The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009
House Bill 1866, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009, would exclude low potency varieties of marijuana from federal prohibition. If approved, this measure will grant state legislatures the authority to license and regulate the commercial production of hemp as an industrial and agricultural commodity.
Several states — including North Dakota, Montana, and Vermont – have enacted regulations to allow for the cultivation of hemp under state law. However, none of these laws can be implemented without federal approval. Passage of HR 1866 would remove existing federal barriers and allow states that wish to regulate commercial hemp production the authority to do so.
Upon introducing the bill in Congress, Rep. Paul said: “It is unfortunate that the federal government has stood in the way of American farmers, including many who are struggling to make ends meet, from competing in the global industrial hemp market. Indeed, the founders of our nation, some of whom grew hemp, would surely find that federal restrictions on farmers growing a safe and profitable crop on their own land are inconsistent with the constitutional guarantee of a limited, restrained federal government. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to stand up for American farmers and cosponsor the Industrial Hemp Farming Act.”
According to a 2005 Congressional Resource Service report, the United States is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop. As a result, U.S. companies that specialize in hempen goods — such as Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Patagonia, Nature’s Path, and Nutiva — have no choice but to import hemp material. These added production costs are then passed on to the consumer who must pay artificially high retail prices for hemp products.
Author: Joe Kennelly
Joe Kennelly is an Examiner from Seattle. You can see Joe’s articles on Joe’s Home Page.
How can you slander the name of Hemp like that?
You choose to write about Industrial Hemp, have you even taken the time to educate yourself on the plant itself?
HEMP IS NOT LOW THC MARIJUANA. Period.
Hemp is a variety of CANNABIS plant, and while Marijuana (which is only a derogatory term coined by the gov to make it sound more like a “drug”), is also part of the Cannabis family, they are no longer the same plant.
Gooseberries and Blackberries are also part of the same family of plants that Cannabis belongs to, but you don’t see people calling those plants “low grade marijuana”.
Hemp has never produced much THC because of the way it is cultivated, and over the centuries it’s seeds no longer developed the need to carry the THC gene as compared to the other CBD’s that it is loaded with. Hemp looks almost nothing like Marijuana, other than that the leaves tend to still tend to have 5 to 7 leaves. Hemp is taller, less bushy and the flower produce very nasty “buds”. They are really not good for anything other than creating more seeds and plants. Hemp is in no way Marijuana. That’s like saying that you and your third cousin twice removed are the same person! Are you really?
Please educate yourself on a subject before you report on it. It will make your article stand out and the news you send will go viral faster.
Amused Consensus – CBD is not an abbreviation for cannabinoid, it is an abbreviation for cannabidiol, which is one of the cannabinoids present in the marijuana or hemp plant.
Do you have any sources showing cannabinoid content of industrial hemp? Would be interesting.