A hemp crop can be grown without the use of herbicides or insecticides and produces up to four tonnes of material per acre per year. Hemp is categorized as a bast fiber crop. It has a stem consisting of an outer skin containing long, strong fibers and a hollow wood-like core or pith. Processing the stems results in two materials: hurds and fibers, both of which have properties that make them extremely useful in building construction.

A variety of wood-like products, such as fiberboard, roofing tiles, wallboard, paneling, insulation and bricks, can be made from the compressed hurds. The fibers can also be used like straw in bale wall construction or with mud in a sort of modified cob style of building.

Foundations can be made out of hemp hurds. A hemp plywood frame is filled with a hemp hurds combined with lime, sand, plaster, some cement and enough water to dampen, and then let to set for a day and to harden for a week. A sixth century hemp-reinforced bridge in France is testimony to the stone-like strength and durability of this material, which has come to be known as “hempcrete”.

Complete Article: http://www.life.ca/nl/108/hemphouse.html

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Bismarck -- North Dakota and three other states made their case Friday, with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to allow the cultivation of industrial hemp.

“The DEA people were very cordial, but they told us that the process of legalizing the production of industrial hemp will be extremely complicated under existing federal law,” said Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. “DEA has never responded to our earlier inquiries, but today, we were able to present our case and learn from them what may be required in terms of regulations and safeguards.”

Johnson and the agriculture commissioners from Massachusetts, West Virginia and Wisconsin met with DEA officials, including Joseph Rannazzisi, deputy assistant administrator; Robert C. Gleason, deputy chief counsel, and Eric Akres, chief of congressional affairs.

Johnson said the North Dakota Department of Agriculture is in the process of drafting new rules to control the production of industrial hemp, and that he wanted to solicit input from DEA. The new rules would implement state laws, passed by the Legislature in 1999 through 2005.

“We were told by DEA that growers, processors and importers of hemp seed would each have to be separately licensed, and that DEA would need to establish quotas for the production and processing of industrial hemp,” he said.

Johnson noted that the United States is alone among industrialized countries in banning cultivation of industrial hemp.

“The Canadians lifted their ban in 1998 and are now moving forward with large-scale cultivation of industrial hemp,” he said. “It is obviously a crop that could do very well in North Dakota and provide our producers with another income source, as well as a valuable rotational crop.”

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa) is widely grown around the world and is used in the manufacture of textiles, papers and rope. Its seed is also used for food and feed.

Oil derived from the plant is used in cosmetics, paints and medicinal compounds. The industrial form of hemp contains only trace amounts of the psychoactive drug delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in marijuana, although DEA does not currently recognize industrial hemp apart from marijuana.

Copyright: 2006 Farm & Ranch Guide

I've been using trashmail with some websites where you have to give an e-mail address to log in to read content, but you don't want to be put on a mailing list. I think this would be really helpful to us too.

The idea isn't to protect correspondence itself, everything that goes through trashmail is logged, it isn't an anonymous remailer or anything like that. But it would provide a way for two people to give one another their e-mail addresses without giving it to anyone else.

Here's the idea. I go to http://trashmail.net/ and create a disposable address for myself: zhqxhw@trashmail.net. I actually did this, by the way. Then I can invite one person to e-mail me -- in this case, I'd love to hear from Max because I'm hoping we might be able to get together sometime if I'm going to be in Berkeley, and anyhow I'll be there in two weeks for a day so maybe we'd have a chance to say hello.

Do reporters care about what they present as facts or what?

The quotes from the antis in this article are great though. ...pot is a harmful, addictive drug... ...Children would be the ones most hurt by medical marijuana, she said. "We don't want to be giving kids the message that this is safe, that this is medicine."... ...the temptation was too great for people to sell their excess marijuana, which "devastates" the lives of people who use it... ...isn't worth the risk... ..."addicts" run rampant...

So basically, a collection of stuff that we know is false. Pot is less harmful than aspirin, less addictive than coffee; underage use has gone down in medical states; marijuana is safer than most OTC medicines; what message do we send when parents have bottles of dangerous prescription pharms in their kitchen?; the median income and IQ of a marijuana consumer is ABOVE the national average; etc.

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 ("the FDCA"), 21 U.S.C. §301 et seq., is designed to protect public health by regulating "new drugs" that are intended for use in interstate commerce. Barnes v. United States, 142 F.2d 648 (9th Cir.1944); United States v. Kordel, 164 F.2d 913 (7th Cir.1947); United States v. Two Bags, Poppy Seeds, 147 F.2d 123 (6th Cir. 1945). There exists, however, a "grandfather" clause which exempts certain old drugs from this "new drug" status. 21 U.S.C. §321(p)(1); United States v. Rutherford, 442 U.S.544, 546-48 (1979); Rutherford v. United States, 541 F.2d. 1137, 1140-42 (10th Cir.1976) (reversed on other grounds, 442 U.S. 544).

As explained by federal regulators, when Congress revamped the FDCA in 1939, it "accepted those drugs marketed prior to 1938 which had been subject to the 1906 provisions of the FDCA [requiring drugs to be identified in recognized medical authorities such as the National Formulary, United States Dispensatory, Pharmacopeia of the United States, or other similar sources] provided these very old drugs retain their exact formulations and are never promoted for new uses." 57 Fed.Reg. 10499, 10503 (1992) (citing 21 U.S.C. §321(p) and (w)). As further explained, these pre-1938 drugs "are politically 'grandfathered' drugs" and "need not meet modern standards for safety and effectiveness." Ibid; United States v. Rutherford, 442 U.S. at 546-48; Rutherford v. United States, 541 F.2d. at 1140-42.

As will now be shown, marijuana is one of those "very old drugs" that was grandfathered in as a medicine back in 1938. Marijuana (more commonly known as cannabis) was widely recognized for its medicinal use in the medical journals of that time, and brand-name companies, such as Parke-Davis and Eli Lilly, were cultivating "home-grown cannabis" and selling the "flowering tops" of the plant for use in the treatment of illnesses such as anorexia, chronic pain, spasticity, and nausea.

"Medical Marijuana" Is A Bona Fide Medicine

Within The Meaning Of The Grandfather Clause Exemption First, it bears emphasizing that federal regulators readily recognize "medical marijuana" as an authentic pre-1938 medicine:

"Cannabis sativa L. was one of the first plants to be used by man for fiber, food, medicine, and in social and religious rituals. There were approximately 150 traditional medicinal uses of cannabis ... in Western medicine from the mid-19th to the early 20th century ...In 1941, marijuana passed out of the National Formulary and the United States Pharmacopeia." 54 Fed.Reg. 53767, 53774 (1989).

Next, recorded documents existing within private and public libraries, now located on the world-wide web, (internet) further reveal evidence of marijuana's recognition and acceptance as medicine prior to 1938. These documents verify the pre-1938 acceptance of marijuana in the United States Dispensatory, Pharmacopeia of the United States, and Materia Medica acknowledging marijuana's use in the treatment of pain relief, epilepsy, appetite loss, depression, vomiting, etc., etc., etc.

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CLAREMONT, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2006 -- The California Coalition for Compassionate Access (CCCA) announced its official launch today, kicking off a campaign to win support among California's Republican Delegation for the bipartisan Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment. Passage of this amendment would prohibit the federal government from using taxpayer money to arrest or prosecute medical marijuana patients in states where such treatment is legal -- including California.

The Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment, which is due for consideration in the House of Representatives this June, would resolve the existing clash between state and federal law on the matter of medical marijuana, reinforcing the rights of individual states to decide the issue without the risk of federal intervention. California became the first state to make doctor-supervised medical marijuana treatments legally accessible to seriously and terminally ill patients when a majority of voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996. Prop 215 has since been further clarified by Senate Bill 420, which garnered support from conservative Republican stalwart Senator Tom McClintock.

According to the most recent statewide poll, 74% of Californians support legal protections for medical marijuana patients. This tracks with a November 2005 nationwide Gallup poll that shows that 78% of the American people also support such legal protection.

"The current conflict between state and federal law on the issue of physician-supervised medical marijuana poses the greatest simultaneous threat to both patient and states' rights," said CCCA Executive Director Alex Holstein. "The people of California and ten other states have spoken clearly on this issue, either through direct referendum or legislation passed by their state representatives. Their will reflects that of the vast majority of Americans. The federal government has no business wasting taxpayer money to intervene on this matter. The CCCA agrees with President Bush that this should be an issue for the individual states to decide. It's time for Congress to bring its legislation in line with the will of the American people."

The California Coalition for Compassionate Access is a grassroots coalition of patients, caregivers and political advocates dedicated to protecting patients' rights through preserving states' rights. The CCCA is currently engaged in a multifaceted advocacy campaign to win further support among California's Republican Congressional Delegation for the bipartisan Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment, which will resolve the clash between state and federal law on the matter of medical marijuana. The Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment is due for consideration in June 2006.