to possess and use hemp products – as long as you don’t cultivate the actual plant.
The only reason that can be seen for the Army continuing to push this archaic portion of their rules, is to try and sway their soldier’s opinion on hemp and cannabis policies. When you consider how incredible of a protein hemp seeds can be, denying our soldiers even the ability to consume hemp seeds or hemp seed oil is absurd.
As many know, it wasn’t too long ago that our government was promoting the propaganda video “Hemp for Victory“, which laid out how important it was for Americans to get behind hemp as an industrial commodity. The government even gave draft deferments to farmers willing to grow hemp, and handed out hemp seeds themselves.
As citizens, we should be speaking out on behalf of our soldiers: The U.S. Army has absolutely no right or justification to deny soldiers the use of a crop that, indicated by congressional research, has a legal market in this country of over 25,000 various products, ranging from foods to clothing.

Houdek Hemp House to open in Appleton, Wisconsin

A new hemp shop is to open in Appleton, Wisconsin, the town famous for Senator Joe McCarthey. It happens to be the town from where Mina Hegaard's dad is from, she and I have been there on occasion - and naturally, Wisconsin was a hemp growing state, perhaps the last state to have grown hemp legally in the US as they continued on after WWII.

Written by

Maureen Wallenfang

 

Houdek Hemp House is the novel business taking 201 W. College Ave. The store will be at the corner of Appleton Street in the building that previously housed The Vintage Garden, which moved down the street, and before that Avenue Hair Design.
The store is owned by Joe and Penny Houdek, which is pronounced hoe-deck. They signed a lease Wednesday and plan to open sometime in May.
Joe Houdek knows he has some explaining to do when he tells people about the store.
“Some people look at me very strangely,” he said. “They ask ‘Are you going to sell drugs?’ There will be no drugs or paraphernalia. We’re primarily selling hemp clothing for men and women. Hemp has gotten a bad rap because of marijuana. Hemp is not marijuana, but they’re in the same family and the leaf is almost identical. There’s no THC (marijuana’s intoxicating ingredient) in hemp.”
Hemp is legal to import but not to grow in the U.S. It’s currently grown in China, Canada, Romania and Australia.
Houdek says clothing made with the fiber “breathes better than cotton and is very durable.” He says its a sustainable, eco-friendly fiber.
Besides clothing, the store will have hemp-based products including handbags, hats, belts, pet leashes and collars, bulk seed and oil.
“I believe it’s the most beneficial plant on earth,” Houdek said. “It’s something that I’m passionate about. I truly believe that it’s only a matter of time before we allow farmers to grow hemp in this country. I want to be on the forefront of that. I see it as the future.”

LA Times editorial supports hemp

The following appeared in the LA Times, and wow, it really is the press we need to be getting! Congratulations to their editor, and let's hope other papers care enough about America to follow suit. The LA Times by the way did a large feature on hemp years back by Lee Green, which is noted on this blog.

Editorial

Give this plant its due: legalize hemp

The highly useful weed has been entangled too long with that other 'weed.' That's silly.

The global market for hemp consists of some 25,000 products, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, including fabric, paper, rope, auto parts and home furnishings. (Los Angeles Times)

• Also
• A blow to California potheads
• Science isn't on the drug warriors' side [Blowback]
• The DEA's pot defense [Blowback]
• The DEA's marijuana mistake
• Forget the Russians: The drug cartels are coming
• Hey DEA dudes, drop the 'Reefer Madness' mentality
• X
  Overkill in the war on potMarijuana legalization: States send message, feds aren't listening Marijuana's hazy futureMarijuana: A failure to regulate, but not by dispensariesIn a haze on pot policy Putting a lid on L.A.'s pot dispensariesPhotos: L.A.'s marijuana dispensaries by type

 

February 25, 2013

As states of a more liberal bent battle the federal government over the legalization of medical and even recreational marijuana, another cannabis battle has reemerged in the farm states. But if pot smoking raises troubling moral and safety questions, industrial hemp does not.
Activists have been struggling to legalize hemp for decades in the U.S., but only recently has the issue seemingly caught fire in Congress. Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signed on to legislation that had for years been championed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the former GOP presidential contender, and has now been taken up by his son Rand, the Republican senator from Kentucky. It would remove hemp from the federal government's list of Schedule 1 controlled substances and make it legal to cultivate the plant.
What's so hep about hemp? Supporters tout it as a wonder fiber with dozens of potential uses that would find a lucrative market in the U.S. But while that may be an exaggeration — hemp is unlikely to become anything more than a specialty crop for a few hundred growers supplying goods to high-end food markets and low-end textile producers — there's no denying that it's a highly useful weed. The global market for hemp consists of some 25,000 products, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, including fabric, paper, rope, auto parts and home furnishings. Hemp seed, meanwhile, is an alternative protein source used in a variety of food and beverages, and can be pressed to make body oils, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
Despite all this, it is illegal to grow hemp anywhere in the U.S. without permission from the Drug Enforcement Administration. There are currently no active federal licenses, so all hemp products produced here are made from imported material.
Based on its classification under the Controlled Substances Act, one might suspect that hemp provides a cheap high for pot fiends, but one would have to smoke an absurd amount of rope to catch a hemp buzz. The plant seems to have been deemed guilty by association with marijuana because both come from the same species, Cannabis sativa. But just as some mushrooms are magical while others are only good in a salad, not all varieties of cannabis are the same. The intoxicating chemical in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is heavily concentrated in the marijuana plant: anywhere from 10% to 30%. The THC content of hemp, by contrast, is less than 1%, and in the varieties legally cultivated in the European Union and Canada must be less than 0.3%.
Historically, hemp was an important crop in the U.S. before it was caught up in an anti-marijuana crusade in the 1930s. When the Controlled Substances Act was approved in 1970, it took the definition of marijuana from the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which considered all varieties of Cannabis sativa to be dangerous and narcotic. Despite court challenges, the DEA continues to insist that any plant containing THC, no matter how little, must be tightly controlled.
Legalization opponents, including the California Narcotics Officers Assn., argue that legalizing hemp would complicate the enforcement of laws against cultivating marijuana because the plants are almost indistinguishable from each other; marijuana growers, in other words, could easily conceal their plants in hemp fields. The association opposed a 2011 state bill to create pilot programs for hemp cultivation, which was approved by the Legislature but vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown because hemp production violates federal law.
Of course, few sensible growers of marijuana would raise their plants in a hemp field. The two varieties would cross-pollinate, severely lowering the pot's THC content and rendering it all but useless medicinally or as a recreational drug.
Reasonable people can disagree about whether marijuana should be legalized. But the dangers of growing industrial hemp are next to nonexistent. To date, nine states have approved its cultivation, but none has any active fields because of a refusal by the DEA to grant growing permits.
Enough. Hemp is a rare issue that Republicans and Democrats, and members of Congress from both rural and urban states, ought to be able to agree on. Legalize it.

Colorado gets green light for hemp, but feds see red

While Kentucky is the hotseat of debate, Colorado has decided to go ahead and sow the seed. Who knows what this could lead to, will the feds override the state's right? The federal level is key, and that is why we are promoting so heavily the petition to the White House at www.minawear.com/about-us/

Below is the article by Anthony Gucciardi in the Rim County Gazette:

 

 

Farmers begin planting hemp in Colorado
In the event that Colorado manages to generate acres of hemp without the federal government raiding the super efficient substance that is classified as a dangerous drug, it will provide a serious industry change that may spread to other states and potentially even federal law.

Many farmers in Colorado will be expanding their list of planted crops this Spring after groundbreaking legislation was passed last November that allowed not only for the legalization of marijuana, but hemp as well. Now in case you’re not familiar, hemp is actually a multi-purpose substance that does not produce the high effects of marijuana. In fact, it’s mainly used as a super cheap and highly efficient building material — at least in other nations where ridiculous bans are not enforced on the ‘high-free’ material.

Colorado farmers like Michael Bowman will be planting 100 acres of hemp to be harvested and sold off as not only building material, but a highly nutritious superfood. While marijuana is considerably high in the substance known as THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol), which of course is the compound that produces the ‘high’ effects, it’s also significantly low in what’s known as CDB (cannabidiol). That’s where hemp comes in. Both THC and CDB are known as cannabinoids, but hemp is particularly high in CDB while lacking in THC.

Hemp as a Superfood, Industry Transformer

These cannabinoids have actually been promoted by many first hand sources as not only a health optimizing substance, but a serious solution to cancer. One popular documentary titled ‘Run from the Cure’ by Rick Simpson, which is available for free on Youtube, focuses on the use of hemp oil to conquer cancer.

Rich in essential oils, fiber, and a close to complete amino acid profile, hemp contains beneficial ingredients such as:

• Linoleic acid (44% of the weight of hempseed is actually full of edible oils)
• Omega 3 fatty acids (shown time and time again to fight against anxiety, depression, and even inflammation)
• Omega-6
• A ‘complete’ amino profile that surpasses the profile of eggs, milk, soy, and many meats. This includes the 9 essential aminos that the human body cannot produce on its own.

It is for these reasons that hemp is utilized today in many high quality products like protein shakes, energy bars, and many more food products. Two tablespoons of shelled hemp seeds contain about 11 grams of protein and 2 grams of unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids.

Its versatility allows it to be a prime ingredient even in clothing and fabric-based industries. It could transform the entire industry, replacing unsustainable materials with environmentally friendly hemp.

Feds: ‘We Will Come for Your Hemp’

That is if the federal government doesn’t seize it across the nation. The DEA has its sights set on confiscating all hemp planted and grown in the United States through citing the Controlled Substances Act, which doesn’t differentiate between marijuana and hemp. The agents, which will ignore state law and enforce federal law throughout any state, say that they will be going after farmers who plant non-THC hemp as if they were planting marijuana. After all, they say it doesn’t matter what it actually is.

“It really doesn’t matter whether it looks different or it looks the same,” DEA agent Paul Roach told NPR. “If it’s the cannabis plant, it’s in the Controlled Substances Act and, therefore, enforceable under federal drug law.”

In the event that Colorado manages to generate acres of hemp without the federal government raiding the super efficient substance that is classified as a dangerous drug, it will provide a serious industry change that may spread to other states and potentially even federal law. In the more likely scenario of federal agents jailing hemp farmers and raiding their ‘drug’ operations, an intellectual and legal resistance will be in order to attempt to alter the ridiculous laws surrounding the cultivation of hemp.