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Dear Reader,
The waiting game is over. Unfortunately, we are
extremely disappointed to report that Gov.
Schwarzenegger has vetoed
AB 684, the California Industrial Hemp
Farming Act. A lot of time, hard work and
money had been invested by numerous people and
organizations in
passing the bi-partisan, four-county, five-year hemp
farming bill.
If you would like to learn more about what we
were up against with the anti-hemp lobbying
efforts concerning the bill, please check out the "Hemp
and Law
Enforcement" segment of the "all
Cannabis" NPR show "Marijuana
Laws: From Medical Marijuana to Hemp",
produced by the talented people at Justice
Talking. There are also interviews with
Jean Rawson of the Congressional Research
Service, Kyle Pulliam of Hemp in the
Heartland, and Representative David Monson of
North Dakota — one of the first
licensed U.S. hemp farmers in fifty years. It is
an amazing series of shows. Please take some
time and check
it out.
There are also four addtional recent radio
interviews concerning hemp. David
Bronner of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps was on
The
Dr. Pat Show. Patrick Goggin of Vote Hemp
discussed the California hemp farming bill,
AB 684, on the KMUD
Local News. Ruth Shamai of
Ruth's Hemp Foods and I were also on Clout!
with Richard Greene, broadcast live from Expo
East in Baltimore, MD on Air America
Radio nationwide.
These are just a few samples of the media coverage
regularly generated by Vote Hemp's efforts, overall
worth millions of dollars. However, those efforts
require significant time and money. Please support our media outreach today.
Finally, in North
Dakota the farmers' case against
the DEA is progressing well. You, our
supporters, are helping to fund
this case and have an important role to play.
Please make a contribution
to Vote Hemp today to help us continue fixing the
situation here in the U.S. With our ongoing efforts,
soon actions like
yesterday's California veto will no longer be politically
viable. We're getting there, and we continue to need
your vital support!
Best Regards,
Tom Murphy
Weekly News Update Editor
P.S. — Stay tuned for the certain flood of news
stories about the situation in California.
| Hemp: Is the 'New Billion-Dollar Crop' Back? |
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Wayne Hauge, prospective hemp
producer in North Dakota
By Aimee Erdman
Prairie Business
Magazine
October 1, 2007
Ask the average person on the street what
they think of when they hear the word 'hemp'
and you'll probably hear, "Isn't that a type
of marijuana?"
Therein lies the problem for North Dakota
producers Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson. They
were the first to be licensed by the state to
legally grow industrial hemp as an
agricultural crop in North Dakota. Hemp
contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the same
psychoactive substance found in marijuana,
and so falls under the jurisdiction of the
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Therefore, Hauge and Monson must receive
approval from the agency in order to grow it
legally.
Monson, who also serves as a legislator from
Osnabrock, has been working toward raising
hemp on his farm since 1997. "It was around
January of 1997 we started to introduce
legislation on industrial hemp," states
Monson. The first pieces of legislation were
simply to promote research by NDSU to see if
the crop was a viable alternative to wheat
and barley. "Our wheat and barley were
getting disease. It had been wet and we were
seeing blight. We were looking for a new
alternative crop."
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| North Dakota Farmers in Hemp Lawsuit Ask Judge to Rule in their Favor |
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By Blake Nicholson, AP
The Bismarck Tribune
September 21, 2007
Two North Dakota farmers suing the federal
government over the right to grow industrial
hemp have asked a federal judge to rule they
can legally do so under state regulations.
The motion for summary judgment by Dave
Monson, who farms near Osnabrock and also
serves as a state legislator, and Wayne
Hauge, a farmer from Ray, is in response to a
Justice Department motion filed in August
asking that the lawsuit be dismissed.
The government's motion says federal law does
not distinguish between industrial hemp and
marijuana.
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| Hemp Bill Awaits Arnold's Autograph |
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By Sarah Terry-Cobo
Oakland
Tribune
Page A-1
September 24, 2007
SACRAMENTO, CA — A revised bill that would
allow some state farmers to grow hemp is en
route to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk,
and both sides of the argument are optimistic
the governor will agree with their position.
The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act
was redrafted from last year's version to
address gubernatorial concerns about law
enforcement issues. The act was passed by the
legislature on Sept. 12.
Proponents of the bill, such as the Hemp
Industries Association (HIA) and the non-profit
advocacy group Vote Hemp, argue that hemp
products — including food, body care products
and textiles — are a multimillion-dollar
industry that could benefit California's
economy by allowing the raw materials to be
grown here instead of importing hemp from
overseas [or Canada].
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Great Hemp Hope |
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Hempola Valley Farms' Greg
Herriott
Photo by: Kelly Smith
By Wayne Roberts
Now
Toronto
October 11-17, 2007
"Rope, not dope" was my slogan some years
back, when I was involved in a successful
campaign (yes, we do win some battles) to
legalize industrial hemp in Canada.
My eye was on the 25,000 industrial products
hemp was thought to offer, a farm-friendly,
pesticide-free, green source for everything
from clothing to rope to paper to plastic.
It never occurred to me that food would be
first out of the gate once the plant was
legalized.
But it did occur to Greg Herriott, who was
then running a design shop that had just won
acclaim for producing a reusable takeout
coffee cup.
[More...]
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