18/10/2007 00:00:00
US: Farmers sue DEA for right to grow industrial hemp
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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.
Industrial hemp, left, looks a lot like its cousin in the cannabis
family, marijuana.
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.
It's not a panacea for health and environmental problems, advocates
concede, but it's not the menace the Controlled Substances Act makes it
out to be. Video Watch why a North Dakota official thinks the U.S.
should be in the hemp business »
"This is actually an anti-drug. It's a healthy food," explained Adam
Eidinger of the Washington advocacy group Vote Hemp. "We're not using
this as a statement to end the drug war."
Rather, Eidinger said, Vote Hemp wants to vindicate a plant that has
been falsely accused because of its mischievous cousin.
North Dakota farmers Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson say comparing
industrial hemp to marijuana is like comparing pop guns and M-16s.
They've successfully petitioned the state Legislature -- of which Monson
is a member -- to authorize the farming of industrial hemp.
They've applied for federal permits and submitted a collective $5,733 in
nonrefundable fees, to no avail, so they're suing the DEA.
North Dakota is one of seven states to OK hemp production or research.
California would have made eight until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last
week vetoed the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act, citing the
burden on law enforcement which would have to inspect hemp fields to
make sure they were marijuana-free.
Administration skeptical of initiatives
The DEA claims the farmers' lawsuit is misguided because the agency is
obligated to enforce the Controlled Substances Act.
"Hemp comes from cannabis. It's kind of a Catch 22 there," said DEA
spokesman Michael Sanders. "Until Congress does something, we have to
enforce the laws." The difference between marijuana, industrial hemp »
Asked if the DEA opposes the stalled House Resolution 1009, which would
nix industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana, Sanders said the
Justice Department and President Bush would make that call.
"When it comes to laws, we don't have a dog in that fight," he said.
The Justice Department has no position yet on the resolution, said
spokesman Erik Ablin. The White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, however, is skeptical because of the burden hemp would place on
law enforcement resources. Also, hemp advocates are regularly backed --
sometimes surreptitiously -- by the pro-marijuana movement, the office
alleges.
"ONDCP cautions that, historically, the hemp movement has been almost
entirely funded by the well-organized and well-funded marijuana
legalization lobby," said spokesman Tom Riley. "All we do is ask people
not to be naive about what's really going on here."
Often, the hemp movement -- like hemp legislation -- is inextricably
tied to marijuana. Pot advocates like actor Woody Harrelson and activist
Jack Herer have double or ulterior agendas when they expound the virtues
of hemp.
Not so with Monson, 57. The assistant GOP leader in the state House, who
returned to the family farm where he was reared in 1975, said he became
interested in hemp in 1993 when scab, or Fusarium head blight,
devastated his wheat and barley crops.
What Is It Good For?
Hemp's handiness can be traced back hundreds of years. Here are a few
examples of its myriad applications:
• Paper -- The plant's long, strong fibers make it an alternative to
timber for paper. The Declaration of Independence and first Gutenberg
Bibles were drafted on hemp.
• Construction -- Hemp's woody core makes a good source of boards for
construction materials.
• Auto parts -- The plant's fiber can be crafted into a composite that
is used for interior automobile parts typically made of fiberglass or
other materials.
• Textiles -- For centuries, hemp fibers have been used for fabrics,
both fine and coarse.
• Body and health care products -- Oil from the seeds is used in
lotions, balms and cosmetics.
• Food -- The seeds and oil are high in protein and essential fatty
acids and are used in a variety of edibles.
• Ethanol -- Though the technology is embryonic at best, hemp's high
cellulose content makes it a good candidate for biofuel production.
Source: Vote Hemp, Hemp Industries Association
Monson grows canola, too, but wants another crop in his rotation.
Soybeans are too finicky for the weather and rocky soil. Monson also
tried pinto beans, fava beans and buckwheat with no luck.
"None of them seemed to really be a surefire thing," he said. "We were
looking for anything that was potentially able to make us some money."
Hemp, said the lifelong farmer, seemed an apt fit. It likes the climate,
its deep roots irrigate soil, it doesn't need herbicides because it
grows tall quickly and it breaks the disease cycles in other crops,
Monson said.
States follow Canada's lead
About 20 miles north of Monson's Osnabrock farm lies the Canadian
border, the hemp dividing line. Just over the border in Manitoba,
farmers have been reaping the benefits of hemp since 1998, when Health
Canada reversed a longtime ban.
In a Vote Hemp video, Shaun Crew, president of Hemp Oil Canada Inc., a
processing company in Sainte-Agathe, praised Canada's foresight in
differentiating between hemp and marijuana.
While marijuana THC levels can range between 3 and 20 percent, Canada
demands its hemp contain no more than 0.3 percent. In some hemp, the THC
levels can sink as low as one part per million, Crew said.
"There's probably more arsenic in your red wine, there's more mercury in
your water and there's definitely more opiates in the poppy seed bagel
you ate this morning," Crew said on the video.
The North Dakota Legislature is convinced, as are the general assemblies
in Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana and West Virginia.
With his state's blessing, North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger
Johnson is backing the farmers and has proposed modeling North Dakota's
hemp laws after Canada's strict regulations.
"We weren't just going to tell the DEA to take a hike," Johnson said.
"We're serious about this, and we want to do it in concert with the DEA."
In a March 27 letter to Johnson, Joseph Rannazzisi of the DEA's Office
of Diversion Control, said the permits were denied because the state
hadn't satisfied the agency's security and logistical requirements.
Security aspects require careful evaluation because "the substance at
issue is marijuana -- the most widely abused controlled substance in the
United States," Rannazzisi wrote.
"We've been terribly brainwashed"
Hemp wasn't always banned in the U.S. Jamestown Colony required farmers
to grow it in 1619. Even after Congress cracked down on marijuana in
1937, farmers were encouraged to grow the crop for rope, sails and
parachutes during World War II's "Hemp for Victory" campaign.
Jake Graves, 81, heeded the call. Graves, whose father grew hemp in both
world wars and whose grandfather grew it during the Civil War, was a
teen when his father died in 1942. At the time, Graves' family was
growing hemp for the Army.
The Graveses continued growing hemp on their 500-acre Kentucky farm
until 1945, when the market dried up after the advent of synthetic
fabrics and the post-war reinvigoration of international trade.
But Graves stands by the crop and its versatility and says that by
lumping hemp in with marijuana, lawmakers "threw the baby out with the
wash."
"We've been terribly brainwashed as a society," Graves said. "Man didn't
use it for all those hundreds and hundreds of years without knowing what
they were doing."
In the U.S., tapping hemp's versatility relies on imports. The DEA
clamped down on most hemp imports in 1999 and 2001, but relented after a
Canadian company sued, saying the ban violated its rights under the
North American Free Trade Agreement.
Though advocates considered it a victory, Johnson said hemp won't be
fully utilized until it can be grown and researched stateside.
"For us to grow it isn't enough. You have to build that infrastructure,"
Johnson said. "None of those uses is really going to develop to any
great degree until we're able to grow this commodity."
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Johnson said the farmers' Vote Hemp-funded lawsuit has no hidden agenda.
It's aimed solely at allowing farmers to grow hemp -- without going to
jail because federal law says hemp and marijuana are the same.
"I've got a state Legislature saying they aren't and the entire world
saying they aren't. This is about a crop that is a legitimate crop every
place else in the world," Johnson said. "It's not a crusade thing. It's
a crop. Let farmers grow it. We don't want anyone to be growing drugs."
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12919
Author:
CNN via UKCIA
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