(NaturalNews) You can buy hemp products in America, including textiles, nutritional supplements, soaps and ropes. You just can't
grow hemp in America. So all the hemp used in these products purchased by Americans is grown somewhere else: China, Canada, India, Chile and many other countries. Meanwhile, Americans farmers suffer under increasing debt and decreasing revenues from stalled crop prices. What's wrong with this picture?
What's wrong, it turns out, is that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (
DEA) makes no differentiation between
industrial hemp and
marijuana. To
the DEA, it's all the same crop (never mind that
smoking industrial hemp will only make you vomit, not high) and anyone caught planting
hemp will be arrested and prosecuted using the same laws that were really only intended to halt hard-core street
drug pushers.
As anyone who isn't smoking crack has already figured out (and even a few who are), America's drug policy is a scandalous failure. Not only has the so-called "War on Drugs" utterly failed to stop the flow of recreational drugs in
America, it has criminalized struggling
farmers who seek to grow industrial hemp as a profitable, renewable crop that's in high demand across multiple industries.
The War on Drugs has accomplished one thing, though: It has filled the nation's prisons with small-time "offenders" who got caught with an ounce or two of weed in their pockets. America's drug policy, it seems, is a boon for the prison industry, but a curse upon our nation's farmers.
Planting seeds to make a point
To communicate this point, a small group of true American heroes recently marched to the DEA headquarters in
Washington D.C. and planted
hemp seeds on the front lawn. As cameras rolled, they were arrested for trespassing, but the point had already been made:
Industrial hemp is good for America. It's good for farmers, it's good for the
economy and it's good for the environment (because hemp needs no pesticides and is a renewable crop that grows well even in poor soils).
You can watch the
YouTube video of this event here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJgHS6SLEe4(Please share this
video link with others. Help get the word out.)
Among those arrested at the event were
David Bronner from Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps (
www.DrBronner.com). David Bronner, whom I've interviewed on several occasions, is one of America's revolutionary heroes. Along with other supporters like Ronnie Cummins of the
Organic Consumers Association (
www.OrganicConsumers.org), he fought hard to clean up
organic labeling of personal care
products by exposing the "organic cheaters" who falsely use the "organic" word on their product labels. He's also been a strong advocate for the legalization of hemp seeds in America (which were only legalized as a
food a few years ago) as well as a dedicated supporter of authentic Fair Trade practices.
David Bronner was joined in the hemp-planting protest by Adam Eidinger, another true American hero who has stood his ground on numerous grassroots advocacy issues. He's the communications director for Vote Hemp (
www.VoteHemp.com), a grassroots advocacy group seeking to see industrial hemp once again legalized across the United States of America.
Also present at the hemp planting were Wayne Hauge, a North Dakota
farmer, and Will Allen, a Vermont farmer who seeks to grow hemp as one of his crop options.
Take action now to legalize industrial hemp
These six men took courageous action to send an important message:
America needs hemp. (And some would argue that, likewise,
California needs marijuana, but that's another story altogether.)
Legalizing the
farming of industrial hemp has nothing to do with legalizing recreational
drugs. Industrial hemp isn't pot. You can't smoke it. (Well, actually, you can, but you can also smoke dandelion weeds, and they both give you roughly the same nauseating result.)
The DEA's stance against hemp is an outmoded, leftover remnant of an ancient drug policy that favored force over common sense. And it's time to change it. America needs to end its irrational criminalization of industrial hemp farming.
You can help. This
Take Action page allows you to easily contact your representatives in Washington to let them know that you support the de-criminalization of industrial hemp farming:
http://capwiz.com/votehemp/home/Let your representative legislators know that both U.S. farmers and the U.S. economy need a profitable, renewal crop grown right here at
home. Hemp is the answer.
In the mean time, just so you know, two other strong advocates of hemp products are Ruth's Hemp Foods (
www.RuthsHempFoods.com) and Nutiva (
www.Nutiva.com). They, as well as Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps (
www.DrBronner.com) deserve your support.
Additional resources for this story include:Associated Press:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iSJWKTKnGyJkJkOKzx0F-55...Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2009101...VoteHemp
http://www.VoteHemp.com
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher, author and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams created NaturalNews.TV, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
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Friday, October 16, 2009
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