Groundwork Laid, Growers Turn to Hemp in Colorado

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

“I’m not going to hide anymore,” said Ryan Loflin, who sowed hemp on his 60 acres in Springfield, Colo. The state has a hemp commission to write rules.

  

Published: August 5, 2013

 

By JACK HEALY

SPRINGFIELD, Colo. — Along the plains of eastern Colorado, on a patch of soil where his father once raised alfalfa, Ryan Loflin is growing a leafy green challenge to the nation’s drug laws

 

 

His fields are sown with hemp, a tame cousin of marijuana that was once grown openly in the United States but is now outlawed as a controlled substance. Last year, as Colorado voters legalized marijuana for recreational use, they also approved a measure laying a path for farmers like Mr. Loflin, 40, to once again grow and harvest hemp, a potentially lucrative crop that can be processed into goods as diverse as cooking oil, clothing and building material. This spring, he became the first farmer in Colorado to publicly sow his fields with hemp seed.

“I’m not going to hide anymore,” he said one recent morning after striding through a sea of hip-high plants growing fast under the sun.

Mr. Loflin’s 60-acre experiment is one of an estimated two dozen small hemp plantings sprouting in Colorado. Hemp cultivation presents a vexing problem for the federal government, which draws no distinction between hemp and marijuana, as it decides how to respond to a new era of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington State.

State agencies have worked quickly to create new rules, licenses and taxes for hemp and recreational marijuana. Many towns have voted to ban the new retailers; others have decided to regulate them. Denver, for example, is proposing a 5 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales.

Colorado has set up an industrial hemp commission to write rules to register hemp farmers and charge them a fee to grow the crop commercially.

“It’s something that can be copied and used nationally,” said Michael Bowman, a farmer in northeastern Colorado who sits on the state hemp commission. “We’re trying to build a legitimate industry.”

The state will also be able to randomly test crops to ensure that they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, far below the level found in marijuana.

Opponents say that hemp and marijuana are essentially the same plant and that both contain the same psychoactive substance. But supporters say that comparing hemp with potent strains of marijuana is like comparing a nonalcoholic beer with a bottle of vodka.

Still, farmers and marijuana advocates worry: will drug agents stand on the sidelines and allow Colorado and Washington to pursue their own experiments with legalization? Or will the federal government crack down to assert its authority over drug policies?

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver said hemp farmers were “not on our radar,” but R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Obama administration’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, has offered stern words against both marijuana and hemp, saying that no matter what states did, the plants were still illegal in the federal government’s view.

“Hemp and marijuana are part of the same species of cannabis plant,” Mr. Kerlikowske wrote in response to a 2011 petition that sought to legalize hemp cultivation. “While most of the THC in cannabis plants is concentrated in the marijuana, all parts of the plant, including hemp, can contain THC, a Schedule I controlled substance.”

Lately, hemp has been tiptoeing toward the agricultural mainstream, gaining support from farmers’ trade groups and a wide array of politicians in statehouses and in Washington. In the Republican-controlled House, a provision tucked into the farm bill would let universities in hemp-friendly states grow small plots for research.

A handful of states, from liberal Vermont to conservative North Dakota and Kentucky, have voted to allow commercial hemp. In Vermont, any farmers who want to register as hemp growers under a new state program have to sign a form acknowledging that they risk losing their agricultural subsidies, farm equipment and livelihoods if federal agents decide to swoop in.

Every year, the federal authorities seize and destroy millions of marijuana plants — a crackdown that has rattled the medical marijuana industry in California — but the pace of seizures has dropped sharply in recent years. In 2012, federal officials reported that 3.9 million cannabis plants had been destroyed under D.E.A. eradication efforts. A year earlier, officials said they had eradicated 6.7 million plants.

Beyond the risk of federal raids and seizures, Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama administration, said the market for hemp goods is still vanishingly small and questioned whether it could really be a panacea for farmers.

“Hemp is the redheaded stepchild of marijuana policy, and probably for good reason,” said Mr. Sabet, who is now the director of the Drug Policy Institute. “In a world with finite capacity to handle drug problems, my advice would be for people to think less about an insignificant issue like hemp and more about the very real issues of drug addiction, marijuana commercialization and glamorization, and how to make our policies work better.”

Even without the threat of federal raids, transforming hemp into a cash crop will be like asking a clear sky for rain. Viable seeds are illegal and scarce. Few working farmers or experts in the United States have any expertise in growing hemp. And there is basically no infrastructure to process the plants into legal components like oil, fibers and proteins.

In Colorado, Jason Lauve, the executive director of Hemp Cleans, an advocacy group, said he has spoken with about two dozen small farmers and landowners who are cautiously growing their first hemp crops.

“We’re really walking gently,” Mr. Lauve said. “We don’t want to put people at risk. We want to see how much states’ rights really protect us, versus the jurisdiction of the federal government.”

Even here, farmers like Mr. Loflin are walking a precarious line. Although Colorado voters opened the door to hemp farming last year, the state warned would-be hemp farmers in May that they would not be authorized to plant until early in 2014.

But this spring, Mr. Loflin decided it was time. For years, he had read about how hemp could replenish undernourished soil and be woven and squeezed into a wide array of products. He drinks a shot of hemp oil for his health every day — “It tastes kind of like grass” — and believes the plant could one day lift the fortunes of struggling small farmers.

He spent the winter assembling a seed collection from suppliers in Britain, Canada, China and Germany, where hemp is legal. They entered the country via U.P.S., labeled “bird seed” or “toasted hemp seed.” One bag was seized by customs officials, he said. Some 1,500 pounds of seeds were not.

At the end of June, with more than $15,000 invested in the venture, he planted his crop. He said he alerted his neighbors and has not gotten any complaints from people around Springfield, or from federal officials.

When Mr. Loflin visits the farm from his home in western Colorado, he half-expects to see D.E.A. cars racing down Highway 160 to burn down his crop before harvest. But he believes he can stake a living in hemp’s oily seeds and versatile fibers. He has gotten tired of his day job building ski homes in the mountains. To him, hemp’s outlaw status is just another hazard of starting a business.

“It’s well worth the risk,” he said. “It’s hemp. Come on, it just needs to be done.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 8, 2013
An article on Tuesday about farmers in Colorado who grow and harvest hemp, a potentially lucrative crop, misstated part of the name of a federal agency that said hemp farmers were “not on our radar.” It is the Drug Enforcement Administration, not the Drug Enforcement Agency.

 

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

As part of regulation, Colorado will be able to randomly test hemp crops to ensure that they have only trace amounts of THC, a chemical in marijuana.

Enlarge This Image

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

Ryan Loflin and other hemp farmers walk a precarious line, as the state said it would not authorize planting until next year.

 

Château Hemp?

A French winery made of hemp bricks is no joke—it's green, capturing carbon dioxide emissions

Dana Nigro
Posted: November 30, 2012


At Château Maris, Robert Eden decided to build the new winery out of lightweight hemp brick.

When he started planning a new winery for Château Maris in southern France's Languedoc region, Robert Eden looked at natural options such as stone, rammed earth and even straw. What he ended up choosing was something that, at least in certain crowds, elicits quips about marijuana—hemp. But it's no joke: The new Maris winery is built almost entirely from large, sturdy "bricks" of organic hemp straw. Those bricks not only reduced carbon emissions from construction, they also continue to capture carbon dioxide from their surroundings.
"This is the first winery in the world like this," claimed Eden of the 9,000-square-foot building, finished just in time for the 2012 harvest after eight years of work, five of them devoted to planning and research. "We're in unknown waters here."
Hemp—low-THC varieties of the cannabis plant with negligible psychoactive properties—has been used to build houses in Australia, Europe, South Africa and, just recently, in the United States, even though growing it and producing it industrially is illegal in many states. However, hemp is still rare for larger buildings. Eden hopes that other wineries can learn from Maris and use hemp bricks for future construction.
What inspired his choice? "As farmers, we are aware of climate change being a big game-changer for us," said Eden. An Englishman who has long lived in France, Eden took over Maris in 1996 with American business partner Kevin Parker, the former global head of Deutsche Asset Management and now CEO of New York-based Green Partners, a private investment firm investing in sustainable business and green energy.
With the goal of creating "grand cru-level" wines from La Livinière in the Minervois appellation, the partners converted the property to biodynamic farming; the entire estate is now certified by Demeter, Biodyvin, Ecocert and under the USDA's National Organic Program. In 2003, dissatisfied with the winery space they were using, they decided to create a new home for Maris. "We wanted to have a building that respects what we are doing in the vineyards in every way," said Eden, a vocal biodynamics advocate. "We wanted the building to require as little energy as possible to function, yet retain a sane, healthful ambiance. And the whole thing had to be practical."
In choosing materials, the Maris team looked at overall environmental impact, including where the materials came from, how they were transported and how they were made. They found the most ideal material in straw from fast-growing hemp, which does not require any irrigation or fertilization and whose rapid root growth helps control soil erosion. Hemp fibers can be used to make clothes and rope, the leaves to make paper and the seeds for oil—the straw is essentially a byproduct. In Europe, hemp is partly subsidized, and France has extensive plantings in the area around Toulouse, so the material was both cost-effective and close to the winery, reducing the carbon footprint.
To make the bricks, lime was added to the straw to harden it; the chemical transformation into a limestone carbonate captures and sequesters carbon dioxide over many years. The mixture was molded into bricks that are very light—only 33 pounds for a nearly two-foot thick brick—and easy to transport.
French regulatory authorities wouldn't permit them to build an entire facility out of a non-standard material—getting approval could have taken 10 or more years, Eden estimated—so workers laid the bricks, clamped together with rivets, but left holes through which they put a frame of untreated wood from certified sustainably managed forests. (Basically, almost the entire building is biodegradable, though Eden says the hemp bricks could last for a century or more.) Acknowledging that it was difficult to precisely measure, Eden said that they calculated that the plant-based building materials had consumed 44 kilos of CO2 per square meter, and that the carbonation process will continue to capture more over the next 20 to 25 years.
Eden is particularly curious to see what will happen with all the CO2 produced by fermentation. When the bricks carbonate, they change colors slightly and become very hard. "Today if you go up to the walls, it looks like cement, but you can touch the exposed parts and feel the brick is still soft," he said. "So we can measure how quickly the hardness increases."
Hemp is known as a good insulator, along with being a "breathable" material and having good acoustic properties. Maris does not have an air-conditioning system, but Eden expects the interior to remain about 54° to 63° F year-round. To provide an extra buffer against extreme temperatures, the building was constructed with two exterior walls, with an air tunnel between them, and a duct in the roof of the cellar to allow the winemaking team to increase airflow. "Fermentations produce a lot of heat, so if we find the walls aren't enough we can help," Eden explained. Extensive testing of this setup—by building smaller hemp-brick huts, both exposed to the weather and covered so that hot or cold air could be injected into the enclosure—found that outside temperatures could range from 21° to 93° F and the interior temperatures would stay fairly stable, with a total variation of no more than 18° F.
Château Maris is in the process of applying for the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification, hoping to earn Platinum, the highest level. Along with the novel hemp construction, Maris takes advantage of many other green building practices: The 15,000-case winery was built into the hillside, with a soil-topped roof planted with local vegetation that needs little water. To minimize water consumption, the winery collects rainwater and recycles its gray water by filtering it through a natural pond system. Low-consumption LEDs are used for all the lighting. Future plans call for a windmill and solar panels to provide all of the winery's power and the addition of a hemp-based visitor center and a garden.
From the estate vineyards, Eden produces a range of very good to outstanding red varietals and blends from Syrah, Grenache and Carignane, along with a white from Grenache Gris. The wines are made with native yeasts, in custom-made tanks—wood, wide concrete or egg-shaped concrete—to avoid the use of any electrically conductive materials (which biodynamics practitioners believe disrupt energy flow). The wines are left unfined and unfiltered, and packaged in lightweight, recycled glass bottles, with recycled paper labels. Three of the wines help fund charities, with donations of $1.50 from each bottle sold going to the Jane Goodall Institute, Rainforest Foundation or International Polar Foundation.
Reflecting back on the long path to the winery's completion, Eden noted that he could have opted for an existing product that was a mix of hemp and concrete, but didn't want to use it because of the cement's higher carbon footprint. "My fanaticism in wanting to respect the environment made me push to go the whole way. If something is going to be the first, you may as well pull it as far as you can. Hopefully you're making the mistakes for others to avoid."

Thank you to: WineSpectator.com for the Great Article!!

At 82, he's the world's most eminent pot scientist

By Noga Tarnopolsky
GlobalPost  Posted:   08/26/2013

A worker carries medical marijuana at the growing facility of the Tikun Olam company on March 9, 2011 near Safed, Israel. The country has long been a pioneer of cannabis research. ( Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM - An award-winning professor of medicinal chemistry and natural products at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Raphael Mechoulam is a trim gentleman who wears tweed jackets and silk scarves.He is no slacker. At 82, he still works full-time. Despite Mechoulam's respectability, his greatest fame stems from two scientific breakthroughs that may earn him a warm welcome among denizens of reddit/r/trees.In 1964, he was the first person to synthesize THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, the principal active ingredient in weed. That leap is what has enabled the scientific study of cannabis.Before him it was all myths and smoke.Mechoulam is almost universally referred to as the father of research on cannabinoids. (But no, he has never partaken in the stuff, he says.)In fact, CNN's Sanjay Gupta spent a few days in Mechoulam's lab while researching what became his very public about-face this month on the usefulness of medical marijuana.In 1992, almost three decades after synthesizing THC, Mechoulam identified anandamide, a naturally occurring human cannabinoid neurotransmitter, (translation: the stuff that makes you feel high when you haven't ingested anything.)Given the opportunity to name it, Mechoulam turned to the Sanskrit word ananda, meaning supreme bliss.Parallel to these achievements, Mechoulam has spent the better part of a lifetime trying to secure approval for scientific experiments - only to crash into the disapproval of officialdom. "An academic lab is an open place," he says, "and to have young people in the lab working with illegal stuff How can the head of a lab determine whether the kid who is working on it isn't taking a bit under the table?"When just starting his research, in the early 1960s, Mechoulam found some unlikely allies: the narcs. He had a few friends who were cops: "Someone would say 'hey, could you give him 5 kilos of hash? I know the guy.'"Et voila: his career was launched.Mechoulam is still fighting. He recently helped save Israel's groundbreaking medical cannabis program from yet another assault by Health Ministry bureaucrats, who tried in late June to limit the forms and varieties of medical cannabis available at legal clinics.Among other things, the ministry threatened (but failed) to ban Avidekel, a locally developed strain of cannabis containing less than 1 percent THC, the element that gets you high, and 16 percent CBD, a palliative cannabinoid that has no side effects. In other words, it doesn't get you high.The ministry's principal concern was that CBD has yet to be isolated and tested in laboratory conditions, in the way that paracetamol, for example, was tested. "Scientists do not like to work with an unidentified mélange when evaluating a compound," Mechoulam explains.Dr. Boaz Lev, the ministry's Associate Director General, says "remember that what we all want is the best for these patients, a medication that we know and understand and can responsibly prescribe them."It is easy to giggle about a bum subspecies of weed like the Israeli-developed Avidekel, but for a child undergoing chemotherapy who hopes to keep going to school, non-narcotic cannabis is no laughing matter.One medical professional said the ministry was thwarted "because Mechoulam stood beside us and never budged, and in the end they couldn't say no to him."By any measure, he is one of Israel's most renowned scientists.His groundbreaking article on the synthesis of THC was published almost 50 years ago, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Since then, he has been a recipient of numerous research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health, in Washington, DC.An experiment he supervised 15 years ago at Jerusalem's Sha'arey Tzedek Hospital had the remarkable result of diminishing the side effects of chemotherapy on "every single child" who was given TCH in drops, under the tongue. "The nausea and vomiting simply stopped. And when the chemo ended, we stopped the treatment," he recalls.Despite this, legal complications stemming from illicit nature of marijuana have almost completely prevented ongoing research on the effects of THC on cancer patients.Mechoulam says this is "tragic." Others in Israel are calling it criminal.The beneficial effects of cannabis for pain relief and in combating chemotherapy's side effects have long been documented. But now, experiments on cancerous growths themselves, conducted by the Spanish researcher Manuel Guzmán, show outstanding results in reducing the size of tumors in human beings.Professor Avinoam Reches, a Hadassah Hospital professor of neurology, who as chairperson of the ethics committee of the Israel Medical Association has presided over numerous discussions on the use of medical cannabis, prescribes cannabis to patients with diagnoses known to benefit from its palliative treatments such as Parkinson's Disease and Tourette's Syndrome.Asked to name any colleagues in the world of Israeli medicine who oppose this use of cannabis, Reches replied "no one comes to mind. I can't think of anyone.""I use cannabis in routine ways in my patients, according to the directives that are part of the medical consensus," he said, underscoring his practice of prescribing cannabis to long-term patients whose case histories he knows well, and mentioning the wariness he feels towards "people who I have never before met, who come in with specific complaints, asking for cannabis. These people do not always tell the truth," he says, "and have a tendency towards over-use or abuse of the drug."Reches said he found it "astonishing" that questions presented to the NIH regarding scientific research on medical marijuana are directed to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Mechoulam is looking ahead. "Governments," he says, "should set aside the recreational aspects and find a way to allow scientific research to advance."

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Hemp Healthy Today, would Like to Say Thank you to This Pioneer for His Hard Work And Dedication.  Hemp Healthy Today sent off a Question to the good Dr. A while back and got an immediate response time answer! 

Hemp industry hampered by federal drug laws

Aug. 21, 2013
A regulated hemp industry is slated to start taking shape next year, but like with marijuana, federal law continues to cast a shadow.

Dog collars made from hemp grown outside the United States but now available from Loveland-based Colorado Hemp Company. / Courtesy of Morris Beegle

  Written by  Robert Allen   

 

 

 

  

Morris Beegle

 

Related Links

• Is marijuana OK for you? Research stunted, even in Colorado

A leafy-green plant that doesn’t bear intoxicating buds but is banned under federal drug laws is poised to take root in Colorado agriculture as early as next year.
State voters approved industrial hemp in November when they legalized marijuana with Amendment 64 in Colorado, and the state legislature last session passed a bill to have rules in place by March 2014 to create a registration program.
But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration could still step in with federal enforcement. Like with marijuana, the mind-altering cousin of hemp, there hasn’t been a substantial response from the U.S. Attorney General’s office regarding whether it would interfere.
Clothing and other materials made from hemp are legal for sales in the United States, and advocates say there’s a $400 million U.S. market for industrial hemp fiber and seeds. But all that money now goes to farmers and processors outside the country because hemp materials can only be imported from other countries, according to the 2012 Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.
Morris Beegle, 46, of Loveland says demand will be high once Colorado-grown hemp gets rolling. It has about 25,000 uses, from hats to insulation. His website for Colorado Hemp Company is the second item that pops up when “Colorado hemp” is Googled. The business is in its infancy, offering wholesale products, but someday he hopes to open a store to sell grown-in-Colorado hemp hats, shoes, cereal, oil and more.
“Hemp is an extremely nutritious plant, and as environmentally and health-conscious as Colorado tends to be with the non-(genetically-modified organism) fight that’s going on and GMO labeling, anti-fracking and the outdoor lifestyle,” hemp fits right in, Beegle said.
U.S. Rep Jared Polis, who represents Fort Collins in Congress, has advocated for hemp and proposed legislation this year that would help secure future production in Colorado. He also worked to get a flag made of industrial hemp flown over the U.S. Capitol on the Fourth of July this year.

In a letter earlier this year, he pressed the Colorado State University System Board of Governors to use Amendment 64 to take the lead in developing a U.S. hemp industry. The university responded that it could lose federal funding by getting involved with the illegal practice. Polis responded that he is certain this wouldn’t happen, and he urged he the university to seek a waiver from the DEA.
But CSU Board of Governors Chairwoman Dorothy Horrell said in a letter that CSU’s institutions remain prohibited from any research involving hemp, and the the board doesn’t intervene with its institutions’ research decisions.
The Coloradoan asked CSU about prospects for hemp research and received an e-mailed response from its general counsel Jason Johnson explaining that there would be no hemp research so long as it’s federally illegal, despite recognizing “that there are numerous research opportunities for production and use of hemp.”
It cites the Federal Controlled Substances Act and Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 as reasons for keeping hemp off campus.
“The law is clear on this matter, and we do not want to do anything that would unintentionally result in personal criminal liability for CSU employees or that would disqualify the institution from obtaining future government funding,” Johnson said in the e-mail.
A spokesperson with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on hemp in Colorado.

Debunking the Hemp Conspiracy Theory

Pot isn't illegal because the paper industry is afraid of competing with hemp -- it's because of racism and the culture wars.

February 20, 2008   

 

 

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Scratch a pothead and ask them why marijuana is outlawed, and there's a good chance you'll get some version of the "hemp conspiracy" theory. Federal pot prohibition, the story goes, resulted from a plot by the Hearst and DuPont business empires to squelch hemp as a possible competitor to wood-pulp paper and nylon. These allegations can be found anywhere from Wikipedia entries on William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont Company to comments on pot-related articles published here on AlterNet. And these allegations are virtually unchallenged; many people fervently believe in the hemp conspiracy, even though the evidence to back it up vaporizes under even minimal scrutiny.

You could make a stronger case for Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin of John F. Kennedy; Oswald at least left a not-quite-smoking gun at the scene.
Pot activist Jack Herer's book The Emperor Wears No Clothes is the prime source for the hemp-conspiracy theory. It alleges that in the mid-1930s, "when the new mechanical hemp fiber stripping machines to conserve hemp's high-cellulose pulp finally became state of the art, available and affordable," Hearst, with enormous holdings in timber acreage and investments in paper manufacturing, "stood to lose billions of dollars and perhaps go bankrupt." Meanwhile, DuPont in 1937 had just patented nylon and "a new sulfate/sulfite process for making paper from wood pulp" -- so "if hemp had not been made illegal, 80 percent of DuPont's business would never have materialized."
Herer, a somewhat cantankerous former marijuana-pipe salesman, deserves a lot of credit for his cannabis activism. He was a dedicated grass-roots agitator for pot legalization during the late 1980s, perhaps the most herb-hostile time in recent history. Despite a substantial stroke in 2001, he soldiers on; he's currently campaigning to get a cannabis-legalization initiative on the ballot in Santa Barbara, California. The Emperor -- an omnivorous conglomeration of newspaper clippings and historical documents about hemp and marijuana, held together by Herer's cannabis evangelism and fiery screeds against prohibition -- has been a bible for many pot activists. Unearthing a 1916 Department of Agriculture bulletin about hemp paper and a World War II short film that exhorted American farmers to grow "Hemp for Victory," Herer more than anyone else revived the idea that the cannabis plant was useful for purposes besides getting high. Unfortunately, he's completely wrong on this particular issue. The evidence for a "hemp conspiracy" just doesn't stand up. It is far more likely that marijuana was outlawed because of racism and cultural warfare.
How marijuana was prohibited
Twentieth-century cannabis prohibition first reared its head in countries where white minorities ruled black majorities: South Africa, where it's known as dagga, banned it in 1911, and Jamaica, then a British colony, outlawed ganja in 1913. They were followed by Canada, Britain and New Zealand, which added cannabis to their lists of illegal narcotics in the 1920s. Canada's pot law was enacted in 1923, several years before there were any reports of people actually smoking it there. It was largely the brainchild of Emily F. Murphy, a feminist but racist judge who wrote anti-Asian, anti-marijuana rants under the pseudonym "Janey Canuck."
In the United States, marijuana prohibition began partly as a throw-in on laws restricting opiates and cocaine to prescription-only use, and partly in Southern and Western states and cities where blacks and Mexican immigrants were smoking it. Missouri outlawed opium and hashish dens in 1889, but did not actually prohibit cannabis until 1935. Massachusetts began restricting cannabis in its 1911 pharmacy law, and three other New England states followed in the next seven years.
California's 1913 narcotics law banned possession of cannabis preparations -- which California NORML head Dale Gieringer believes was a legal error, that the provision was intended to parallel those affecting opium, morphine and cocaine. The law was amended in 1915 to ban the sale of cannabis without a prescription. "Thus hemp pharmaceuticals remained technically legal to sell, but not possess, on prescription!" Gieringer wrote in The Origins of Cannabis Prohibition in California . "There are no grounds to believe that this prohibition was ever enforced, as hemp drugs continued to be prescribed in California for years to come." In 1928, the state began requiring hemp farmers to notify law enforcement about their crops.
New York City made cannabis prescription-only in 1914, part to pre-empt users of over-the-counter opium, morphine and cocaine medicines from switching to cannabis preparations, but with allusions to hashish use by Middle Eastern immigrants. In the West and Southwest, anti-Mexican sentiment quickly came into play. California's first marijuana arrests came in a Mexican neighborhood in Los Angeles in 1914, according to Gieringer, and the Los Angeles Times said "sinister legends of murder, suicide and disaster" surrounded the drug. The city of El Paso, Texas, outlawed reefer in 1915, two years after a Mexican thug, "allegedly crazed by habitual marijuana use," killed a cop. By the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, 30 states had some form of pot law.
The campaign against cannabis heated up after Repeal. "I wish I could show you what a small marihuana cigaret can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents," a Colorado newspaper editor wrote in 1936. "The fatal marihuana cigarette must be recognized as a DEADLY DRUG, and American children must be PROTECTED AGAINST IT," the Hearst newspapers editorialized.
Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed the charge. "If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marihuana, he would drop dead of fright," he thundered in 1937.
An ambitious racist (a 1934 memo described an informant as a "ginger-colored nigger") who had previously been federal assistant Prohibition commissioner, Anslinger railed against reefer in magazine articles like 1937's "Marihuana: Assassin of Youth." It featured gory stories like that of Victor Licata, a once "sane, rather quiet young man" from Tampa, Fla., who'd killed his family with an axe in 1933, after becoming "pitifully crazed" from smoking "muggles." (Actually, the Tampa police had tried to have Licata committed to a mental hospital before he started smoking pot.)
Anslinger's other theme was that white girls would be ruined once they'd experienced the lurid pleasures of having a black man's joint in their mouth. "Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with female students (white) smoking and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution," he noted. "Result, pregnancy."
In 1937, after a very cursory debate, Congress enacted the Marihuana Tax Act, levying a prohibitive $100-an-ounce tax on cannabis. "I believe in some cases one cigarette might develop a homicidal mania," Anslinger testified in a hearing on the bill.
The case against the "hemp conspiracy"
The hemp-conspiracy theory blames that law on Hearst and DuPont's plot to suppress hemp paper and cloth. The theory is that the invention of a hemp processor known as the "decorticator" made it easier, faster and much more cost-effective to extract hemp fiber from the stalks. In February 1938, Popular Mechanics hailed hemp as the "New Billion Dollar Crop." In response, Hearst and DuPont, scared by the prospect of hemp's resurrection as a competitor for their products, schemed to eliminate the plant.
However, The Emperor makes only three specific claims to support that theory. One is the anti-marijuana propagandizing of the Hearst newspapers. Second, it claims that Anslinger's anti-pot crusade was on behalf of Pittsburgh banker Andrew Mellon, who supposedly was DuPont's "chief financial backer," lending the company the funds it needed to purchase General Motors in the 1920s. And finally, The Emperor argues that DuPont anticipated the Marihuana Tax Act in its 1937 annual report, which worried that the company's future was "clouded with uncertainties" -- specifically about "the extent to which the revenue-raising power of government may be converted into an instrument for forcing acceptance of sudden new ideas of industrial and social reorganization."
None of these claims stand up.
Claim 1: Hearst the propagandist
According to W.A. Swanberg's extensive biography Citizen Hearst , the Hearst chain was actually the nation's largest purchaser of newsprint -- and when the price rose from $40 a ton to over $50 in the late 1930s, he fell so deep in debt to Canadian paper producers and banks that he had to sell his prized art collection to avert foreclosure. "It therefore seems that it would have been in Hearst's interest to promote cheap hemp paper substitutes, had that been a viable alternative," Dale Gieringer wrote in his article, calling the hemp-conspiracy theory "fanciful" and a "myth."
In any case, the Hearst papers never needed hidden self-interest to trumpet fiendish menaces. The expression "yellow journalism" comes from Hearst's campaign for a war against Spain in 1898. And from the 1930s on, his papers were finding RED SUBVERSIVES and PINKO FELLOW-TRAVELERS under every bed. In 1935, a University of Chicago professor accused of being a Communist by the Hearst-owned Herald-Examiner told the Nation that the reporter covering him had admitted, "We do just what the Old Man orders. One week he orders a campaign against rats. The next week he orders a campaign against dope peddlers. Pretty soon he's going to campaign against college professors. It's all the bunk, but orders are orders."
Claim 2: The Anslinger-DuPont Connection
There was an Anslinger-Mellon connection. Anslinger was appointed to head the Bureau of Narcotics by Andrew Mellon, his wife's uncle, who was treasury secretary in the Herbert Hoover administration. However, it's unlikely that DuPont needed to borrow money to buy GM in the 1920s, as the company had done very well as the leading manufacturer of explosives for the Allied forces during World War I.
Historians find no evidence of a DuPont-Mellon connection either. "General Motors was historically associated with the Morgan group during that period," Mark Mizruchi, a professor of sociology and business administration at the University of Michigan, told me in an email interview in 2003. Sociologist G. William Domhoff of the University of California at Santa Cruz, author of Who Rules America? , concurred, saying it was safe to state there was no connection. And in the 440-page tome considered the definitive account of American banking and corporate finance during the Depression era, Mizruchi added, Japanese historian Tian Kang Go does not mention "even the smallest financial connection between DuPont and Mellon."
Claim 3: Dubious DuPont claims
The argument that DuPont's 1937 complaint about federal taxes had anything to do with hemp is an extremely dubious stretch. If the company had been talking about the government eliminating a competitor by levying a prohibitive tax, it wouldn't have been worrying about the uncertainty of foreseeing new federal imposts. It would have been celebrating its newly cleared path. Given the context of the times, it's almost certain that this statement was merely typical 1930s corporate-class whining about the New Deal's social programs and business regulations -- akin to current corporate-class complaints about government "social engineering."
Prohibition's racist history
The belief that marijuana prohibition came about because of the secret machinations of an economic cabal ignores the pattern of every drug-law crusade in American history. From the 19th-century campaigns against opium and alcohol to the crack panic of the 1980s, they have all been fueled by racism and cultural war, conflated with fear of crime and occasionally abetted by well-intentioned reform impulses. (The financial self-interest of the prison-industrial complex has been a more recent development.) The first drug-prohibition laws in the United States were opium bans aimed at Chinese immigrants. San Francisco outlawed opium in 1875, and the state of California followed six years later. In 1886, an Oregon judge ruled that the state's opium prohibition was constitutional even if it proceeded "more from a desire to vex and annoy the 'Heathen Chinee'… than to protect the people from the evil habit," notes Doris Marie Provine in Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs . In How the Other Half Lives , journalist Jacob Riis wrote of opium-addicted white prostitutes seduced by the "cruel cunning" of Chinese men.
The path to the 1914 federal narcotics law that limited cocaine and opioids to medical use -- and was almost immediately interpreted as prescribing narcotics to addicts -- was more complex. The main rationale was ending the over-the-counter sale of patent medicines such as heroin cough syrup, but there was a definite racist streak among advocates for controlling cocaine. "Cocaine is often the direct incentive to the crime of rape by the Negroes," Hamilton Wright, the hard-drinking doctor-turned-diplomat who spearheaded the first major multinational drug-control agreements, told Congress. In 1914, Dr. Edward Huntington Williams opined in the New York Times Magazine that "once the negro has formed the habit, he is irreclaimable. The only method to keep him from taking the drug is by imprisoning him."
The movement to prohibit alcohol was part puritanical, part racist. In the big cities, it was anti-immigrant. Bishop James Cannon of the Anti-Saloon League in 1928 denounced Italians, Poles and Russian Jews as "the kind of dirty people that you find today on the sidewalks of New York," while in 1923, Imogen Oakley of the General Federation of Women's Clubs described the Irish, Germans, and others as "insoluble lumps of unassimilated and unassimilable peoples … 'wet' by heredity and habit." In the South, it was anti-black. "The disenfranchisement of Negroes is the heart of the movement in Georgia and throughout the South for the Prohibition of the liquor traffic," Georgia prohibitionist A.J. McKelway wrote in 1907. "Liquor will actually make a brute out of a negro, causing him to commit unnatural crimes," Alabama Rep. Richmond P. Hobson told Congress in 1914, a year after he'd sponsored the first federal Prohibition bill. (He said it had the same effect on white men, but took longer because they were "further evolved.")
Prohibitionism was an early example of fundamentalist Christians' political strength. The midpoint of William Jennings Bryan's odyssey from the prairie populist of 1896 to the evolution foe of 1925 was his endorsement of Prohibition in 1910. The rural puritans were abetted by middle-class do-gooders who, when they saw a slum-dwelling factory hand come home drunk and beat his wife, would blame the saloon instead of the pressures of capitalist exploitation or the license of misogyny. And many industrial employers, including DuPont's gunpowder division, demanded abstinent workers. World War I's austerity was the final piece of the puzzle.
Prohibitionists played key roles in the campaign to outlaw cannabis. Harry Anslinger had been so hardline that he advocated prosecuting individual users for possession of alcohol. (Federal Prohibition, unlike the current marijuana laws, only banned sales, allowed personal possession and limited home brewing, and had an exemption for medical use.) Richmond P. Hobson, who crusaded against drugs in the 1920s as head of the World Narcotic Defense Association, was an early advocate of marijuana prohibition. In 1931, he told the federal Wickersham Commission that marijuana used in excess "motivates the most atrocious acts." And in early 1936, the General Federation of Women's Clubs joined Anslinger's campaign to make reefers verboten.
In a country that was puritanical and racist enough in 1919 to outlaw alcohol in 1919, forbidding cannabis was politically very easy. Alcohol had been the most pervasive recreational drug in the Western world for millennia. Marijuana was virtually unknown. And though Prohibitionists -- like the immigration laws of the 1920s, the resurgent Ku Klux Klan, and the 1928 presidential campaign against Irish Catholic Democrat Al Smith -- demonized whiskey-sodden Micks, wine-soaked wops, traitorous beer-swilling Krauts and liquor-selling Jew shopkeepers, at least those people were sort of white. Marijuana was used mainly by Mexican immigrants and African-Americans.
The Nixon-era escalation of the war on drugs was one of the few times in U.S. history when white users were a prime target, as marijuana and LSD provided legal pretexts to attack the '60s counterculture. Richard Nixon's White House tapes captured him in 1971 growling that "every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish." But Nixon and other law-and-order politicians were most successful when they lumped youthful cultural-political rebellion and black militance with ghetto heroin addiction and the rising crime of the 1970s. New York's draconian Rockefeller drug laws, passed in 1973 as Gov. Nelson Rockefeller was trying to look "tough on crime," were a harbinger of the federal mandatory minimums of the 1980s. The result was that more than 90 percent of the state's drug prisoners are black or Latino.
The crack hysteria of the late 1980s was another example of the fear of dark-skinned demons breeding racially repressive law enforcement. Both federal and many state crack laws were designed to snare street dealers and bottom-level distributors, giving them the same penalties as powder-cocaine wholesalers. The racial results were obvious almost immediately. In overwhelmingly white Minnesota, more than 90 percent of the people convicted of possession of crack in 1988-89 were black. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Attorney's office in Southern California went more than five years without prosecuting a white person for crack.
That pattern still holds: In 2003, 81 percent of the defendants sentenced on crack charges nationwide were black. And law enforcement didn't spare the African-American innocent. In an August 1988 drug raid on an apartment block on Dalton Avenue in South Central Los Angeles, 88 city cops smashed walls and furniture with sledgehammers and axes, beat people with flashlights, and poured bleach on residents' clothes -- and arrested two teenagers who didn't live there on minor drug charges.
Why do people believe it?
Why, then, do so many people believe in the "hemp conspiracy"? First, it's the influence of The Emperor Wears No Clothes ; many people inspired to cannabis activism by Jack Herer's hemp-can-save-the-world vision and passionate denunciations of pot prohibition buy into the whole "conspiracy against marijuana" package. Another is that many stoners love a good conspiracy theory; secret cabals are simpler and sexier villains than sociopolitical forces. The conspiracist worldview, a hybrid of the who-really-killed-the-Kennedys suspicions of the '60s left and the Bilderbergs-and-Illuminati demonology of the far right, is especially common in rural areas and among pothead Ron Paul supporters. Most people don't have the historical or political knowledge to dispute a conspiracist flood of detailed half-truths.
Counterculture people who see the evil done by corporations and politicians are often quick to believe that they are thus guilty of anything and everything -- that because the CIA tried to kill Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar, it's therefore indisputable that it killed Bob Marley by giving him boots booby-trapped with a carcinogen-tipped wire. Witness the multitudes who zealously argue that because George W. Bush gained a political advantage from the 9/11 attacks and told a thousand lies to justify the war in Iraq, it's proof that his operatives planted explosives in the World Trade Center and set them off an hour or so after the planes hit.
The Bush administration's attempt to link buying herb to "supporting terrorism" proved more laughable than lasting. Yet the racism-culture war combination is still very potent. Among the 360,000 arrests for marijuana possession in New York City between 1997 and 2006, the decade when mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg turned the city into the nation's pot-bust capital, 84 percent of the people popped were black or Latino, mostly young men. And the oft-cited statistic that there are more black men in prison than in college should be the equivalent of a doctor's warning that the nation has a cholesterol level approaching Jerry Garcia's after years on a diet of ice cream, cigarettes and heroin.

Steven Wishnia is the author of "Exit 25 Utopia," "The Cannabis Companion" and "Invincible Coney Island." He lives in New York.

    

 

Germany: BMW's New Electric Car Has Interior Made of Hemp

Submitted by steveelliott on Fri, 08/02/2013 - 16:54

 

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News
The BMW i3, a new all-electric car which debuted on Monday, weights just 2,700 pounds, 800 pounds less than the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt. BMW achieved this by using a variety of low-weight materials --including plenty of hemp in the interior -- to maximize fuel efficiency and driving range.
Weight is essential, reports TruthonPot.com, because the i3 depends on a 22-kilowatt lithium-ion battery for fuel; the battery is so heavy it contributes about 20 percent of the vehicle's mass. Like many BMWs before it, the i3 features door panels made of hemp; mixed with plastic, hemp helps lower the weight of each panel by about 10 percent.
Hemp fibers, left exposed, also form a design element of the car's interior, reports Bloomberg. Designer Benoit Jacob says the use of natural materials like hemp and kenaf (a plant in the hibiscus family) makes the i3's interior feel like "a small loft on wheels."
BMW has tested and used natural hemp fiber since the 1990s, when government pressure to use recyclables forced European manufacturers to build greener vehicles.
Starting with trunk liners and airbag components, BMW expanded into making door panels from hemp. Hemp panels were used in all of BMW's 5 Series models by 2006; many other European luxury carmakers, including Mercedes Benz and Audi, now also use hemp in one form or another.
Set to launch next year, the BMW i8, an electric hybrid supercar, will also include hemp components.
(Photo of BMW 5 Series door panel made of hemp: Redspiderfish/Flickr)

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America is Falling behind in the Race of Industrial Hemp. American Farmers should be MAKING CONTACT with every Rep. and Congressman in their State asking," WhyAre We Not Having this MultiPurpose Crop in Our Fields."

Manitoba hemp firm plans growth

Posted Aug. 15th, 2013 by Robert Arnason No Comments

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  Hemp Oil Canada hopes to sign up more hemp farmers next spring to supply its new processing facility planned for Ste. Agathe, Man.

Spectacular revenue growth | Hemp Oil Canada plans to open the new facility by the end of 2014

One of Canada’s most profitable food processing companies is planning to capitalize on its success and increase production of what may be the hottest food item in North America.

Hemp Oil Canada, which processes hemp seeds, hemp seed oil and hemp flours, is planning to double or triple the capacity at its location in Ste. Agathe, Man.
“Next spring is when we look to break ground on that (new) facility and have it done by the end of the year,” said Brenda Giesbrecht, sales and marketing assistant with Hemp Oil Canada, which describes itself as Canada’s largest wholesale supplier and private label packager of hemp food products its website.
The size of the new plant hasn’t been determined, but Giesbrecht said it should be twice the size of the existing plant or larger.
Hemp Oil Canada needs to increase production capacity because over the last five years its sales have grown by 221 percent. Profit 500, the guide to Canada’s fasting growing companies, ranked Hemp Oil Canada eighth in the country amongst food processing and distribution firms in terms of revenue growth in the last five years.
In addition to Hemp Oil Canada’s expansion plans, Manitoba Harvest, the other major hemp processor in Manitoba, is expected to increase its production capacity.
Demand for hemp foods in North America and other parts of the globe is mushrooming, said Anndrea Hermann, who runs Ridge International Cannibus Consulting.
Hermann said sales of hemp food products in the U.S. reached $500 million in 2012 and Canada is the major supplier to that market.
As a result, Canadian hemp acres have increased dramatically over the last several years.
According to Health Canada, which grants licences for hemp acres, Canadian acres were just under 14,000 in 2009 and hit nearly 55,000 in 2012. The majority of those acres are in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, with a few thousand acres in other provinces.
Industry analysts were expecting acres to rise this year, but Kevin Friesen, who contracts hemp acres for Hemp Oil Canada, said prairie growers likely planted 45,000 acres of hemp in 2013.
“It’s probably down slightly. Last year was a decent crop across the board,” said Friesen, who farms near Laird, Sask. “I think there was a little extra grain produced than people expected.”
In addition to leftover stocks of hemp seed, Manitoba acres dipped in 2013 because of contracting problems, said Jeff Kostuik, Manitoba Agriculture diversification specialist in Roblin, Man.
Kostuik said a contractor was planning to sign up hemp farmers this spring, but those arrangements fell through in the last minute.
Despite the slight acreage de-crease in 2013, hemp is highly competitive with canola, Friesen noted.
“Especially right now, when you’re looking at $10.50 (per bushel) canola … There’s a few hundred dollars, additional profit, growing hemp per acre.”
Contracts for conventional hemp are averaging 70 cents per bushel and organic hemp is around $1.20 per bu.
“If you are doing a 1,000 lbs (per acre), which you should easily get as a conventional grower, you’re getting $700 gross revenue (per acre),” Friesen said.
Looking forward, he said that kind of revenue and profit should result in more conventional hemp acres, so Canadian companies should have sufficient supplies of hemp grain.
It’s a different story for organic hemp grain, as demand still exceeds supply, Friesen said.
“On the organic side, it’s more of a challenge.”

Mothers Against Teen Violence host an Evening with Industrial Hemp Advocate and Hemp Chef Derek Cross 8/13/2013

Ms. Joy Strickland, Founder and CEO of Mothers Against Teen Violence, along with,  Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of  History at The University of Texas Arlington have Invited Derek Cross, Writer / Author, Hemp Chef, Industrial Hemp and Medicinal Cannabis Advocate to Educate Their group about the History of Industrial Hemp as well as the Environmental & Economic Impacts, and ending with some of the Nutritional Benefits of Hemp Seed, Hemp Oil, and Hemp Protein.

Have you thought of Cooking with Hemp?
 Derek Cross has published a small series of Hemp Healthy Cooking cookbooks that can be found at: www.bakespace.com.

 

Growing interest in hemp

SARAH HARRIS - © Fairfax NZ News

A hemp crop ready for harvesting.

Taranaki could be the new centre for hemp in New Zealand, with an estimated 40 hectares to be planted in the next year.
Work has started on the region's first hemp home, to be built in Bell Block.
Hemp insulation is attached to the timber frame and then rendered with a hemp plaster to form the exterior.
Lance Palmer, managing director of Fowler Homes, chose to make his house out of hemp as it achieves thermal mass and insulation, he said.
"It's exciting, but also in the same breath, if you take the romance out of it, being the first means you're the first to go through the trials and tribulations."
It takes around six tonnes, or 1 hectare, of hemp to build one house.
"I just think it's really quite a fantastic plant," Mr Palmer said.
"The more I've learnt about it in the last 12 months, the more I'm impressed with its potential. I think it's going to progressively grow in Taranaki. It's going to come down to public and commercial acceptance."
Taranaki man Greg Flavall founded Hemp Technologies in 2008 after learning about the many benefits of industrial hemp.
He said the industry "has got a lot of legs" and was assisting many new farmers planning to grow hemp this spring. About six new farmers are interested.
The plant grows quickly, efficiently and is beneficial to the environment, he said.
"If only 1 per cent of the agricultural land in this country farmed hemp we'd have enough building insulation material for all the new home construction in this country."
John Earney, a Stratford farmer, hopes to begin growing hemp on part of his 69-hectare farm this October.
"I've known about hemp for a long time. I just know it's the plant [because] it beats trees, it beats pasture, it looks after the planet. It's just such a universal plant."
The licence cost about $760 and the seed $3000 per acre, said Mr Earney. "It will be a good cash crop. The industry could be huge."
Hemp homes are comparable to brick and block construction in terms of cost. However, the material has a lifespan of 500 years, said Mr Flavall.
The oldest hemp home, in Japan, is 350-years-old.
Most people choose to use hemp for the environmental, energy and health benefits.
Hemp is primarily used for food, animal bedding and building. It has a range of environmental benefits, from reducing the amount of CO2 in the air to producing four times as much natural fibre as trees.

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Hemp oil is a nutritional food source as it is the second highest protein crop (after soy beans) and is a good source of Omega 3.
The crop is planted in October and harvested in March or April.
Sarah Harris is an AUT journalism student - © Fairfax NZ News

Hemp Hot Off the Press from Cape Times / R15m hemp project goes to seed

August 12 2013 at 12:00pm

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ECO-FRIENDLY: A house, including the interior and furniture, is all made nearly exclusively of hemp in Noordhoek. It is the brainchild of those behind the hemp company Hemporium. Fourteen years ago, a national project was launched to try to establish a hemp industry in South Africa, but legislation hampered it and has brought it to a near-standstill. Picture: WWW.HEMPORIUM.COM

Caryn Dolley

A MULTIMILLION-rand project launched 14 years ago for South Africa to grow and produce hemp has virtually stalled because of legal glitches, says the government.

Ayabulela Ngoqo, the Eastern Cape’s Rural Development and Agrarian Reform Department spokesman, said the project, launched in 1999, had focused on job creation, but in 2006 had come to a halt. Equipment meant to have been used in hemp processing remained in storage.

“The challenge is the legislation,” Ngoqo told the Cape Times.

Hemp, grown in other countries as a fibre and oil seed crop, belongs to the same family as dagga, and in South Africa dagga is illegal.

A 2011 a Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries document on hemp said the Drugs and Trafficking Act prevented the possession, processing and commercialisation of hemp.

It said the Medicines and Related Substances Act “allows possession and cultivation of hemp for research purposes only”.

The 2011 document said: “The European Union and many South African companies are planning a R25 million five-year project to boost hemp cultivation in South Africa.”

It said the government, with the private sector, was “trying to sort out the hemp legislation” so it could be commercialised.

Despite 14 years having lapsed since the national hemp project’s launch, the envisioned hemp project remains in the research phase.

The national hemp project, linked to various government departments, had an agriculture and commercial aspect.

While the agriculture aspect appears to have ground to a halt, the commercial side continues.

In a speech 12 years ago, then-arts and culture minister Ben Ngubane said the Western Cape was among the best areas in South Africa for growing hemp.

He had said the national project was aimed “at reducing poverty through… the cultivation, processing, manufacturing and marketing of South African hemp”.

“South Africa now boasts a burgeoning hemp industry, with the promise of thousands of jobs, economic empowerment for our previously disadvantaged communities and the stimulation of the small business sector,” Ngubane had said.

But last week, Ngoqo said this was not the case.

He said R15 million was initially invested in the project and research done on where hemp could be grown. “More than anything, we hoped to get jobs out of it… It was aimed at emerging farmers.”

Aside from legislation, Ngoqo said hemp seeds had not been available locally and needed to be imported from Hungary, which was “very expensive”.

He said the department had been ready with equipment, funds and experts to help farmers, but in 2006 the agriculture aspect of the project was halted.

Ngoqo said some of the R15m investment was used for research, and some had been spent on buying oil-pressing machines. The department had kept the balance for when it could use it on the project.

When the project’s agricultural side collapsed, the commercial part of the project was focused on.

In 2001, House of Hemp, a company that sold hemp products, was founded by Thandeka Kunene and launched by Ngubane.

Three years ago, Kunene was tasked with co-ordinating the commercial aspect of the hemp project. She did not respond to queries by yesterday.

Tony Budden, a partner with Duncan Parker in the Hemp company Hemporium, said that with Kunene, it was involved in a three-year “commercial incubation research trial”.

He said that about two years ago, the Health Department issued permits for commercial hemp research which enabled them to grow hemp in four areas – three in the Eastern Cape and one, near Wellington, in the Western Cape.

Through the company, Rapula Farming, five types of hemp had been grown on a two-hectare plot near Wellington. Budden said it was hoped another commercial research permit would be issued this year for more hemp, this time one type, to be grown in the province.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za

 

Hemp Healthy Today, would Like to "Thank" Caryn Dolley for sharing this Great Information! Thank you!

Kentucky wants to Lead the country Once again with Industrial Hemp, the "Sustainable Crop".

Excellent Interview, Good Luck Commissioner Comer!
Industrial Hemp is the Message that needs to be Handed to Each Governor, and Every States Agricultural Department should be fighting for this crop! Kentucky Lead the States in Industrial Hemp Growth followed by Wisconsin. Wisconsin Once Owned 70 percent of the Hemp Mills in the United States.. Hemp can Help the Farmers our Environment, and Economy!      
                      Please click on the link to play the video.
                                              http://youtu.be/IKgFLeOpLbs

Doctor Sanjay Gupta and Medicinal Cannabis

Hemp Vs. Cotton in Texas, We Need to wake up the Farmers!

 

Texas farmed millions of acres of cotton and netted $1.7 Bil. Industrial Hemp can produce 2-4 x's more fiber, without pesticides! So, on half the land, we can still surpass the fiber output and have seed for biofuel left over! Industrial Hemp is the right choice. Paper, fuel, fiber, food and medicine! Sustainable, good for the environment & the economy! Win/win....

____________________________________________

 

 

(800)-Tell-TDA 835-5832 eServices Public Bridge Hay Hotline LMS Training TX-UNPS

Texas Ag Stats   Texas leads the nation in cattle, cotton, hay, sheep and wool, and goats and mohair production.  Texas leads the nation in number of farms and ranches, with 247,500 farms and ranches covering 130.4 million acres.  Texas also leads the nation in value of farm real estate.        Rural lands, including privately owned forest, total 144 million acres, 86% of the state's total land area.         12% of Texas' population resides in rural areas.              1 of every 7 working Texans (14%) is in an agriculture-related job.               98.5% of Texas farms and ranches are family farms, partnerships or family-held corporations.         The average age of Texas farmers and ranchers is 59 years.      The economic impact of the food and fiber sector totals more than $100 billion.  Cash receipts, including timber, total $19.8 billion. Top 10 commodities in terms of cash receipts: Cattle, cotton, milk, broilers, greenhouse & nursery, corn, wheat, timber, grain sorghum and vegetables. Agricultural exports: to foreign countries totaled more than $6 billion. Texas ranks # 4 overall behind California, Iowa and Illinois.   Texas' national rank for selected commodity exports:   1 - Cotton & cottonseed, $1.7 billion   2 - Feeds & fodders, $509 million     2 - Peanuts, $56 million          3 - Live animals & meat, $740 million     3 - Hides & skins, $341 million     3 - Animal fats, $180 million        5 - Tree nuts, $41 million          6 - Poultry & poultry products, $266 million·   6 - Rice # 6 at $114 million        7 - Feed grains, $836 million        8 - Wheat & wheat products, $603 million   13 - Milk & milk products, $22 million

 

 

 

 

Industrial hemp will grow; will it sell?

Kentucky farmers and politicians eye a new cash crop, but creating a market could take time

By Kara Keeton

Industrial hemp was launched into the limelight less than a year ago when U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer and a bipartisan group of legislators took to the stage at the Kentucky State Fair and promised to move the industrial hemp initiative forward. And move it forward they did.

On the last day of the 2012 legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly passed Senate Bill 50, legislation that creates an administrative framework for industrial hemp production in Kentucky if the federal government lifts restrictions against it. (Vote Hemp photo)

Since that announcement, the Kentucky Hemp Commission has been revived; a foundation has been established to regulate industrial hemp production in Kentucky if legalized at the federal level; a key amendment to the federal Farm Bill allowing industrial hemp research at universities passed the House and is awaiting conference committee review; and the industrial hemp discussion has led headlines in papers across the state and nation.
“To be at the point we are today with this initiative has taken the bipartisan work of key individuals at the state and federal levels who recognize that this is an economic issue that could provide opportunities for our farmers and our rural communities in Kentucky,” Comer said. “I want to be clear, it isn’t going to be a crop to replace corn or soybeans. It will not replace tobacco. But it could be another piece of the agriculture diversification effort here in the state.”
Comer believes that to give Kentucky farmers an advantage in the industrial hemp market, Kentucky needs to be one of the first states to allow farmers to cultivate this emerging crop. While it appears that congressional leadership is not yet ready to put production of industrial hemp in the hands of the farmer, there might be another way to open the door for production in the commonwealth as early as this fall.
“Recent developments make me believe that we may have been looking at the federal law the wrong way this entire time,” said Brian Furnish, chairman of the Hemp Commission. “It may be legal to produce industrial hemp today, and if that is the case we are ready to move forward.”

Opinion: Maybe it’s already legal

In May, a legal opinion was issued on the implementation of Senate Bill 50 that excited many involved with the industrial hemp initiative.

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer testifies before the House Agriculture and Small Business Committee on behalf of Senate Bill 50. Industrial hemp would be a good alternative to tobacco and other crops and could boost the state’s economy if it is legalized, Comer said.

“The opinion states that industrial hemp in SB 50 is exempt from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), so long as the products from the plants grown in Kentucky are not used for human ingestion,” Furnish said. “Luke Morgan, the attorney who wrote the opinion, formerly was with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office and served as the general counselor for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, so he has experience in these issues.”
Morgan, now an attorney at McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland PLLC in Lexington, centered his opinion upon a 2003 Drug Enforcement Agency Final Rule (FR Doc 03-6805) titled “Exemption From Control of Certain Industrial Products and Materials Derived From the Cannabis Plant.” This rule exempts certain items derived from the cannabis plant from CSA control, specifically industrial products and feeds not intended for human consumption – even if they contain tetrahydrocannabinols (THC).
“By virtue of the DEA’s statement in 2003, there is no need to have that agency grant a waiver for the production of SB 50 compliant hemp, because the DEA has determined that, so long as the product is not absorbed in the body, it may contain unspecified levels of THC,” stated Morgan in a memo to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. “Furthermore, SB 50 authorizes only those hemp plants which have a 0.3 (percent) or lower level of THC for production, thus further reducing the ability of THC to be absorbed by the human body from a SB 50 approved plant.”
In his memo, Morgan recommends that Commissioner Comer begin the process of drafting state regulations to implement licensing requirements and other measures to assist law enforcement and production. He also recommends that the KDA inform the DEA that it will be in compliance with FR Doc 03-6805 and invite it to participate in the process.
“Our federal delegation asked for opinion of the law from the administration and DEA, and we are still waiting on a response from that request,” Furnish said. “It is my intention to ask the DEA for their interpretation of this legal opinion to try to clarify this issue.”
If the DEA does not disagree with the opinion, Furnish said, KDA officials are going to start the process of establishing a licensing program to allow farmers to apply to grow industrial hemp.
“The ball is in the DEA’s court at this point, so they need to tell us if this opinion is right or wrong,” he said. “If it is not wrong, then we need to move forward.”

The political push

Industrial hemp, shown growing here in this photo provided by Vote Hemp, can be used in the production of ropes, fabrics, plastics, cosmetics and other merchandise. Canada, Britain, Germany, Spain and France, along with more than 20 other countries, grow and process industrial hemp. (Vote Hemp photo)

The industrial hemp issue has been front-page news throughout the spring as Kentucky’s leaders on both the state and federal levels began a legislative push to bring this native crop back into legal production.
State Sen. Paul Hornback, a Shelby County farmer, launched the industrial hemp discussion in the Kentucky Senate when he introduced SB 50 to establish a foundation for the regulation of industrial hemp crops if it were to be legalized by the federal government. The bill was championed by Comer, who worked with U.S. Sen. Paul and others to educate the legislature on industrial hemp.
“Education was critical to the final passage of SB 50. We were not promoting the legalization of marijuana; I do not support legalizing marijuana. This bill was about establishing a regulatory foundation for industrial hemp, a commodity similar to traditional agriculture crops,” said Comer, talking about efforts during the 2013 session. “At the state and federal level we were working together, in a bipartisan effort, to bring yet another economic opportunity to our farmers.”
Already going strong in Kentucky, the hemp discussion was launched to the federal level in February when U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and U.S. Sens. Paul and Mitch McConnell introduced bills in Congress for the federal legalization of industrial hemp.
Massie sponsored HR 525, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013, in the House while Paul and McConnell were two of the four co-sponsors on the S. 359, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013. Both bills aimed to allow American farmers to cultivate and profit from industrial hemp. While both bills stalled in committee, their filings brought the industrial hemp debate to the federal level.
Paul said by email that neither he nor U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the primary sponsors of the hemp amendment, serve on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and were unable to offer it for consideration there. Instead they are attempting to build a coalition for floor consideration in the full Senate.
“We’ve come a long way in terms of education on the hemp issue, but we still have progress to make,” Paul said.
“If you look back at those years leading up to the tobacco buyout,” said Furnish, “it looked like it would never happen, and then at the last minute it all came together. I think if the legalization of the production of industrial hemp happens in Congress, it will happen the same way.”

Versatile crop, uncertain market

“Kentucky has the perfect climate and soil to produce industrial hemp and the hard-working farmers ready to grow it,” Comer proclaimed last August when he announced the initiative.

Pressed hemp seed makes a rich oil that can be used in foods, body care items and technical products such as oils, paints, solvents, lubricants and ink. Seed cake, which is made after the hemp is pressed, can be used in animal feeds and to make protein-rich flour. (Vote Hemp photo)

Canada has industrial hemp production that is processed into fiber and oil. However, while farmers here might be ready to sow a new crop, there is as yet no hard data showing it would be profitable.
“We are doing economic research here at the college looking at the potential markets, cost of production and probability,” said Scott Smith, dean of the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “The problem at this point is that there is very little concrete information that relates to Kentucky markets.”
In July, the Agriculture Economics Department at UK released a study that attempted to answer the question: “Would industrial hemp production be profitable for Kentucky farmers and be beneficial to the overall Kentucky agricultural economy?” Analysis of world trade and production trends in industrial hemp along with an in-depth look at the Canadian industry identified that demand for products made with industrial hemp in the United States is relatively small, but it is growing.
“Industrial hemp is an extremely versatile crop that is growing more and more popular each year,” Paul said.
Overseas auto manufacturers use hemp fiber to make body panels, doors and insulation, he said.
“Obviously for Kentucky, with our robust auto industry, there is a lot of potential there,” Paul said. “I have spoken with several other manufacturers, and there is interest in producing paper, textiles, biofuel and hempcrete, a concrete-like substance used for construction, all from hemp grown in the commonwealth.”
As for the farmer, several factors required to definitively answer whether the crop would be profitable remain unknown. The UK hemp study points out that many aspects of risk for industrial hemp are difficult to determine. It cites production risk from fluctuating yields, price volatility for fiber and seed, and policy risk because of the possibility of changing legal conditions.

A machine at a Canadian hemp processing facility extracts oil from hemp seeds. The oil has a high content of essential fatty acids such as omega-3 and omega-6, and is used in foods and in cosmetics and other body care products.

Critical to an emerging new industry, the study also points out, would be development of local infrastructure and a local market in Kentucky.
Comer says he and other leaders recognize the need for infrastructure development if industrial hemp is legalized. He said established agriculture businesses in the state are ready to get involved.
“Vaughn Tobacco in Lexington is interested in processing industrial hemp, and Caudill Seed (of Louisville) wants to work on the development of native hemp seed and the processing of the product,” Comer said. “We are working behind the scenes to get all the players in place if we are approved to begin legal production of the crop, and when it happens we will be ready.”
“We all know there is uncertainty in new markets but as with any new industry, the infrastructure, research, and market will take time to develop,” said Furnish. “The fact is we will never know what the potential will be for farmers or how much production the market will bear until we are legally able to produce the crop. That is all we are asking for is the chance, and hopefully soon our farmers will have just that opportunity.”
Kara Keeton is a correspondent for The Lane Report. She can be reached at editorial@lanereport.com.