Pubdate: Thu, 06 Dec 2001
Source: Aberdeen American News (SD)
Copyright: 2001 Aberdeen American News
Contact:  http://web.aberdeennews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1484
Author: Adrian Pratt, Publisher of the American News

INDUSTRIAL HEMP VIABLE CROP

A petition is currently circulating in the state to put the issue of 
whether growing industrial hemp should be legal onto the November 2002 
ballot. As the absurdity of the current laws banning hemp become more and 
more apparent, this debate will arise more frequently until logic - and new 
laws - prevail.Before I explain myself and any of you accuse me of being a 
hippy, or worse, let me throw a few facts your way:

While it is part of the same family as marijuana, industrial hemp usually 
contains less than 1 percent of the hallucinogen tetrahydrocannabinol 
(THC). There is no getting high off it, in other words. But because it does 
belong to the same family, under a federal law hemp cannot be grown 
commercially in the United States.

During World War II the U.S. government launched a campaign called "Hemp 
for Victory," promoting the need for farmers to grow hemp to help with the 
war effort. This program chronicled some of the thousand-year history of 
how hemp had been used - it covered the prairie schooners and made the 
riggings for the gunship Old Ironsides - and how tough and versatile it 
was. With the import of cheaper fibers, much of the U.S. growing of 
industrial hemp was curtailed. During the war, however, these imports were 
cut off and the U.S. Department of Agriculture had to put out a plea to 
"patriotic" farmers to grow this "indispensable" crop.

The United States imports about $300 million in hemp products a year from 
places such as Canada, where industrial hemp is a legal crop. That's money 
that U.S. farmers or Indians on South Dakota's reservations could be earning.

Many countries in Europe - led by Germany - are beginning to put materials 
from plants like hemp into their vehicles. As the European countries pass 
more laws protecting the environment such use of hemp will increase, 
driving up the demand.

So, not only is industrial hemp useless as a mind-altering drug, but it was 
once legal in this country and the U.S. government actively promoted its 
growth.

But there is another issue brewing that highlights the contradictory nature 
of the U.S. stance. This concerns the Lakota people, especially those on 
Pine Ridge. In 1868, America entered into a treaty with the sovereign 
nation of the Lakota Sioux. That treaty, according to Bob Newland, who is 
pushing the petition drive, "provides that members of the tribe may produce 
food and fiber on the various reservations."

The topic of hemp came up a lot during a recent visit of mine to Pine 
Ridge, where Alex White Plume has twice had his industrial hemp crop 
leveled by agents from the DEA (once they came at sunrise by helicopter - 
no reports whether it was a black one or not). Many on the reservations 
view this issue as an economic issue as well as an issue of sovereignty. 
For starters, growing hemp is fairly easy, even on some of the poor-quality 
land on the reservations. The bottom line for many on Pine Ridge, which is 
living under a sentence of brutal poverty, is that growing hemp could 
provide a cash crop that could help tremendously. It is seen by some as one 
way out of the terrible dependence on federal funds and of becoming more 
self-sustaining. And yet, to them, it appears as if the federal government 
is bent on not allowing them this opportunity. For the record, Alex White 
Plume has not been charged with any crime in connection with the two 
federal raids on his hemp crop.

Drug enforcement agencies say their jobs would be complicated because 
industrial hemp looks so similar to marijuana. But with a little bit of 
paperwork industrial hemp growing could be easily regulated.

Changing the law in South Dakota wouldn't supersede the federal law, but it 
certainly would put more pressure on the federal government to review its 
nonsensical stance. Will they want to continue to force an issue that could 
spiral into matters of sovereign rights on the reservation over a crop that 
they once used to promote?

Farmers from Canada and some of the other 32 countries where hemp is legal 
have an alternative - and lucrative - crop denied to the American farmer 
already wrestling with low commodity prices.

As of the end of November, Newland had more than a quarter of the 
signatures he needs to get this issue onto the ballot next year. He 
deserves all the help he can get.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens