For the third time in eight years, state Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Trail (R-Moscow) introduced a resolution that would have asked the U.S. Congress to remove federal barriers to industrial hemp farming. Unfortunately, it was shot down by lawmakers who were concerned that hemp farming could make it easier for marijuana farmers to sneak their crops past law enforcement.

Apparently, they weren't aware that marijuana growers don't want to have their specially-selected female plants anywhere near industrial hemp, whose male plants would ruin the illicit crop with hemp pollen. The threat industrial hemp poses to marijuana is so serious that last year in California legal medical marijuana growers vocally opposed an industrial hemp bill because it didn't contain a clause they desired that would have limited commercial industrial hemp production to agricultural areas of the state where marijuana isn't widely cultivated.

North Dakota Congressman Earl Pomeroy

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said his February 13th meeting with federal drug agents at the DEA in Washington to submit the first applications to grow industrial hemp was not very productive.

Johnson said federal DEA officials were reluctant to accept the applications and fee payments he submitted on behalf of Osnabrock state Representative Dave Monson and Ray farmer Wayne Hauge.

According to Commissioner Johnson, DEA officials would not directly say when they would make a decision on the applications but indicated they would not be approved.

"I felt that we've got a long ways to go with the DEA," Johnson said after the meeting. "They made it quite clear that they still do not understand or believe the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. That's a pretty fundamental issue."

For the seventh time in nine years, an industrial hemp bill has been introduced in New Hampshire.

HB 424 was introduced on January 4, 2007 and has been referred to the House Environment and Agriculture Committee. A hearing is scheduled for 1:00 PM on Tuesday, March 6 in Room 303 LOB.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Derek Owen along with Rep. Susi Nord, Rep. Lee M. Hammond, Rep. Jacalyn L. Cilley and Rep. Frank A. Tupper, would create a regulatory program for industrial hemp farming very similar to North Dakota's and includes a finding that "the development and use of industrial hemp can serve to improve the state's economy and agricultural viability and the production of industrial hemp can be regulated so as not to interfere with the strict regulation of controlled substances in this state."

South Carolina currency from 1789. The front of this engraved bill has a vignette of a tobacco plant and a coil of hemp rope.

H 3305, introduced in the South Carolina House on January 17, 2007 by Reps. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, and William Witherspoon, R-Conway, chairmen of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee, would create a committee to study the beneficial uses of industrial hemp.

The bill includes the findings that hemp "has virtually no intoxicating effects when consumed ... and ... is an efficient and economical crop for farmers to grow" and "a variety of useful materials can be made from hemp such as paper, textiles, building materials, food, medicine, paint, detergent, varnish, oil, ink and fuel."

Rep. Bill Herbkersman believes hemp might be a lifeline for South Carolina's faltering tobacco and textile community.

"This has the potential to replace a good part of the tobacco-growing industry," said Herbkersman.

The 1903 USDA Yearbook shows that the hemp grown in Gridley, CA was well over 10 feet tall. Photo courtesy of Hempology.org

The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act will be reintroduced today. Click here to watch a fantastic television news segment that aired on Monday. In the piece, Javier Pena, a DEA special agent, is confronted with the fact that industrial hemp has about as much THC as poppy seeds have opium.

Pena countered, "It doesn't matter. It could be half of a half of a half percent. If it's THC, it's illegal under federal statutes."

This issue has already been settled by the courts in favor of the hemp industry. The trace amount of naturally-occurring THC in industrial hemp cannot be banned under the theory that THC is a scheduled drug. "THC" in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) applies to synthetic THC, not non-psychoactive industrial hemp.