Hemp as a Crop

Pubdate: Wed, 07 Feb 2007
Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)Copyright: 2007 The Santa Fe New Mexican
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Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/695
Author: Blake Nicholson, Associated Press

N.D. ISSUES NATION'S FIRST HEMP PERMITS
North Dakota issued the nation's first licenses to grow industrial hemp Tuesday to two farmers who still must meet federal requirements before they can plant the crop.The farmers must get approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which treats hemp much the way it does marijuana and has not allowed commercial hemp production but has said it would consider applications to grow it.
Hemp is a cousin of marijuana that contains trace amounts of the chemical that causes a marijuana high, though hemp does not produce the same effects. The sturdy, fibrous plant is used to make an assortment of products including paper, rope, clothing and cosmetics.
Industrial hemp cultivation is legal in Canada and other countries but is banned in the United States. Law enforcement officials worry that industrial hemp can shield the growing of marijuana, although hemp supporters say that fear is unfounded.
The North Dakota Agriculture Department approved rules late last year for hemp production with the DEA's concerns in mind, State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson has said.The state issued permits Tuesday to Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson, who is also a legislator. The state Agriculture Department is processing 16 other hemp applications, Johnson said."It's taken us a lot longer than (expected) to get here, and I'm thinking we still have a ways to go," said Monson, the House assistant Republican majority leader.
Joseph Rannazzisi, an administrator with the DEA, said federal law does not allow the agency to delegate its ability to regulate hemp to state officials. Although the DEA may waive registration requirements, it has done so only for law enforcement officers and other officials, he said.
Johnson asked the DEA in December to waive its $2,293 registration fee, but federal officials rejected that request. Johnson said he will hand-deliver Hauge's and Monson's applications when he meets with DEA officials in Washington early next week to try again to persuade them to relax the annual fee requirement.
North Dakota is one of seven states that have authorized industrial hemp farming. The others are Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana and West Virginia, according to Vote Hemp, an industrial hemp advocacy organization based in Bedford, Mass.

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In spite of hemp's long history (actually going back into prehistory) as a valuable fiber and oil crop, when the federal government passed the Marihuana Tax Act in 1937, they outlawed the entire cannabis plant, although they did allow for the import of sterile seeds for inclusion in birdseed to keep canaries singing.

Hemp has a long history as the source of ropes and sails for the old sailing navies ("canvas" is just the Dutch word for cannabis). It is used to make durable fabrics and paper. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both written on hemp paper, and US paper money was printed on hemp paper until the 20th century. Today, hemp oil is also included in many health foods and cosmetic preparations. Just go to any health store and read the labels.

All of the hemp used in this country is imported from Canada, Europe, and some Asian countries because, to the Feds, live hemp plants are still marijuana.

What's the difference between them? Hemp and marijuana are simply different cultivars of the same plant. Hemp plants have been selected to have a THC content of under 1%, while the mj cultivars have from 3% to over 10%. Some one once said that to get high on hemp, you would have to smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole, and you would get sick before you got high.

Cultivatiion methods are totally different. Hemp is planted close together, almost like grass, so that it grows very tall. It is usually havested before it blossoms if grown for fiber, but if grown for oil, the seeds are allowed to ripen.

MJ is normaly grown using asexual cloning methods to produce a seedless variety, and the buds are the goal of the harvest. Plants are spaced far apart and pruned low, to encourage branching and more buds. Male plants, if any, are eliminated as soon as sex can be determined so that no seeds will be produced.

The quickest way to ruin a mj crop is to grow hemp nearby, so that it fertilizes the mj, making seeds and lowering the THC in succeding crops. No smart mj farmer would ever try to hide is crop in a hemp field.

MJ is estimated to be the fourth largest cash crop in the US. In a strange case of "wag the dog", the DEA suppresses a smaller, but realistic, safe, and profitable crop so that it was not confuse them when it comes to the larger, illegal, beheomuth. There's something wrong with this picture.