Industrial Hemp

[wingnut]

Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners passed resolution supporting hemp

 

Read more: Local, News, Hemp, Everett Swift, Mi Hemp, Grow, Farming, Agriculture, Economy, Growth

 

HILLMAN, MI -- Everett Swift questions why you can't grow hemp in America.

 

Swift is the executive director of MI-Hemp, an organization that educates and informs people of the benefits of industrial hemp. He says last year, the US imported $360-million in hemp that is used for more than 25,000 products, some numbers show maybe closer to 50,000 products. Manufacturers can use it, you can wear it, you can even eat it, but like its close cousin marijuana, you can't grow it.

 

Swift says even though hemp a close cousin and resembles marijuana, you can't get high off of it like you can marijuana, and the plant is used primarily for its fibers, which can be turned into several different types of items.

 

His argument is the time has come to lift the ban from growing hemp in the United States, which could potentially pump millions into the Northern Michigan economy.

 

We'll have the full report tonight on 7&4 News at 6.

 

Let them know what you think. Don't forget to vote on the poll. Up north live 7&4 news

 

 

 

[jaman]

It truly is a very special gift to man. I'm a member of mihemp and encourage others to support their program

[wingnut]

Hemp is the most resorceful plant known to mankind . It has more value than any other plant when you look at its uses , the possibilities are endless ...

 

Thanks to the idiots of yesteryear we are no longer able to farm this beautiful plant in America as it was since its beginning . It truly is the answer to many of mans problems here on earth , it could be the answer to more than we know .

 

Just imagine the reduction of trees that are wasted , the grounds that are wasted the energy wasted . Hemp worlwide could save more than we can imagine, yes that beautiful plant is a masterpice of nature . It alone could reverse the greenhouse effect . It could rebuild the wasted depeleted soils that man has ruined with his chemicals .

 

We would no longer have need for fossil fuels , darn I could go on and on about the value of Hemp and all the glory she offers to the world .No matter the rejection she still flourishes and awaits her return ! OD

 

Yeah Danny, I wonder if folks know that Henry Ford used Hemp oil as fuel to run his first Diesel engine ?

[MmmSquirrel4Dinner]

Can we get the Michigan Department of Agriculture to sign off on this as well?

 

What about Michigan State University and their numerous agricultural and biological extensions through out the state? Where do they stand?

 

Michigan's Historical Maritime Museums need authentic Hemp Rope (Michigan grown of course)

[wingnut]

Hemp and Marijuana:

Myths & Realities

 

 

by David P. West, Ph.D.

for the North American Industrial Hemp Council

 

 

About the Author: Dr. West holds a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding from the University of Minnesota and has spent 18 years as a commercial corn breeder. Since 1993 he has served as an advisor to the emerging hemp industry regarding industrial hemp germplasm. His work, "Fiber Wars: the Extinction of Kentucky Hemp" (1994), a pioneering discussion of the functional difference between hemp and marijuana, and his other writings on hemp and agriculture are available online (CLICK HERE).

 

Dr. West can be contacted by email at:

 

davewest@pressenter.com

 

The complete text of this report is available on the NAIHC website.

 

This report is the first in a series of white papers produced by:

 

North American Industrial Hemp Council

 

Post Office Box 259329

 

Madison, Wisconsin 53725-9329

 

Tel: (608) 835-0428

 

Email: sholtea@wheel.datcp.state.wi.us

 

website: www.naihc.org

 

 

 

" 1998 NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL HEMP COUNCIL, INC.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

 

 

 

Hemp and Marijuana

Myths & Realities

Abstract

 

Surely no member of the vegetable kingdom has ever been more misunderstood than hemp. For too many years, emotion-not reason-has guided our policy toward this crop. And nowhere have emotions run hotter than in the debate over the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. This paper is intended to inform that debate by offering scientific evidence, so that farmers, policymakers, manufacturers, and the general public can distinguish between myth and reality.

 

Botanically, the genus Cannabis is composed of several variants. Although there has been a long-standing debate among taxonomists about how to classify these variants into species, applied plant breeders generally embrace a biochemical method to classify variants along utilitarian lines. Cannabis is the only plant genus that contains the unique class of molecular compounds called cannabinoids. Many cannabinoids have been identified, but two preponderate: THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient of Cannabis, and CBD, which is an antipsychoactive ingredient. One type of Cannabis is high in the psychoactive cannabinoid, THC, and low in the antipsychoactive cannabinoid, CBD. This type is popularly known as marijuana. Another type is high in CBD and low in THC. Variants of this type are called industrial hemp.

