Subscribe to our RSS feed
Follow us on Twitter
Image of hemp field via Wikipedia
State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, passed out chocolate truffles topped with industrial hemp seeds at the House Agriculture, Rural Economies and Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday. The nutritious seeds are legal to buy in Minnesota as food, but once they sprout, they are considered marijuana and subject to harsh legal penalties. A bill Kahn sponsored that would allow for the agricultural production of hemp passed the committee on Wednesday.
“It’s the one product that we can buy here, but we can’t grow it here,” said Thom Peterson of the Minnesota Farmers Union. Peterson hopes that one day farmers will have an alternative crop in industrial hemp.
The chief supporter of industrial hemp in the United States is an unlikely figure: David Monson, the Republican Speaker of the North Dakota House. He’s a farmer near the Canadian border whose neighbors were growing hemp while his barley crop was failing because of a blight. His efforts helped Minnesota’s neighbors to the west move forward with industrial hemp and its production.
Kahn said concerns that hemp farmers would clandestinely grow the similar-looking marijuana plant among fields of hemp were unfounded. “They would both cross-pollinate and ruin each other,” Kahn said, and the marijuana plants would be rendered useless as a drug, she said. “I understand you’d have to smoke an eighth before [feeling any effects].”
One bit of testimony came from the chair of the committee, Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba, DFL-Long Prairie, who said she loves using hemp fibers in her sewing: “I really like hemp fabrics. They are very strong garments. It’s very easy to use.”
She added while laughing, “I just want to say that I do not smoke my fabrics.”
Kahn’s bill would begin the process of setting up a system of regulation for hemp production in Minnesota. But the bill stipulates that nothing can move forward until the Drug Enforcement Agency issues a permit, something the agency has fought in North Dakota.
The bill passed the committee by a voice vote and now heads to the Public Safety Policy and Oversight Committee.
Leave a comment
Become a fan on Facebook
1 Comment »
Comment posted March 27, 2009 @ 11:02 am
Great to hear that our legislators are using some common sense.
Hemp was deemed the “product of the future” near the turn of the 20th century. So many consumer goods were made from Hemp and Hemp derivatives. Henry Ford even ran his Model T on Hemp Fuel and made parts for vehicles that were stronger than steel! Paper can be made from Hemp (The Constitution was written on Hemp paper for pete’s sake!) What a wonderful crop to create industry all while preserving the ecosystem. Hemp requires little to no fertilizer, will grow virtually anywhere, and it’s only by-product is OXYGEN! Let’s stop cutting down trees already! This is common sense, and only special interests that fear their bottom line would suffer oppose industrial hemp. You can’t smoke the stuff. If it worries drug officials that marijuana would be grown alongside (which as stated in the article above is not possible) then maybe we should cut down all the corn fields?! Good grief!
The Dupont Chemicals and other companies were behind the prohibition of Hemp back in the 30’s. “Protectionism” is a word bantered about recently in response to International Trade improprieties in light of our current economic downturn. One need look no further than our own backyard and industrial Hemp prohibition to see protectionism in action. The products you consume today were given an unfair market advantage thanks to hemp prohibition. Let REAL free markets decide what Americans consume. It’s obvious through the outsourcing of jobs overseas that Corporatism is the norm in America and that these companies only have their bottom lines in mind.
Obama has championed the idea of a “green” economy. If hemp production is not “green” then nothing is!
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment