States’ Rights and Reefer Madness
You know that America’s drug policy is totally cattywampus when farmers in North Dakota go to court to try to force the Drug Enforcement Agency to lift its ban on industrial hemp, a harmless lookalike cousin of the Evil Weed.
The feds call industrial hemp (photo) a controlled substance — the same as marijuana, heroin and LSD — but it is in fact a harmless and renewable cash crop with thousands of applications that are good for the environment.
In one of several legal actions that cut to the core of the principle of states’ rights in challenging the federal government’s authority to prohibit states from legislating limited use of a comparatively harmless substance like marijuana and a completely harmless substance like industrial hemp, North Dakota farmers Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson filed filed a lawsuit against the DEA.
The federal agency says that it’s merely enforcing the law.
The farmers say comparing industrial hemp to marijuana is like comparing pop guns and M-16s. They’ve successfully petitioned the state legislature — of which Monson is a member — to authorize the farming of industrial hemp.
Marijuana and industrial hemp are members of the Cannabis sativa L. species and have similar characteristics. But hemp won’t get you high because it contains only traces of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound that gets pot smokers stoned. However, the Controlled Substances Act makes little distinction, banning the species almost outright.
Efforts to decriminalize marijuana to ease pain and nausea in critically ill people have succeeded through public referenda in 12 states, but the DEA and Department of Health and Human Services continue to claim that it has no currently accepted medical use.
A nonprofit group, Americans for Safe Access, is challenging the government’s position in a lawsuit. An earlier effort by two terminally ill women to challenge Washington’s active opposition to California’s medical marijuana law in the Supreme Court in the fascinating Gonzalez v. Raich case was rejected by a majority of justices because of their view that federal drug law trumped local law.
Meanwhile, for the fourth year in a row, marijuana arrests in the U.S. set an all-time record in 2006, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
Arrests totaled 829,627, an increase from 786,545 in 2005. Similar to previous years, 738,916 or 89 percent were for possession, not sale or manufacture, and marijuana possession arrests again exceeded arrests for all violent crimes combined.
For more on my take on medical marijuana and to learn why my parents and I engaged in what the federal government considers to be criminal behavior, please click here.
12 Responses to “States’ Rights and Reefer Madness”
[...] Hemp Ban: Reefer Madness, Indeed The Moderate Voice – USA The feds call industrial hemp (photo) a controlled substance — the same as [...]
I hope that these guys are successful. Industrial hemp has so many practical uses. Hemp rope is so much easier to use than that nylon stuff.
christine:
Absotootly. Growing hemp works for another reason that really didn’t fit into my post: Crop diversification.
Corn is a soil killer and produces very little end product compared to the whole, although the stalks do get recycled into other uses. Industrial hemp gives back to the soil and virtually the entire plant can be used as an end product.
Yet another example of the idiocy of our stupid “war on drugs” that has done much more harm than good.
Shaun, you left out the part that one of the reasons why marijuana was made illegal in the first place was because of the danger that hemp posed to the cotton and timber industries. Ironic since the Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper and when WWII started they lifted the ban temporarily.
Oh and I left out that Dow Chemical had their hand in it because of their synthetic stuff. Of course hemp isn’t that great of a material for lots of things by itself, but these days I would imagine that by treating it or blending it with synthetics would be.
mikkel:
Good points all. Thank you.
Where are the fiscal conservatives on this issue,.
The money wasted on the war on drugs should give anyone dealing with budgets pause.
[...] came across this post – <b>Hemp</b> Ban: Reefer Madness, Indeed – and thought it was worth sharing. I hope you find it interesting too and take the time to read [...]
Why use corn, indeed. Hemp for ethanol.
Hemp for victory!
[pictures of goose-stepping Nazis replaced by pictures of crazy jihadists]
30 Major industrial nations grow hemp – check out HR 1009 the Industrial Hemp Act of 2007 which could cut through all the Federal Red Tape – guess who sponsored it? Dr. Ron Paul the Republican Presidential Candidate. This resolution needs support now! We’d love to buy hemp from our local farmers in Hempfield Township in Lancaster Pennsylvania – using the hemp flour, seed & oil for Hempzel pretzels & more.. Education is the key, just say “know” vs “NO” – Go North Dakota -
[...] farmers can’t grow Hemp – a great LEGAL cash crop. The feds call industrial hemp a controlled substance — the same as marijuana, heroin and LSD — [...]