Hemp in the Time of New Federal Marijuana Policy

It's not just medical and legal marijuana states that watched the Justice Department's announcement of its response to marijuana law reforms in the states with interest. Nine states have laws regulating the production of industrial hemp, and ten more have asked Congress to remove barriers to industrial hemp production.

Rep. Massie, Comm. Comer & Rep. Polis (Vote Hemp via youtube)

Hemp is also moving in the Congress. An amendment to the Farm Bill cosponsored by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Jared Polis (D-CO) passed the House on a vote of 225-200 in July and will now go to a joint House-Senate conference committee. And the Industrial Hemp Farming Act (House Resolution 525 and Senate Bill 359) is pending in both chambers.

At a Tuesday Capitol Hill briefing organized by the industry groupVote Hemp (video embedded below), state and federal elected officials said they thought the Justice Department's policy directive on marijuana opened the door not just to regulated medical and legal marijuana, but also to industrial hemp production. Some states intend to move forward, they said.

"That Department of Justice ruling pertained to cannabis," said Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner John Comer, "and hemp has always been banned because it's in the cannabis family. The Department of Justice ruling pertained to states with a regulatory framework for cannabis, and we feel that includes hemp as well. Our legislation set up a regulatory framework."

The legislation Comer is referring to is Kentucky Senate Bill 50, the Bluegrass State's industrial hemp bill, which passed the legislature with bipartisan support, gained endorsements by both of the state's Republican US senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and became law without the governor's signature in April. It establishes an Industrial Hemp Commission and sets up procedures for licensing farming and processing.

"We have a hemp commission meeting Thursday, and we are going to request that Rand Paul send a letter to the DEA telling them we intend to get going next year unless the Department of Justice tells us otherwise," Comer said. "We are taking a very proactive stance in Kentucky. We've been trying to replace tobacco, and hemp is an option not only for our farmers, but it could also create manufacturing jobs in our rural communities."

The commission did meet Thursday, and it voted unanimously to move forward with industrial hemp production, aiming at producing hemp next year.

"That's our first goal, to get the crop established. Then, once companies and industries see that we have a crop here established and growing, we believe industries will start coming here looking for it instead of importing it from other countries," said Brian Furnish, chairman of the Industrial Hemp Commission, after the Thursday vote.

According to Vote Hemp, Kentucky isn't the only state planning on moving forward with hemp next year. Vermont just released its Hemp Registration Form that allows farmers to apply for hemp permits and the Colorado Department of Agriculture is developing regulations to license hemp farmers in 2014. North Dakota has issued permits for several years now.

Imported hemp is now a $500 million a year industry, Vote Hemp's Eric Steenstra said.

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY), who also played an important role in passing the Kentucky bill and who is a cosponsor of the House hemp bill, said he was encouraged by the Justice Department policy directive, but that it was not enough.

"We need more than a Justice Department ruling," he told the press conference. "As a farmer and entrepreneur, I want some certainty. I want a legislative remedy for this, and that's why I continue to push hard for our bill, which would exclude hemp from definition as a controlled substance."

Vote Hemp's Eric Steenstra

But while the House hemp bill now has 47 cosponsors, it still has a long row to hoe. The hemp amendment to the Farm Bill, which would allow hemp production for university research purposes, has already passed the House and awaits action in conference committee.

"If you can attach an amendment to a spending bill, then you can get action," said Massie. "I have to give credit to Rep. Polis for doing this. This is a farm issue, not a drug issue. And while there was debate over whether it was wise to even have a vote, it passed. People decided spontaneously to vote for it as an amendment."

While the Senate has not passed a similar provision, Massie said he was hopeful that it would make it through conference committee.

"There is no equivalent in the Senate, there is no companion amendment, but we do have [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell, who is all for it," he said. "I'm hopeful it will survive, and we'll continue to work on the standalone hemp bill."

"It was important to get the House language in the Farm Bill," said Polis. "Not only does it allow universities to do research that is needed, but it also symbolically moves forward with embracing the potential for industrial hemp production."

Polis said he was cheered by the Justice Department's policy directive when it came to hemp.

