Farmers sue DEA for right to grow industrial hemp (CNN) {Nov 11 hearing}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Eliott C. McLaughlin
CNN

(CNN) -- The feds call industrial hemp a controlled substance -- the same as pot, heroin, LSD -- but advocates say a sober analysis reveals a harmless, renewable cash crop with thousands of applications that are good for the environment.

Two North Dakota farmers are taking that argument to federal court, where a November 14 hearing is scheduled in a lawsuit to determine if the Drug Enforcement Administration is stifling the farmers' efforts to grow industrial hemp. The DEA says it's merely enforcing the law.

Marijuana and industrial hemp are members of the Cannabis sativa L. species and have similar characteristics. One major difference: Hemp won't get you high. Hemp contains only traces of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound that gets pot smokers stoned. However, the Controlled Substances Act makes little distinction, banning the species almost outright.

Marijuana, which has only recreational and limited medical uses, is the shiftless counterpart to the go-getter hemp, which has a centuries-old history of handiness.

The February 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine heralded hemp as the "new billion-dollar crop," saying it had 25,000 uses. Today, it is a base element for textiles, paper, construction materials, car parts, food and body care products.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/17/pip.hempregulation/index.html

edit to add date of hearing to title

[XemaSab]

1. It has never made any sense to me

that tobacco is SUBSIDIZED and hemp is illegal.

[phantom power]

2. That's no mystery. The golden rule: them that has the gold makes the rules.

The tobacco industry was rich even before the United States existed. Heck, the oil industry is a bunch of young upstarts by comparison.

[predfan]

3. it's even more ridiculous when you realize

we import industrial hemp from Canada. Oh, well, it's always something.

[redqueen]

4. "Only recreational and limited medical uses"

Yeah, like alcohol.

WTF is with people and that drug? You'd think it made people violent or made them overconfident in their ability to drive, killing and maiming however many innocent bystanders every year...

:crazy:

[Blaze Diem]

6. LOL Never knew a pothead to drive over 40 mph.

55 on main hgwys only if it was required by law..
Canada is growing and reaping the benefits of industrial hemp, and the fucked up USA is still fighting with the idiot assholes of yesterday.

Canada is sounding better all the time..maybe my ancestors should have stayed in Canada rather than heading for the states when they left Europe..oh well.

[monktonman]

5. Ever tried to smoke hemp?

I was cruising through Kansas some years ago and I pulled over to fix a flat
and loe and behold there was weed growing right there in the ditch.
After I finished putting my spare on, I proceeded to fill my trunk chock full.

When I got back to Vermont I sat down and rolled myself a few chubbies
and got nothing more than a wicked frickin headache. Probably would have gotten higher
smoking cotton.

Stupid hemp (or stupid pot head)

[redqueen]

7. Do you watch The Office?

:D

Exchange on the last episode:

Dwight: Yeah, I know him. (referring to pizza delivery guy) He sneaks into my field and steals my hemp.

Pizza delivery guy: Yeah, I know that guy. He's that farmer who grows really crappy weed.

[monktonman]

10. Dont really watch sit-coms much but thats funny.

Another time I was hitching through Northern California
and I couldnt get a ride to save my life.
After awhile I got tired and sat down on the ditch side of a gaurd rail to rest.
Out of the corner of my eye I see this garbage bag full of weed burst open in the ditch.
(who throws weed away?) So not caring if I had to ride butt naked, I emptied out my pack
and filled it right up with some really nice dope.

After my rest, I stepped up to the road and rather than thumbing it, I held out a nice big bud.
Wouldnt you know it, the very next car came to a screeching halt and drove me all the way to Portland.
Some people......

[redqueen]

12. hahahahahha

Glad you found a way to facilitate finding a ride. :)

[monktonman]

13. Have weed will travel...... n/t

[Ezlivin]

8. DEA's real reason: They can't tell hemp from marijuana from the air

Imagine the pain in the ass that industrial hemp would be to DEA aircraft. Now they can just call in any marijuana they find without having to wonder if it's zero THC or something delightful.

And wild hemp could spread (as plants are wont to do) to nearby areas, thus triggering even more false positives.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. ON the balance of things does the value of hemp outweight that issue? I say it does.

[Ezlivin]

18. Oh, yeah, I agree

We should legalize, regulate and tax all marijuana. It would kill the black market, free up billions of dollars currently wasted on the WOD and generate tax revenues that could be used to shore up our infrastructure.

But that's too damned logical for the powers-that-be.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. "legalize, regulate and tax..." we're 2/3 of the way there --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Marihuana_Tax_Act

[monktonman]

16. Funny you say that..........

When I was younger I used to grow my own weed.
I would plant it right in my veggy garden and sink a pole right next to it
and drape that with a piece of remay (agricultural fabric).
The choppers would fly over my house at the end of the summer but they couldn't do shit.
If they couldn't see it, it wasn't there.
Even if they knew it was dope they'd have to get a search warrant to come to my home seeing as how they couldn't prove it was pot to the issuing judge.
worked like a charm.

Someone refresh my memory.... what is the legal term used when cops can act based on what they can see?

[skids]

22. Except industrial hemp would stop outdoor growers...

...nothing like a good cloud of hemp pollen to ruin an outdoor marijuana crop.

The drug would have to be grown indoors to get good quality if there was a lot of hemp around.

DEA is full of crap on this. Most of their busts are from gumshoe legwork, not flyovers. They even have the balls to suggest marijuana could be "concealed" in hemp fields, even though it would go to seed and be nothing but bottom-shelf schwag.

[kestrel91316]

9. How the hell do we get the frickin' PURITANS out of the DEA

and get some people in there with some BRAINS?????

[ooglymoogly]

14. By electing Kucinich

The only candidate who has an intelligent position on Maryjane

[redqueen]

15. The only one with an intelligent position on the drug war, too!

:bounce:

[ooglymoogly]

19. The only one with an intelligent position on everything.

[gateley]

17. We need a hemp industry lobbyist (in this instance, I'll view lobbyists in a

positive light!).

I hope this at least begins to bring awareness to the positives of industrial hemp and help to disabuse some of the fallacies.

[Fly by night]

21. As a medical marijuana grower, user and provider; the worst thing that could happen ...

... to anyone trying to grow medical-grade cannabis would be to allow large-scale hemp production in the same area. All that hemp pollen would rapidly fertilize the marijuana flowers, cause them to stop growing (and producing THC and other beneficial medicines) prematurely and burden them with worthless seeds.

Having said that, I am not against industrial hemp production. And I am certainly not against medical marijuana production, use and distribution. But these two enterprises would not work well together in the same neighborhood (or region for that matter). That's why I've always been surprised that the feds don't get behind hemp production in a big way. It would royally screw up production of good, medical-grade, ganja in any state where hemp is grown.

My credentials: www.saveberniesfarm.com
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2007/04/26/Marijuana_Martyr/index.shtml

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. We'd have to zone areas where each would be grown faaarrrr away from each other

[Fly by night]

25. I don't know how far apart that would have to be.

Hemp would produce so much pollen (given the acres of it that would be grown and the fact that it would not be "sexed" to remove the males) that I don't know if growing high-quality cannabis would be possible within miles (or hundreds of miles) from a hemp field.

[pnutbutr]

23. bow strings

I've always wanted to make hemp bow strings for my selfbows. The fibers are very long and make for strong bow strings and ropes.