Dear Reader,
Welcome to the tenth issue of The Vote Hemp
Weekly News Update! A lot of major changes have
happened in the past week, but will it be good for
hemp? The lead story from North Dakota is Hemp-growing
rules take step forward. Progress there has been
slow, but steady. There is more good news as well.
Roger
Johnson, the Democratic candidate, has been re-elected
as Agriculture Commissioner of North Dakota!
Commissioner Johnson is also President Elect of the
National Association
of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) for
2007. Interestingly enough Doug Goehring, the
Republican candidate, also
believes that farmers should be able to grow
industrial hemp.
Considering that she only had six weeks to
campaign and raise money, Republican Rep. Cynthia
Thielen of Hawaii did extremely well to get 36%
of the vote in her losing
bid for the U.S. Senate. Cynthia was the sponsor
of several successful hemp bills in the Hawaii
legislature and has been a strong supporter of
allowing U.S. farmers to grow hemp.
If you have been off in the Desolation
Wilderness and have not heard the news the
Democrats won the majority in both the U.S. House
and Senate in last week's elections. They also won
Governorships in 28 states.
In New
Hampshire, where an industrial hemp farming bill
has been pre-filed for 2007, Democrats regained
control of the New Hampshire House for the first
time since 1911. They also regained
control of the Senate. We are hopeful that the
new leadership will be supportive of industrial hemp
farming legislation in New Hampshire.
Industrial hemp is an economic development and
agricultural issue and we would not be where we are
now without cooperation from all sides. Farmers,
business people, and consumers in the U.S. should be
able to profit from our large markets as well as the
Canadians. The World-Spectator story below
notes that 24,000 acres of industrial hemp was
licensed in Canada in 2005. A draft Health Canada
report shows an increase of over 100% in the 2006
growing season to just over 50,000 acres!
Will all of these changes will put Vote Hemp in a
better position to try and pass pro-hemp legislation
on the state and Federal level? We will need your
help to continue our work and find out. Please make
a contribution
to Vote Hemp today to help us fix the situation here
in the U.S.
We need and truly appreciate your support!
Best Regards,
Tom Murphy
Weekly News Update Editor
For an eco-surfboard, local entrepreneur says, 'Hemp, hemp, hoora |
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By Gwen Mickelson In The Water Santa Cruz
Sentinel November 12, 2006)
Aaron Carvajal hefted the deep-green, bat-tailed
board into the air and eyeballed it.
"I'd say it's about nine feet," he said, peering
upward past the bill of his hemp cap.
Carvajal, one of Santa Cruz's newest hemp
evangelists, was decked head to toe in clothing made
of hemp on Friday, as he is every other day at his
hemp products shop and museum, U.S. Hemp Co. And,
you guessed it, the surfboard in his hands was also
constructed with fibers from the controversial
plant, which many praise as the world's premier
renewable resource but whose use in the United
States is severely restricted by governmental drug
enforcement bodies because it contains the
psychoactive ingredient found in hashish and
marijuana.
That ingredient, THC, is only found in minute
levels in hemp, according to Wikipedia. Though
industrial hemp is legal for import and sale in the
United States, American farmers are not permitted to
grow it.
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Good Experience With Hemp |
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The World-Spectator November 6, 2006
John Ackland heard all the jokes when he decided
to try his hand at growing hemp on his farmland.
"The first time I grew it around here, I had lots
of guys coming into the shop and laughing, 'So,
you're growing marijuana, are you?'" he chuckled.
"Now it's becoming a more common crop around
here, and the jokes are long gone," he said.
"People are starting to understand that it's
actually a cash crop. Now, my phone bounces off the
wall with people asking how they go about getting
contracts to grow hemp. So they realize there is
potential out there."
Commercial hemp production became legal in Canada
in 1998, although growers must still be licensed by
Health Canada. In 2005, roughly 24,000 acres were
seeded to the crop across the country -- over
one-third of it in Saskatchewan, equally split
between conventional and organic production.
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SWAZILAND: Illegal cannabis could become legal 'Swazi Gold' |
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IRIN News October 30, 2006
A fundamental shift in Swaziland's attitude
towards the cannabis plant, or hemp, the country's
most lucrative cash crop, could be on the horizon.
The government is set to allow small-scale
production of hemp to see if it has the potential to
become an economically viable crop.
"In hemp we have an alternative to cotton, which
has let us down badly over the last few years. It
has been because of marijuana that we have found it
difficult to talk about hemp, but that is changing,
and we are beginning to shape public opinion to its
benefits," said Lufto Dlamini, the Swazi Minister
for Enterprise and Employment.
"The government is considering a proposal to grow
hemp, and a decision will be reached by the end of
this month. But I expect it will be given the
go-ahead to grow for research purposes, and if that
proves successful then we will see," he told IRIN.
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Hemp-growing rules take step forward |
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By Dale Wetzel Associated
Press In-Forum November 16, 2006
Bismarck, N.D. - State rules for growing
industrial hemp are close to taking effect, although
federal drug agents will have the final say on
whether farmers may cultivate it, Agriculture
Commissioner Roger Johnson said.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem issued a letter
Wednesday saying the proposed rules comply with
state law. A legislative committee that reviews
North Dakota agency regulations still must go over
them before they take effect, Johnson said.
Industrial hemp is a relative of marijuana, but
does not have the hallucinogenic chemical that
provides a "high" when the leaf is smoked. It is
used to produce an assortment of goods, including
paper, rope, clothing and cosmetics.
[More...]
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