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Press Release: Oregon Hemp Farming Bill Becomes Law

Oregon Hemp Farming Bill Becomes Law - New State Program for Hemp Farmers to be Established

Contact: Tom Murphy at 207-542-4998 or [email protected] or Adam Eidinger at  202-744-2671 or [email protected]

SALEM, OR – Vote Hemp, the leading grassroots advocacy organization working to give back farmers the right to grow industrial hemp (the oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis), enthusiastically supports the decision of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to sign SB 676 into law today.  The bill, which passed the House by a vote of 46 to 11 and the Senate by a vote of 27 to 2, permits the production, trade and possession of industrial hemp commodities and products.  With the Governor’s signature, it now makes a politically bold commitment to develop hemp in a state whose slogan is “Oregon – We Love Dreamers.”

“I am glad that Oregon has joined the other states that have agreed that American farmers should have the right to re-introduce industrial hemp as an agricultural crop,” says SB 676 sponsor, Sen. Floyd Prozanski.  “By signing SB 676 into law, which passed the Oregon Legislature with strong bi-partisan support, Governor Kulongoski has taken a proactive position allowing our farmers the right to grow industrial hemp, to provide American manufacturers with domestically-grown hemp, and to profit from that effort.”  The new law sets up a state-regulated program for farmers to grow industrial hemp which is used in a wide variety of products, including nutritious foods, cosmetics, body care, clothing, tree-free paper, auto parts, building materials, fuels and much more.  Learn more about hemp at www.VoteHemp.com.

“Oregon’s federal delegation can now take this law to the U.S. Congress and call for a fix to this problem, so American companies will no longer need to import hemp and American farmers will no longer be denied a profitable new crop,” comments Vote Hemp Director, Patrick Goggin.  “Under current federal policy, industrial hemp can be imported, but it cannot be grown by American farmers.  Hemp is an environmentally-friendly crop that has not been grown commercially in the U.S. for over fifty years because of a politicized and misguided interpretation of the nation’s drug laws by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).  While a new federal bill in Congress, HR 1866, is a welcome step, the hemp industry is hopeful that the Obama administration will recognize hemp’s myriad benefits to farmers, businesses and the environment,” adds Goggin.

Many businesses in Oregon manufacture, market and sell hemp products, including Living Harvest, The Merry Hempsters, Wilderness Poets, Earthbound Creations, Sweetgrass Natural Fibers, Sympatico Clothing, Mama’s Herbal Soaps and Hempire.  Living Harvest of Portland was recently ranked the third-fastest-growing company in Oregon, as awarded by The Portland Business Journal’s “Fastest-Growing Private 100 Companies” annual award.  “We are looking forward to the opportunity to invest in hemp processing and production locally,” says Hans Fastre, CEO of Living Harvest.  “This new law represents another step towards heightening the hemp industry’s profile within mainstream America and making hemp products more accessible to businesses and consumers.”

These Oregon-based companies have been on the leading edge of the growing hemp food and body care markets, which are currently estimated by the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) to be $113 million in North American annual retail sales.  The HIA estimates the 2008 annual retail sales of all hemp products in North America to be about $360 million.  By allowing U.S. farmers to once again grow hemp, legislators can clear the way for a “New Billion-Dollar Crop.”

Hemp Farming Gains Support from More State Governments and Law Enforcement

According to the Illinois Valley News, Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson said that he supports the legalization of industrial hemp.  “I think it’s a good idea,” Gilbertson said in the article which appeared on July 29.  “I think it’s a viable crop, and the entire county could benefit from it.”

On June 9, with little fanfare, Maine Governor John Baldacci signed the Maine hemp farming bill, LD 1159, into law.  Maine’s House had previously passed the bill without objection, and the Senate later passed it by a strong vote of 25 to 10.  The bill establishes a licensing regime for farming industrial hemp, although the licensing is contingent upon action by the federal government.  Maine had previously passed a study bill that also defined industrial hemp.  Like North Dakota, the new law in Oregon does not require a federal permit to grow industrial hemp.

During the 2009 legislative session, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Vermont all passed pro-hemp laws, resolutions or memorials.  Sixteen states have passed pro-hemp legislation to date, and eight states (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia) have removed barriers to its production or research.  Like North Dakota, where farmers are in a federal court battle over their rights to grow hemp under state law without fear of federal prosecution, the new law in Oregon does not require a federal DEA permit to grow hemp.

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Vote Hemp is a national, single-issue, non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and a free market for low-THC industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to once again grow this agricultural crop.  More information about hemp legislation and the crop's many uses may be found at www.VoteHemp.com or www.HempIndustries.org.  BETA SP or DVD Video News Releases featuring footage of hemp farming in other countries are available upon request from Adam Eidinger at 202-744-2671.

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"Marijuana Is Safer" authors Tvert and Armentano appear at Oaksterdam University

The student union at Oaksterdam University in downtown Oakland was buzzing yesterday afternoon as several dozen people gathered together with Marijuana is Safer authors Paul Armentano of NORML and Mason Tvert of SAFER to celebrate the brand new book's release. (Co-author Steve Fox of MPP was on the East Coast. The book also boasts a foreword by Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle.) After an hour or so of schmoozing, book selling, and signing, Armentano and Tvert were joined by Oaksterdam's Greg Grimala for an informal discussion about the book, whose thesis--that marijuana is safer than alcohol--is an outgrowth of work originally done by Tvert as he organized college campuses around the issue of inequality in punishments for students got smoking pot as opposing to underage drinking. Armentano, who has been keeping a keen eye on marijuana research for years, supplies much of the hard science. "The fact that we're even having this discussion is a measure of marijuana's relative harmlessness," Tvert pointed out, adding that he thought the alcohol vs. marijuana comparison was an excellent tactic. "Parents can understand alcohol, and we can make the comparison between it and marijuana. Within that framework, you get them to start thinking about marijuana the same way they think of alcohol. The discussion of alcohol provides a reference point, and that will only further the debate." Tvert will be hitting the road to promote the book in coming weeks. Armentano said yesterday the book was shipping to bookstores in the East now and would be showing up on the West Coast soon. He also said he had directed that a review copy be sent to StoptheDrugWar.org, so look for a book review here next week. (The Chronicle is on vacation this week.) Tvert, Armentano, Grimala
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Former Surgeon General Says Legalize Marijuana

Dr. Jocelyn Elders ignited a firestorm when she proposed studying the merits of drug legalization while serving as Surgeon General under President Clinton. It was a bold move back then and she's still eager to speak out in favor of reform:

You’re also a vocal proponent of medical marijuana. Why?

I have been speaking out about it for a long time. I’m a member of the board of advisors of a medical marijuana group. To me, it’s not nearly as toxic for our bodies as tobacco or alcohol. It should be legalized. As far as we know, it doesn’t cause lung cancer, it doesn’t cause people to go out and drive drunk and commit crimes. If it helps reduce the nausea and vomiting and reduce leg cramps, make patients feel better, what’s wrong with that? We should make it available to people who need it. I feel if people want marijuana, they could get a prescription. Then we can tax it and know who is getting it. I don’t think it is a drug that is doing harm to this country. By arresting people, putting them in jail for crimes related to marijuana, we’re spending millions on drug enforcement and it causes more problems. Young people are convicted of a crime, they can’t get money to go to school, we have over 2 million prisoners and many related to drug use—it is a vicious cycle and one we created. [New America Media]

She gets it. In fact, she got it a long time ago.
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Amsterdam vs. Bill O'Reilly


O'Reilly said a couple pretty nasty things about the Dutch recently, prompting this delightful response from some genius on YouTube:



Now O'Reilly responds to the response, and check how he addresses the question of why rates of marijuana use are lower in the Netherlands than the U.S.:
Why have so many more people in the USA, where marijuana is illegal, tried it? 40% of people in the USA compared to 22.6%...

OREILLY (interrupting): The way they use statistics in the Netherlands is different, plus it's a much smaller country.
Huh? The guy just lies so reflexively, it's astonishing. Of course, by denying the validity of the statistics, he tacitly acknowledges that they would be significant if they were true. Well, they are true, Bill, which means all your paranoid fulminations about the horrors of legalization are nonsense.

I just hope he's right that the U.S. is on course to implement Dutch-style drug policies.

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Americans for Safe Access: August 2009 Activist Newsletter

Americans for Safe Access
Monthly Activist Newsletter

August 2009

Volume 4, Issue 8

Calif. Senate Committee Urges New Federal Policy on Medical Marijuana

Resolution calls for comprehensive federal approach

Some California state senators are pushing for comprehensive changes in federal policy on medical cannabis.

After hearing testimony from Americans for Safe Access and other patient advocates, the California Senate Health Committee last month passed a resolution urging an end to federal interference in state medical marijuana programs, as well as a new national approach that supports research and makes the drug available in all states.

Introduced in June by State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and sponsored by ASA, the resolution is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If passed there, it will go before the full Senate.

"Patients and providers in California remain at risk of arrest and prosecution by federal law enforcement, and legally established medical marijuana cooperatives continue to be the subjects of federal raids," said Sen. Leno in a statement.

Senate Joint Resolution 14 asks the federal government to both curtail raids in the state and "create a comprehensive federal medical marijuana policy that ensures safe and legal access to any patient that would benefit from it."

The resolution also urges President Obama and Congress to establish "an affirmative defense to medical marijuana charges in federal court and establish federal legal protection for individuals authorized by state and local law."

Don Duncan, ASA's California Director, and Lanette Davies, a Sacramento patient and activist were among those who explained to the senators why this is so important.

"With more than two dozen medical marijuana defendants currently being prosecuted by the Justice Department, each of them facing many years in prison, such a policy change would be timely, relevant and critically important," said Duncan. "The entire country needs a sensible, comprehensive medical marijuana policy."

While the Obama Administration has stated that it has a new policy on medical cannabis, federal raids on patients and providers have continued.
Currently, medical marijuana patients and providers charged under federal law cannot introduce evidence about their medical condition, their doctor's advice, or state medical marijuana laws.

The California Senate resolution also seeks expanded research into the medical benefits of marijuana. More research was a recommendation of the 1999 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana, a report commissioned by the White House but never acted on.

An administrative law judge ruled two years ago that the federal monopoly on the cultivation of marijuana for research purposes has unnecessarily limited FDA-approved scientific studies, but the Drug Enforcement Administration rejected the judge's recommendations.

Further information:
Senate Joint Resolution on medical marijuana
ASA fact sheet on SJR 14

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ASA Wins Landmark Calif. Ruling on Cultivation of Medical Marijuana

Appellate court protects patient collectives and affirms civil rights

A case Americans for Safe Access has been fighting for three years resulted last month in an appellate court ruling that protects California patients who grow marijuana collectively.

The California Third District Court of Appeal issued a 2-1 decision affirming a superior court ruling that state and local law enforcement must respect the right of medical marijuana patients to cultivate their medicine collectively.

The court also found that law enforcement must obtain a warrant to search a patient's property and seize any marijuana found there. The judges wrote that to rule otherwise would "surely shock the sensibilities of the voters" who approved the state's medical marijuana initiative in 1996.

"In addition to protecting patients' right to collectively cultivate, the Court has reaffirmed that medical marijuana patients enjoy the same constitutional rights as everyone else, including the ability to file civil rights actions when those rights are violated," said Joe Elford, ASA Chief Counsel and the attorney who litigated the case.

ASA took the case in 2006 after receiving repeated reports that Butte County law enforcement and other police agencies throughout the state were refusing to recognize the legitimacy of patient collectives.
The landmark appellate decision in County of Butte v. Superior Court concerns the 2005 warrant-less search of a patient's home in Paradise, California.

During the search, the Butte County Sheriff ordered the homeowner, David Williams, 56, to uproot more than two-dozen plants being grown for a small collective of seven medical marijuana patients. Though state law allows for collective cultivation, the sheriff told Williams it is not lawful to grow marijuana for multiple patients.

A superior court judge in Butte County ruled otherwise in 2007, saying medical marijuana patients "should not be required to risk criminal penalties and the stress and expense of a criminal trial in order to assert their rights."

The appeals court last month agreed, finding that patients have "the same constitutional guarantee of due process available to all individuals, no matter what their status, under the state Constitution." The appeals panel noted that "[t]he fact that this case involves medical marijuana and a qualified medical marijuana patient does not change these fundamental constitutional rights or an individual's right to assert them."

"This ruling by the California courts sends yet another strong message to state law enforcement that they must abide by the medical marijuana laws of the state and not the competing federal laws," said ASA's Elford.

Even the dissenting opinion in the case contained a plea for new federal law on medical marijuana. Court of Appeal Judge James Morrison wrote that, "[t]he United States Congress should reconsider its refusal to amend the federal drug laws to make reasonable accommodation for the 13 states that have enacted some form of compassionate use exception to their penal codes."

Further information:
The ruling by the California Third District Court of Appeal
Information on ASA's work on the Butte Case

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Colorado Rejects Restrictions on Medical Cannabis Distribution

Grassroots Organizing Floods Hearing with Advocates

On July 20, patients and advocates convinced the Colorado Board of Health to reject a proposal that would have sharply restricted the ability of the state's citizens to access medical marijuana.

Nearly 1,000 medical cannabis patients and supporters -- including lawyers, doctors, care providers, veterans, and numerous health-care and religious organizations -- attended the 12-hour hearing, and nearly 200 supporters of safe access testified, thanks to months of coordinated efforts by Sensible Colorado, an ASA affiliate.

As a result, the Board of Health voted 5-4 to table a proposal that would have limited caregivers to assisting no more than five patients. The proposal would have also restricted who can qualify as a caregiver under Colorado law, requiring medical marijuana providers to assist patients in ways that would be impractical for many -- including providing patients with food, transportation, and housekeeping services.

When these changes were first proposed in January, Sensible Colorado mounted a grassroots campaign that delayed the hearing until July so patient advocates could organize a response. The successful outreach efforts among patients that ensured the large turnout at the hearing were just part of Sensible Colorado's campaign.

Director Brian Vicente also convinced such prominent state organizations as the Northern Colorado AIDS Project, the ACLU of Colorado and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar to publicly oppose the changes, and he persuaded one of the state's Congressional delegation, Rep. Jared Polis, to write a personal letter of opposition to the board.

The success of Sensible Colorado's organizing paves the way for increased access to medical marijuana through safe and affordable distribution, an issue that many of the 13 states with medical cannabis laws are confronting.

With only one exception, state medical marijuana laws failed to address how qualified patients are to obtain their medicine. The legislatures of several states have now amended their laws to establish rules for centralized distribution of marijuana to patients.

In the past few years, California, Washington and Oregon have created provisions for regulating distribution. This year, both Maine and Rhode Island have taken up the issue, with Rhode Island changing its law in June to license three "Compassion Centers" to provide medical marijuana to patients. Voters in Maine will also have the chance to approve a ballot initiative in November that would implement a distribution mechanism for patients.

One state that has tried to deal with this issue from the beginning is New Mexico. When the legislature adopted a medical marijuana law in 2007, lawmakers not only established protections for patients who use medical marijuana, but directed state officials to find ways of distributing it. In March, the New Mexico Department of Health issued its first license for non-profit medical marijuana production.

Distribution questions are also shaping new medical marijuana laws coming before state legislatures. Lawmakers in New Jersey and Iowa have been debating measures that incorporate plans for distributing medical marijuana to patients, not just protect them from prosecution once they have it.

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In The Trenches

Drug Truth 08/03/09

The Unvarnished Truth From the Drug Truth Network *** Note: Schedulte & Format Changes & NEW 800 # 1-877-9-420-420 *** This coming Sunday, August 2nd at 6:30 PM central time I will interview our guest on the Cultural Baggage program, syndicated columnist Froma Harrop. Here's where you come in, following at 7PM central, Century of Lies will feature a new segment: "Face the Inquisition" where you get the chance to question her regarding America's 100 year old folly of drug war. You can tune into both programs, live, at 6:30 central time on Pacifica's KPFT at http://www.kpft.org and call in your questions toll free at 1-877-9-420 420. More details available in the 4:20 report for Monday July 20th. The two, 29:00 shows will appear along with the seven, daily, 3:00 "4:20 Drug War NEWS" reports each Monday morning at http://www.drugtruth.net . (We currently have 69 affiliated, yet independent broadcast stations. With a simple email request to [email protected] , your station can join the Drug Truth Network, free of charge.) Cultural Baggage for 08/0209, 29:00 Professor Arthur Benavie, author of Drugs - America's Holy War + DTN Editorial, Paul Armentano of NORML, Cookville cops plant drugs + Gary Storck "wheres my medicine" LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2526 TRANSCRIPT: This Evening Century of Lies for 08/02/09, 29:00 Professor Arthur Benavie, author of "Drugs - America's Holy War" takes listener questions, live LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2527 TRANSCRIPT: 08/03/09 PM 4:20 Drug War NEWS, 8/03 to 8/09/09 Link at www.drugtruth.net on the right margin - Sun - Rusty White, former prison guard and dog handler speaks for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Sat - Eric Sterling, president of Criminal Justice Policy Foundation sees "opportunity for change" Fri - Professor Arthur Benavie, author of Drugs-America's Holy War Thu - Vivian McPeak, Exec Dir of Seattle Hempfest outlines the forthcoming event Wed - Cookville Tenn cops plant drugs and laugh and laugh Tue - Gary Storck of Wisconsin wonders when you will help legalize his glaucoma medicine, with Blues song outro Mon - Abolitionist's Moment with violin solo by Prof Arthur Benavie Programs produced at Pacifica Radio Station KPFT in Houston, 90.1 FM. You can Listen Live Online at www.kpft.org - Cultural Baggage Sun, 7:30 PM ET, 6:30 PM CT, 5:30 PM MT, 4:30 PM PT (Followed Immediately By Century of Lies) - Century of Lies, SUN, 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT Who's Next to "Face The Inquisition?": Syndicated Columnist Froma Harrop of the Creators Group Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org We have potcasts, searchability, CMS, XML, sorts by guest name and by organization. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates in the US, Canada and Australia! We now feature TRANSCRIPTS of most of our programs again! Check out our latest videos via www.youtube.com/fdbecker Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Prohibition is evil." - Reverend Dean Becker, DTN Producer, 713-849-6869, www.drugtruth.net
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