cannabisnews.com: State Asks DEA To Waive Hemp Registration Fees State Asks DEA To Waive Hemp Registration Fees Posted by CN Staff on December 27, 2006 at 17:04:21 PT By James MacPherson, Associated Press Writer Source: Associated Press Bismarck, N.D. -- A $2,293-a-year federal registration fee for growing industrial hemp is ridiculous, says North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, who wants the government to waive the fee so more state farmers can grow the crop.Johnson said he sent a letter on Wednesday to federal Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy, objecting to the fee and to confusing paperwork associated with the registration. "I think it's ridiculous that you have a fee exceeding a couple of thousand dollars for someone to grow industrial hemp," Johnson said.Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the DEA in Washington, D.C., said the annual registration fee is set by Congress. It also applies to such businesses such pharmaceutical companies that uses opium to manufacture morphine, he said.North Dakota farmers may start applying for state licenses to grow industrial hemp on Jan. 1, though federal drug agents must approve each license, Johnson said. The state licenses require a criminal background check of farmers who want to grow hemp, the biological cousin of marijuana. The sale of hemp and the location of the hemp fields must be documented.Johnson said the rules crafted by his department make North Dakota the first state to allow commercial hemp cultivation, but the DEA continues to be a hurdle.Hemp contains trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a banned substance, and it falls under federal anti-drug rules, the DEA says."For anybody considering manufacturing a controlled substance, the fee is required," Courtney said. "The fee is standard across the board, whether it's a big or little company."Paying the registration fee does not guarantee the applicant will be approved, Johnson said. The fee is nonrefundable.Besides the federal fee, the state will charge $150 for its license, Johnson said. Applicants also must pay for a criminal background check, which will cost about $100, he said."I expect there will be handful of folks - maybe fewer than a handful and maybe just one - who will apply because somebody wants to test this," Johnson said.Industrial hemp would be an alternative cash crop for North Dakota farmers because it's used to make food, clothing, cosmetics, paper, rope and other products, Johnson said. It's the only crop that would have to be licensed in North Dakota, he said.State Rep. David Monson, R-Osnabrock, said he intends to apply. Monson, who also is a farmer, was the primary sponsor of the first bill to authorize research on industrial hemp in North Dakota, which was approved by the 1997 Legislature.Hemp is grown legally in Canada, 25 miles north of Monson's farm in northeastern North Dakota. Hemp production has been legal in Canada since 1998, after 60 years of prohibition.Monson said the cost of the fees "takes a lot of the shine off" for many potential hemp farmers in the state."You can't possibly make it come out as a profit, if that's the way the fees are going to be," Monson said.He believes the DEA will keep the fee in place intentionally, as a stumbling block for potential growers."If they can't get you one way, I suppose they'll get us another," Monson said. "If they're going to try to make it impossible by jacking up the price and impossible to make a profit, it's probably going to end up going through the courts."Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: James MacPherson, Associated Press Writer Published: Wednesday, December 27, 2006Copyright: 2006 Associated Press Related Articles:State To Begin Taking Applications for Hemp http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22433.shtml Hemp-Growing Rules Take Step Forwardhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22381.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by HempWorld on December 28, 2006 at 11:28:58 PT USA Will Not Allow Hemp To Grow! Hemp Background Preface From "David Crockett Williams" Sat, 3 Jun 2000 14:20:40 -0700My conclusion is that there is absolutely no way that medical cannabis or industrial hemp will be re-legalized by the US Federal Government except as the general public becomes aware of the full picture including what your papers outline and the general public compels the changes needed http://hempworld.com/hemp-cyberfarm_com/htms/conspiracy/backgrounds.html#Real Reasoni.e., ending the institutionalized corruptions of rampant greed playing off inflamed prejudices behind the present policies to protect monopolies in the petroleum, fossil fuels, timber fiber, chemical and drug industries, etc.The combination of your research summarized below, and that of former LAPD narc Mike Ruppert and his colleagues linked to www.copvcia.com, add the deeper info needed to see the real criminality behind the American War on Drugs.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Also see IBM's practices before and during WWII http://hempworld.com/hemp-cyberfarm_com/htms/conspiracy/ibm_history.html Prescott Bush, $1.5 million, and Auschwitz: how the Bush family wealth is linked to the holocaust http://hempworld.com/hemp-cyberfarm_com/htms/conspiracy/bushbloodmoney.html Eye-witness comparison of today's US policies to the Nazi era...http://hempworld.com/hemp-cyberfarm_com/htms/conspiracy/Nazi_comparison.htmlAnd here is the below story in a recent Masters Theses at Pepperdine University, California! http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/conspiracy.htmUNRAVELING AN AMERICAN DILEMMA: THE DEMONISATION OF MARIHUANA http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/conspiracy.htm------------------------------------------------------------And here is the below story in a recent Masters Theses at Pepperdine University, California!: UNRAVELING AN AMERICAN DILEMMA: THE DEMONISATION OF MARIHUANA--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please also see the whole story at: http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm The Real Reason the US Government won't Debate Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Re-legalization: This is not a conspiracy “theory.” It is fact! The three posts which follow this brief introduction contain the results of my three years of research into backgrounds of the prime suspects in the “hemp and marijuana conspiracy,” namely William Randolph Hearst, the du Ponts, and Andrew Mellon. This document, published as an Open Letter to all Americans, reveals the evidence I have gathered that these three Americans, prominent in the Media, Petrochemical, and Banking industries in the 1930s and 1940s, were involved in a much larger conspiracy as well, during this same time period.This larger conspiracy, which is extensively documented in Congressional Records, criminal indictments, and Justice Department files, involved a secret business and financial alliance between several major American corporations, and the Nazis, during World War II. This is not a conspiracy “theory.” It is fact, and I have included a listing of all my sources. http://hempworld.com/hemp-cyberfarm_com/htms/conspiracy/conspiracy1.html#SourcesI believe that after you read this paper, and review the extensive documentation included, you will agree that the evidence shows that the government-and corporate-sponsored repression of medicinal, industrial and, yes, even personal, use of cannabis hemp in America today, is being enforced for one reason only: to prevent any serious investigation into certain events and circumstances which existed during the creation of Marijuana Prohibition in the years leading up to World War II.As you will see, such an investigation would reveal to the American public not only the fact that Hearst, the du Ponts, and Mellon were Nazi collaborators, but that many other U.S. corporations - among them Ford Motor Company, General Motors, ITT and Standard Oil - actively aided Nazi Germany throughout World War II, owning and operating Nazi war factories inside Germany, producing weapons, equipment and fuel which was used to kill American soldiers and sailors and airmen. Not only did these corporations directly profit financially from the blood of Americans, in 1967, the U.S. Congress awarded millions of dollars in war reparations payments and tax breaks to American corporations whose Nazi war factories were damaged during the war, on the basis that they were American property damaged by Allied attacks.The posting of this paper on the USENET newsgroups comes at a critical time in our struggle for the truth about cannabis hemp and the prohibition - Proposition 215 on the California ballot to give the voters the chance to legalize medicinal use of cannabis - and the just-reported Gestapo raid on Sunday, by California “law enforcement” agents, on the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club - and the seizure of their patient records. This follows another similar raid on another buyers club in Cincinnati, Ohio. Both incidents remind us that we are, indeed, at war here in America. But we just now understand who and what we are fighting with.“Shadow of the Swastika” documents the pro-Nazi, pro-Fascist, anti-American roots of the present-day Cannabis Prohibition, and includes evidence that, after the end of World War II, fugitive Nazi war criminals were recruited into U.S. intelligence agencies, the U.S. State Department and the Republican Party, and more recently, into the Presidential Administrations of the three most anti-cannabis Republicans in modern history - Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush.In closing . . . Resist . . . Educate and never, never give up hope…Up the Revolution! Hemp for Victory!Thank you for your time.R. William Davis Director, The Elkhorn Project, Louisville, KY randy ka.netIf you want to read the entire story starting with part 1. http://hempworld.com/hemp-cyberfarm_com/htms/conspiracy/conspiracy1.html ------------------------------------------------------------ HempFarm.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 28, 2006 at 09:38:41 PT OT: US Bears Brunt of Polar Threat By Tim Reid December 29, 2006 The Bush administration has conceded global warming is threatening polar bears with extinction - the first time it has admitted climate change is a grave threat to the Arctic and its inhabitants.In a move that could have profound consequences for the polar bear and potentially for the US's major polluting industries, the White House yesterday proposed adding polar bears to the endangered species list because of the drastic melting of the animals' habitat. The proposal, reached in a settlement with environmental groups that sued the Bush administration for failing to protect the bears, means a listing decision must be made within 12 months of further study. But the White House insisted an endangered species listing could not be used to trigger new limits to greenhouse gas emissions. There were also unlikely to be any new curbs on oil drilling in Alaska or limits on greenhouse gas emissions, officials said. Complete Article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20984860-30417,00.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on December 28, 2006 at 09:32:50 PT nuevo mexican I want to say something about James Brown and I thought you might appreciate it. Who did more for us and who made us feel good Ford or Brown? Which of the two will be remembered for many years? A world without the Arts is a world that is sterile and unfeeling. I don't want a world like that. Rest in Peace, James Brown. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by nuevo mexican on December 28, 2006 at 09:22:09 PT Just another in a long line of horror stories..... Just goes to show how far they will go to stop native Americans first, and the rest of us later, from generating prosperity from this awesome, NON-drug related plant.This is criminal, can we get a class-action lawsuit going on all levels to stop the war on some drugs, mostly cannabis?America, (or 'the country that perfected racism, homophobia, fear of healing plants, promoter of endless war, and was the seed in the ultimate destruction of the Earth, and all of it's inhabitants)!What a legacy! Oh, AND George Bush! For toppers!Just got that hit from reading this article on Gary Webb, homework for C-Newsers and lurking journalists' trying to remember how to do their job, (snark), as many non-journalist's here a C-News make the stenographers at the MSM model pool pale in comparison!Kaptinemo has keep us up to speed on this guy I believe, let's bring this story back to life, as Gary is no longer with us to do the job!From Buzzflash.comNick Schou's 'Kill the Messenger' Probes the CIA, the Crack Cocaine Trade, and a Journalist 's Untimely Deathhttp://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/048 [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on December 28, 2006 at 07:36:13 PT Fear of Losing Money Excerpt: Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the DEA in Washington, D.C., said the annual registration fee is set by Congress. It also applies to such businesses such pharmaceutical companies that uses opium to manufacture morphine, he said.They want us to understand and they compare Hemp to Opium or Morphine. When I read that I thought how can they expect people to believe anything they say with that view of Hemp. Maybe when the oil runs out they might think twice about alternatives for fuel and Hemp could contribute. The days of oil are number and Hemp isn't even being seriously looked at after all these years. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment