Pubdate: Mon, 17 Feb 2014
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190

2014 Farm Bill

SLOW, BUT PROGRESS ON HEMP

Congress and President Obama took a too-small step toward common 
sense with an amendment tucked inside the mammoth farm bill the 
president signed on Feb 7. But a step nonetheless. A provision 
legalizes the cultivation of industrial hemp for research purposes in 
states where industrial hemp is already legal under state law. 
Washington is among 10 states whose colleges and universities that 
can now grow hemp for research purposes.

The law supersedes our Legislature's attempts to achieve the same 
results, according the Hemp Industries Association and the Washington 
Farm Bureau. The law defines and distinguishes industrial hemp from 
marijuana. It's about time, if not decades overdue. The Drug 
Enforcement Agency, however, trying to confuse the issue to the end, 
opposed the amendment.

Marijuana and hemp are cousins, but while the plants look similar, 
their properties are totally different. Mainly, hemp doesn't contain 
any of the psychoactive ingredients that give marijuana its "high." A 
person cannot get high off hemp, a hardy and easy-to-grow crop. 
(Marijuana is "fussy," not hardy and difficult to grow.) What one can 
do with hemp, however, is seemingly endless: It can be made into soft 
shirts and strong rope, it can be made into paper more easily, and 
with less chemicals, than wood. Thomas Jefferson drafted the 
Declaration of Independence on hemp paper, according to the North 
American Industrial Hemp Council. And the DEA may be surprised to 
know, it was grown commercially in the U.S. until the 1950s. All the 
hemp products now available here, of course come from somewhere else.

In 2011, the U.S. imported $11.5 million worth of legal hemp 
products, up from $1.4 million in 2000. Most of that growth was seen 
in hemp seed, which finds its way into granola bars and other products.

Which is why the new law, while finally acknowledging reality, 
doesn't go far enough. What's the point of only allowing hemp to be 
grown for research purposes? The whole point is to allow farmers to 
cultivate it and others to make products from it. Farmers and 
industry are still shut out of a lucrative market as more than 30 
countries, including Canada, but dominated by China, grow hemp as an 
agricultural commodity.

"The market opportunities for hemp are incredibly promising - ranging 
from textiles and health foods to home construction and even 
automobile manufacturing," said Eric Steenstra, the president of Vote 
Hemp. "This is not just a boon to U.S. farmers, this is a boon to 
U.S. manufacturing industries as well."

Well, once it gets beyond the research phase, it will indeed be a boon.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom