MANDERSON -- Alex White Plume said Tuesday he will plant industrial hemp on his family's land again next year, despite having two consecutive crops confiscated by federal agents. Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation seized hundreds of hemp plants Monday from White Plume's land near Manderson, hauling them away in 11 vehicles and a U-haul trailer. White Plume said they removed about 330 bundles of plants, with 20 to 30 plants per bundle. [continues 439 words]
MANDERSON, S.D. - Louie B. Nunn is an attorney, a former governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and a fervent proponent of hemp as an agricultural crop. He said he believes it could save the family farmers in his state where tobacco cultivation is on the decline. Earlier this month he was on the Pine Ridge reservation to visit the White Plume family of Kiza Park who, in compliance with tribal ordinance, have planted hemp on their land for the last two years. [continues 1071 words]
Politics: The Ceaseless Argument Over Who Gets To Do What To Whom, For How Long, And Against What Degree Of Dissent. A few days ago, a South Dakota senator and I ran into each other. He said he'd been wanting to talk to me. "Bob, you know I will support hemp and medical marijuana as soon as the federal government endorses them." Wondering what, exactly, brought this up, I said, "That's brave." "Thanks," he said. (Two checkmarks in the "moron" column so far , none in the "sane" or "intelligent" columns.) [continues 1303 words]
What's gotten into Louie Nunn? Last time I saw the former Kentucky governor, he was rhapsodizing about his hero, Richard "Tricky Dick"Nixon, at a 1996 memorial service in Eastern Kentucky. Now he's hanging with Woody "balding actor dude" Harrelson. He's delivering bales of hemp to the South Dakota Sioux in defiance of the feds. And his name keeps popping up on Web sites like -- http://www.cannabisnews.com/ Who knew a Nixonite would go all crunchy on us? Apparently, hemp makes strange bedfellows, not to mention indestructible bed linens. [continues 458 words]
Last July, Sioux Falls police arrested quadriplegic Matthew Ducheneaux at a concert in Yankton Trail Park when he lit a joint. Ducheneaux said he was using the marijuana as medicine, and produced a note written on a medical prescription sheet by Sioux Falls physician Robert Seidel: "Matthew is a quadriplegic. He uses marijuana for muscle spasms caused by his paralysis." Sixteen years ago, Ducheneaux broke his neck in a car wreck. He can speak well and make facial expressions. Aside from that, the only intentional movement he can make is with a couple of fingers on his right hand. He functions with the aid of friends and some pretty amazing technology. [continues 1551 words]
When Alex White Plume planted a field full of industrial-grade hemp, he hoped that his crop might lift his family and community out of poverty. Then the DEA came to Pine Ridge. Alex White Plume called it his "field of dreams": an acre and a half of plants so tall and strong they seemed to touch the sky; a crop representing hope for a new and self-sufficient life for his family, residents of the desperately impoverished Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. [continues 1387 words]
PIERRE -- A state legislative committee decided Friday that South Dakota farmers shouldn't grow industrial hemp. Members of the Senate State Affairs Committee said they worry that law enforcement would have trouble distinguishing hemp plants from marijuana. "There is a potential risk to society, and we have to weigh the potential benefits to society. I would conclude the benefits aren't there," Sen. Fred Whiting, R-Rapid City, said. "There is not an economic benefit that outweighs the danger to society." [continues 402 words]
Legislators just said no this morning to cultivating marijuana for medical uses while leaving the door open to growing its sister plant for industrial uses. Sen. Ron Volesky, D-Huron, introduced both SB73, medical marijuana, and SB86, industrial hemp, to the Senate State Affairs Commitee. The former bill was weeded out of the committee's list of legislation to consider while the latter will linger at least until Friday. Although some committee members said the idea of medicinal marijuana holds merit, they also said there are too many unresolved issues within the bill to pass it to the Senate floor. SB73 was deferred to the 41st day of the legislative session, nullifying the bill. [continues 593 words]
South Dakotans support the legalization of medical marijuana and industrial hemp, according to a statewide poll sponsored by two marijuana reform groups. But House Republican Leader Bill Peterson of Sioux Falls said lawmakers will likely proceed very cautiously on any legislation to approve medical marijuana or industrial hemp. The telephone survey of 505 registered voters in South Dakota showed that: More than 80 percent would support the use of medical marijuana. 85 percent would support allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp. [continues 644 words]
"One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could." –Richard Cowan [continues 3296 words]
They can't grow it, but they can truck it in. A trailer full of Canadian hemp is on its way to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, courtesy of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association and the Madison Hemp & Flax Company. The hemp will replace thousands of plants seized by federal authorities in August from two test plots on the reservation. The crop was to be used for hemp bricks and other building materials. "We've got enough (bales) to finish the house they're working on and probably start on another one," said Joe Hickey, executive director of the Kentucky hemp group, as crews were busy loading bales there Monday. [continues 506 words]
Frankfort - The scene at the state Capitol was a bit strange even by Frankfort standards. Former Gov. Louie Nunn, a republican, stood at a lectern yesterday with four members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who'd spent the previous 24 hours driving to Kentucky from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. But that wasn't the strange part. Just outside the Capitol rotunda sat a truckload of hemp, which Nunn and a group of Kentucky farmers gave to the Oglala representatives to help replace a hemp crop that was raided and destroyed in August by federal drug-enforcement agents. [continues 551 words]
Anti-drug forces in Illinois say they'll continue their fight against a proposed $1 million study of hemp -- a cousin of marijuana -- with a new president who state Sen. Evelyn Bowles can't call one of the ``ladies from Naperville.'' ``My back is up a little bit when I'm treated like a little lady in the kitchen who should go home,'' said Priss Parmenter of Mt. Carmel, the new president of Illinois Drug Education Alliance who lives on a large livestock farm and also works as director of an eight-county regional drug counseling program in southeastern Illinois. [continues 492 words]
Anti-Dug Forces Fear It Will Lead To Legalization Of Marijuana Anti-drug forces in Illinois say they'll continue their fight against a proposed $1 million study of hemp -- a cousin of marijuana -- with a new president who state Sen. Evelyn Bowles can't call one of the "ladies from Naperville." "My back is up a little bit when I'm treated like a little lady in the kitchen who should go home," said Priss Parmenter of Mt. Carmel, the new president of Illinois Drug Education Alliance who lives on a large livestock farm and also works as director of an eight-county regional drug counseling program in southeastern Illinois. [continues 492 words]
Although the two major-party candidates make much of their differences, the likelihood of major changes in policy from what the current administration offers is fairly low. To be sure, Gush and Bore are saying rather different things about tax policy, Social Security, Medicare and education policy. But even if you are sincere on the stump, there's a big difference between offering a program and getting it passed. Either presidential candidate, once elected, will face a Congress with a majority from the other party or a very slim majority of his own party. That's not a formula for getting a dramatically different program through. And the two candidates are virtually identical when it comes to foreign policy, trade policy and a general approach to bureaucracy. Whichever candidate is elected, we can expect to see government grow. It might grow a bit more dramatically if Gore is elected, although even that isn't certain if Republicans hold Congress. If Bush beats expectations, turns out to have coattails and brings a decent Republican majority into Congress he might have enough juice to change the Social Security system or institute a tentative, modest educational voucher system, but that is far from a sure thing. [continues 1498 words]
A Question Of Sovereignty RAPID CITY - A bright blue sky served as backdrop to the stark white concrete of the Federal building here last Friday as a crowd of 80 to 90 people gathered to show their support for the members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who had been trying to add industrial hemp to the paucity of cash crops grown on the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation. Spanning the age range from infants to elders, Indian and white, the famous to the anonymous, they came together to protest the draconian seizure of the hemp that had been growing in two plots on Pine Ridge. [continues 1632 words]
WASHINGTON - Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader joined people who want to grow and market industrial hemp Tuesday in criticizing federal agencies for making it difficult for farmers to grow the crop. Nader also spoke out against a recent raid on a South Dakota Indian reservation in which federal agents seized at least 2,000 plants described as industrial-grade hemp plants by the crop's owner. Hemp cannot be grown commercially in the U.S. because it belongs to the same family as marijuana, although Nader pointed out that the levels of hallucinogenic THC are far lower in hemp than in marijuana. [continues 256 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader joined people who want to grow and market industrial hemp Tuesday in criticizing federal agencies for making it difficult for farmers to grow the crop. Nader also spoke out against a recent raid on a South Dakota Indian reservation in which federal agents seized at least 2,000 plants described as industrial-grade hemp plants by the crop's owner. Hemp cannot be grown commercially in the U.S. because it belongs to the same family as marijuana, although Nader pointed out that the levels of hallucinogenic THC are far lower in hemp than in marijuana. [continues 310 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader joined people who want to grow and market industrial hemp Tuesday in criticizing federal agencies for making it difficult for farmers to grow the crop. Nader also spoke out against a recent raid on a South Dakota Indian reservation in which federal agents seized at least 2,000 plants described as industrial-grade hemp plants by the crop's owner. Hemp cannot be grown commercially in the U.S. because it belongs to the same family as marijuana, although Nader pointed out that the levels of hallucinogenic THC are far lower in hemp than in marijuana. [continues 310 words]
MANDERSON, S.D. - Two days before the first crop of industrial hemp planted to create much-needed economic development on the Pine Ridge Reservation was to be harvested, the federal Justice Department moved in and destroyed it. At 5 a.m. Aug. 24, armed Drug Enforcement Agency troops and FBI officers began to destroy an acre and a half of industrial hemp on the Alex White Plume farm, the first crop of what was to be a future of economic development for the family or tiospaye. [continues 485 words]
