Human cannabis could improve skin care
08-Jul-2008 - New research into the skincare role of cannabis-like substances suggests the belief that marijuana cleans the body and mind may be more than just a pipe dream.

Taking a leaf out of the Rastafarian book, scientists have suggested that cannabis-like substances may hold the key to healthy skin.

Researchers from Hungry, Germany and the UK say the human body produces compounds that resemble the active ingredient in marijuana, THC.

Not only are they similar but they also play an important role in the maintenance of good looking skin.

“Just as THC is believed to protect the marijuana plant from pathogens, our own cannabinoids may be necessary for us to maintain healthy skin,” said researcher Gerald Weissmann.

The study into the properties of “endocannabinoids” will be published in the October issue of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASB) journal.

The team of scientists said “endocannabinoids” are important in regulating lipid production and may therefore be useful in the management of problems such as acne and dry skin that are associated with sebaceous gland dysfunction.

“Our preclinical data encourage one to explore whether endocannabinoid system-acting agents can be exploited in the management of common skin disorders,” said Tamás Biró, a senior scientist involved in the research. “It is also suggested that these agents can be efficiently applied locally to the skin in the form of a cream.”

Oil derived from the hemp plant is increasingly being used for its moisturizing properties in creams, cosmetics and deodorants.

Big natural players such as Burt’s Bees in the US and Neal’s Yard Remedies in the UK have both launched products containing hemp seed oil over the past year.

Ah, cannabis, is there nothing you can’t do? 

The only problem with a lot of these hemp products is that anti-marijuana laws force growers to grow a hemp crop that is less than one percent THC.  These plants can’t grow to their full industrial potential, because (as mentioned above) the THC helps to protect the plant, particularly from the UV rays of the sun.  So the lotions and balms made currently from hemp are so lacking in THC that we won’t get the full benefits of using hemp on our skin.

Portland’s local ABC affiliate, KATU…

Marijuana initiative would allow pot sales at Ore. liquor stores | KATU.com - Portland, Oregon | News
SALEM, Ore. - Relax it and tax it.

That’s the motto behind a new cannabis initiative that would allow Oregon’s state-controlled liquor stores to legally sell marijuana to adults.

Initiative backers said their plan would send 90 percent of the proceeds from the state’s sale of marijuana to Oregon’s General Fund, which could lower Oregonians’ state tax burden.

Smaller percentages would go to funding drug abuse education and treatment programs.

The initiative would also legalize the growing of hemp, a non-drug variant of cannabis that can be used to make industrial-strength fibers and bio-fuels.

Supporters claim that allowing cannabis cultivation and sales through state liquor stores would add $300 million in combined tax revenues and savings to Oregon’s budget.

Paul Stanford of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act said the measure would also put a dent in illegal dealing of the weed.

“We want to take marijuana out of the hands of children and substance abusers, who control the market today, and put it in the hands of the state’s liquor control commission and the age limit of 21 will be strictly enforced,” Stanford said at a press briefing.

Supporters have two years to collect nearly 83,000 signatures to get the measure on the November ballot in 2010.

There is an online poll at www.KATU.com and at www.KOIN.com asking if you support the measure.  Everybody (except ED) go on to the sites and click a “YES” for us!

More news coverage after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

State to allow farmers to grow hemp | NEWS.com.au
NEW laws will allow New South Wales farmers to grow cannabis crops for industrial use, the state government says.

But the hemp plants will not be varieties containing any significant amount of the active substance in illicit cannabis.

The Hemp Industry Bill will allow farmers to grow hemp (cannabis sativa) for use in skin care products, paint, load-bearing masonry, insulation and as an additive to wool, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said.

Such production is already permitted in Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, the [Australian Capital Territory], Victoria and Western Australia.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries would work with farmers to make sure crops were only grown under a licence by applicants of good repute, Mr Macdonald said.

The licensing system would stop industrial hemp being used as a camouflage for the marijuana variety of hemp, which contains a high concentration of the illicit cannabis drug THC, he said.

The legislation would pave the way for a potentially lucrative industrial hemp industry, providing farmers with the additional option of another fast-growing summer crop, Mr Macdonald said.

Yet another sensible government allowing its people to grow non-drug cannabis.  Yet another place overseas for our American dollars to flow to fulfill the domestic demand for hemp products that our struggling family farmers aren’t allowed to grow.  And, interestingly, yet another scenario where ignorant politicians don’t realize you can’t use industrial hemp to camouflage consumer cannabis, because hemp will cross-pollinate the cannabis and ruin its potency, and cannabis will cross-pollinate hemp and ruin its fiber potential.

Express: A Publication of The Washington Post
HEMP: It won’t get you high, but you sure can cook with it. But would you want to? And would you get arrested?

It’s easier now to sample the culinary delights of the leafy green plant — at D.C.’s new Capitol Hemp.  Owned by perennial Green Party candidate and D.C. statehood activist Adam Eidinger and his wife, fellow activist Alexis Baden-Mayer, even the structure itself is made of hemp (in the form of particle board).

There are surprisingly stylish hemp clothes, hemp-related art, hemp shoes and some adults-only products in a room out back. But forget the water pipes — hemp is wholesome. It’s the same species as marijuana — cannabis sativa — but genetic differences mean it won’t get you high.

Up front in the family-friendly part of the store is the food. Hemp’s touted as a great source of protein, essential fatty acids, iron, vitamin E and dietary fiber — which, of course, makes one suspect that it probably tastes terrible. (It doesn’t.)

Best of all, it’s legal to cook and purchase hemp. It’s just not legal, in the U.S., to grow it. Why depends on who you ask. There are conspiracy theories involving paper mills and the suppression of competition. (Hemp makes good paper.) Others believe the plant was outlawed — and continues to be outlawed — because of its link to marijuana.

“Hemp has been misaligned with its cousin marijuana by lawmakers who have waged a cultural battle for years. Hemp has simply been unfairly caught up in the dragnet to ban marijuana,” says Eidinger. “Because the U.S. is the biggest user of hemp products, we send our money to farmers in other countries.”

So, we can’t grow our own hemp but we can eat what’s here, which is mostly imported from Canada, China and Europe. And what’s here are hundreds of edible variations: oil, nuts, flour, chocolate, milk, cheese, bagels and more.

We dig into a healthy sampling of hempy foods, made using the various edible parts of hemp. …We start with homemade guacamole, which is simply regular guac with hemp nuts mixed in. Next is salad with hemp nuts and hemp dressing (two parts hemp oil to three parts vinegar). The nuts add a taste and texture not unlike pine nuts to the salad, and the dressing tastes like regular oil and vinegar.

Hemp veggie burgers on hemp bagels with hemp mustard are the main course. The burgers themselves — made of hemp nuts and hemp oil mixed in with green beans, onion, garlic, ground almonds, bread crumbs and eggs, fried in a pan full of coconut oil — are bright green and dense, and quite tasty when topped with hemp mustard. The hemp bagel is too heavy with such a thick patty; Baden-Mayer suggests using hemp bread instead.

Finally, it’s time for lemon hemparoons — lemon macaroons made with hemp seeds — and big glasses of chocolate hemp milk. The hemparoons are sweet, crunchy, lemony, perfect. The hemp chocolate milk is cold and refreshing. We are quiet and contemplative.

“We eat a lot of hemp,” says Baden-Mayer. “But not usually this much in one meal.”

Regardless what anyone thinks about the wisdom of re-legalizing psychoactive cannabis, there isn’t a single logical reason to outlaw non-psychoactive hemp.  Does it strike anyone as odd that the DEA - the DRUG Enforcement Administration - bans the cultivation of industrial hemp which is not a drug?

The technicality is that even industrial hemp may contain traces of THC, and THC is a controlled substance.  But by the same token, mouthwash contains more than a trace of alcohol, yet kids can buy it at the supermarket.

The micro amounts of THC in industrial hemp are never going to get you high.  Industrial hemp is tall and reedy and very distinguishable from drug cannabis.  You couldn’t hide drug cannabis among industrial hemp because they would cross-pollinate and ruin each other.  There is no public danger from industrial hemp for which the DEA needs to be protecting us!

I’m sure NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre - a connoisseur of the “craft” beer - caught this in his Washington Post today:

European Brews Steeped in Tradition - washingtonpost.com
Like many European specialty breweries, Het Anker relies heavily on the export market. Of its 12,000-barrel annual output, U.S. importer Martin Wetten of Sterling will receive about 3,000 barrels.

Wetten also has exclusive rights to import the beers of Castle Eggenberg in the Austrian Alps near Salzburg. Brewing has taken place there since at least the 14th century; managing partner Karl Stohr says his great-great-great-grandfather acquired the business in 1804.

Eggenberg makes a refreshingly dry, herbal pilsner called Hopfen Koenig, but the brewery is most famous for its bock beers. In ascending order of strength, they are Doppelbock Dunkel (8.5 percent alcohol by volume), Urbock 23° (9.6 percent) and Samichlaus (14 percent).

Half of all the Samichlaus produced goes to the United States, Stohr estimates. “Austrians are very conservative beer drinkers,” preferring normal-strength lagers, he says. But even America has its limits: You’ll have to travel abroad to find Eggenberg’s cannabis- flavored Spirit of Hemp lager.

Is there a prohibition on the importation of hemp-flavored beer? Or are there just no distributors importing it to the States? The website for Spirit of Hemp makes no mention. I doubt that the lager has any detectable traces of THC that would prevent its import into the US. Worries about testing positive on THC drug screens after drinking hemp beer aren’t an issue:

Olde Bongwater is a porter beer that substitutes hemp seed for barley and hops at certain stages of the brewing process. But post-drinking urine tests were negative for THC.

Their concerns were unfounded because the maker of that brew and Hempen Ale must brew their beer with no-THC hempseed, according to cannabisbeer.com:

Hempen Ale, a new release from the Frederick Brewing Company in Frederick, MD, contains between 10 and 30% hemp seeds in the mash. The seeds are laboratory certified to be THC­free, assures Steve Nordahl, VP of brewery operations. But they’re rich in proteins and fatty acids, lending this brown ale an oily mouth feel and creamy white head, as well as a mild herbal/spicy aftertaste. By this fall, estimates Nordahl, the brewery will be running through about 45,000 pounds of hemp seeds a month…about 75% of the total entering this country.

Hemphasis.net ~ Lakota Hempcrete Project
In December, 2007, Alex and Debra White Plume’s house burned down. Alex is the most-celebrated hemp farmer in the world.

Alex and Debra have built a temporary house, using material from the White Plume Community Center that was only built a few years ago. The Community Center is a model wind-and-solar energy installation. The wind turbine and solar panels were installed by Matt Rankin’s High Plains Wind & Solar.

Hemphasis and the White Plume clan collaborated with American Limetec of Chicago to rebuild the Community Center with a model hempcrete installation.

Hempcrete is the mixture of hemp and concrete that reduces the toxic pollution created by regular concrete, provides a strong and durable building product, resists pests and mold, and provides superior insulation.  Check out the Hemphasis website edited by Bob Newland, the founder of South Dakota NORML.  Then listen in as I interview Bob on today’s Stash about the wonders of hempcrete.

First, the good news.

Douglas won’t veto new hemp law: Times Argus Online
MONTPELIER – Gov. James Douglas will allow a bill legalizing hemp to become law despite concerns from the law enforcement community about its impact on marijuana eradication efforts in the state.

The legislation, which legalizes the cultivation of industrial hemp in Vermont, won nearly unanimous support in the both the House and Senate this session. Though Douglas doesn’t support the bill, and has refused to attach his signature to it, he will nonetheless forward the legislation to the Secretary of State, which will effectively enact the law.

But Tom Tremblay, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, said he worries about what the legislation means for law enforcement officers in Vermont if the federal law does change.

“The plants are really difficult to differentiate,” Tremblay said. “The legalization of industrial hemp could increase production of marijuana.”

Lawmakers this session heard testimony from authorities in Canada – where hemp cultivation is legal – who said they have no trouble distinguishing the plants. That testimony was compelling enough for Rep. Jim McNeil, a Rutland Town Republican on the House Agriculture Committee that drafted the original bill.

Hemp, grown legally in every industrialized country except the United States, reaps attractive profit margins for some farmers. Hemp oil, derived from seeds, is used in food and beauty products. Hemp’s long stalks contain fiber and cellulose that can be made into textiles, building materials and fuel.

Now the bad news, contained in Section 3 of the new law:

This act shall take effect upon passage… at such time as the United States Congress amends the definition of “marihuana” for the purposes of the Controlled Substances Act….

The governor was ready to veto this bill, but realized that it would, in his words, “do nothing”, and decided it wasn’t even important enough to veto.

The public safety commissioner, by the way, should really take a look at hemp and marijuana plants someday. Hemp plants are tall and reedy, up to 16 feet and kind of dry, whereas consumer cannabis is grown short and bushy with big fat wet sticky buds. It’s like telling me you can’t tell the difference between a Clydesdale and a zebra because they are both horses.

Furthermore, someone needs to enroll him in a basic botany class.  No grower of consumer cannabis wants to get his precious females anywhere near an industrial hemp plant. When the 8% THC girls get around the 0.5% THC boys, you end up with lousy pot and lousy hemp.

Idaho Mountain Express: Pot prevails again in Hailey - May 28, 2008
New election, same results. Three of four proposed marijuana reform initiatives were approved by Hailey’s electorate Tuesday.

Voters approved initiatives to legalize medical use of marijuana by a margin of 417-296, to legalize industrial use of hemp by 403-308 and to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest police priority in the city by a margin of 381-331.

Turned down once again was an initiative to require the city to regulate and tax distribution of the drug. It failed 386-323.

Pro-marijuana advocate Ryan Davidson, a former Bellevue man who now lives in Garden City, filed petitions to place the initiatives before the voters once again after Hailey city officials threatened to file a lawsuit to have the three previously approved initiatives declared illegal in court. That lawsuit was filed earlier this month in Blaine County 5th District Court.

Davidson, chairman of The Liberty Lobby of Idaho, said passage again of the initiatives would make it “politically less viable” for the city of Hailey to ignore the will of the electorate.

Prior to the election, neither Davidson nor city officials were willing to predict the outcome, though Davidson said, “I’d think it’s going to be close to the same percentages as last time.”

Last November, 1,288 voters, about 37 percent of the city’s registered electorate, showed up at the polls.

The medical marijuana and industrial hemp initiatives were approved in that election by about 53 percent of voters. About 51 percent of voters approved the lowest-police-priority initiative, while the regulation and taxation measure failed with only 47 percent voter approval.

Hailey Mayor Rick Davis said he had “no idea” as to the outcome of pot election No. 2.

“There’s been a lot more publicity this time about the initiatives,” he said. “I think people are a lot more educated now about the issues. But I don’t know if it will have a different outcome or not.”

Nov ‘07 Election: medical marijuana = 53%, industrial hemp = 53%, lowest priority = 51%, tax and regulate = 47%, turnout = 1,288 votes

May ‘08 Election: medical marijuana = 58%, industrial hemp = 57%, lowest priority = 54%, tax and regulate = 46%, turnout = 713 votes

Hailey city officials, the people are trying to tell you something…

Washington City Paper: News & Features: Blogs
Adam Eidinger, long one of DC’s most active activists, is also a businessman. He’s had his own PR firm for several years, and now he’s firing up a hemp clothing store.

