Monday, November 18, 2013
It's good enough for Dr Bronner
It must be good for the rest of us. Industrial hemp is the non-intoxicating relative of marijuana that has been banned since the 30's, with a break during WWII when the military needed rope and fine lubricating oils. With the success of medicinal marijuana legislation, American users of imported hemp products are pushing for legal growing in the United States.
Authorities arrested David Bronner last year when he locked himself in a steel cage in front of the White House and began using a hand-powered press to extract fresh oil from 12 large hemp plants, which he planned to put on French bread and serve to passers-by.Naturally McClatchy rolled out some expert drug idiot who blew some smoke about hiding marijuana in a field of hemp. This ignores the facts that hemp is sown closely like corn while marijuana plants are spaced apart like an orchard. And most marijuana growers would have a stroke at the thought of wild hemp pollen getting on their precious hybrids. But those who keep industrial hemp as a Schedule 1 drug are not known for the value of their thoughts.
Bronner, a California executive, says there's no good reason that hemp --- the non-intoxicating sister plant of marijuana --- is still illegal under U.S. law. On Monday, he came back to Washington, joining a group of 50 citizen-lobbyists who urged Congress to lift the federal ban on growing hemp to allow more of it to be used in food, clothing, body-care products, construction materials, even auto parts.
"It's time to grow hemp," Bronner said. "I mean, it's been a long and ridiculous situation."...
Hemp growers say their cause is helped by the growing popularity of the movement to legalize marijuana. A majority of Americans now say they want criminal penalties removed for possession, polls indicate. And two states, Washington and Colorado, last year voted to approve marijuana for recreational use for adults age 21 and older beginning in 2014.
Bronner said that "the most ridiculous part of the drug war" has been banning hemp because it can't be used to produce a high. And he said it should not be classified with marijuana as a controlled substance.
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