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

Kentucky to challenge feds on hemp

<sup>One more state is willing to just let it grow: Kentucky. Colorado farmers planted
hemp despite the federal ban earlier this year, and now Kentucky is considering doing the same.  The petition is still up to sign for lifting the federal ban, it goes to the White House when we get 25,000 signatures, please be one of those - www.minawear.com/about-us/ is where to go, just takes a few moments to do!
The article below gives us the latest in this saga from Kentucky:



Kentucky’s Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer said Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement last week of changes in the Justice Department’s marijuana policy could mean that the state can move ahead with industrial hemp farming. Louisville’s WDRB reported that Comer intends to forge ahead with industrial hemp in hopes that federal policy will continue to mellow with regards to marijuana.
“This is going to happen sooner than many of us thought,” said Comer. The state’s industrial hemp commission intends to meet next week and decide whether to proceed with hemp farming in Kentucky. Comer is sanguine enough about the outcome that he is already courting hemp processing companies in hopes that they will do business in the state.
Hemp and marijuana are both species of the plant Cannabis sativa L, but marijuana contains high amounts of THC, the psychoactive chemical that produces a “high” in users. Hemp does not contain enough THC to get users high, but both species of Cannabis are illegal to grow and cultivate in the U.S., except in the 20 states that have legalized medical marijuana for medical use or Colorado and Washington, which have also made marijuana legal for recreational use.</sup>

Hemp is grown for its oil, seeds and fibers, which Comer believes will re-invigorate Kentucky’s agricultural economy. He is eager to move forward.
“The DOJ is saying that is saying that it’s legal to grow marijuana in states that have a regulatory framework but not legal to grow hemp? I don’t think so,” said Comer to reporters. “We’re going to proceed unless the DOJ specifically tells us not to proceed.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) issued a statement supporting Comer on Wednesday.
“I support Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer in his efforts to move forward with the production of industrial hemp in the Commonwealth,” Paul wrote. “This fight has always been about jobs and providing another opportunity for Kentucky’s farmers, and I expect the Obama Administration to treat all states equally in this process. I will continue to fight at the federal level to enact legislation to secure this new industry for Kentucky.”
The Kentucky state state legislature passed a measure earlier this year legalizing hemp production in the state. Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear withheld his option to veto, saying, “I strongly support efforts to create additional legal cash crops for our farm 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. I still share the same concerns our law enforcement officers have about the impact hemp cultivation may have on our drug eradication efforts.”

WDRB 41 Louisville News

Senator Niceley on hemp in Tennessee

STRAWBERRY PLAINS (WATE) - A bill that would make hemp farming legal in Tennessee could soon be on the table in the state legislature, and one East Tennessee senator is behind the big push.

Republican Senator Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains tells 6 News he's drafting the hemp bill on the heels of the recent passage of a similar measure in Kentucky.

Hemp farming is currently illegal in Tennessee. Growing the plant is also prohibited by federal law.

Hemp farming is currently illegal in Tennessee. Growing the plant is also prohibited by federal law.

But in recent years, a number of states have passed measures legalizing the farming of the plant, including Kentucky.

Niceley wants Tennessee to do follow suit.

"Why not give the farmers a chance to raise it?" said Tenn. Sen. Frank Niceley.

"Why not give the farmers a chance to raise it?" said Niceley.

He says there's a common misconception that hemp is marijuana.

"It's not marijuana. It's a cousin. You can't get high off smoking industrial hemp," said Niceley.

He's working on a bill right now that would approve hemp farming in the state.

He says considering that hemp itself is legal, growing it should be too.

"Hemp is legal. You can import it. You can export it. You can buy it. You can sell it. It's only illegal for a farmer to raise it. I want to change that," said Niceley.

Niceley believes hemp could become a viable crop for Tennessee farmers to grow and sell.

The plant's fibers can be turned into everything from rope to clothing.

"You can make paper out of it. There are thousands of things you can make out of hemp," said Niceley.

But it's not just about making a change in Tennessee.

Niceley hopes approval of hemp farming in the state could help pressure the federal government to repeal it's prohibition on growing the plant.

"That's just another example of farmers being discriminated against. I don't know of any other crop that's illegal to raise, but it's not illegal to buy it, sell it, import it or export it," said Niceley.

This just in from Hayley Harmon in Tennessee:

 

East Tennessee residents say they're in favor of Niceley's idea, especially if it means more money in farmer's pockets.

"I don't see a problem with it. I know a lot of people who have farms out here so any kind of cash crop like that would be good for them," said Brent Byrum of Strawberry Plains.

"I don't see a problem with it. I know a lot of people who have farms out here so any kind of cash crop like that would be good for them," said Brent Byrum of Strawberry Plains. "If people aren't getting high off of it, I don't see why people shouldn't be able to grow it and make money off of it."

Niceley says he's already received a lot of support from other state legislators, including bi-partisan support.

He plans to present the bill in next year's legislative session, which begins in January.

Irvin Rosenfeld in the New York Daily News rebuts the naysayers medical marijuana

As New York State considers legalizing medical marijuana, opponents have called it a scam, asking, If it’s a medicine, why doesn’t the federal government treat it like one?
Well, I am here to tell you: It does. I know. The feds send me marijuana every month, and have for more than 30 years.
I spent my youth like millions of other American boys, until I turned 10. I was playing shortstop and made the throw to first to end the game and seal our one-run victory. I was going to celebrate by tossing my glove in the air. Only, I couldn’t: My entire arm was paralyzed.
After seeing an orthopedic specialist, I was told I had multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses, a rare, hereditary bone disease that limits growth and mobility. I also suffer from the elaborately named disease pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism, which means I have low calcium and high phosphate levels.

Doctors told me I had bone tumors throughout my body, and chronic pain became something I simply lived with.
I was taking the most powerful prescription drugs on the market to relax my muscles and help me sleep, but the side effects were serious. I had many dangerous operations to remove bone tumors before they became malignant.
When I first enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College in the early 1970s, a roommate of mine lit up a joint. I kicked her out after she refused to put it out.
At the time my medicine cabinet was filled with heavy narcotics — Dilaudid, Quaaludes and Valium — but I was not going to have pot in my apartment.
But pot was unavoidable, and to make friends, I eventually tried it. The first nine times I didn’t even feel a high, and I rarely do to this day. Many patients don’t get high.
But, the pot did have a profound effect on me. The 10th time I smoked, it occurred to me I had been seated for half an hour. For most, that would qualify as a lazy afternoon; for me, it was remarkable. I hadn’t sat for 30 minutes straight in almost five years. The pot had eased my pain and muscle tension. I did some research and found that prior to 1937, almost every American pharmaceutical company manufactured cannabis-based drugs. I also found out the federal government had its own marijuana farm.
Starting in the late 1960s, the University of Mississippi operated a federally approved and legal marijuana farm and production facility. The National Institute on Drug Abuse contracts with the university’s lab to grow, harvest, process and ship marijuana to licensed facilities across the country for research purposes.
Armed with these two nuggets of information, I decided to experiment. For three weeks at a time, I’d smoke marijuana every day, and feel less pain and more alert. I cut back on Dilaudid and other meds. When I stopped smoking the pot, the pain would return and my prescription med intake would go back up. I knew I needed this medicine, even though the federal government said it had no medicinal value.
In 1972, I began challenging the federal government. I wrote my own scientific study and submitted it to the Food and Drug Administration. The agency stonewalled me until 1978, when I met Robert Randall, the first federal medical-marijuana patient, and we turned my study into a Compassionate Care Investigational New Drug Protocol, which was what he was on.
But the FDA told my doctor that it was still looking into other alternatives.

We pressed our case and finally received a hearing with the FDA in October 1982. I had 15 minutes to convince a board that marijuana dramatically improved the quality of my life. I received my first tin of medical marijuana about a month and a half later: 300 rolled marijuana cigarettes, courtesy of Uncle Sam.
The feds started to call the program the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program. In the late ’80s and early ’90s it expanded to include some HIV patients. Despite its success, the program was closed in 1992. The 13 of us then on the program were grandfathered in, so that we wouldn’t sue the government.
Today, there are only four of us still alive, who continue to receive our medical marijuana from the feds — living, breathing symbols of our government’s medical marijuana hypocrisy. By sending me my medicine every month, it acknowledges cannabis works as medicine — which is why it is inexplicable to me that pot continues to be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.
The federal government says pot has no medical use, but it’s doing so with one hand behind its back and its fingers crossed.
State lawmakers need to know that marijuana is indeed a gateway drug — away from pain and suffering and toward a better life.
Rosenfeld is the author of “My Medicine: How I Convinced the U.S. Government to Provide My Marijuana and Helped Launch a National Movement.”


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/real-dope-medical-pot-article-1.1431275?pgno=1#ixzz2cXgFVSHO


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/real-dope-medical-pot-article-1.1431275#ixzz2cXfoRkFl

Sir Richard Branson of the Drug Policy Alliance on marijuana being legal in Uruguay

Richard Branson Defends Marijuana Legalization In Uruguay

By TruthOnPot.com on August 13, 2013

Sir Richard Branson is a British entrepreneur and an outspoken critic of the global drug war

TruthOnPot.com – Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson is being targeted by critics of the marijuana bill that passed Uruguay’s parliament last month.
Along with singer Gordon Sumner (better known as Sting), Branson is an honorary international board member of the Drug Policy Alliance – a US-based reform group that led a legalization campaign in Uruguay leading up to last month’s vote.
Uruguayan politician Gerardo Amarilla, a member of the conservative National Party who voted against the bill, accuses the celebrities of using Uruguay as a “laboratory” for policy reform without putting their own countries at risk, London Daily Telegraph reports.

“They shouldn’t be meddling in Uruguay… They should be lobbying in their own country because they’re not going to suffer the consequences here, the security and health problems.”

But Richard Branson has long been critical of the global war on drugs and doesn’t seem too concerned about Amarilla’s response.

“This is a global problem, not a national issue, and everyone who can should speak out to help change the failed war on drugs.”

Besides the Drug Policy Alliance, Branson is also an active member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, reports the Daily Mail.
He says years of scientific examination have led him and other members to conclude that prohibition “has failed and that there needs to be a different approach.” One that involves treating drugs “as a health problem not a criminal problem.”
While the campaign ultimately failed to sway public opinion on legalization – 63 per cent of the country still opposes legalizing marijuana according to a poll released last week – Uruguayan President Jose Mujica has backed the plan.
Mujica hopes his country’s unique approach to marijuana will serve as a “contribution to humanity” and eventually spur other countries to follow.
News that Uruguay may soon become the first country in the world to legalize marijuana has already sparked an international conversation on the merits of drug policy reform.
While the bill still requires a final vote from the Senate before becoming law, it is expected to pass smoothly in the next few months.

New York Times article on hemp sowing in Colorado

Groundwork Laid, Growers Turn to Hemp in Colorado

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

“I’m not going to hide anymore,” said Ryan Loflin, who sowed hemp on his 60 acres in Springfield, Colo. The state has a hemp commission to write rules.

By JACK HEALY

 

SPRINGFIELD, Colo. — Along the plains of eastern Colorado, on a patch of soil where his father once raised alfalfa, Ryan Loflin is growing a leafy green challenge to the nation’s drug law.

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

As part of regulation, Colorado will be able to randomly test hemp crops to ensure that they have only trace amounts of THC, a chemical in marijuana.

His fields are sown with hemp, a tame cousin of marijuana that was once grown openly in the United States but is now outlawed as a controlled substance. Last year, as Colorado voters legalized marijuana for recreational use, they also approved a measure laying a path for farmers like Mr. Loflin, 40, to once again grow and harvest hemp, a potentially lucrative crop that can be processed into goods as diverse as cooking oil, clothing and building material. This spring, he became the first farmer in Colorado to publicly sow his fields with hemp seed.

“I’m not going to hide anymore,” he said one recent morning after striding through a sea of hip-high plants growing fast under the sun.

Mr. Loflin’s 60-acre experiment is one of an estimated two dozen small hemp plantings sprouting in Colorado. Hemp cultivation presents a vexing problem for the federal government, which draws no distinction between hemp and marijuana, as it decides how to respond to a new era of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington State.

State agencies have worked quickly to create new rules, licenses and taxes for hemp and recreational marijuana. Many towns have voted to ban the new retailers; others have decided to regulate them. Denver, for example, is proposing a 5 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales.

Colorado has set up an industrial hemp commission to write rules to register hemp farmers and charge them a fee to grow the crop commercially.

“It’s something that can be copied and used nationally,” said Michael Bowman, a farmer in northeastern Colorado who sits on the state hemp commission. “We’re trying to build a legitimate industry.”

The state will also be able to randomly test crops to ensure that they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, far below the level found in marijuana.

Opponents say that hemp and marijuana are essentially the same plant and that both contain the same psychoactive substance. But supporters say that comparing hemp with potent strains of marijuana is like comparing a nonalcoholic beer with a bottle of vodka.

Still, farmers and marijuana advocates worry: will drug agents stand on the sidelines and allow Colorado and Washington to pursue their own experiments with legalization? Or will the federal government crack down to assert its authority over drug policies?

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver said hemp farmers were “not on our radar,” but R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Obama administration’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, has offered stern words against both marijuana and hemp, saying that no matter what states did, the plants were still illegal in the federal government’s view.

“Hemp and marijuana are part of the same species of cannabis plant,” Mr. Kerlikowske wrote in response to a 2011 petition that sought to legalize hemp cultivation. “While most of the THC in cannabis plants is concentrated in the marijuana, all parts of the plant, including hemp, can contain THC, a Schedule I controlled substance.”

Lately, hemp has been tiptoeing toward the agricultural mainstream, gaining support from farmers’ trade groups and a wide array of politicians in statehouses and in Washington. In the Republican-controlled House, a provision tucked into the farm bill would let universities in hemp-friendly states grow small plots for research.

A handful of states, from liberal Vermont to conservative North Dakota and Kentucky, have voted to allow commercial hemp. In Vermont, any farmers who want to register as hemp growers under a new state program have to sign a form acknowledging that they risk losing their agricultural subsidies, farm equipment and livelihoods if federal agents decide to swoop in.

Every year, the federal authorities seize and destroy millions of marijuana plants — a crackdown that has rattled the medical marijuana industry in California — but the pace of seizures has dropped sharply in recent years. In 2012, federal officials reported that 3.9 million cannabis plants had been destroyed under D.E.A. eradication efforts. A year earlier, officials said they had eradicated 6.7 million plants.

Beyond the risk of federal raids and seizures, Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama administration, said the market for hemp goods is still vanishingly small and questioned whether it could really be a panacea for farmers.

 

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

Ryan Loflin and other hemp farmers walk a precarious line, as the state said it would not authorize planting until next year.                           

“Hemp is the redheaded stepchild of marijuana policy, and probably for good reason,” said Mr. Sabet, who is now the director of the Drug Policy Institute. “In a world with finite capacity to handle drug problems, my advice would be for people to think less about an insignificant issue like hemp and more about the very real issues of drug addiction, marijuana commercialization and glamorization, and how to make our policies work better.”

Even without the threat of federal raids, transforming hemp into a cash crop will be like asking a clear sky for rain. Viable seeds are illegal and scarce. Few working farmers or experts in the United States have any expertise in growing hemp. And there is basically no infrastructure to process the plants into legal components like oil, fibers and proteins.

In Colorado, Jason Lauve, the executive director of Hemp Cleans, an advocacy group, said he has spoken with about two dozen small farmers and landowners who are cautiously growing their first hemp crops.

“We’re really walking gently,” Mr. Lauve said. “We don’t want to put people at risk. We want to see how much states’ rights really protect us, versus the jurisdiction of the federal government.”

Even here, farmers like Mr. Loflin are walking a precarious line. Although Colorado voters opened the door to hemp farming last year, the state warned would-be hemp farmers in May that they would not be authorized to plant until early in 2014.

But this spring, Mr. Loflin decided it was time. For years, he had read about how hemp could replenish undernourished soil and be woven and squeezed into a wide array of products. He drinks a shot of hemp oil for his health every day — “It tastes kind of like grass” — and believes the plant could one day lift the fortunes of struggling small farmers.

He spent the winter assembling a seed collection from suppliers in Britain, Canada, China and Germany, where hemp is legal. They entered the country via U.P.S., labeled “bird seed” or “toasted hemp seed.” One bag was seized by customs officials, he said. Some 1,500 pounds of seeds were not.

At the end of June, with more than $15,000 invested in the venture, he planted his crop. He said he alerted his neighbors and has not gotten any complaints from people around Springfield, or from federal officials.

When Mr. Loflin visits the farm from his home in western Colorado, he half-expects to see D.E.A. cars racing down Highway 160 to burn down his crop before harvest. But he believes he can stake a living in hemp’s oily seeds and versatile fibers. He has gotten tired of his day job building ski homes in the mountains. To him, hemp’s outlaw status is just another hazard of starting a business.

“It’s well worth the risk,” he said. “It’s hemp. Come on, it just needs to be done.”

James Comer fights on in Kentucky

 A piece by Lindsay Yates on WBKO of Kentucky gives us the latest on that state, which is in the forefront of hemp legislation:

 

The crop once flourished in Kentucky until it was banned decades ago when the federal government classified it as a controlled substance related to marijuana.
Despite numerous failed attempts to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky, Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer vows to continue his campaign.
Comer spoke about his efforts to re-establish industrial hemp as a legal crop.
"Industrial hemp is an agricultural crop just like corn and soybeans. It should be legal, and the United States should have legalized it a decade ago," says Comer.
Over 30 countries produce industrial hemp and hemp products can be legally sold in the United States but the hemp must be imported from other countries. Comer believes the crop could be an economic boon for Kentucky.
"If we can have more food processors and more company's that manufacture agricultural products like industrial hemp in small towns that will help create jobs in those small towns and make them more self sustainable."
He adds it could lead to manufacturing jobs that produce products ranging from paper to cosmetics.
"Toyota uses a hemp like fiber in the manufacturing in the interior parts for their vehicles here in Kentucky, that hemp like fiber comes from Indonesia, that should be coming from Kentucky farmers."
The bill is largely unpopular with law enforcement, who says hemp could be used to camouflage marijuana, which has similar looking leaves but far less potency.
"Marijuana and hemp is like broccoli and cauliflower. They're in the same plant family but they're very different plants. They don't look that much alike and they don't taste the same. They're different plants. I am against marijuana. I am not for legalizing marijuana," says Comer.
He says some were skeptical on his recent trip to Washington but he remains optimistic, and will continue educating others about the crop and it's benefits.
"We've come along way in a short period of time and I think industrial hemp will be a reality in the very near future and hopefully Kentucky can be the leading state in that," says Comer.
In the Farm Bill there was an amendment to allow for the production of industrial hemp that was recently passed, although the entire Farm Bill failed Comer says they will start over and re-introduce the bill in the future.
Even though it may still be more than a year away we asked the commissioner if he had any plans to run in the 2015 Gubernatorial Race in Kentucky.
While he didn't give us a yes or no answer he didn't rule out the possibility, and says it's an honor to be considered a potential candidate.
"It's something that we're looking at but right now I'm focused on being AG Commissioner. I love being Commissioner of Agriculture. I love Kentucky. I was a state rep. for 11 years so I know a lot about the issues and challenges our state faces, but right now were focused on trying to grow our agriculture economy in Kentucky."
Comer adds he believes its a good year too early to be announcing any plans for the Gubernatorial Race by any candidate democrat or republican.

Patrick Leahy supports ammendment to Farming Bill that would permit hemp

WASHINGTON -- Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday signaled to advocates that he would support an amendment to the farm bill that will legalize industrial hemp production, according to Tom Murphy of Vote Hemp. Leahy's office, he said, told the group Rural Vermont that he'd be backing the effort, and a Leahy aide confirmed his support to HuffPost.

Leahy's backing is a major boost, because his committee oversees the Drug Enforcement Administration, which has jurisdiction over hemp, despite the fact that it's not a drug. His support is also a critical momentum swing because he had previously objected to inserting the provision into the farm bill based on jurisdictional concerns. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a hemp backer, requested late last Monday night, the day before the farm bill came up for consideration, that Leahy grant a waiver of his jurisdiction, a request he declined. It was tough timing for McConnell: Leahy was in the midst of marking-up the historic immigration reform bill working its way through his panel.
In January, however, Leahy sent a strongly worded letter to the DEA asking why it had not been granting permits in recent years to hemp producers, and citing increased state support for domestically grown hemp. The DEA, in its reply, pointedly refused to refer to the plant as hemp, preferring cannabis or marijuana instead.
“Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), cannabis is a schedule I controlled substance regardless of its potency,” Eric J. Akers, the DEA’s deputy chief of congressional and public affairs, wrote in response, saying he believed the current regulations on hemp were adequate.
About eight people have applied to grow industrial hemp since 2000, he said, with half being approved and the rest denied because they had insufficient security.
The DEA is concerned that looser regulation of hemp would be “readily exploited by drug seekers,” including manufacturers of “hash oil,” Akers wrote.
The proposed amendment to the farm bill was introduced Monday by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and would exclude industrial hemp from classification as “marihuana,” removing it from the DEA’s purview.
It is cosponsored by McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
"For me, what's important is that people see, particularly in our state, there's someone buying it at Costco in Oregon," Wyden told HuffPost. "I adopted what I think is a modest position, which is if you can buy it at a store in Oregon, our farmers ought to be able to make some money growing it."
If the hemp measure can make it through the Senate, it stands a reasonable chance in the House, where Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has expressed openness to it.

Mitch McConnell and the DEA

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was joined by most of Kentucky's federal delegation, in a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration seeking clarification on the industrial hemp issue.

Kentucky passed a law earlier this year that would allow industrial hemp farming -- but only if the DEA ever lifts restrictions on the plant.

Kentucky passed a law earlier this year that would allow industrial hemp farming -- but only if the DEA ever lifts restrictions on the plant.

Sen. Rand Paul and Reps. Andy Barr, Brett Guthrie, Thomas Massie, Ed Whitfield and John Yarmuth co-signed the letter with McConnell on Thursday. They asked whether the DEA has reconsidered its hemp regulation in light of legislative action in Kentucky and elsewhere. Rep. Hal Rogers didn't sign.

Hemp is similar to marijuana, but has a negligible amount of the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high. Proponents say it could be an important crop for Kentucky.

Hemp bill under consideration in Alabama

MONTGOMERY, AL — A bill that would allow the possession, use, cultivation, and sale of marijuana by adults in Alabama was introduced Thursday. The bill would also authorize the medical use of marijuana in Alabama and the cultivation of industrial hemp.

Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham)

House Bill 550, the Alabama Cannabis and Hemp Reform Act of 2013, was introduced Thursday by Birmingham Democrat Rep. Patricia Todd, who has unsuccessfully lobbied her colleagues at the Alabama state house to legalize medical marijuana, including two medical marijuana bills introduced this year.

If passed, House Bill 550 would:

• Allow adults 21 or older to use or possess up to one ounce of marijuana
• Allow adults 21 or older to grow up to twelve mature cannabis plants in an enclosed, locked space
• Allow adults 21 or older to share, but not sell, marijuana among other adults 21 or older
• Authorize the Department of Revenue to regulate the cultivation, processing, packaging, testing, transportation, display, and sale of marijuana and marijuana accessories
• Prohibit the sale of marijuana except by licensed, regulated cannabis retail stores
• Sets product labeling regulations and advertising restrictions for marijuana and marijuana related businesses
• Authorize the medical use of marijuana by certain qualifying patients who have been diagnosed by a physician as having a serious medical condition.
• Allow the cultivation of industrial hemp by Alabama farmers
• Impose penalties for supplying marijuana to minors under 21 years of age, except those with medical marijuana authorizations
• Allows local communities to ban marijuana retail outlets, but only if approved by voters on an even-numbered election year ballot.
Alabama currently has some of the harshest marijuana penalties in the country. Possession of any amount of marijuana – even a single joint — is punishable by up to a year of incarceration and a $6,000 fine.
If passed, the Alabama Cannabis and Hemp Reform Act of 2013 would take effect on October 1, 2013. The bill has been referred to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.

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.

Governor to approve or veto hemp bill in Kentucky

Now that Kentucky has voted for hemp, the governor has a few days to approve or veto; governors of other states have vetoed the hemp bills, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. So let's see...

The Kentucky legislature has agreed to allow industrial hemp to be produced within the state’s limits, a minor victory for many that will require the governor’s signature before the next step can occur.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) now has until April 6 to either veto the legislation or sign it into law, but even then the state won’t be allowed to simply start growing the plant to be used for anything from food to fuel: federal legislation outlaws production from coast to coast.

Even with Uncle Sam standing in the way, the state lawmakers that approved the measure say they are optimistic about having Washington overturn the federal ban. The group Vote Hemp says that the states of Colorado, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia have all previously approved legislation that legalizes hemp production, but the federal mandate has made actually growing the crop impossible everywhere within the US since it is still considered a Schedule I drug. With Kentucky signing on to be the latest state looking to grow, though, things could soon change on a federal level.

“This historic legislation puts Kentucky in position to be first in line if and when the federal government legalizes production of industrial hemp,” Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said in a statement this week. “By passing this bill, the General Assembly has signaled that Kentucky is serious about restoring industrial hemp production to the Commonwealth and doing it in the right way. That will give Kentucky’s congressional delegation more leverage when they seek a federal waiver allowing Kentucky farmers to grow hemp.”

“As soon as the governor signs the bill, I’ll be on the plane to Washington” to seek a waiver, added Comer.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) issued a statement on Wednesday morning after the news was reported in order to thanks his fellow lawmakers for moving forward with something he says will be instrumental in kick-starting his state’s economy.

“I commend the Kentucky General Assembly for final passage of Senate Bill 50. I want to thank Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Paul Hornback and the members of the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission for their leadership and hard work in passing this legislation,” Sen. Paul said.

“Senate Bill 50 is an important step forward in the reintroduction of industrial hemp in Kentucky. I have pledged, along with Rep. John Yarmuth, to seek a waiver when a regulatory framework is in place. I will follow through on that pledge and I hope that Kentucky will soon start growing hemp, creating jobs and leading the nation in this industry again.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky.) also went on the record to urge for assistance from Washington as soon as possible to make harvesting hemp a reality.

"I will continue to work with Senator Paul on a federal approach that would enable Kentucky farmers to cultivate and profit from industrial hemp in a way that does not compromise Kentucky law enforcement's marijuana eradication efforts or in any way promote illegal drug use," he said.

Kerri Richardson, a spokesperson for Gov. Beshear, tells the Courier Journal, “The governor is going to review the bill and talk with law enforcement before making any decision.”

Federal restrictions with regards to marijuana began in the early 1900s, but those laws in turn outlawed the production of hemp which, while related to the illegal plant, has a number of desirable qualities and little-to-know detrimental effects.

“While marijuana has a potency range of 3 percent to 20 percent by dry weight of THC, industrial hemp is generally defined as having less than 1.0 percent THC,” says the Arizona Industrial Hemp Council.“Moreover, hemp contains a relatively high percentage of another cannabinoid, CBD, that actually blocks the marijuana high.  Hemp, it turns out, is not only not marijuana; it could be called ‘antimarijuana.’”

California hemp bill

A hemp bill has been introduced again in California, David Downs in the East Bay Express gives us the facts:

The legal production of industrial hemp in California made progress in the form of two bills recently introduced in our state legislature.
Sen. Mark Leno drafted SB 566, a revision of a hemp bill that was introduced last year but shot down by Governor Brown. Leno's latest bill does not set up a pilot program, but authorizes general cultivation of industrial hemp.

AB 1137, introduced by Orange County Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, also authorizes industrial hemp cultivation under the state Deptartment of Agriculture, and is based on the 2006 bill AB 1147, which was passed by legislature but vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger.
Both bills would revise the definition of marijuana to exclude industrial hemp and authorize its production with the provision that its potency not exceed 0.3 percent THC.

Is Tom McKee trying to derail the hemp bill in Kentucky?

All eyes are on Kentucky, where the state overwhelmingly voted to support hemp, after both senators
endorsed it. But then there had to be a hitch, and from the report below, by Janet Patton, we are left to wonder if the democrats are not stooping that low that they would play politics with this and delay it just because it has a lot of GOP support. Let's hope that Tom McKee does not tamper with this and waste any more time.
Below is Patton's report:



The chairman of the state House Agriculture Committee plans to ask for major changes to a hemp bill, including calling for hemp field trials by the University of Kentucky rather than leaving it up to farmers.
Rep. Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, said Tuesday that he plans to call for a committee substitute Wednesday morning that he said would be "more aggressive than the bill itself."
Advocates for the existing legislation questioned that assertion; neither bill sponsor Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, nor Agriculture Commissioner James Comer had seen the proposed changes before 5 p.m. Tuesday.
"I think it's an attempt to stall the bill," Hornback said of McKee's proposed changes.
Hornback said he met with McKee and was promised a look at the bill before the end of the day but called what he's heard "a travesty" that would kill the opportunity to create jobs in Kentucky.
Animosity over the late substitution erupted Tuesday on the House floor.
House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, criticized McKee on the floor, accusing him of playing "gotcha politics" because Comer is a Republican. Hoover said that Senate Bill 50 received bipartisan support, passing the Senate 31-6, "and we're not even going to give it a fair hearing?"
Hoover called on McKee to have an up-or-down vote on the existing bill.
In response, McKee said the bill was being drafted and wasn't ready. He said he would call Comer as soon as it was available to discuss specifics.
"We feel like the sub moves the issue forward, that the commissioner can embrace it," McKee said. "He'll have a copy."
Earlier in the day, Comer's chief of staff, Holly VonLuehrte, said McKee also had not shared his changes with the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission. McKee sits on the hemp commission, which helped craft the language that the Senate passed earlier this month.
"Why play secrets and games with this? Why spring it on everybody at the last minute? Are we not going to get to see the committee sub until the meeting?" VonLuehrte asked. "It is incredibly disrespectful to not consult the body that's been working on this language for at least a year."
Hornback's Senate Bill 50 would set up a licensing framework for Kentucky farmers to grow hemp if federal restrictions are eased or if the Drug Enforcement Administration allows a waiver for the state to grow it.
McKee said his language probably would direct UK to pursue a DEA permit to begin studying the crop, which cannot be grown legally in the United States without a federal license.
"We'd like to see the UK experiment station get some in the ground this year," McKee said. "We're looking for an aggressive study, including some site visits to Canada. ... We very much support the industrial-hemp effort."
UK College of Agriculture Dean Scott Smith, who also is on the hemp commission, prepared a DEA permit a decade ago but never submitted it because the cost was expected to be prohibitively high and no funding was appropriated.
It is unclear how successful UK's application might be, how long it could take, or how much such an effort and research might cost. McKee said he is looking for a way to pay for it.
Smith issued this statement about McKee's proposal: "There are many unanswered questions about the cultivation of hemp in Kentucky, including suitability of various soil conditions and growth potential on various sites. If current legal and cost restrictions were alleviated, research to address those questions would clearly be within the mandated mission of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station at the UK College of Agriculture. We would welcome the opportunity to develop much-needed, evidence-based information for growers and processors."
McKee said he thought the new language probably would receive the votes to pass the House committee Wednesday, and he is optimistic that it would have support on the House floor. Prospects for the hemp bill have been uncertain in the House, in part because of the objections of the Kentucky State Police, who have said that hemp cultivation might complicate marijuana eradication efforts.
Echoing House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, McKee said licensing language in Hornback's bill is probably unnecessary because if federal laws change to distinguish hemp from marijuana, "there probably would be a federal licensing program."
On Friday, Stumbo's office issued a statement saying, "There is no need for additional state bureaucracy involving permits issued by a state Hemp Czar."
McKee said his new language is not an effort to stall the hemp bill that Comer, a Republican, and Hornback have lobbied for.
"Absolutely not," McKee said. "I think there's some things we can do while we wait for (federal) permits. Whether they come this year or not ... I think they're going to come sometime. I think our bill's going to put us in position to take advantage of whatever comes."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/02/26/2532515/mckee-to-amend-hemp-bill-to-call.html#storylink=cpy

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.

Letter to the editor of Evansville Courier & Press

Now this is the kind of post I really like to put up: one on a hemp advocate writing in to a paper - this time the Evansville Courier & Press - to express the truth about hemp. As if often the case, a journalist has done a story, like the one by Trip Gabriel in the New York Times on 13 Feb (posted here mid Feb) - and has either filled it with misinformation or has left out crucial facts; we need to address this, and Charles V. Waller of Henderson, Kentucky, did just that in a very well written letter to the editor. Letters to the press and to the politicians are what we need and so few hempsters take the time to do this, yet complain when the issue is given very little support.
It's time we all stop being armchair activists and take more time to write a letter like the one below, well done Mr. Waller:



