Pubdate: Wed, 02 Jul 2014
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Copyright: 2014 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: David Downs

CALIFORNIA HEMP GETS ROLLING

The 2014 federal farm bill coupled with state legislation passed last
year means that industrial hemp might be growing in the Golden State
soon. But it won't be completely legal yet.

Green, twenty-foot-tall fields of research hemp might be waving in the
Davis breeze by the next year in a startling breakthrough for
California hemp advocates who have been working for decades to grow
the plant.

The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013 combined with the
2014 federal farm bill has unlocked the possibility of legally growing
the ancient food, fuel, and fiber crop. "It's remarkable. I'm quite
thrilled," said longtime San Francisco hemp lawyer Patrick Goggin. "We
had no idea it would come this fast, to be honest."

Championed by state Senator Mark Leno of San Francisco, the California
Hemp Act of 2013 authorized hemp farming in California, but only if
the federal government allowed it. When the bill passed last year, it
seemed likely that hell would freeze over before the feds would ever
legalize hemp farming.

The federal government banned hemp along with its cousin marijuana in
the Thirties, even though the plants differ in a number of key ways.
Hemp, for example, has less than 1 percent THC, the psychoactive
molecule in cannabis. Modern marijuana, by contrast, can contain 15 to
22 percent THC. But law enforcement officials have nonetheless fought
to keep hemp illegal, arguing that cops can't tell the difference
between hemp and pot.

But then on February 7, hell froze over. A far-left-far-right
contingent in Congress added an amendment to the massive US farm bill
exempting research hemp from the federal Drug War if states also
allowed hemp. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a centrist and a
longtime opponent of marijuana, opposed the amendment. But "she lost
big time," Goggin noted.

Far-right Republican Senators like Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul voted
for the measure. "Hemp has strange bedfellows," said Goggin. "I call
it a wraparound coalition - you have a far-left and far-right and
their interests do coincide on some issues and hemp is one of them.
It's very symbolic of these types of coalitions."

When President Barack Obama signed the farm bill - known as the
Agricultural Act of 2014 - on February 7, it activated
existing-but-dormant laws that allowed for the growing of hemp in
about a dozen states. (Washington and Colorado straight-up legalized
hemp in defiance of federal law when they passed adult-use marijuana
legalization in 2012.)

Then on June 6, California Attorney General Kamala Harris issued a
legal opinion on what the federal farm bill meant for Leno's
California Industrial Hemp Act. "[W]e conclude that federal law
authorizes, and the Hemp Act permits, institutions of higher education
and the CDFA [California Department of Food and Agriculture] to grow
and cultivate industrial hemp for purposes of agricultural or academic
research," the opinion stated.

Goggin said the law requires CDFA to draft rules for research hemp
pilot programs at colleges and universities. A hemp board is to be
impaneled. County agricultural commissioners also will have to agree
to participate. It could take "six months or eighteen months" to get
hemp rules done at the CDFA, according to Goggin. "More than likely
eighteen months."

"They are eager to move forward on this, but it is a matter of, 'Okay,
where are we going to get the funding for it?'" Goggin continued.
"We're dealing with a state the size of a big country relative to the
rest of the world."

In an interview, Leno said California needs to snap out of it,
straight-up legalize commercial hemp, let farmers grow it, and create
jobs and revenue now. A CDFA research program could cost the state $20
million. The veteran legislator is irritated that legalizing hemp is
still an issue.

Thirty nations grow hemp and it's found in thousands of consumer
products - from Converse sneakers to BMW interior panels. "It's
apparently only illegal when it's growing in the ground," Leno said.
"Every one of our Western trading partners, plus China, grows it
today. What do we need to spend millions of research dollars to find
out?

"It still grows wild in California: It's known as 'ditch weed,'" he
continued. "This is irrational and that's been my point for ten years."

Leno said the state should ask US Attorney General Eric Holder to
confirm that the Justice Department's hands-off approach to legal
marijuana also applies to non-psychoactive hemp. But even if Holder
did so, California farmers wouldn't be able to get a hemp-growing
permit. The CDFA hasn't created one yet.

Leno said additional hemp legalization measures won't be passed this
year in the state legislature. As a result, California voters are
going to have to step up and legalize hemp as a part of adult-use
marijuana legalization in the 2016 election.

As for Feinstein's claims that police can't distinguish between hemp
and a drug crop of marijuana, "I don't know that [Feinstein] has ever
seen a hemp field," Leno said. "Hemp grows to over twenty feet in
height. Marijuana doesn't grow much taller than twelve feet. ... Hemp
is planted in rows six inches apart like bamboo. ... They look like
bamboo fields. It's grown so densely. Marijuana is grown in rows four
feet apart. ... How could they not tell the difference? ... It's a
false argument, and it always was.

"Hemp never was and never will be a drug, so it's unfortunate that in
the last sixty years it has been confused with one," he continued. "It
was never confused before, and it shouldn't continue to be confused.
. It's only our country that is confused. There are no European
countries that are confused. Canada is not confused. Mexico is not
confused. China is not confused.

"Why can California farmers - especially in a time of drought, when
they are desperate for a good, safe, drought-resistant cash-crop - be
denied the benefit of a national legal hemp trade? We should be
growing it."
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MAP posted-by: Matt