 

In the United States, the debate about the relationship between hemp and marijuana has been diminished by the dissemination of many statements that have little scientific support. This report examines in detail ten of the most pervasive and pernicious of these myths.

 

Myth: United States law has always treated hemp and marijuana the same.

 

Reality: The history of federal drug laws clearly shows that at one time the U.S. government understood and accepted the distinction between hemp and marijuana.

 

Myth: Smoking industrial hemp gets a person high.

 

Reality: The THC levels in industrial hemp are so low that no one could get high from smoking it. Moreover, hemp contains a relatively high percentage of another cannabinoid, CBD, that actually blocks the marijuana high. Hemp, it turns out, is not only not marijuana; it could be called "antimarijuana."

 

Myth: Even though THC levels are low in hemp, the THC can be extracted and concentrated to produce a powerful drug.

 

Reality: Extracting THC from industrial hemp and further refining it to eliminate the preponderance of CBD would require such an expensive, hazardous, and time-consuming process that it is extremely unlikely anyone would ever attempt it, rather than simply obtaining high-THC marijuana instead.

 

Myth: Hemp fields would be used to hide marijuana plants.

 

Reality: Hemp is grown quite differently from marijuana. Moreover, it is harvested at a different time than marijuana. Finally, cross-pollination between hemp plants and marijuana plants would significantly reduce the potency of the marijuana plant.

 

Myth: Legalizing hemp while continuing the prohibition on marijuana would burden local police forces.

 

Reality: In countries where hemp is grown as an agricultural crop, the police have experienced no such burdens.

 

Myth: Feral hemp must be eradicated because it can be sold as marijuana.

 

Reality: Feral hemp, or ditchweed, is a remnant of the hemp once grown on more than 400,000 acres by U.S. farmers. It contains extremely low levels of THC, as low as .05 percent. It has no drug value, but does offer important environmental benefits as a nesting habitat for birds. About 99 percent of the "marijuana" being eradicated by the federal government-at great public expense-is this harmless ditchweed. Might it be that the drug enforcement agencies want to convince us that ditchweed is hemp in order to protect their large eradication budgets?

 

Myth: Those who want to legalize hemp are actually seeking a backdoor way to legalize marijuana.

 

Reality: It is true that many of the first hemp stores were started by industrial-hemp advocates who were also in favor of legalizing marijuana. However, as the hemp industry has matured, it has come to be dominated by those who see hemp as the agricultural and industrial crop that it is, and see hemp legalization as a different issue than marijuana legalization. In any case, should we oppose a very good idea simply because some of those who support it also support other ideas with which we disagree?

 

Myth: Hemp oil is a source of THC.

 

Reality: Hemp oil is an increasingly popular product, used for an expanding variety of purposes. The washed hemp seed contains no THC at all. The tiny amounts of THC contained in industrial hemp are in the glands of the plant itself. Sometimes, in the manufacturing process, some THC- and CBD-containing resin sticks to the seed, resulting in traces of THC in the oil that is produced. The concentration of these cannabinoids in the oil is infinitesimal. No one can get high from using hemp oil.

 

Myth: Legalizing hemp would send the wrong message to children.

 

Reality: It is the current refusal of the drug enforcement agencies to distinguish between an agricultural crop and a drug crop that is sending the wrong message to children.

 

Myth: Hemp is not economically viable, and should therefore be outlawed.

 

Reality: The market for hemp products is growing rapidly. But even if it were not, when has a crop ever been outlawed simply because government agencies thought it would be unprofitable to grow?

 

 

[2dogwalker]

Firstly,

 

I appreciate all the great information here! I think that Hemp legalization would be a brilliant move for an American Governmental System currently in shambles, maybe in Obamas potential 2nd term when he quits giving a s*it what ppl think about him....

 

Question(s):

1. Could the stalks from all this Med Mari be used in the hemp industry? I mean I have to believe that NORCAL has some real amounts of stalk material, maybe not enough as I know hemp is grown in massive density, but a beneficial use for this waste product would be great...

2. Don't "they" see that massive hemp production would equate to Massive HEMP Pollen in the air during the summer months and thus making it much harder for people near these farms to cultivate sensi, and over time the "ditch weed" will become more and more prevalent everywhere making this a concern in more places?

 

Thanks for the great thread, sub'd

 

2Dog

[Hempcheff]

here is the abstract part Marihuana = Hemp

[Hempcheff]

cmon now i said it was abstract, im suprised OC isnt arresting people for hemp fabric