cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Capital?










  Cannabis Capital?

Posted by FoM on May 21, 2001 at 15:34:27 PT
By Davis Crisp 
Source: Billings Outpost 

In Montana, people have gotten used to ranking near the bottom of most economic indicators. But the Montana Legislature has just put the state among national leaders in cultivation of an unlikely product: Cannabis sativa. That's marijuana, given enough of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. But it's also industrial hemp, a low-THC variety of Cannabis that has been grown for an astonishing variety of uses for thousands of years. 
In this country, growing hemp has been illegal since World War II, when the government actively encouraged hemp production to meet wartime needs for hemp ropes and sails ("Cannabis" and "canvas" come from the same root word). Montana's new law, passed by heavy majorities in both houses and signed by Gov. Judy Martz on April 23, won't override federal law. But it puts Montana at the forefront of national efforts to encourage the federal government to allow farmers to grow hemp. Under the bill, the state Department of Agriculture is required to send a copy of the law to Montana's congressional delegation and to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, along with a request for a waiver or a change in federal law that would allow Montana farmers to raise the crop. The law doesn't take effect until Oct. 1, but Bill Kissinger, deputy director of the Agriculture Department, said a staff attorney already is working on the request. The department was neutral on the bill during the session, and Mr. Kissinger said he anticipated that the request would be simple and straightforward. Even if the federal government grants a waiver, Mr. Kissinger pointed out, provisions of the bill could be altered. Montana law, for example, defines "industrial hemp" as Cannabis with less than 0.3 percent THC, a fraction of the 20 percent or more THC level in quality marijuana. Farmers would have to be licensed to grow it, after putting their fingerprints on file with law enforcement and undergoing a criminal history check. The crop would have to be supervised and tested for THC. Even if all that happens, nobody expects hemp to replace sugar beets or wheat as a staple Montana crop. State Sen. Chris Christiaens, D-Great Falls, who sponsored the bill, said he expected most farmers would start small, growing just 5 to 10 acres of hemp. Hemp makes a great cover crop, grows well in cold, arid climates like Montana's and has the potential to help the state fill a niche market that now relies on foreign hemp, he said. He got the idea for a hemp bill while seeking alternative crops for Montana, Sen. Christiaens said. Overproduction had cut the price of St. John's wort from $3,500 an acre to $7, he said, and hemp's 110-day growing season seemed ideal for Montana. His bill sailed through the Senate on a 45-5 vote and passed the House 79-21. All but three of the "no" votes were cast by Republicans, including Yellowstone County senators Royal Johnson, Ken Miller and Corey Stapleton. Sen. Stapleton, R-Billings, said he served on the Senate Agriculture Committee that heard the bill and spoke against the bill on the Senate floor. Maybe the federal ban is archaic and should be overturned, he said, but Montana ought to have its ducks in a row before going up against the DEA, "and we didn't." Sen. Stapleton said he was unimpressed by testimony from the bill's proponents, who were unable to answer even simple questions about the possibility that a drug abuser might distill higher levels of THC from industrial hemp. "It really reeked of a lack of any sort of academic standards," Sen. Stapleton said. He repeated the message that he said he delivered on the Senate floor: He hoped he was wrong about hemp, but he wasn't convinced. Dan Bergey, an assistant professor of plant sciences and plant pathology at Montana State University in Bozeman, testified before that committee, and he acknowledged that he was uncertain at the time about the possibility of distilling THC from industrial hemp. He has since concluded that it would be impractical, if not impossible. For one thing, he said, high levels of cannabidiol in hemp are antagonistic to THC, making hemp sort of an "anti-marijuana" plant. For another, even though it might theoretically be possible to distill THC from hemp in a laboratory, he said, who would bother? It would be illegal and expensive, and varieties of high-THC marijuana already exist. Dr. Bergey compared the difference between hemp and marijuana to the difference between field corn and sweet corn. Sugar is to sweet corn what THC is to marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are basically the same plant, but they have been bred over generations to have such different characteristics that there's no mistaking one for the other. Like Sen. Christiaens, Dr. Bergey sees great advantages to hemp production in Montana. The crop is drought resistant, has deep roots, has no natural predators and is insect resistant. Oil produced from hemp seeds is better than canola oil, he said, and hemp is a more efficient source of paper than trees. "The market is developing worldwide," he said. "Why should we deny it to our growers?" Dr. Bergey sees gradual progress in the fight to win federal approval of hemp production. "Once you look into it," he said, "there is no legitimate argument against it." Indeed, pro-hemp arguments can take on an almost evangelical fervor. Dozens of websites are devoted to the topic, and they cover a wide range of approaches. Some growers shy away from the topic of marijuana altogether to avoid any association with drug abuse. Other advocates, like the 420 Times e-zine, argue for legalization of both marijuana and hemp and offer "hundreds of pictures of beautiful girls Smoking Weed." More serious hemp advocates, such as the North American Industrial Hemp Council Inc., dish out advice on cultivation and seed sources. They detail the amazing number of uses for hemp - you could use it for almost anything except getting high, from clothes to jewelry to foods to automobile door panels. They also point to hemp's long and honorable history, even in this country, whose founding fathers raised hemp and wrote the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. As late as 1938, Popular Mechanics touted hemp as the source of 50,000 products. But fears of the spread of marijuana use already had begun to taint hemp's image. Farmers grew hemp under special licenses during the war, but the marijuana scare, along with taxes and the rise of synthetic fabrics, led to the extinction of the domestic hemp industry. Dozens of foreign countries still raise hemp, including Canada, which authorized commercial production in 1998. In this country, according to a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, some 27 states, including North Dakota, have passed laws or resolutions calling for hemp research or asking the federal government to reconsider its anti-hemp policy. Even the American Farm Bureau Federation has passed a resolution favoring hemp research. Perhaps none of those measures has gone as far as Montana's. The North Dakota law, for example, failed to ask the federal government for a waiver, so it has been ignored, Sen. Christiaens said. A Hawaii law authorized only tiny test plots of hemp. None of the laws or legislative resolutions (including a 1999 resolution by the Montana House that was authored by Billings Rep. Joan Hurdle) has caused the federal government to budge. Hemp supporters and agricultural interests asked the Clinton administration to reconsider the policy in 1998, but the president who didn't inhale failed to act. In March, the groups renewed their request to the Bush administration but have received little encouragement. President Bush's nominee as federal drug czar, John P. Walters, is considered a hard-liner. Barry McCaffrey, the drug czar under the Clinton administration, remained adamantly opposed to legalizing hemp production during his term. Among other things, he and the DEA argued that hemp would be difficult to distinguish from marijuana plants in surveillance operations and that the pro-hemp movement is a thinly disguised pro-marijuana movement. Dr. Bergey and other scientists say that the first argument doesn't hold up. Hemp plants grown almost like trees; marijuana fields are bushy, and the plants grow several feet apart. Moreover, marijuana growers would be unwise to try to hide their plants in hemp fields, Dr. Bergey said. For one thing, their harvest time is different, so a harvested field of hemp would leave naked marijuana plants growing. For another, the plants cross-pollinate, diminishing THC levels in marijuana. Even if the federal government does change its attitude, hemp promises no quick fix for Montana agriculture. Saskatchewan hemp grower Arthur Hanks, writing in April for The Hemp Report, warned that even modest Canadian production had overwhelmed the tiny market for hemp. "Say it to yourself: Hemp is dead," he wrote. "By that I mean to say, the hemp fad is over. The big boom that seemed waiting for us at legalisation in 1998 didn't happen and today hemp backpacks are now discounted across the land. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if just about any hemp business decided to pack it up and go for greener pastures." But he said he remained convinced that hemp has a healthy future, if growers can figure out how. Scott Proctor, a Montana hemp advocate who lobbied informally for passage of the legislation here, is convinced, too. "The real benefits are the scientific ones," he said in response to an e-mail query. "Honestly, plastics, diesel fuels, cellophane, and the fact that we could save millions of trees each year make hemp one of the most valuable resources this state could produce. Its application in the field of biomass energy alone could fix one of our problems. Why resort to non-sustainable high cost energy and foreign oil powers when we could be giving that money to our country's own farmers?" Unless serious hemp production begins, Dr. Bergey noted, there's no way to know what the market will be. He and Sen. Christiaens both envision a future where Montanans not only grow hemp but also manufacture hemp products in small businesses and cottage industries. Sen. Christiaens says he has heard from growers around the state who want to give hemp a try. It would be, they might argue, in keeping with an old American tradition. Newshawk: John MastersonDirector, Montana NORMLhttp://www.montananorml.orgSource: Billings Outpost (MT)Published: May 2001 - WeeklyAddress: 207 North Broadway, Billings, MT 59105Contact: editor billingsnews.comWebsite: http://www.billingsnews.com/Hemp Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/hemplink.htmCannabisNews Hemp Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/hemp.shtml

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Comment #10 posted by observer on May 23, 2001 at 14:45:56 PT

re: Hemp for Amerika
 Is it true that DuPont is one of the biggest lobbiers against the decrim. of hemp? [Newspaper magnate] Hearst also owned Kimberly Clark-St.Regis, the paper and lumber conglomerate that is still busy gobbling up the competition. A major Kimberly Clark-St. Regis customer was DuPont, which converted Kimberly's wood pulp into explosives and synthetic fiber. Dupont's major competition was the enormopus hemp industry.Dan Russell, Drug War, 2000http://www.drugwar.com/propaganda.htm. . . the Dupont Chemical Company had a recently developed patent to make paper from wood pulp, thus Dupont felt threatened by the hemp industry and actively fought hemp in favor of their possible pulp fortune. HEMP AS A RENEWABLE RESOURCEhttp://soilslab.cfr.washington.edu/esc110/2001winter/projects/078/ more:http://www.google.com/search?q=DuPont+hemp 
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Comment #9 posted by Revolutionary30.06 on May 23, 2001 at 13:55:50 PT

Hemp for Amerika
Is it true that DuPont is one of the biggest lobbiers against the decrim. of hemp? I remember reading somewhere that they would be put out of business if hemp were made legal again. The Hemp industry would take over the fiber market. Since hemp is all natural No more synthetic fibers would be have to be made, no more pollutants going into the ground, air, and water. What a great day that would be.
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Comment #8 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on May 22, 2001 at 17:58:46 PT:

Ruderalis
Sorry, Blotter Boy, but ruderalis is usually 1 meter or less in height. Hemp is virtually always sativa, and it helps to have the height for nice long fibers.
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Comment #7 posted by BlotterBoy on May 22, 2001 at 17:04:15 PT:

Ooops!
A little correction here: the type of Cannabis used in the making of rope is usually ruderallis, not sativa. Sativa is associated with a great, up high, and therefore lots of THC, and THCV, which is thought to be responsible for the characteristc high. If only they did grow sativa in Montana!   For now hemp will have to do: the water in many more populated areas of montana is polluted from paper mills (some say you can taste it in the water), what's left of the forests is being hauled away on trucks, and the montana economy isn't exactly booming, especially on the reservations.   Montana needs this, but I'll be supprised if it actually happens because the state is mostly populated by christian right wingers who are afraid they'll go to hell if they think critically.  
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Comment #6 posted by Rambler on May 22, 2001 at 02:02:50 PT

little big steps
This is the kind of thing that will eventually end Marijuana madness.Such seemingly insignificant actions from the states will eventuallytopple the house of cards that prohibition is.I'll bet you could make some high quality dental floss from hemp.
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Comment #5 posted by Dan B on May 22, 2001 at 00:52:05 PT:

Way to Go, Montana!
I grew up in Montana, so this story has special meaning for me. It's great to see that my home state is at least making a symbolic effort toward sanity regarding industrial hemp. Lord knows, Montana can use a serious boost to its economy.Dan B
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Comment #4 posted by SWAMPIE on May 21, 2001 at 21:54:14 PT

DENTAL FLOSS
I JUST MIGHT GROW ME SOME SEEDS,BUT I'D LEAVE THE SWEET STUFF FOR SOMEBODY ELSE.BUT THE ON THE OTHER HAND ......   THIS NEWS IS WONDERFUL!IF ONLY MORE PEOPLE KNEW OF THE TREMENDOUS VIRTUES OF THIS GOD-GIVEN PLANT,MAYBE WE COULD GET MORE FOLLOWERS.AS IT IS THOUGH,TOO MANY ASSOCIATE IT WITH DOPE.TOO BAD,BECAUSE THIS PLANT COULD SAVE THE EARTH AS WE USED TO KNOW IT BEFORE INDUSTRY TOOK OVER AND RUINED IT WITH PETROCHEMICALS AND LOGGING.....IT COULD BE AN "OVERNITE SENSATION"AS IT WERE!!!BOY,THE MEMORIES!!LOL!!       SWAMPIE
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Comment #3 posted by mayan on May 21, 2001 at 17:45:26 PT

Go Montana!
 Good news Indeed! Here in Illinois we're waiting for the governor to make up his mind on a proposed two year hemp study. From what I understand, Montana already has flax seed processing facilities that could easily be converted to accomodate hemp. With the necessary infrastructure already in place it makes perfect sense for Montana to lead the charge. I still beleive that the war on medical/recreational marijuana is ultimately just a war on industrial hemp. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 21, 2001 at 16:06:16 PT

Dental Floss
Thanks Dr. Russo,I'm movin' to Montana soon to raise me up a crop of dental floss! Flashback! I always tried to figure out how you grew dental floss!
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on May 21, 2001 at 15:56:17 PT:

Why Montana?
I am proud of this development in my adopted state, but it is fairly meaningless until or unless the Feds call off the War on Hemp. Fat chance. Although they may be disappointed in Saskatchewan, it is because the DEA essentially ruined the domestic Amerikan market. Innovative scientists and their companies are loathe to take a chance on a technology that may be rendered illegal by the myopic powers that be.One may ask, why Montana? Is it because Frank Zappa's crop of dental floss failed? You betcha. The farm economy is in the toilet. The only reason this bill passed was economic self-interest, and I'm all for it in this instance.Similarly, it is only when the true cost of the War on Drugs is clear to the American populace that we will have change. The cost to the economy is too great. The cost to shattered families is too great. The cost to our international stature is too great. The cost to our civil rights is too great. The cost to our health is too great. Do you get the picture? Then go ahead and convince your family, your friends, your employer, and that unresponsive jerk you helped to elect (at whatever level), through action or inaction.
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