Why does The Gleaner put a story about a cruise ship on the front page, while relegating a truncated article about the Kentucky Senate passing a bill to establish the framework for industrial cultivation of hemp to the back page of the first section? I can only guess it’s because of the vast number of Kentuckians affected by the first subject.
The article about the hemp cultivation bill left out several important facts which Mr. Comer has already addressed on “Kentucky Tonight” with KSP Commissioner Brewer participating and “One on One” with Bill Goodman — as well as while testifying in front of the Senate committee which approved the bill for a Senate vote.
Mr. Brewer is being disingenuous when he claims officers cannot tell the difference between hemp and “marijuana.” Observing from 500 feet overhead in a helicopter might be the reason, because any intelligent person can tell the difference simply by appearance. Hemp grows tall, up to 18-24 feet, with little to no branching. Hemp is cultivated in large, densely sown fields.
Male hemp plants will pollinate other cannabis varieties, lowering the value of the flower crop, or “marijuana” as some insist on calling it. Hemp is the common name for cannabis; marijuana is the common name for the cannabis flower crop.
Mr. Comer has also assured Mr. Brewer his agency has the equipment and knowledge to field test crops for approximately $20 per test.
Hemp is not only a viable commercial crop, it is also high in cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid with enormous health benefits. Medical research is currently confirming previous research dating back to 1975 which demonstrates cannabinoids have medicinal benefits. That is why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services holds a patent on cannabinoids for antioxidant, neuro-protectant and ANTI-TUMOR properties. These properties have been demonstrated repeatedly in research around the world.
There is an obvious disconnect from reality in the United States regarding cannabis. Cannabis prohibition has failed, just as the Volstead Act did. Only those threatened by the reintroduction of “the most beneficial plant known to mankind,” according to former DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis Young when he ruled against the DEA in 1988 and ordered cannabis removed from the list of Controlled Substances.
The DEA ignored his ruling, as it has ignored all scientific evidence which does not support the classification of cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug. Only an idiot would believe cannabis is more dangerous than cocaine and methamphetamine, but that is exactly what the DEA insists. How many must suffer for how much longer before this ridiculous situation is corrected?
Cannabinoids kill cancer cells — in test tubes, in animals and in human trials — without harming healthy cells. These are facts. What do you believe?
The writer is a Henderson resident.

Murray Ledger & Times article on hemp in Kentucky

John Wright of the Murray Ledger & Times writes about the hemp debate in his part of Kentucky, where the senior senator, Mitch McConnell, has just endorsed hemp, causing hundreds of news reports nationswide, with the Huffington Post and Jim Hightower jumping in.



Industrial hemp is not marijuana!”
That is the argument supporters backing legislation to return the hemp crop to Kentucky fields are pushing as a bill enters discussion with the Kentucky state Senate Agriculture Committee this week in Frankfort. State Sen. Mike Hornback of Shelbyville, in fact, has pledged to bring the issue up for vote on the Senate floor before the current session of the Kentucky General Assembly is over.

Of course, even if both the Senate and state House approve the bill and Gov. Steve Beshear signs the bill into law, the federal government would still have to lift its ban on production of the crop that has been in effect since the 1930s when the word “hemp” became associated with terms like “Reefer Madness” and “Devil’s weed.”
“Right now, I’m trying to become more educated on the subject just like everyone else,” said 1st District state Sen. Stan Humphries of Cadiz, a Republican, who said he has heard both positives and negatives on the subject, but admits that having a state official - Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer - become one of the bill’s strongest advocates in the past year holds weight.
“He brings quite a bit of credibility to it for certain, especially with how he has traveled as far as he has to find out more about this. This is also at a time where I’m sure he sees how distressed communities in our state are and how this could create jobs. We just have to weigh all of the options,” Humphries said.
Before its association as a sinful product, hemp produced numerous useful materials, such as rope and clothing. With the U.S. being the only nation worldwide to ban the cultivation of hemp, some modern-day uses of the plant overseas are being discovered that include paper, plastics, even food and automobile parts.
“I’ve spoken to 12-15 people about it, and I haven’t heard anyone say they’re against this, should the federal government bring it back,” said 5th District state Rep. Kenny Imes of Murray, who said he has either received yes or wait-and-see answers from people to whom he has spoken in his home county of Calloway. “When you look at the potential products that can come from this plant it is easy to see why people would be for it.
“From what I understand, you also wouldn’t need a whole lot of special equipment to plant it or harvest it, so it makes a lot of sense economically. I think this is something - where if we’re going to do it - we need to go ahead and get something on the books so that if the federal government does lift the ban, Kentucky can be the first state producing again. That could mean all kinds of job opportunities.”
Imes also acknowledged concerns of law enforcement of being able to tell marijuana plants from the industrial version. The Murray Republican said he feels that advances in high-technology, namely GPS tracking that is common in many fields these days, could be utilized to help make that easier to distinguish.
Studies also have shown that the industrial form, when cross-pollinated with the marijuana plant, is dominant and would eventually absorb its cousin cannabis.