The shop will open later this month in Adams Morgan, says Eidinger, who briefly achieved international fame in 2004 by disrupting the Washington Nationals introductory news conference to protest the public funding of a stadium here.

“Every major city in America already has a hemp store,” Eidinger says. “Now DC will, too.”

Eidinger, who counts among his good fights a long-time advocacy of marijuana law reform, says he thinks hemp shoes, going from $60-$110 a pair, will be big sellers. His store’s shelves will also be stocked with hemp shirts and pants, hemp cosmetics and hemp food.

Even the shelves will be hemp.

“We built the whole store out of cannabis,” says Eidinger. “It’s all hemp fiber board.”

Maybe some of the lobbyists and lawmakers in DC  will get a look at Eidinger’s store and realize that all this time they’ve been on board with the government’s ban of industrial hemp farming, they’ve been banning shoes, cosmetics, food, and fiber board.

Farmers to get go-ahead to grow hemp - Breaking News - National - Breaking News
The NSW [New South Wales, Australia] government says hemp growers will be on a drug-free high with plans to introduce a new licensing scheme to encourage local growers.

Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said a potentially lucrative industrial hemp industry was not far off, following changes which will be introduced by the Iemma government.

“Industrial hemp fibre produced here in NSW could pave the way for the establishment of a new viable industry that creates and sells textiles, cloth and building products made from locally grown hemp,” Mr Macdonald said.

“There is growing support from the agricultural sector for the development of such a new industry. This is a direct result of the environmentally-friendly nature of industrial hemp and a perceived interest for hemp products in the market.”

Industrial hemp is a species of cannabis, but it has low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) compared to other forms of cannabis plants and cannot be used as a drug.

Mr Macdonald said the soft texture of hemp means it can be used for insulation or as an alternative to fibreglass, while hemp seed oil can be used as a base for skin care products and paints.

The scheme will be administered by the minister and will operate within a strict legal framework.

“The NSW government will amend existing criminal drug laws to ensure that existing drug law enforcement is not compromised - and this position is supported by the NSW Police,” Mr Macdonald said in a statement.

The worldwide demand for hemp and hemp products is enormous, and countries like Australia and Canada are more than happy to take up the industry.  They are especially happy about the profit they can make selling the raw material and manufactured goods back to us in the United States, where growing hemp is illegal and the prohibition tariff equals big profit margins..

How long will American farmers and American consumers stand for the absurdity of a non-drug fiber crop being prohibited by the Drug Enforcement Administration?

Idaho Mountain Express: Hemp advocates tout plant’s virtues
Hemp advocates tout plant’s virtues

Industrial hemp fibers can be manufactured into fabrics for clothing, blankets, carpet, upholstery, sails, tarps, awnings, rope and numerous other items. It can be made into paper, plastic or hemp oil. British researchers have used it to manufacture surfboards. It’s used in some health food snacks, for lotions and in manufacturing car parts.Industrial hemp, advocates note, requires little or no herbicides or pesticides. Bugs don’t usually like to eat it and it grows thick enough and fast enough to block out would-be competitive weeds. It has good soil-restoration qualities.

It was grown extensively in the United States until laws in the 20th century made it illegal. It can be legally grown now, but only by permit from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Those permits are few and far between.

Several states, including North Dakota, Maine, Montana and West Virginia, have passed legislation to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp, but their efforts remain blocked by the DEA. California passed a bill to legalize hemp but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Worldwide, the industrial hemp picture is different. Growing the plant is allowed in most countries, and 33 nations, including Canada, are developing industries centered on production of the crop.

Erwin A. “Bud” Sholts, of the North American Industrial Hemp Council, studied crop diversification while employed with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and found that industrial hemp was the only viable crop to fit in with corn and soybean crop rotations.

Sholts said the biggest problem with legalizing industrial hemp in the United States is because the DEA and other government entities continue to cling to an outdated definition of the plant that links it to marijuana. He said it will take either a presidential declaration or an act of Congress to change that definition.

“It’s going to happen, because American agriculture wants it, American industry wants it and the public wants it,” Sholts said.

And the public has shown by their votes that they want industrial hemp, at least in the town of Hailey, Idaho, where this story was published. A hemp legalization initiative, along with initiatives for cannabis decriminalization and medical marijuana, were passed in Hailey by large margins last election.

Reason Foundation - Study: U.S. Hemp Ban Hurts Environment, Economy

Los Angeles - With oil hitting $110 a barrel and gas prices creeping towards $4 a gallon, the federal government continues to prohibit U.S. farmers from growing hemp, which could be used to efficiently produce biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol.

Hemp is also a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly substitute for polyester, cotton, fiberglass and concrete, according to a new Reason Foundation study that examines hemp’s potential uses and the ways other countries are benefiting from it. Industrial hemp production is banned in the U.S. as an archaic consequence of the war on drugs.

The Reason Foundation study reveals that polyester fiber manufacturing requires six times the energy needed to grow hemp. And cotton is one of the most “water- and pesticide-intensive crops in the world.” Hemp’s naturally higher resistance to weeds and pests means it requires dramatically fewer pesticides than cotton.

Not only has the government banned hemp production in the U.S., it is also directly subsidizing other crops that the study shows to be “environmentally inferior.” Corn farmers received $51 billion in subsidies between 1995 and 2005; wheat farmers were given $21 billion; cotton farmers fleeced taxpayers for $15 billion; and tobacco farmers were handed $530 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies.

The full study, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition, is available online at reason.org.

One of my many favorite sayings: “Hemp is not illegal because of marijuana - marijuana is illegal because of hemp.” Certainly if a mild intoxicant like marijuana were re-legalized, it might hurt the sales of beer and pharmaceuticals a little bit, but I think plenty of people will still use booze and pills. But if your choice is $10 pair of hemp jeans vs. a $50 pair of cotton denim jeans and a 50¢ gallon of hemp ethanol vs. a $5 gallon of gas, the restructuring of our economy will have to occur and lots of very rich and powerful industries won’t be so rich and powerful anymore.

Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado - News
GLENWOOD SPRINGS — It might be Glenwood Springs’ biggest, but smallest business you’ve never heard of.

EnviroTextiles specializes in textiles made from hemp plant fiber to make 100-percent hemp yarns. The company also sells textiles made of a mix of hemp and organic cotton, tencel and silk.

All products for EnviroTextiles are imported to its Glenwood Springs distribution center, where the company has its showroom and business offices. Its warehouse has more than 70 fabrics of “various weaves and blends.”

Hemp is used to make clothing because the fiber is longer, stronger, more absorbent and provides more insulation than cotton fiber, according to the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), which represents the interests of the industry and encourages the research and development of new products.

The plant, according to the HIA, is better for the environment because it does not require pesticides and improves soil quality.

The HIA estimates that the North American retail market for hemp textiles and fabrics exceeded $100 million in 2007 and is growing about 10 percent per year.

That’s a $100 million annual market that must be supplied completely by imports, since non-drug hemp is banned by our Drug Enforcement Administration. Meanwhile, American farmers are going bankrupt, looking for any profitable crop they can plant to earn a living.

Former CIA Director Woolsey weaves case for legalizing hemp : Energy : The Rocky Mountain News
[Former CIA Director Jim] Woolsey, who has served under former President Clinton and has been an adviser to President Bush, will hold court via telephone on another of his favorite topics: industrial hemp.