"They listed eight enforcement priorities, and industrial hemp isn't even on the enforcement radar," the Boulder congressman said. "We see no federal interest in going after states or hemp producers. The risk is minimal. But minimal isn't good enough for some folks, and that's why we want to continue to gather support for the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. You don't want to have to depend on a federal prosecutor or the attorney general not getting up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning."

Industrial hemp may be an afterthought for Justice Department policy setters, but the recent guidance has emboldened hemp advocates to push forward faster than ever. Getting hemp research approved in the Farm Bill would be a good first step; passing the Industrial Hemp Act would be even better. But it doesn't look like some states are going to wait for Congress to act.

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Cop David Bratzer pushes for marijuana leniency

While off duty, constable collects signatures for Dana Larsen’s marijuana initiative.

David Bratzer believes that prohibition of drugs is wrong.

DAVID BRATZER  is unlike other canvassers in the ongoing initiative campaign to decriminalize marijuana in B.C.

Depending on the time and day, he could be asking someone on the street to support the petition or possibly slapping the cuffs on another for pot possession.

Bratzer is a Vancouver Island Capital Regional District police officer who believes that drug prohibition is wrong.

“When I’m on duty, I’ve always been clear that I will enforce the law as it stands,” Bratzer told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “I’ve sworn an oath to uphold the law.”

But after the uniform comes off, the constable aims to sign up about 1,000 people during the 90-day signature drive that started Monday (September 9).

Because of his job, there may be occasions when the 36-year-old cop has to arrest people for drug offences. “But when I’m off duty, I advocate to change these failed policies around cannabis prohibition,” said Bratzer, who is also the president of the Canadian chapter of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

LEAP is an international organization of active and retired professionals in the criminal-justice system that calls for an end to the so-called war on drugs. It supports the initiative spearheaded by pot activist and Sen­sible B.C. spokesperson Dana Larsen.

As far as Bratzer knows, he’s the only cop who is a registered canvasser in the campaign to amend provincial law so people will no longer be busted for simple marijuana possession. It’s a role that he said he’s “comfortable” in because even the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is now seeking changes in the enforcement of cannabis laws.

At its annual meeting last August, the association, led by president and Vancouver Police Department chief Jim Chu, proposed ticketing and fining people with small amounts of marijuana as an alternative to either looking the other way or laying criminal charges that will only burden the courts.

It’s an idea that former police officer Kash Heed brought up in November 2001. When he appeared then before a Senate committee on illegal drugs as an inspector with the Vancouver police service’s vice and drugs section he talked about “limited prohibition with civil penalties”.

In an interview on September 9, Heed expressed some irritation that it has taken police chiefs such a long time to catch up. “This is going back 12 years ago,” Heed told the Straight by phone. He recalled that the failure of prohibition was recognized decades earlier, in the 1970s, by a federal commission of inquiry into drugs that was chaired by law dean Gerald Le Dain.

“What irks me a little bit is you have these chiefs coming out and saying they’ve got this innovative way to deal with the marijuana situation,” Heed said. “Well, come on. All they had to do was go back…and look up what Le Dain said. Le Dain came out and said our policies are failing.”

Following a long career in policing, Heed entered politics in 2009 and served as a controversial one-term Vancouver MLA.

Heed, as someone who preceded Bratzer in his cause, knows the kind of pressure brought to bear on a police officer who speaks on marijuana policy. “You’ve got to have a thick skin because you’re actually going against the culture,” Heed, a sessional SFU criminology instructor, said. “You’re going against, most likely, the chief of the department. You’re going against many people within the department. The people that do support you are silent on the matter because they fear that their careers will be limited.”

Bratzer, a family man with a young child, is in his eighth year wearing a badge. His two brothers are also police officers.

“Being a police officer who advocates for legalizing and regulating drugs, it can bring some challenges at times with my career, and so it’s a balancing act,” he said.

Bratzer works four shifts and gets three days off a week. He figures that if he can gather an average of more than 10 signatures a day, his goal of signing up 1,000 people by December 5 is doable.

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Hemp Panel to Feds: Kentucky is Moving Forward

The Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission on Thursday directed Kentucky Department of Agriculture staff to begin writing regulations governing industrial hemp production in the commonwealth and voted to serve notice to the federal government that Kentucky is moving forward.

The commission called for a letter from Commissioner Comer and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul to the U.S. Department of Justice to make Kentucky's intentions known. Sen. Paul's office has indicated that he is willing to sign on to such a letter. Industrial hemp is legal under Kentucky law, and at a recent U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, a DOJ official indicated that the federal government will not prosecute hemp farming.

“Hemp is legal in Kentucky, and the federal government has signaled that it does not view industrial hemp as an illegal substance and it will not prosecute hemp farmers,” Comer said. “Surely…no entity will seek to throw up a government obstacle to moving forward with another opportunity for Kentucky farmers and for manufacturing jobs.”

Commissioner Comer presented at a hemp briefing on Tuesday in Washington, and on Thursday he told the commission that the response was "very positive." Comer and U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Jared Polis of Colorado held the briefing to educate congressional staffers about the differences between hemp and marijuana and the many uses of industrial hemp.

"At the conclusion of the briefing, the mindset of the congressional staffers present was that this is a no-brainer and that we should be doing this," Comer said.

KDA attorney Luke Morgan told the commission a 2003 federal regulation clarifies that industrial hemp is not marijuana and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration does not have jurisdiction over hemp. "Industrial hemp is not marijuana," Morgan said. "That’s a fact, but it's also the law."

Commissioner Comer said the state agriculture department receives requests on a daily basis from businesses that want to move to Kentucky and process hemp.

"As a farmer, my No. 1 priority is to give farmers another tool in their tool box," Comer said. "This will be successful only if there will be companies to purchase hemp from farmers. We have to be able to locate processors in the state."

Comer said poultry and equine businesses have expressed interest in hemp bedding, which would be easy to process and would "jump start" the industry in Kentucky.

"Looking down the road 10 years from now, hemp will have a significant positive impact on Kentucky agriculture," Comer said.

At the close of today’s meeting, commission member Craig Lee resigned in order to pursue a position with the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association.

“Craig has been a member of this commission almost since the day it was formed,” Comer said. “His experience is unmatched, we are so grateful for his service, and I look forward to working with him in his new role.”

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Alaska: Marijuana Legalization Initiative Halfway There With Signatures

For more than 30 years, Alaska was the only state in the U.S. in which it was legal -- under some circumstances -- to smoke marijuana for the fun of it.

Then Colorado and Washington voters last November passed initiatives legalizing cannabis for adults and setting up systems of production, sales and taxation.

Now backers of a legalization initiative in Alaska say they are moving toward making the same change there, reports the Anchorage Daily News. The group is about halfway to reaching their goal of 45,000 signatures by December 1, about 15,000 more than the number required to get the measure on next year's primary election ballot, according to main sponsor Timothy Hinterberger.

"In a free society, prohibition of popular substances is just bad public policy," Hinterberger said.

The initiative would add a seven-page statute to the books in Alaska, legalizing marijuana for adults and setting up a state regulatory body to oversee cannabis farms, dealers and advertising.

The initiative would impose a hefty $50 per ounce excise tax that would be collected between the greenhouse and the store or factory.

Employers would still be allowed to prohibit their workers from smoking or possession at work, and prevent employees from being high while on duty. Driving under the influence of cannabis would still be illegal, and local governments could outlaw growing and sales -- but not possession.

Police would have to stop their current practice of seizing small amounts of pot when they find it. The measure would authorize retail pot shops, but not parlors or bars; that is to say, on-site consumption would be prohibited at the shops.

The legalization measure has been gaining support since Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell on June 14 ruled that the initiative could proceed to the signature-gathering phase. The August 29 Justice Department announcement that it wouldn't sue to stop legalization laws in states which legalize cannabis added momentum to the cause.

"I've had a lot of people talk to me about that since then," Hinterberger said. "I think that shows that we are on the right track in thinking that things are really changing, both in federal policy as well as in public sentiment. It eliminates one of the arguments you sometimes hear against an initiative like ours -- it doesn't matter what we do locally as a state because the feds will step in."

The advisory, while noting that marijuana is still a "serious crime," directs federal law enforcement authorities on the local level to focus on larger priorities, not simple possession or legalized marijuana grow and sale operations. In the case of states which have legalized pot, the Justice Department expects them to prevent interstate sales.

After Alaska voters in 1972 passed one of the most important amendments to the state constitution -- a right to privacy -- Homer resident Irwin Ravin arranged for police to arrest him with two joints in his pocket.

The Alaska Supreme Court dismissed Ravin's case in 1975, making Alaska the only state with legalized marijuana. The court ruled 5-0 that the state law banning cannabis possession violated the newly approved right of privacy, at least for small amounts inside a person's home.

The state could still ban the use of pot in public or by minors, the court said, and could restrict the sales and quantity, but not private possession. In 1982, the Legislature set the legalized "small amount" at four ounces or four plants; anything more than that was a misdemeanor.

But with the War On Drugs coming to Alaska during the Reagan years, the state Senate, then dominated by the GOP, wanted to recriminalize. Legalization opponents sponsored a ballot measure in the 1990 general election which restored criminal penalties for possession of any amount of pot. It won with 54 percent of the vote.

In 2003, the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled that law was unconstitutional. The Alaska Supreme Court refused to hear it, letting the Court of Appeals decision stand.

Gov. Frank Murkowski, in office from 2002 to 2006, vowed to recriminalize pot AGAIN, and directed the Legislature to pass a new law criminalizing all pot possession. The law passed in 2006 and was quickly struck down by a Juneau Superior Court judge.

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the judge had acted prematurely, since nobody had been arrested yet. But apparently nobody has since, and that's where the law stands now: a ban on possession of small quantities is still the law, but the law is clearly unconstitutional, according to Joshua Decker, acting executive director of the ACLU of Alaska.

If officers encounter a small quantity of marijuana, according to Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew, they will seize it as contraband and eventually destroy it, but the Ravin decision effectively blocks the state from prosecuting possession cases involving less than four ounces.

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TN legislator considers legalized hemp farming

A certain crop is now drawing the attention of some Tennessee legislators, but its name often raises eyebrows.

Senator Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) says hemp could boost local agriculture.

"Why not?" he said from the front porch of his own farm Monday evening. "It's not against the law to own it. It's not against the law to import it from Canada or China. It's just against the law for a farmer to raise it."

Unlike its cousin, the marijuana plant, the hemp seed contains almost none of the THC chemical that lead to a high.

"It's not marijuana, you can't smoke it," Sen. Nicely said. "But you can
make thousands of products from it, and we import about half a billion dollars of it a year."

Knoxville-based company Hemp Monkey sells many of those products.

"We do a lot of natural products," said co-owner Amber Keirn. "Hemp seeds, hemp soaps and lotions, candles, clothing."

Keirn listed the benefits of the hemp, including how few pesticides it requires to grow, its low-impact on the soil, and its durable fabric products.

She said the challenge to getting others on board is differentiating between hemp and marijuana.

"It's a lot of education, too, because hemp has that connotation," Keirn said.

Hemp was grown legally in the United States until the early 1900s, when competition with other industry, coupled with its association with marijuana prompted the government to change the law. Some states, including Kentucky, have passed legislation legalizing industrial hemp farming.

After more research, Sen. Niceley says he may draft legislation in the future. Until then, he will watch Kentucky's process closely.

"Sometimes it's easy to use those other states for model legislation," he said. "If it works there, it might work here."

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Hemp: A New Crop with New Uses for North America

“Hemp” refers primarily to Cannabis sativa L. (Cannabaceae), although the term has been applied to dozens of species representing at least 22 genera, often prominent fiber crops. For examples, Manila hemp (abaca) isMusa textilis Née, sisal hemp is Agave sisalina Perrine, and sunn hemp is Crotolaria juncea L. Especially confusing is the phrase “Indian hemp,” which has been used both for narcotic Asian land races of C. sativa (so-called C. indica Lamarck of India) and Apocynum cannabinum L., which was used by North American Indians as a fiber plant. Cannabis sativa is a multi-purpose plant that has been domesticated for bast (phloem) fiber in the stem, a multi-purpose fixed oil in the “seeds” (achenes), and an intoxicating resin secreted by epidermal glands. The common names hemp and marijuana (much less frequently spelled marihuana) have been applied loosely to all three forms, although historically hemp has been used primarily for the fiber cultigen and its fiber preparations, and marijuana for the drug cultigen and its drug preparations.

The current hemp industry is making great efforts to point out that “hemp is not marijuana.” Italicized, Cannabis refers to the biological name of the plant (only one species of this genus is commonly recognized, C. sativa L.). Non-italicized, “cannabis” is a generic abstraction, widely used as a noun and adjective, and commonly (often loosely) used both for cannabis plants and/or any or all of the intoxicant preparations made from them.

Probably indigenous to temperate Asia, C. sativa is the most widely cited example of a “camp follower.” It was pre-adapted to thrive in the manured soils around man’s early settlements, which quickly led to its domestication (Schultes 1970). Hemp was harvested by the Chinese 8500 years ago (Schultes and Hofmann 1980). For most of its history, C. sativa was most valued as a fiber source, considerably less so as an intoxicant, and only to a limited extent as an oilseed crop. Hemp is one of the oldest sources of textile fiber, with extant remains of hempen cloth trailing back 6 millennia. Hemp grown for fiber was introduced to western Asia and Egypt, and subsequently to Europe somewhere between 1000 and 2000 BCE. Cultivation in Europe became widespread after 500 ce.

The crop was first brought to South America in 1545, in Chile, and to North America in Port Royal, Acadia in 1606. The hemp industry flourished in Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois between 1840 and 1860 because of the strong demand for sailcloth and cordage (Ehrensing 1998). From the end of the Civil War until 1912, virtually all hemp in the US was produced in Kentucky. During World War I, some hemp cultivation occurred in several states, including Kentucky, Wisconsin, California, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, and Iowa (Ehrensing 1998).

The second world war led to a brief revival of hemp cultivation in the Midwest, as well as in Canada, because the war cut off supplies of fiber (substantial renewed cultivation also occurred in Germany for the same reason). Until the beginning of the 19th century, hemp was the leading cordage fiber. Until the middle of the 19th century, hemp rivaled flax as the chief textile fiber of vegetable origin, and indeed was described as “the king of fiber-bearing plants,—the standard by which all other fibers are measured” (Boyce 1900). Nevertheless, the Marihuana Tax Act applied in 1938 essentially ended hemp production in the United States, although a small hemp fiber industry continued in Wisconsin until 1958. Similarly in 1938 the cultivation of Cannabis became illegal in Canada under the Opium and Narcotics Act.

Hemp, grown under license mostly in Canada, is the most publicized “new” crop in North America. Until very recently the prohibition against drug forms of the plant prevented consideration of cultivation of fiber and oilseed cultivars in Canada. However, in the last 10 years three key developments occurred: (1) much-publicized recent advances in the legal cultivation of hemp in western Europe, especially for new value-added products; (2) enterprising farmers and farm groups became convinced of the agricultural potential of hemp in Canada, and obtained permits to conduct experimental cultivation; and (3) lobby groups convinced the government of Canada that narcotic forms of the hemp plant are distinct and distinguishable from fiber and oilseed forms.

In March 1998, new regulations (under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act) were provided to allow the commercial development of a hemp industry in Canada, and since then more than a thousand licenses have been issued. Hectares licensed for cultivation for 1998–2001 were respectively, 2,500, 14,200, 5,487, and 1,355, the decreasing trend due to a glut of seed produced in 1999 and pessimism over new potential regulations barring exports to the US.

 Information on the commercial potential of hemp in Canada is in Blade (1998), Marcus (1998), and Pinfold Consulting (1998). In the US, a substantial trade in hemp products has developed, based on imports of hemp fiber, grain, and oil. The American agricultural community has observed this, and has had success at the state level in persuading legislators of the advisability of experimental hemp cultivation as a means of evaluating the wisdom of re-establishing American hemp production. However, because of opposition by the federal government, to date there has only been a small experimental plot in Hawaii. Information on the commercial potential of hemp in the US is presented in the following.

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Wash. set to release draft rules for pot industry

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  Associated Press -
  FILE - This file photo taken April 4, 2013 shows marijuana plant starts at a growing facility in Seattle. After months of intensive research, public meetings and public reaction, state …more 

SEATTLE (AP) -- They've spent nearly eight months visiting marijuana grow houses, studying the science of getting high and earning nicknames like "the queen of weed." Now, officials in Washington are taking their first stab at setting rules for the state's new legal weed industry.

The state is releasing preliminary draft rules Thursday afternoon, possibly covering an array of topics ranging from how pot should be grown, labeled and tested for quality assurance to what types of security should be required at state-licensed pot businesses.

But some of the most interesting questions — such as how much marijuana will be grown and how many retail stores will be licensed — aren't likely to be answered yet. The state's official pot consultant is still working to estimate how much marijuana people here use, and those estimates will help determine how much pot gets produced.

"It's been a lot of long hours," said Brian Smith, the spokesman for the Liquor Control Board. "We are doing the groundwork. We're trying to be as thorough as we can as we go through this initial several months since the election."

Last fall voters made Washington and Colorado the first states to legalize the sale of taxed marijuana to adults over 21 at state-licensed stores.

In Colorado, devising rules for the pot industry fell to the Legislature, which has passed a series of bills laying out how marijuana should be grown, packaged and taxed. Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to sign the bills May 28.

Washington's measure directed the Liquor Control Board, led by three voting members, to set parameters for the industry. Dozens of board employees divided into 11 teams, each researching different areas — licensing, contracting, legal and policy, enforcement — to inform the board's decisions. The teams meet weekly to keep apprised of each other's progress.

The board's comptroller, Mike Steenhout, has worked with testing labs and experts from around the world to determine how the pot should be tested to ensure that it's safe and consistent when it reaches store shelves.

The board held eight public forums around the state to hear what pot growers, prospective retailers and others had to say. More than 3,000 people attended; few were shy about airing their views.

Now, the board is taking what it has learned and setting out what amounts to a draft of its draft rules for the industry. After allowing people to comment on the rules it releases Thursday, it will propose its official draft rules in about month, and take public comment on those. The final rules aren't expected to be adopted until this summer, with applications for pot growing, processing and retailing licenses accepted in September.

Marijuana sales at state-licensed stores should begin in early 2014 — unless the Justice Department has something to say about it. Pot remains illegal federally, and the DOJ could sue to try to block the licensing schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.

So far, the Liquor Control Board has given few hints about what the rules will entail. Board Chairwoman Sharon Foster — who began a speech at a recent conference by saying, "My friends now call me the queen of weed" — has said that the board probably won't allow open-field marijuana grows, because they're too hard to control. There won't be any pot delivery companies to take weed from a dispensary and deliver it to customers, because the law does not provide for licensing of pot delivery companies. People who have old pot-related convictions probably won't be barred from obtaining licenses.

But many other questions remain. How does the state plan to collect taxes, when federally insured banks won't let marijuana businesses open accounts? How much pot-related advertising will be allowed, if any? Will there be caps on the numbers of growers and processors licensed to provide pot and pot products to the stores? What should be done with all the plants — stalks, roots and leaves — after harvest?

Cale Burkhart, who makes marijuana-infused topical creams under the Vita Verde brand, said he hopes the board doesn't limit the number of growers and processors.

"It's an emerging industry, and it's one that most anybody, as long as they can have their ducks in a row, can break into," he said. "It should be open to people, so that grandma, or a high school dropout, can have the opportunity to start a business and be successful. I'm excited to see if that's how they're going to do it."

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You Don't Have to Use Marijuana to Celebrate 4/20 or Support Legalization

This Saturday is April 20th, a date increasingly known as a holiday for celebrating marijuana.

But this 4/20 -- the first since two U.S. states voted to legalize marijuana -- don't just party. With momentum on our side, let's use the "holiday" as an opportunity to build the movement to change even more marijuana laws. Colorado and Washington State may have made history by voting to replace prohibition with systems to tax and regulate marijuana, but there are still 48 states to go.

Some people think that only marijuana users should worry about the impact of our marijuana laws. In truth, we all pay for the enormous costs of enforcing marijuana prohibition. Police made more than 750,000 marijuana arrests in 2011, and your tax dollars paid for it.

At a time when concerns about the deficit and debt are growing and policymakers are putting cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare on the table, legalizing and taxing marijuana could generate billions of dollars a year in new revenue.

But it's worse than a money problem. While cops are busy arresting people for marijuana possession, nearly four of ten murders, six of ten rapes and nine of ten burglaries go unsolved. Allowing cops to re-focus their attention on protecting public safety and stopping real crime is something that should concern us all, tokers and abstainers alike.

And as long as marijuana remains illegal, gangs and drug cartels will control the market, oftentimes using violence as a means to protect their tax-free profits. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that Mexican drug cartels are operating drug distribution networks in more than 1,000 U.S. cities. We all want safe communities, but keeping marijuana illegal means more criminals setting up shop on our street corners.

Thankfully, many non-users are adding their voices to the debate about marijuana laws and are getting involved in the movement to change them. For example, we can be pretty sure that conservative evangelical Christian Pat Robertson doesn't smoke spliffs after taping episodes of "The 700 Club," but he does think "we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol" by legalizing, regulating and taxing it.

Similarly, no one suspects that people like California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, federal Judge Richard Posner or the editorial board members of the conservative magazine National Review are stoners, but they've all called for changes to our marijuana laws.

This growing anti-prohibition attitude among non-users extends beyond celebrities to the general public. Indeed, polls and federal studies reveal that the percentage of Americans who support legalizing marijuana (52 percent) is greater than the percentage who have ever used marijuana (42 percent) and much greater than the percentage who use it on a regular basis (just 7 percent have used in the past month).

You don't have to be a marijuana user to know it's time to change our failed, expensive and dangerous marijuana laws.

So this 4/20, please do celebrate how far the movement to change failed marijuana laws has come. But don't rest on your laurels or be fooled into thinking that legalization is inevitable. Get involved. Join an organization like Marijuana Majority so you can find out when your local policymakers are addressing marijuana laws. Share some marijuana reform news on Facebook and Twitter. And talk to your friends and family about the reasons even non-users should care about changing marijuana laws.

We're on track to end prohibition, but it's going to take hard work, money and constant pressure on politicians to enact the marijuana laws that voters want. We can do it, but only with your help.

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Hempcrete Could Change The Way We Build Everything

When it comes to new and sustainable housing ideas, it seems to always be about creating a more efficient home in terms of insulation, lighting, electricity, etc. Mainstream belief  on the subject would have you believe that top corporations and government projects are working with the best possible technology to bring forth solutions that work and are going to be great for the environment. If that was truly the case, I can guarantee you that the whole world would be using Hempcrete right now. Haven’t heard of it? I’m not too surprised.

First off, what is Hempcrete? Hempcrete is a building material that incorporates hemp into its mixture. Hempcrete is very versatile as it can be used for wall insulation, flooring, walls, roofing and more. It’s fire-proof, water-proof, and rot-proof as long as it’s above ground. Hempcrete is made from the shiv or inside stem of the hemp plant and is then mixed with a lime base binder to create the building material. This mixture creates a negative carbon footprint for those who are concerned with the carbon side of things. It is the worlds strongest building material and is much more versatile, easy to work with and pliable than concrete. In fact, earthquakes cannot crack these structures as they are 3 times more resistant than regular concrete.

Since lime is the binding material, builders do not have to heat up the lime as much as a supplier would need to in the industrial creation of concrete. This results in a lot of energyconservation when producing Hempcrete vs. concrete. Jumping back to the carbon aspect, Hempcrete sequesters (hides or puts away) carbon as it is very high in cellulose. Through it’s growing life cycle, it takes in large amounts of carbon which is then built into the home or building it is being used to construct. This does not allow the carbon to be released into the atmosphere. A home can save about 20,000lbs of carbon when being built out of Hempcrete

Hempcrete is a much more superior building material due to the fact that it is a very strong, lightweight and breathable material. When used as exterior walls, it lets water in without rotting or damaging the material. In a practical sense, instead of needing to build homes with space between exterior walls, which are then filled with insulation, you can simply use a Hempcrete wall. As humidity is taken in from the external environment, the Hempcrete holds that humidity until it is ready to be released again when the climate is less humid. Since the lime is wrapped in cellulose, the lime takes a bit longer for it to fully petrify but is still incredibly strong. Over time, the lime looks to turn back to a rock, so the material becomes harder and harder until it petrifies completely. This means the wall will last thousands of years vs. 40 – 100 like normal building materials today.  Another great aspect to Hempcrete is that if too much is mixed during building, you can return it to the soil as a great fertilizer. Since hemp grows to maturity in just 14 weeks, it is a very powerful, versatile, cheap and sustainable solution.

Other notable factors are that hemp requires no fertilizer, weed killer pesticide or fungicide to grow it. The hemp seed can be harvested as a nutritious food rich in Omega-3 oil, amino acids, protein and fiber. It is considered a “super food”. The outer fibers can be used for clothes, paper and numerous every day items. This truly is a very powerful plant and should be a no brainer when it comes to it being used in a very mainstream way.

You would think that if the government and corporations were truly concerned with climate change, and the massive effects they claim it is going to have on life, that they would begin implementing this solution very quickly. They would most likely make hemp legal once again in the US and start producing this stuff like crazy. But this doesn’t seem to be the case. Are they exaggerating about climate change and how much OUR carbon is affecting it? Or are they so concerned with their system that they fear changing things? Either way, something is up here.

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Indisputable Evidence That Cannabis May Be The Most Nutritional Vegetable In The World

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Hemp Rope

Hemp Rope

Hemp is a fast growing plant that can reach more than 15 feet in height. The fibers used to make hemp rope is the bast or the part of the plant that grows underneath the outer layer of the bark surrounding the inner stalk of the plant. The fibers are extremely strong,and long as well as resist uv light,mold, and mildew. Multiple individual hemp fibers are braided or twisted together to form a hemp rope.

Hemp Bast

As far ack as 2,800 BCE industrial hemp was used in China. It was used as a source for many products along with rope.Ropes have been used by humans since prehistoric times for various needs, including carrying, climbing, hunting and fishing, lifting, seafaring, construction, basket making and sports. Hemp ropes used for seafaring had to be tarred to prevent rotting. As manila, which does not need to be tarred, became more widely available and increasingly popular for rope making, hemp ropes became less common.

Hemp Rope

The manufacture of hemp rope is more environmentally friendly than manufacturing synthetic ropes. Hemp is a fast growing and high yield crop,producing four time as much as trees per acre. It does not require the need for pesticides or other chemicals.Unlike synthetic rope that is made from an oil based non renewable source hemp rope is made naturally
from plant fibers. It is biodegradable unlike synthetic rope which can remain for centuries without breaking down.

Tarred Hemp Rope

There are a few disadvantages of hemp rope like hemp rope used in the maritime industry has to have it covered with tar to prevent from rotting due to moisture that can be trapped within the core of the rope.

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Hempcrete

Hempcrete is a bio-composite made of shiv or the inner woody core of the hemp plant mixed with a lime-based binder. The shiv has a high silica content which allows it to bind well with lime.
Sometimes sand, pozzolans or cement is possibly included and used as a material for building houses and insulation. Hempcrete is non-toxic and resistant to mold, insects and fire. It is energy-efficient and has a higher thermal resistance than concrete.
It is easier to work than traditional lime mixes and acts as an insulator and moisture regulator.

Hempcrete is not has brittle as cement and does not need expansion joints. The normal compressive strength of hempcrete is around 1MPa or 20x lower than low grade concrete with a density about 15% of traditional concrete. Hempcrete is carbon negative and as it ages pulls in carbon dioxide gaining strength. Its strength and flexibility allows hempcrete to resist stress induced cracking and breaking even when in an earthquake.

Hempcrete takes only a few minuets to mix in a mortar and placed into wall cavities by hand. Walls are slip formed using planks of wood or plastic to form an inner and outer walls of the form. The material is lightweight, with fully cured bricks being able to float in water, and can be moved easily on sight.

An outside coat of render is used to protect with a colored topcoat to finish. The results appear like a building finished with stucco.

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