Hemp Cultivation Now Legal In Vermont, Farmers Not Required To Wait For Federal Law Change

[knucklehead bob]

Senate Bill 157 has officially become law, explicitly legalizing hemp in the State of Vermont. Under this new law, farmers who wish to grow hemp must simply file some paperwork with the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets, and maintain a 0.3% or lower THC content in the hemp they cultivate. The secretary may require a registration fee, but the maximum they can issue is $25 a year. Unlike most other state hemp laws, this proposal allows farmers to begin cultivation prior to a federal law change.

 

With this law taking effect, Vermont joins Washington and Colorado which allow hemp cultivation before the feds end their prohibition. Obviously those who decide to cultivate hemp will be violating federal law and putting themselves at risk of prosecution, but they would no longer risk state-level charges. H

This opens up a market for these states which, according to congressional research, consists of over 25,000 various products; the same research found that America imports nearly half a billions worth of hemp products from other countries, while maintaining the illegality of its cultivation.

- TheJointBlog

http://thejointblog.com/hemp-cultivation-now-legal-in-vermont-farmers-not-required-to-wait-for-federal-law-change/

Edited July 26, 2013 by knucklehead bob

[greenbuddha]

It would help change Michigan's economy as well, putting to use land that can't grow anything else.

 

Hemp will grow just about anywhere and it replaces hundreds of things made with petroleum, and I'm certain that's one of the reasons it has remained illegal for so long.

[Hydraulic Jack]

I can hardly wait to buy hemp bio-diesel......HJ

[Wild Bill]

Wow! If we can find someone to pay Snyder and his buddies more than they get from the chemical companies maybe we can have hemp growing here in Michigan.

[sho]

Logically... why don't we get a BIG chem company on board to patent a process that makes diesel from the oil, thus in turn locks in profits for them and gives them a vested interest in protecting a "legal" status vs. illegal.

 

Cooperation goes further than confrontation. 

[Wild Bill]

Logically... why don't we get a BIG chem company on board to patent a process that makes diesel from the oil, thus in turn locks in profits for them and gives them a vested interest in protecting a "legal" status vs. illegal.

 

Cooperation goes further than confrontation. 

 

I believe all the patents were probably registered before it was made illegal. When Rudolph Diesel produced his engine in 1896, he'd assumed it would run off of vegetable and seed oils, especially hemp. The reason the chem companies pushed for illegal status was the invention of the decorticator, a machine that could cheaply and effectively separate the fiber from the stalks. Meaning that their synthetic products could not compete.

 

Take a look at this Popular Mechanics article from Feb.1938. It went to press just as the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 took effect.

 

http://www.hempcar.org/untoldstory/pmpage1.html

 

Here is an interesting article that explains how the oil/chem companies conspired to make cannabis illegal.

 

http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/pot/blunderof37.html

[Chauncy Gardner]

The whole sordid history of cannabis prohibition is sickening. Period.

 

I have been marveling at the corn crop this year. I can't remember seeing bigger, fuller stalks. I fantasize about how good a field of hemp would look growing in the same fields. I may live to see such a thing and it will do my heart good. The triumph of reason over emotion and sanity over insanity.