North Dakota Farmers Sue DEA Over Hemp

[High Plains]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-17-hempsuit_N.htm?csp=34

2 farmers suing DEA over right to grow hemp

By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY

Two North Dakota farmers who want to grow hemp are filing a federal lawsuit today to challenge the Drug Enforcement Administration's ban on the plant that is the same species that produces marijuana.
Hemp can be imported from Canada, Europe and China, but growing hemp in the USA is illegal, the DEA says.

"Hemp is marijuana," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney says. "There's no distinguishing feature between marijuana and hemp."

Lawyers for the farmers say the Controlled Substances Act, which governs illegal drugs, makes a specific exception for hemp, a non-drug version of the marijuana plant. They are seeking a court ruling that says the federal authorities cannot arrest the North Dakota farmers for growing hemp.

The federal government used to encourage farmers to grow what is known as "industrial hemp," says attorney Joseph Sandler in Washington, D.C., who is representing the farmers. Hemp plants have a low concentration of the psychoactive chemical that gives marijuana users a high, he said.

"You can smoke 17 fields of this stuff, and it's not going to do anything," Sandler says. "It doesn't make sense to say you can import all this hemp, but you can't grow it and import it from North Dakota to South Dakota."

<snip>

more at the link above

[High Plains]

1. Way to go, North Dakota!

The state legislature has passed legislation allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp, the state agriculture commissioner has promulgated the necessary rules, but the DEA refuses to give its approval. Actually, DEA refuses to do anything, thus stopping the farmers from being able to go ahead with planting. It's already too late this year.

This case could end DEA's stupid blocking of the growing of industrial hemp in the US. Now, we have to import it from Canada, China, or Europe. How fucking stupid is it to be able to import the stuff but not grow it here?

[porphyrian]

2. Is Courtney lying or just fucking stupid? Great spokesman pick, DEA.

Next time, try someone who believes in science.

[tridim]

3. It's time for the DEA to stop lying to their bosses

Everything the DEA says regarding cannabis is a lie, it's time we hold them to account. Somehow.

[madrchsod]

4. actually the best way to stop people from trying grass

is to give them some of that stuff! we called it "ditch weed" around here because they grew during ww2 for rope. the state spent thousands of dollars spraying the ditches cause kids were trying to smoke it and sell it!

[High Plains]

6. I'm in South Dakota. Lots of ditchweed here, too.

The DEA spends something like $13 million a year to eradicate it. What a stupid waste. I call it a summer jobs program for cops.

The DEA says it's worried people will plant marijuana in the middle of the hemp fields. That, too, is pretty damned stupid because the hemp pollen would pollinate the marijuana plants, turning them into crappy, low-THC weed.

[Webster Green]

13. It wouldn't turn them into crappy low THC plants..

It would turn them into very seeded buds of whatever quality (potency) the marijuana possessed in the first place.

Planting the resulting seeds would probably yield a mostly disappointing crop the next year.

[TlalocW]

5. Garrison Courtney is a moron

But I'm sure part of his trying to keep hemp from being grown is pressure from the limber industry. Hemp can be used to make paper, and we can't take that away from the limber industry. No, we can't have an environmentally-friendly way to create paper.

TlalocW

[yardwork]

8. I'm sure that he's protecting some corporation or another.

The only laws this administration enforces are those protecting their business cronies. The country's being run by organized crime.

[VP505]

7. I hope they

win their case, it has never made sense to me to ban hemp when it has so many uses. Hell just making paper and saving trees makes it worthwhile, and that's not even considering that the oil can be made into fuel.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Also doesn't it nurture the soil and clean the air? So many uses.

Hemp should be planted all over this country. We are a backward thinking country in so many ways.

[Beelzebud]

9. Marijuana prohibition should have been ended decades ago...

The only real negative aspect to Marijuana is that it's illegal.

[bamacrat]

11. You are so right.

Our Marijuana laws are stupid and unjust, no one has ever died from weed. THe only way it can harm you is getting caught with it. Man I hate all of our stupid laws, I thought this is supposed to be the land of the free, not the land of the people who can do only the things allowed by the government and all other things are considered illegal and warrant arrest as punishment. What a police state.

:mad: :smoke: :mad: :smoke:

[opihimoimoi]

10. Read MARIJUANA POTENCY Michael Starks 1977...Tables exist advising which species are for fiber

and which for the THC...

The research has already been done...

[mdmc]

12. opposing the drug war makes baby Jesus cry

God Bless these farmers!

[wicket]

14. Ummm.....

"Hemp is marijuana," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney says. "There's no distinguishing feature between marijuana and hemp."

Try smoking hemp buddy, then you'll see the difference :evilgrin:

[progressoid]

15. "There's no distinguishing feature between marijuana and hemp."

Oh. My. God. :eyes:

[northofdenali]

17. Every time the DEA lies

a kitten dies.

Poor kitties.

Hemp and pot one and the same? :rolleyes: GET A CLUE, ASSHOLE.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=116526&page=1
<snip>

Even if you "Just Say No" to drugs, you've probably crossed state lines many times with large amounts of hemp. And if you haven't, no doubt one day you will.

Hemp, a member of the cannabis family of plants, is related to marijuana and illegal to grow in the United States. Nevertheless, hemp is everywhere — in clothing, cosmetics and even in the door panels of more than a million Ford, Chrysler and General Motors cars.

GM Advocates call hemp a miracle crop. It can be blended to make an array of textiles, from carpeting to finely woven Armani suits. It can be heat-treated to form fiberglass-like building materials and car parts. It can be eaten, or it can be put in a car engine as a replacement for petroleum.

Apparently, industrial hemp is good for practically everything but getting high. This form of cannabis has only the slightest amount of THC — the illegal mind-bending substance in marijuana.

And this from ABC News!!!