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Valerie Vande Panne explains how the DEA gave hemp producers their greatest ad campaign.
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|9.24.04 @ 6:50PM|#
What if the hemp were genetically modified to not have any THC?
|9.24.04 @ 7:02PM|#
What if the hemp were genetically modified to not have any THC?
What's the point, Thoreau? The major DEA complaint is that it looks like Maryjane and these so called drug experts can't differentiate the two. I consume a lot of hemp foods myself and have yet to fail a drug test. I usually knock off the consumption for a week or 2 before the drug test, but once had hemp oil on my salad 2 days before, I actually did sweat that test till it came back negative.
In addition, the hemp plant seems to be perfect as it is, grows everywhere and requires a bit less water and pesticides compared to other major crops, why genetically modify it?
|9.24.04 @ 7:12PM|#
JSM-
Mostly I just suggested it because I know that many (not all, I know) hemp advocates are wary of genetically modified products. I have this humorous image in my mind of hippies carrying signs demanding regulation of THC-free hemp.
patrick|9.24.04 @ 9:38PM|#
Actually, some fear that while the powers that be stall the legalization of growing industrial cannabis again in this country, the Monsantos of the world will have enough R & D time to file a patent application for the genetically modified version of the plant. This potentiality supports the industry getting ahead of the corporations, patenting the gmo themselves, thereby controlling it (through some sort of protection agreement) and protecting it from the greedmongers, all the while preventing gmo seed from polluting the existing seed.
|9.24.04 @ 9:45PM|#
patrick,
You may be just a smidgeon too "immersed" in this issue??
Hello.
|9.24.04 @ 9:54PM|#
Thoreau,
Interesting, I too fall into the camp of being wary of gmo products. I am not entirely against it, I just hear too many sides of the story to be able to develop an informed opinion. However, being a person who partakes in natural medicine, or alternative medicine to some, I have felt the benefits of purely organic products. But given the choice of starving or eating gmo foods, I'll take my place at the dinner table, thank you very much!
|9.24.04 @ 10:15PM|#
Ruthless,
And your point is?
Ron Bengtson|9.24.04 @ 10:38PM|#
Legalization of hemp farming for energy is a strong argument. The American Energy Independence web site now has a web page about Industrial Hemp.
http://www.americanenergyindependence.com/hemp.html
|9.25.04 @ 12:59AM|#
Ron is right.
You can use the cellulose in the stalks to create methanol.
Hemp seed oil will run in an ordinary diesel engine - amazing! It needs to warm up with a minute amount of regular diesel, then a y-connector is switched over to the hemp seed reservoir.
When Gatewood Galbraith was running for governor of Kentucky, he criss-crossed the state in a Diesel Rabbit running nothing but hemp seed oil.
Here's a question: Why are we tethering our entire economy to a volatile, unpredictable source of energy like shale oil when we could have a renewable source of cleaner energy from hempanol and hemp diesel?
You need to ask your representative that very question as soon as you get a free moment.
|9.25.04 @ 1:29AM|#
"Here's a question: Why are we tethering our entire economy to a volatile, unpredictable source of energy like shale oil when we could have a renewable source of cleaner energy from hempanol and hemp diesel?"
Because that's the way the people who run the world (the Jesuit controlled international banking families)want it. Duh!
Cletus Nelson|9.25.04 @ 1:58AM|#
RA:
"You need to ask your representative that very question as soon as you get a free moment..."
It's funny you ask---I blasted my Senator (Feinstein) on the Industrial Hemp issue when the DEA was attempting to block Canadian IH shipments from crossing the border.
In a very measured tone, I informed her that the DEA was in effect conspiring to bankrupt several LEGITIMATE businesses that were bringing tax revenue to the state of California (you have to speak their language).
She forwarded my e-mail to some hack at the DEA and demanded a response and the prick blamed it all on Customs.
Gotta love that accountability.
|9.25.04 @ 7:41AM|#
Man, I been blowin' lines of hemp all night and this shit is great!!!
|9.25.04 @ 7:45PM|#
Ruthless,
And your point is?
Comment by: patrick goggin at September 24, 2004 10:15 PM
I acknowledge your reprimand, patrick.
That was partly alcohol speaking and partly the fact I prefer defeating the war on drugs by simply stating we own our bodies. I get testy when we try to defeat it by getting lost in the smokescreen of mj.
|9.26.04 @ 1:24AM|#
Ruthless,
Appreciate the acknowledgement. I also share your sentiment re: the war on drugs. However, we need to take the gov't/corporations on in the trenches on these issues, or they'll continue to progress further down the road of owning not only our bodies, but completely contaminating the food we eat. The absurdity of the war on drugs has grown so large that the gov't tried to ban hemp foods because of its association to marijuana. This case aptly displays the absurdity of the war on drugs--perhaps it can be used anecdotally as we try to end it.
|9.27.04 @ 7:39AM|#
At a hearing on hemp before the Wisconsin Assembly's Agriculture Committee in June 2002, a representative of the State Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotics enforcement raised doubts of the ability of Police to distinguish between Agricultural Hemp and Marijuana crops.
Replied Representative JA "Doc" Hines, a Republican from a rural Central Wisconsin district "I don't know about you desk jockeys in Madison, but the Deputies in my County all grew up on farms. They'll have no problem telling the difference." (Sorry, no link, I'm forced to go from memory as there was no official transcript of the hearing.)
For history of Wisconsin's Hemp industry, which held on until 1957, a decade longer than elsewhere in the US, check Dr. Dave's Hemp Archives, compiled by Dr. Dave West, who until recently conducted breeding experiments in Hawaii under license from the DEA.
|9.27.04 @ 7:55AM|#
Hemp as an energy source
Hemp seed to biodiesel is neither better nor worse than, for instance, sunflower oil as a biodiesel source. comparable yields, byproduct (feed), and costs, including soil depletion.
Hemp stalk to methanol gets around the depletion problems, as the plant takes a lot less minerals from the soil if cut before flowering. Here tho there's an energy cost in conversion to liquid, and in building a delivery infrastructure, exacerbated by the fact methanol has only half the energy density of gasoline, requiring either more frequent refueling, or larger tanks leading to lower mileage as the vehicle hauls that extra weight up every hill.
Hemp biomass appears most competitive replacing coal in electric generation, ideally using gassifiers retrofit to the 1930s era generating stations still standing as backup systems throughout the farm belt. Given hemp's low density, it's best to utilize it close to the point of production, cutting shipping costs.
Alexis Baden-Mayer|11.11.04 @ 11:13AM|#
Excellent article and discussion.
Stay involved in the issue by joining Vote Hemp.
Please contact me if you'd like to learn about Vote Hemp's efforts to pass legislation that would change federal law to allow U.S. farmers to grow industrial hemp commercially.