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Vote Hemp Action Alert: Comment On Framing Rules Until October 30

Submitted by dguard on

Dear XXXXX,

Considering the bad news I gave you last week about Governor Schwarzenegger's veto, I am especially happy to report good news from North Dakota. The second-largest wheat exporting state, North Dakota is ranked ninth overall in agriculture exports and is just across the border from the thriving hemp farming provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan Canada. This important farming state will be the first to implement an industrial hemp farming law when it publishes rules on state licensing.

You can help make this happen by sending a letter in support of North Dakota's proposed rules. The deadline for comments has recently been extended to October 30, 2006.

While Vote Hemp has been organizing comments in support of the rules, Drug Watch International has mobilized anti-hemp activists to send letters in opposition. Despite their efforts, letters in support of the rules are outweighing those in opposition by a 4-to-1 margin. Help us keep a winning score by sending a letter now.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), also trying to derail North Dakota's hemp farming plans, sent comments quoting the 1999 report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) which expressed concern that Switzerland's industrial hemp program was being "used for the cultivation of more potent cannabis destined for the illicit market."

They failed to mention that by 2001, the INCB no longer cited concerns about Switzerland, and in its review of European Commission industrial hemp regulations it found them to be "effective" and "strict" and concluded that "the misuse of those regulations or the diversion of cannabis licitly cultivated in member states of the European Union is unlikely." Industrial hemp hasn't been mentioned in an INCB report since.

Help us counter the misinformation campaign being waged by Drug Watch International and the DEA. Give North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson the support he needs to bring industrial hemp farming back to North Dakota. Please take action now.

Sincerely,

Eric Steenstra
President

Angry Response to Schwarzenegger's Veto

· Opinion: The Mighty Pen

· Editorial: Governor's Late Vetoes

· Editorial: He Cleared His Desk, Clouded His Ideology

· Don't Hold Your Breath for Sense about Hemp


Opinion: The Mighty Pen

Long Beach Press-Telegram
October 4, 2006

[Ed. Note: The parts relevant to industrial hemp are excerpted below.]

Some of the bills that didn't deserve the ax:

Industrial hemp: The governor vetoed a bill that would have allowed farmers to grow industrial hemp. Since this grade of the plant doesn't cause intoxication, those who want to grow it to make paper, clothing and other products should have the right to also grow an industry.


Editorial: Governor's Late Vetoes

San Francisco Chronicle
October 3, 2006

[Ed. Note: The parts relevant to industrial hemp are excerpted below.]

He vetoed an industrial hemp bill (AB 1147 by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco) that would have been good for state farmers and good for the economy by reducing the importation of a popular product — and would not in any way have promoted marijuana cultivation or use.


Editorial: He Cleared His Desk, Clouded His Ideology

The Orange County Register
October 6, 2006

[Ed. Note: The parts relevant to industrial hemp are excerpted below.]

The governor also vetoed, wrongly, we believe, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act, a bipartisan bill that would have allowed farmers to grow hemp products provided they do not contain any significant level of THC, the chemical that produces the high from marijuana. Critics were right that the veto showed an "irrational fear" of looking soft on drugs. Industrial hemp can be used to make clothing and a variety of consumer and food products, and has nothing to do with drug use.


Don't Hold Your Breath for Sense about Hemp

The Times-Standard
Eureka, CA
October 6, 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of a bill to legalize the growing of industrial hemp as a valuable — and non- intoxicating — cash crop is a perfect example of federal control run amok ... as if we didn't have plenty of examples of that in California already.

Read more ...

 

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