If Obama Supports Medical Marijuana, What About Hemp?
On the heels of Obama's hugely popular decision to end the DEA's raids on medical marijuana providers, it's worth looking into some of the other absurd federal drug policies that interfere with states rights and common sense.
Hemp cultivation isn’t technically illegal in the U.S., but you need a special permit from the DEA, and if you ask for one they'll call you a hippie and tell you to go f@#k yourself. Seriously, try it. I applied last year and this is the response I got:
Dear Mr. Morgan,We have finished processing your application to "grow hemp so I can make cool snacks and rope and stuff." We regret to inform you that you are a hippie and you can go screw yourself.
Yours cruelly,
Michele Leonhart,
Acting Administrator
Drug Enforcement AdministrationP.S. Your blog sucks and if you put this letter in your blog, we'll burn down the Chipotle next to your office.
That about sums it up. Honestly, I don’t even get why this is an issue. Hemp isn’t drugs. Why DEA gives a damn if people want to cultivate hemp is completely beyond me. Near as I can tell, they're relying exclusively on the argument that people will surreptitiously grow marijuana in their hemp fields, which is preposterous because you can't do that. Hemp will cross-pollinate and destroy any commercial marijuana in its vicinity. It's the anti-pot.
Thus, I tend to assume that DEA's animosity towards hemp is merely a symptom of the broader culture war surrounding marijuana in general. They'll concede nothing to the reform community, even when their intransigence requires them to obstruct legitimate economic activity based on flimsy reasoning.
Of course, now that we have a president with the guts to tell DEA when they're out of line, there's simply no reason this issue can’t move forward. Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia have all passed laws authorizing hemp cultivation and eagerly await the federal go-ahead. Efforts to legalize hemp are also underway in Minnesota and in California, where a hemp bill died on the governor's desk (Schwarzenegger cited conflict with federal law as his reason for rejecting the legislation).
Hemp won't save our economy, but it can provide income for many good, hardworking people. We lead the industrialized world in the importation of hemp and it would make a great deal of sense to start producing it ourselves.
digg
redditI was reminded of a bit of
Comment posted by NewOldSalt on Sat, 03/07/2009 - 5:38pmI was reminded of a bit of flawed reasoning last night:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/510/index.html
I did realize that most of the clear-cutters were in to total tree and herb removal, but am still in a bit of denial that people could so brazenly destroy their environment. But of course, the ranchers don't really care about the environment as much as they care about money. And I'm sure in their minds they consider themselves as performing some great benefit to the landscape. :-(
Back to the topic at hand… Is there some reason to use a non-THC version to grow fiber? Is the THC version more "gummy" and likely to clog machines with "pitch?" Seems to me it could be better to use the same plant to produce both buds and fiber.
True
Comment posted by NewOldSalt on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 3:29pmBut money is certainly a part of culture. It doesn't exist outside of human experience.
I think both are related; like you say, money being the primary motivator. The money-lovers tend to hide their true motives and put on a show, feigning other reasons they think will most likely motivate the brainwashed masses.
However, I have no doubt there are folks in the mega corps(es) now who are using their spreadsheets to figure out how they can best capitalize it, when it's freed from the current tyranny. (In the same way they hedge their bets and donate to Democrats and Republicans at the same time. Their ideology is money and having control of others. Like you both said: "economic war" and "culture war.")
In your list of those threatened, each of them could embrace it and make money from it. The main folks who stand to "loose" are those invested in stamping it out. (Those who sell obscenely expensive military equipment, the unsustainably-swelling agencies who live to keep everyone in terror, and the individuals who love to go from one self-righteous adrenaline rush to another as they kick down doors.)
Hemp, Hemp, Hooray!
Comment posted by Giordano on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 5:29pmEnvironmentally friendly hemp is undergoing underground research in Canada to eliminate any and all traces of cannabinoids from the final hemp product. A cannabinoid-free hemp plant will go a long way toward making hemp acceptable for commercial use.
A means of genetically distinguishing hemp from marijuana is also available, which means the Feds will no longer be able to claim that cops in America (unlike anywhere else) are allegedly too dumb to distinguish hemp and marijuana.
The many applications for hemp include producing fiber biocomposites for car bumpers. Even American graduate students are pioneering new uses for hemp construction materials. Green plastics are another application.
New medical uses for hemp and marijuana continue to be discovered, with compounds that act as antagonists for inflammation and pain.
With all these prime benefits, denying American growers the right to produce environmentally superior hemp is the environmental, economic and medical equivalent of shooting the nation in the foot. Americans in the current state of the economy simply cannot afford to dismiss important economic and environmental opportunities such as domestic hemp cultivation. The loss to society would be too great.
Giordano
Continental Congress
Comment posted by Moonrider on Sat, 03/07/2009 - 6:53pmMeetings to plan it are coming to a town near you very soon:
http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/#LatestNews
Please attend, if at all possible.
Join us as we claim & exercise
our Right of Popular Sovereignty
and our Right to hold government Accountable to the Law
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
Not Just Us
Comment posted by NewOldSalt on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 1:35amThey're chopping down the rain-forests in Brazil at alarming rates. The people doing it are not putting anything in its place and the rain is causing massive run off and taking luscious top soil away.
For many years I've hoped that they sow these seeds!
Our own dimwitted policies are causing other countries to ruin themselves as well.
They don't even have to harvest the stuff, just plant it! Rain on bare soil is so much more harsh than rain that's hit a leaf first, which is only a few feet from the ground.
I'm also a huge fan of bamboo, but to the best of my knowledge that's not indigenous, and they could end up with a "kudzu" problem on their hands with bamboo. Plus the seeds in marijuana or hemp could feed various birds.