Hemp-Growing Rules Take Step Forward

[NVMojo]

It's about time ...

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - State rules for growing industrial hemp are close to taking effect, although federal drug agents will have the final say on whether farmers may cultivate it, Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem issued a letter Wednesday saying the proposed rules comply with state law. A legislative committee that reviews North Dakota agency regulations still must go over them before they take effect, Johnson said.

Industrial hemp is a relative of marijuana, but does not have the hallucinogenic chemical that provides a "high" when the leaf is smoked. It is used to produce an assortment of goods, including paper, rope, clothing and cosmetics.

Industrial hemp cultivation is legal in Canada and other countries, but it is banned in the United States, a situation that Johnson and North Dakota lawmakers have been working to reverse. Johnson and other state agriculture officials met with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials last February in Washington, D.C., to discuss the issue.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/nov/16/111602257.html

[whistle]

1. Can one tell the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana

...plants just by looking at them?

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Hemp is very leafy

The good stuff is grown for buds, not leaf.

[Marnieworld]

4. But before you get bud you get leaves

In fact leaves are all over the bud.

There is absolutely no reason or explanation as to how I know this. None whatsoever. Stop looking at me. :P

[Bunbury]

26. LOL

:hide:

[stepnw1f]

19. Exactly....

:smoke:

[ms liberty]

5. Hemp is grown primarily for the stalks and branches...

so basically you get a tall, skinny plant with a thicker stalk. Pot's grown for the leaves and buds, so basically you get a very bushy plant that is often shorter. Other than that, they look much the same. However, hemp will cross-pollinate with any pot in IIRC about a 3 mile area, and render that pot valueless. The pot ALWAYS goes back to hemp, never the reverse. This info is all based on memory from some articles I've read on the subject over the years. Sorry I can't provide a link.

[alfredo]

16. Hemp is grown close together to force long stalks. Our region was a

big hemp producer until the blue noses outlawed it.

[Selteri]

6. No then yes

Immature cannabis hemp, sativa and indica all appear the same when they are in their imature form (Pre-flowering stages) At a point some begin to pre-sex, they are still indistinguishable at that point. When they begin to actually bloom the differences do become obvious, hemp's properties are different in appearance. Hemp let's it's balls hang lower and grows much more quickly (tall) and leafy where marijuana produces more seed pods among the males and the females grow heavy crystals aruond their seeds to protect them through the winter, in all likelyhood to protect from rodents which don't like marijuana at all but love hemp, of course, that defense must have developed early on because deer absolutely love both hemp and marijuana.

[meow2u3]

11. So can you get high on venison? :silly:

...deer absolutely love both hemp and marijuana.

Since deer love weed, why not feed it to them and let the hunters get high on their kill? :silly:

[4_TN_TITANS]

17. 'deer absolutely love both hemp and marijuana.'

You got that right. I gave up trying to grow it because the damn deer would eat it down to a stump in the ground every year. But, I still eat deer! :9

[olddad56]

18. I disagree..

sativa plants and indica plants (before they are cross-bred look different very early in their lives. Invicas are more 'squatty' with a broader leave. Good sativa plants that get you high, are taller with a thinner leave. Invica plants originated in the middle east and the good sativa plant in Mexico, Central and south america. Hemp has grown wild in the midwest forever and doesn't give you enough of a buzz to matter.

I gave it all up in 1987, but before that, I was a daily user for 20 years.

[Zhade]

22. Indica, not invica.

NT!

[formercia]

2. Pot growers are not going to like it

polluting the gene pool.If the DEA really wanted to get rid of pot, they could sow the industrial variety everywhere there is pot being cultivated. Soon, it would be so worthless, nobody would smoke it. They won't, theres too much big money involved in enforcement. It's big business and nobody wants to gore that ox.

[ngant17]

12. the smart money grows it indoors

with advanced technology using halogen lighting and hydroponics.

Don't think outdoor seeding of hemp would effect the market a whole lot. Sinsemilla (seedless) crop is the main attraction for growing indoors, which also lets the grower have more quality control over final product.

[tridim]

15. Sorry, I have to correct you..

Halogen lighting is worthless for indoor growing because they are extremely inefficient. High pressure sodium and metal halide lights are used to grow tomatoes indoors.

[formercia]

23. Halogen lights put out most in the wrong wavelengths

with a bit of UV that burn the leaves.I thought about getting lights to get my garden started earlier but the cost was too high.
There are hydroponic growers here in Maine and the numbers are increasing. With the higher cost of shipping fruits and vegetables in, it becomes economically viable to grow indoors near to the point of sale.

Eliot Coleman grows greens in the Winter in unheated poly houses and apparently does well at it.

http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/main/about/about.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Coleman

[formercia]

25. In Mexico and elswhere they don't have the luxury

it wouldn't be worth hauling across the border.

[Trillo]

14. You know, that might help the deforestation issues.

Of course, dropping vast numbers of seeds from airplanes or some similar sowing tactic would get in the way of the authorities granting certain farmers these rights.

[FernBell]

7. The feds will kill it. Bet on it. This is doomed. What's needed is a change in federal policy.

Only then will we get sensible drug laws.

[Ladydawnelle]

8. All this POT talk!

Just call me Ms. Jones ;-)

and industrial strength sounds like crrrrrrrrrrrap! :rofl:

[IDemo]

10. They basically have killed, at least for the time being

HJ 3037 was introduced last year to decriminalize the farming of industrial hemp, but the bill was "referred" to the Health subcommittee for further study.

[Cerridwen]

9. SHRED started a good thread on this the other day

There is a lot of information about industrial hemp, its uses and products, some of the myths versus the realities and additional links and information about states trying to re-legalize growing industrial hemp. here's the link to the thread on DU

The feds will fight this but many states are fighting them on behalf of their family farmers and the potential boost industrial hemp could give to the economy as a whole as well as providing the U.S. with a renewal energy source we can grow in our own country. It's a states' rights issue that could be interesting to watch.

[Greyhound]

13. Will we see the light in my lifetime?

I figure that, barring continued re:puke: rule, I've got 20 - 40 years left, and would really appreciate some semblance of sanity to reassert itself into this country.

[zreosumgame]

20. yep get out your checkbooks

DEA ;agents' are famous for being very very bribable

[Jeffersons Ghost]

21. here's an 8th vote for my best laugh of the day... ONLY YOU MOJO...

Only you. LOL

[phusion]

24. As soon as this is legal...

I'm investing in companies that produce hemp here in the US...It will be huge!

[yellowcanine]

27. Not sure that industrial hemp is much of an opportunity for farmers.

There is a lot of hype about it and there is some grown in Canada. Ag economists at the University of Kentucky did a feasibility study on it several years ago and concluded it was not economically viable. Conditions may have changed since then (I am not sure if the UK economists considered the potential increase in demand for hemp paper).

If I were an investor of a farmer I would be wary. Do the numbers first. Investing in hemp could become the 21st century equivalent of the Florida swamp land deal.

[Cerridwen]

28. Apparently, farmers think it will be...Six states have passed laws allowing farmers

to grow hemp

'Industrial' hemp support takes root

By Donna Leinwand

USA TODAY
November 22, 2005

David Monson is a conservative Republican in North Dakota's legislature.
He's also a farmer who believes that a new cash crop could revitalize his
state's agricultural industry, which has been suffering from poor harvests
and depressed soy and corn prices.

<snip>

Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Montana and West Virginia also have passed
hemp-farming bills. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced such a bill in
Congress in June, but it hasn't advanced in the face of opposition by the
Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House's anti-drug office.

<snip>

(poster's note: and the U.S. Fed's argument?)"Let's not be naïve," says Tom Riley of the White House Office on National
Drug Control Policy. "The pro-dope people have been pushing hemp for 20
years because they know that if they can have hemp fields, then they can
have marijuana fields. It's ... stoner logic."

<snip>

Other North Dakotans say they resent attempts to cast an agricultural and
economic issue as a "pothead" movement. "It's a silly argument," says North
Dakota Agricultural Commissioner Roger Johnson. "Does (Monson) sound like a
druggie?"

<snip>

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/hemp112205.cfm">link to USA Today article posted at organicconsumers.org

edit: typo in title

[yellowcanine]

29. These magic bullets come along along all the time. Farmers get excited

about a new crop that is going to "save agriculture." Most of the time they don't pan out. Remember ostriches in Texas? A few "early adopters" who raised breeding stock made money, everyone else lost money. It got so bad that some ostrich producers just opened their gates and let the birds go. That was cheaper than feeding them or slaughtering them. Hemp could be different but the odds are stacked against it. Invest with care. People will make money on hemp. But sadly , it probably won't be the farmers. It will more likely be the guys selling hemp seed and specialized equipment used to produce and process hemp.

[yellowcanine]

30. I might also point out that state legislatures are poor judges of the efficacy of

an economic venture - ANY economic venture. Remember Cold Fusion and the state of Utah? They invested millions in it.

ON edit: It is always easy to be back a venture with someone else's money. The key thing to watch will be: Are the serious venture capitalists putting big bucks into it. If not, be wary.