The Hemp Report

I've been posting over at Green Mountain Daily, primarily to help get the Hemp for Vermont bill, H.267, off the Governor's desk and passed into law. I did run into a no compromise activist there. I regularly get email and phone calls from people who think that all varieties of Cannabis should be legal, we should all work together and it's all or nothing — no compromise. Well, here's what I posted over at GMD:

If you think that hemp is going to be grown again in the U.S on pre-1937 terms you are dreaming. Please check out these Quick Links Concerning the Canadian Industrial Hemp Industry. They are pretty complicated, yes? Stakeholders in Canada are working on making them less so, but that's what it took to get hemp grown there in the first place. They compromised, primarily with the law enforcement lobby, got regulations in place and have had hemp in the ground for over a decade.

Whatever form industrial hemp regulations take is because of existing laws, regulations and treaties that exist in a post-1937 world. A lot of these exist because of our good friend Harry Anslinger.

I'd love it if we could ignore all pre-existing laws and the history of all of this, especially since most of the laws, regulations and treaties were written without the clear scientific understanding of the chemical and biological difference between the varieties of Cannabis, and just start from scratch based on what we know now. The law enforcement lobby is never going to let this happen.

In my opinion law enforcement should not have the power to lobby. Legislators should decide on issues and write and pass laws and law enforcement should enforce them.

It would be wonderful if I could go down to my local feed and farm store, buy a 50 lb. sack of certified oilseed hemp like Finola, 'till up the acre out in front of my house, plant the seed, grow it, harvest it, thresh it and store it to feed to my chickens — all without any government regulations or oversight. But, all that is wishful thinking because it's never going to happen.

The simple truth is that we, just like the Canadians before us, will need to compromise and get reasonable regulations in place if we want to get hemp grown again in the U.S. I'm not going to argue these points with you anymore since it seems pointless. I will put my energy elsewhere.