Commercial farming of hemp is banned in the United States for its apparent similarities to marijuana - a charge repudiated by hemp supporters. Developed regions such as Europe and Canada allow farmers to grow hemp for industrial purposes such as ropes or fabrics. The Canadian consulate in Denver supports the move to lift the ban.

Woolsey says hemp, if allowed in the U.S., could become a low-water-consuming and easy- to-grow feedstock for biofuels. Also, because of its biological properties, hemp could inhibit the growth of illegal marijuana through cross-pollination.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Banning hemp because it looks like marijuana is like banning powdered sugar because it looks like cocaine.  Never mind that both marijuana and hemp are varieties of the cannabis plant; from the perspective of drug use, one is a mild euphoriant and the other is used to make rope.

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Mid Wales | Hemp concrete in £6.2m eco-centre

Environmentally-friendly concrete made from a variety of the cannabis plant is being used on a new £6.2m project at an eco-centre in Powys.

Made from hemp and called hemcrete, the mixture is being applied to walls at the Centre for Alternative Technology (Cat), near Machynlleth.

A lot of energy is used to make the common form of concrete in comparison to its “greener” cousin, said Cat.

Hemp is legal and part of the cannabis species, which includes marijuana.

It is identical in appearance to the illegal drug, but it lacks the narcotic qualities.

Hemp is grown in the UK and is recognised to be a versatile crop and is used to make many retail products.

Hemcrete, made from hemp stalks, lime and a small quantity of cement, produces less carbon emissions than conventional concrete, said Cat.

The product is being sprayed onto heraklith (woodwool) boards at Cat’s new Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (Wise).

The £6.2m training and conference venue will extend the eco-centre’s courses in subjects such as sustainable architecture and solar power for electricians.

Meanwhile, the United States still bans the cultivation of hemp to be made into such environmentally-friendly products because you can’t smoke hemp, but it looks like something you could smoke, so we just can’t be too careful.

The Herald Online **Business**
THE Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is piloting a multi-billion-rand agri-business project that could encourage Eastern Cape farmers to grow hemp and flax for the textile industry.

The project is aimed at boosting economic activity. Hemp and flax are used for various purposes, including textiles and food.

“Growing and processing flax and hemp will provide a new industry that is viable and has the potential to be worth billions, if farmers get the required interventions in terms of government subsidies,” [CSIR fibres and textile manager Abisha Tembo] said.

Although hemp is illegal in South Africa as it is a member of the cannabis sativa family, various organisations, including the CSIR and the Agriculture Research Council, are lobbying government to change the legislation.

CSIR natural plant fibre centre manager Sunshine Blouw said: “The advantage of the two plants is that flax is grown in winter and hemp in summer. Farmers can grow both in different seasons without having to acquire different technologies for production and processing as both plants use the same technology.”

“In 2004, South Africa imported R100-million worth of flax and R75-million worth of hemp. It would not make business sense to import if you can buy locally.”

The United States and South Africa are still holding back their farmers from growing this lucrative crop, while the rest of the industrialized world is more than happy to supply us with their overpriced hemp exports. Hemp, of course, doesn’t look at all like consumer cannabis, is not at all smokable and could never get you high, but because it is in the same plant family as the one that does get you high, our government bans it. Even though hemp is not a drug, it is eradicated by our Drug Enforcement Administration and prohibited as a Schedule I drug.

Considering the myriad uses of hemp, not the least of which would help us end oil addiction and feed the hungry, it is not just ridiculous that non-drug hemp is prohibited; it’s a crime against humanity.

This article on AlterNet takes to one of the enduring controversies of our own movement’s history: did the Hearst and DuPost financial empires conspire to prohibit hemp because of its competition with paper and nylon industries? The author, Steven Wishnia, argues that conspiracy theories like this are easy to debunk, and that the real reason behind marijuana’s prohibition is racism, culture, and control of certain populations by the ruling class.

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.

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.)

