Hemp History Week has just passed so I’m a little late on this. It does shed some light on the Amendment to the Farm Bill that would legalize hemp.
To date, thirty-one states have introduced pro-hemp legislation and seventeen have passed legislation, while eight states (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia) have removed barriers to its production or research. However, despite state authorization to grow hemp, farmers in these states risk raids by federal agents and possible forfeiture of their farms if they plant the crop, due to the failure of federal policy to distinguish oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis (i.e., industrial hemp) from psychoactive drug varieties.
“This is the first time that language supporting hemp has come to the floor of the House or Senate for a vote since the Controlled Substances Act was passed in 1970,” says Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp. “The time is past due for the Senate as well as President Obama and the Attorney General to prioritize the crop’s benefits to farmers and to take action like Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) and the cosponsors of H.R. 1831 have done. With the U.S. hemp industry valued at over $400 million in annual retail sales and growing, a change in federal policy to allow hemp farming would mean instant job creation, among many other economic and environmental benefits,” adds Steenstra.
So the only thing standing against hemp production is the Federal Government. Where have I heard that one before?
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One response to “Hemp History Week”
Sounds like good news. My only cavil (or carp, evennn) is that the act and the impetus behind it still smacks of tryanny. I would far rather a law that recognizes the constitutional issue that Congress does not have authority in the matter at all. Period. End of discussion.
And, then, when the would-be tyrants bring up the commerce clause and seek to distort it YET AGAIN, we can cheerfully nuke them, too.
But instead, “our side” in Congress concedes the fundamentals of the argument to the enemy.
Aaarrrggghh!
M