It’s worth reading the whole piece, especially the detailed rebuttals to the three themes offered by Jack Herer as support for the Hearst/DuPont conspiracy. This in no way diminishes the incredible work and research in Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes, but if we are to win the argument to end adult marijuana prohibition, we have to stick to the provable facts and not conspiracy conjecture. There is more than enough evidence to show that racism is a prime reason for anti-marijuana laws.

BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA — Two North Dakota farmers, whose federal lawsuit to end the DEA’s ban on hemp farming was dismissed last November, filed their appeal today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Lawyers working on behalf of the farmers, State Representative David Monson and Wayne Hauge, are appealing the district court’s inexplicable ruling that said hemp and marijuana are the “same,” as the DEA has contended. The ruling failed to properly consider the Commerce Clause argument that the plaintiffs raised — that Congress cannot interfere with North Dakota’s state-regulated hemp program. Indeed, the lower court itself recognized in the decision under appeal that “the stalk, fiber, sterilized seed, and oil of the industrial hemp plant, and their derivatives, are legal under federal law, and those parts of the plant are expressly excluded from the definition of ‘marijuana’ under the CSA [Controlled Substances Act].”

“This appeal is basically saying why can Canadian farmers grow non-drug industrial hemp plants to produce perfectly legal hemp fiber and seed commodities for the interstate US market, but North Dakota farmers cannot under North Dakota’s state-regulated industrial hemp program,” says Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra. “The DEA has banned hemp farming for 50 years by conflating hemp and marijuana on very shaky legal ground while at the same time imports of hemp fiber, seed and oil are allowed. With North Dakota regulating industrial hemp, there is no reasonable threat farmers would be able to grow marijuana without being caught,” says Steenstra.

Scientific evidence clearly shows that industrial hemp, which includes the oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis that would be grown pursuant to North Dakota law, is genetically distinct from the drug varieties of Cannabis and has absolutely no use as a recreational drug.

More information about hemp legislation and the crop’s many uses may be found at http://www.VoteHemp.com and http://www.HempIndustries.org.

Regardless what people may think about medical marijuana or consumer cannabis, it’s nearly impossible to understand why anyone would want to ban industrial hemp. Essentially it’s illegal because it looks like marijuana (and even then, it doesn’t really look like something you’d want to smoke). You can’t get high from it, you can’t hide marijuana in hemp fields because cross-pollination would ruin both crops, and it would be a fantastic cash crop for our struggling farmers.

Making hemp illegal because it looks like marijuana is like making powdered sugar illegal because it looks like cocaine.

(SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA) A group has formed in Santa Barbara to put an initiative on the November ballot that would legalize cannabis for industrial and nutritional products, medicinal preparations, and for recreational and euphoric use. The group announced the California Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative Campaign on Friday at a press conference on the steps of Santa Barbara City Hall. The initiative would also include clearing all criminal records for people involved in non-violent cannabis, hemp and marijuana offenses.

The group, headed by Jack Herer argues that not only does cannabis serve as a medicine to many sick, but that cannabis is the only way to reverse the greenhouse effect and can be used as paper, fiber, and food as well. The U.S. government, they say, is hiding these facts.

“I can know about cotton, flack and nylon,” said Herer at the press conference, “but there’s not a word of hemp in the schools.” Herer, who ran for president of the United States twice as a member of the Grassroots party, said that for 5,000 to 6,000 years 60 to 80 percent of the world’s production of fuel and clothing was made from hemp. The group is hoping that the dialogue will begin to introduce the idea that a hemp cultivation program can eliminate greenhouse gasses while replenishing the atmosphere and replacing fossil fuels with hemp bio-fuels.

For the Santa Barbara-based efforts to get the legalization initiative on the California ballot, valid signatures from roughly 434,000 people are needed. The group is also looking to bring the discussion to Congress this summer via the Government Oversight Domestic Policy Subcommittee, which is chaired by former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, a supporter of marijuana decriminalization.

A discussion and debate on the ballot initiative will take place on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery.