cannabisnews.com: The War Against Hemp





The War Against Hemp
Posted by FoM on April 04, 2002 at 11:40:46 PT
By Nina Willdorf
Source: Boston Phoenix 
There’s no doubt about it: Jimmy Trapella loves his hemp. Hanging outside Newbury Street’s Hempest, Jimmy’s about to chomp into a hempseed bar. Earlier this morning, he enjoyed hempseed sprinkled on his bowl of breakfast cereal and had some hempseed nuts on a salad for lunch.Jimmy owns a hemp wardrobe, too, including a belt, pants, bag, and shirt — most of which he’s currently wearing. And the 25-year-old is contemplating writing a song about hemp for his band. But despite his blissed-out devotion to the leafy green, Jimmy is not as chill as one might surmise. That’s because, depending on the outcome of an upcoming legal battle in the California courts, Jimmy’s afternoon snack could soon land him in prison.
"I’m bummed," he says.If you think hemp equals marijuana, you’re not alone. But in fact, the two plants are actually different varieties of the same species. One is grown to maximize fiber content, the other to maximize psychochemical effect. One is legal in brownies, the other isn’t. One was grown as a cash crop by our forebears, the other was not inhaled by a recent president.But it seems even the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has difficultly differentiating between the two. In October, the DEA published an interpretive rule in the Federal Register banning hemp-food products containing any amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound found in marijuana. The rule — which included an exemption for personal-care products like soap and shampoo and industrial products like paper, rope, and clothing — reinterpreted the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which classified all drugs into five groups. The DEA’s rule also effectively rewrote a 60-year-old definition from the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, which stated that "neither the mature stalk of the hemp plant nor the fiber produced there from contains any drug, narcotic, or harmful property whatsoever.""Given the recent increase in marketing of these so-called ‘hemp’ products in the United States," reads the rule, written by DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson, "and given that many such products have recently been determined to contain THC, DEA has repeatedly been asked in recent months whether the THC content of such products renders them controlled substances despite the fact that they are reportedly made from portions of the cannabis plant that are excluded from the definition of marijuana."The agency’s decision: yes. As a result, all hemp intended for consumption that contains any amount of THC has suddenly been classified as a Schedule I substance — which means that, according to the DEA’s new regulation, Jimmy’s afternoon snack is basically the same thing as smoking a joint, shooting smack, or dropping a tab. Hemp pretzels, nutrition bars, pancake mix, salad dressing, beer — all illegal. The new rule gave store owners a 120-day window to remove hemp-food products from their shelves.Many in the industry cried foul. Led by the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), a trade organization representing more than 250 companies and small businesses, seven manufacturers banded together and filed a request for a formal review of the rule in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. "[The DEA’s rules] were arbitrary, they didn’t follow due process, and they weren’t based on due process," argues John Roulac, founder of Nutiva, which manufactures hemp and flax bars, among other hemp products. "What we’re doing is perfectly legal, healthy, sustainable." The review, which begins April 8 in San Francisco, could effectively reverse the DEA’s rule. In addition, Canadian company Kenex has accused the US government of violating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by impeding the import of hemp seeds. In March, the company filed notice of an intent to arbitrate under NAFTA’s Chapter 11, requesting tens of millions of dollars in compensation for lost revenues.In the meantime, the group of hemp supporters filed an urgent motion to stay the DEA’s rule, which would allow stores to continue to stock their hemp-food products. "This action seriously threatens our business," the motion reads, "to the point that we may need to shut down our operations and force us to go out of business." In early March, the Ninth Circuit granted the stay, meaning that until the court finishes its review of the rule and renders its final decision, it’s still legal to sell — and consume — hemp-food products.Michael Cutler, a drug-policy-reform advocate and an attorney for the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers, sees the stay as substantial indication that the feds’ case has little merit. "I don’t think the government’s even close to having a case," he says. "The fact that a circuit court would step on a government agency, particularly the DEA, is extraordinary. And to do it as an emergency-injunctive action, with only affidavits, and without evidence," is even more extraordinary. Human have made use of hemp plants for 10,000 years. In fact, its devotees are fond of throwing historical information at the government, such as the claim that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp. And they tirelessly point out that while marijuana and hemp are both classified as Cannabis sativa, the first is bred for maximum THC content, and the second is bred for maximum fiber content.Industrial hemp plants, a tall, stalk-like variety, are bred for exceptionally low THC content, and can be harvested either for their seeds (also known as nuts) or their oil. The seed’s outer shell contains trace amounts of THC, which may brush against the nut, but the psychochemical component can be removed with dabs of alcohol or the whisk of a brush, says Richard Rose, founder of hempseed-food maker HempNut Inc. After it’s been extracted, the seed can be turned into anything from crunchy nuts and pretzels to salad oil. And according to the HIA, the small nuts are gaining steam: estimated retail sales for hemp-food and body-care products in the US exceeded $25 million in 2000, up from less than $1 million in the early ’90s.Sure enough, at the Hempest outlet in Northampton, about a dozen people come in every day to enjoy a cup of hempseed coffee. Ed Dodge, a member of the Massachusetts Green Party and a hemp aficionado, says he also eats hemp daily. He mentions the Galaxy Restaurant in New York. "They have a whole hemp-food menu. Twenty different hempseed dishes. They’ve got the best veggie burger I’ve eaten in my entire life!"Enthusiasts also tout the hempseed’s health benefits, derived from an optimal mix of essential fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 (those found in fish and wheat germ, for example), as well as its high protein content. Alternative-health expert Andrew Weil, author of the Self Healing newsletter, is a fan of hemp-food products, writing that "hemp oil contains more essential fatty acids than flax and actually tastes good. It is nutty and free from the objectionable undertones of flax oil. I use it on salads, baked potatoes, and other foods."Cynthia Sass, a nutritionist referred by the American Dietetic Association and a professor at the University of South Florida, adds that "hempseed also is a good source of vitamin E. It’s real high in protein. Hemp is equivalent to soy beans in its protein content, which is really good." Still, she cautions that while the seed and oil have a good "nutritional profile," there aren’t any studies that indicate whether or not the vitamin E, protein, and essential fatty acids actually offer health benefits when ingested via the plant. "There hasn’t been any research done in which doctors gave people hemp and then followed them to see whether their blood pressure or something else improved. So there’s no connection between consumption and health benefits. Even though it has some positive nutrients in it, we need to look for some more research and continue to consume other nutrients. There’s no one super food that everyone needs to be eating."Strong as the hemp-food market may be, it’s not the high-powered arm of the hemp industry. Apparently, one can fashion more than 25,000 products out of the stuff, including hammocks, magazines, hacky sacks, frisbees, embroidery thread, candles, coffee filters, teddy bears, and, of course, lots and lots of elastic-waisted, loose-fitting hemp clothes.As the law currently stands, all that remains legal even if the DEA’s rule isn’t overturned. But industry insiders are nervous that they may be headed down a slippery slope. First food, then lip balm, then body lotion, they fear — and then the whole shebang. So companies other than those that manufacture hemp food have gotten involved. "The DEA is just picking on the food industry now," says Roulac. "[But] the body-care industry is next."Some surmise the DEA has bolstered its case against hemp because ingested hemp oil can cause a false-positive result on drug tests. In 1997, the Journal of Analytical Toxicology published a study showing that a person who ingested 135 milliliters of hempseed oil twice a day for four days tested positive for marijuana in the blood. In January 2000, the Air Force banned the oil after a soldier tested positive for drug use — and traced it back to a hempseed dietary supplement. It may be that government officials fear drug users could blame a positive drug-test result on hempseed oil or other hemp product, rather than on an illegal substance.But in October 2000, the Division of Forensic Toxicology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology found that "the concentration of THC in hemp-oil products has been reduced considerably since the publication of earlier studies." After volunteers ingested the products, the report’s authors claimed, "all volunteers were below positive screen and confirmation cutoffs within 48 hours after cessation of ingestion."Subsequent studies have also thrown the false-positive fears out the window. Most recently, an environmental-consulting firm in Berkeley, California, found that THC concentrations from foods containing seeds or oil are "sufficiently low to prevent confirmed positives."Testing aside, the question for the DEA may be why now? With a war going on, doesn’t the government have better things to worry about?"The US government has had a war against the hemp industry for a long time; this is just another round," explains Nutiva’s Roulac. "They realized that everyone was distracted with domestic security, they could do things like this without much public notice," asserts Don Wirthshafter, founder of the Ohio Hempery, a hemp-product manufacturer. "The same week, they came down on medical-marijuana clubs in California and physician-assisted suicide in Oregon. They thought they could get away with it then."More important, those in the hemp industry believe, the fact that the government sat on the issue for a year indicates that the products don’t pose the critical health threat the DEA posits. "Obviously, having waited almost a year to issues these rules," court papers read, "DEA does not believe the products in question pose any threat to public health or safety, let alone an imminent threat warranting immediate placement of these products on Schedule I of the [Controlled Substances Act]."So if it’s not a health issue, what’s the problem? Some allege that the DEA has been pressured into action by the religious right. The conservative Family Research Council (FRC) issued an extensive appeal to snuff out the hemp industry in December 2000. In an article titled "Hemp Is Marijuana: Should Farmers Grow It?", Robert Maginnis, vice-president for national security and foreign affairs at the FRC, wrote, "legalizing hemp sends the wrong message about its look-alike, marijuana.... Selling hemp products is clearly about marijuana legalization."David Bronner disagrees. And as chair of the HIA’s food-and-oil committee and president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, a personal-care company whose products contain hemp and whose packaging (also made of hemp) features religious messages, Bronner sits at an intriguing intersection of hemp advocacy and Christian morals. "Industrial hemp has a phenomenal nutritional profile," he says. "The DEA is trying to undercut the most promising growth market in the near future." But none of the dea documents addresses the crux of the case: can you get high from eating hemp-food products? The level of THC in hempseed is reportedly so low that, as one hemp advocate huffs, "the products don’t have a high enough concentration of THC to intoxicate an ant, let alone a human being."Says attorney Michael Cutler, "You can eat hemp pretzels till you explode, and you won’t get high. It ain’t there. You can’t stack it up and get it in there. What you have in there is not metabolizable into something that’s psychoactive. There’s really no scientific dispute about that."Nutritionist Sass concurs: "I haven’t seen any research to show that the psychoactive effects of using marijuana plants as a drug would have the same effects as eating [hemp foods]. I’ve never had anyone tell me they would eat it for that reason. Everyone I’ve ever talked to who is or who has considered eating hemp is doing it because they think it’s healthy." Sass pauses, laughing. "And I work at a university."Canada’s Hempola even tried an experiment to see whether eating enough hemp-food products could possibly turn a test positive. In the test, the country’s top-ranking masters triathlete ingested hempseed oil at six times the typical consumption rate for a series of days. "He went in for a drug test," explains Hempola’s founder and president Greg Herriott, "and he came out negative."It’s been illegal to grow hemp in the US since the 1950s, so most hempseed found in this country is imported from Canada and follows that country’s strict Health Canada Protocol guidelines: a plant must contain no more than three-tenths of one percent THC, or five parts per million (ppm) for hemp oil and 1.5 ppm for shelled hempseeds.Here in the US, the DEA claims that hemp foods containing zero percent THC are perfectly legal under the new rule. But insiders argue that’s impossible, because hemp products with zero percent THC don’t exist. According to them, you can always find trace amounts if you look hard enough. But companies currently selling hemp-food products have tested below the current THC-detection standards, which are set by the Canadian government.In fact, Richard Rose has pitted his HempNut Inc., based in Santa Rosa, California, against its competitors and cozied up to the DEA by claiming its products actually do contain zero percent THC. "Cleaning THC off of hemp seed is easy, doable," he says. "Just clean off the THC." But even Rose worries that appealing the DEA’s ruling could pave the way for renegotiating testing standards, which could allow the DEA to lower the bar to, say, five parts per billion. "This ban was a get-out-of-jail-free card for 90 percent of the industry," he says.Others in the hemp industry associated with HIA aren’t pleased with Rose’s public swagger. In retaliation, they tested his products for THC, lowering the bar just a wee bit. "HempNut has trace THC in there, and we found it using marginally stronger detection protocols," says the HIA’s Bronner. And that illustrates the industry’s ultimate point: "It’s absolutely impossible to get all the THC off the seed," Bronner says. "You can spend an arbitrary amount of money to clean [the seeds], but it’s only going to go out so many zeros. You’re always going to have some. You’ll always be able to see it if you look far enough down."Zero percent THC, almost zero percent — what’s the biggie? It’s a big deal when you consider that in between zero and teensy amounts of the stuff is where the DEA has found a window to prosecute. It doesn’t matter that you can’t get high from trace amounts of THC; the fact that the chemical is in there at all has allowed the agency to classify the food product as a toxic substance.Bronner’s concerned that Rose’s naysaying may invalidate the industry’s primary legal recourse. "We have to stand and fight now. Everyone in the industry realizes that except for this one company."Whatever the court’s decision — which is expected to come down within six to nine months — the hemp-food industry has already taken a hit. Somewhere in the midst of all the legalese, the slew of articles in papers across the country, and the HIA’s urgent appeals for action, consumers are confused, the industry is splintering, and small businesses are hurting.Natural-food chain Whole Foods (known locally as Bread & Circus) removed all hemp-food products from its shelves in February, for example, when its suppliers were unable to produce documentation that their products were completely THC-free. In mid March, after the stay was granted, the chain restocked the items.As a result of actions like these, hemp companies are reporting plummeting sales. "My sales are down 75 to 80 percent across the country," says HempNut’s Rose. "I’ve been managing phone calls from Topeka, Kansas, saying, ‘Where do I send these hemp foods? They’re illegal. I don’t want the DEA to come in and raid me!’ They’re actually afraid. They’re whipped into a tizzy." Adds Hempola’s Herriott, "Consumers are fearful of purchasing hemp-food products, especially if they’re obligated to have drug testing at work."But some other companies are reporting an uptick from the unexpected publicity. "We’ve picked up some new customers," says Nutiva’s Roulac. "Some of our current retailers are seeing a rush from consumers to pick it up."Rose, however, claims any and all damage is irreparable. "Once you destroy the industry, it doesn’t matter what the DEA does. People misreading the rule have created the very thing the DEA was trying to do."Adds Ohio Hempery’s Wirthshafter, "It’s discouraging to me because the government, just by threatening this a year ago, cut out our market. These companies got scared away from hemp. This may come back in a year or so, when we finish these court battles, but it was a real setback for my business and my industry."But hemp appreciators aren’t giving up any time soon: they’ll fight to the end for their super herb. "Hemp’s one of those things, once you get involved in it, it’s like jumping into a black hole," says Nutiva’s Roulac. "The government is very intimidated by hemp. It is their mission to destroy the entire hemp industry. But the genie has already jumped out of the bottle. The more they try to stop it, the more ridiculous they look."Sidebar: Taster’s choice?LEGAL ACTION. Industry infighting. Health claims. Drug tests. Okay, but what does hemp taste like? I sample a few hemp-food products to see what all the fuss is about. At the Hempest, I pick up an Alpsnack nutrition bar made of hempnuts, nuts, and fruit. It tastes just like any other all-natural, tree-huggin’ treat: a little bland. I also try a lime-green hemp lollipop. It’s pungent and smells like, as a friend puts it, a " shwag-pop. " After a few licks, I can’t take anymore. Hempola sends over some foods to taste — from salad dressings to high-protein pancake mix made with organic spelt and hempseed flour. For dinner, I pour some honey-Dijon-hempseed dressing on a bed of lettuce. It tastes like ... salad dressing.— NW Betcha didn’t know that ...• In the 1930s, Henry Ford made a car from hemp and other crops " grown from the soil. " These days, BMW is reportedly working on its own set of wheels that replaces fiberglass matte with hemp.• Christopher Columbus’s ships were rigged with industrial hemp ropes and sales.• The original Levi’s jeans, made for Sierra Nevada gold rushers, were made of rugged hemp sailcloth. A current vintage line includes 40 percent hemp.• The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.• Betsy Ross reportedly sewed the first US flag with hemp thread.• Rembrandt and van Gogh painted on hemp canvas.Information gathered from the North American Industrial Hemp Counsel, MASS CANN, the Hemp Industries Association, and Rowan Robinson’s The Hemp Manifesto (Park Street Press, 1997).— Nina Willdorf Note: First it was medical marijuana. Now the Bush administration is taking aim at hemp-food products. What will be next?Source: Boston Phoenix (MA)Author: Nina WilldorfPublished: April 4 - 11, 2002 Copyright: 2002 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group.Contact: letters phx.comWebsite: http://www.bostonphoenix.com/Related Articles & Web Site:FTE's Hemp Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/hls.htmCanadian Company Cites NAFTA to Sue US http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12352.shtmlFelony Foods - Bush’s DEA Criminalizes Hemp http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12328.shtmlThe Drug Czar's View of Edible Hemphttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12235.shtml 
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on April 07, 2002 at 08:29:17 PT
Snipped - Denver Post Hemp Article
Indian's 'Field of Dreams' Runs afoul of Drug Laws 
 By Gwen Florio 
Denver Post National Writer 
Sunday, April 07, 2002 - MANDERSON, S.D. - Twice, Alex White Plume planted his crop. Twice, despite the unforgiving conditions here on the edge of the Badlands, it grew green and lush and tall. 
 
And twice, before he could harvest it, federal agents swooped in with guns and weed whackers, confiscating his plants and toting them away in U-Hauls. 
White Plume grows hemp, marijuana's milder cousin, but still too closely related for comfort for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Plant again, they've told White Plume, and they'll be back with their lawn trimmers.
White Plume shrugs. What the federal government sees as a drug war, he sees as a turf war - Indian reservations are sovereign nations - not to mention as part of his own war on poverty. 
FACTS ABOUT HEMP
Hemp and marijuana are both derived from the cannabis plant. Hemp is grown for industrial use, while marijuana is grown for recreational and medicinal use. Marijuana has much higher levels of the hallucinogenic THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).
Hemp is grown around the world, but it is illegal to produce in the United States. Recently, the Drug Enforcement Administration also clarified a long-standing ban on hemp products. The ban, enforcement of which has been postponed, applies only to ingestible hemp products such as potato chips and candy bars made with hemp oil. Arguments against the ban will begin Monday in federal appeals court in San Francisco.
Several states, including Montana, North Dakota and Kentucky, have passed laws allowing farmers to grow hemp, but federal regulations supersede those laws. Hemp legalization in Colorado has failed.
White Plume is 50 years old. His guide business catering mostly to foreign tourists has tanked since Sept. 11. And his income as a part-time college instructor, one of the few jobs available in a place where only two in 10 adults work, doesn't pay the bills. Come warm weather, he's planting. 
A reminder that his crop is illegal in the U.S. brings another shrug, and a reminder of his own.
"This," said White Plume, "is not part of the United States."
This is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 7,000 square miles of canyon-cut prairie and pine and cedar forests between the Black Hills and Badlands National Park in southwestern South Dakota. The roughly 18,000 enrolled Oglala Lakota Indians who live here today are descendants of the people who were pushed out of the Black Hills and harassed unmercifully after gold was discovered there.
In 1890, Army soldiers killed between 150 and 300 Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee, about 10 miles south of White Plume's home. The dazed survivors found themselves living in a place with little game or tillable land. Life has improved little since. 
Unemployment runs as high as 80 percent on the reservation, mainly because there's almost nowhere to work. Tribal offices, schools and the local hospital are the biggest employers. Beyond that, options are limited - several convenience stores, a couple of fast-food restaurants, a few small businesses. 
"The poverty is even more devastating than the inner city," said South Dakota state Sen. Ron Volesky, a Democrat and member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who is running for governor this year and who supports legislation that would allow all farmers in South Dakota to grow hemp. "At least, in the city, you're a cab ride away from something better. But when you're in Pine Ridge, there's nowhere to go." 
Past job-creation projects - a hotel, a fish-lure factory, a meatpacking plant, an electronics firm - collapsed. 
"Pine Ridge represents one of the worst cases of economic failure in the history of the world," said Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele, who blames what he calls "inherent federal neglect" by a faraway government whose attitude, as he sees it, has alternated maddeningly between paternalism and indifference.
"The government owes the reservation a Marshall Plan," he said, referring to the program to rebuild Europe's economy after the devastation of World War II. 
Steele, who said that creating jobs has been one of the major issues in every campaign in his quarter-century in tribal politics, strongly supports private enterprise as opposed to tribal-run businesses. 
Enter White Plume, with a 50-pound bag of hemp seeds and a promise from a Kentucky hemp cooperative to buy his first harvest.
"I was going to be the first Indian millionaire," White Plume said wryly. That was before the feds arrived. 
After the first crop was confiscated, White Plume said, he sold some of his 70 horses to cover the financial loss. Last summer, after the DEA chopped down his second planting, he sold more horses, some traditional dance clothing and a pickup. 
If they come back this year, he said, he's going to stand and fight. 
Not with guns - although the federal agents who traveled here packed heat along with their weed whackers.
But with a lawsuit. 
"To sue is really the American way," said White Plume. "Even though I'm not really a full-fledged American." 
The federal government recognizes reservations as "domestic dependent nations."
In practical terms, that means they're sort of sovereign - witness their ability to run gambling casinos on reservations within states where gaming is illegal - and sort of not. 
White Plume's hemp is a good example of the latter. 
Although the tribal council in November authorized the production of industrial hemp (as have several states), the federal Drug Enforcement Administration bans it. In October, the DEA proposed outlawing hemp food products such as candy bars and potato chips made with hemp oil on the basis that they contain THC, the hallucinogenic ingredient in marijuana. But the amount of THC found in hemp is far lower than in marijuana. 
 
"Smoke industrial hemp, and all you're going to get is a headache," said Eric Steenstra, president of VoteHemp, a nonprofit advocacy group. A research facility in Hawaii is the only place in the United States where industrial hemp grows legally, he said. It's grown elsewhere around the world, however, including in Canada. In January, a Canadian hemp grower announced intent to sue the U.S. government, claiming the proposed ban on hemp products violates provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Separate arguments against the ban on hemp food products, filed by the Hemp Industries Association and seven hemp food companies in the United States and Canada, will be heard Monday in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A far more informal event is occurring this weekend in Sturgis, S.D. The second annual Hemp Hoedown was held to benefit White Plume's efforts and those of the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council. 
The government is unlikely to relent on its regulations. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Rapid City, S.D., declined to comment about White Plume's case. John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, has said that he views the push to legalize industrial hemp as a way to weaken marijuana laws.
 
"You cannot pretend there is not a broader issue of legalization behind this," he said.
Meanwhile, the weather is warming and the field bordering Wounded Knee Creek is thawing. Soon, White Plume will plow the ground, and then he and his extended family will slowly walk the furrows, dropping hemp seeds into the damp earth. They will say Lakota planting prayers.
"I have such a beautiful place here," White Plume said, casting his gaze over the field, where meadowlarks sounded the first notes of spring. "This is my field of dreams." 
Complete Article: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E511580,00.html
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Comment #21 posted by bruce42 on April 05, 2002 at 10:22:41 PT
Jose
I agree that it would be better to have her permision before posting her comments on a public forum, but I don't see any reason why you can't share her comments privately via e-mail. Did she ask specifically in her message that you not post her comments or share them with anyone?
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Comment #20 posted by FoM on April 05, 2002 at 09:35:56 PT
el_toonces 
Thank you. E-mail is very hard for me to do. I get asked questions many times that if I answered I could get in trouble. People need to ask questions in a comment section rather then asking me. Jose, Thank you for not posting the private email. I don't want Cannabis News or me personally to get sued. 
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Comment #19 posted by el_toonces on April 05, 2002 at 06:24:49 PT:
Free e-mail......
I think we need to give FoM a break on the free e-mail thing. The risk in reposnding to an e-mail from a free servoice provider is a lot of spam because their server now has your address and can sell it. I have learned this the hard way. FoM has enough mail to read already, without spam. And considering she does all this on just a small computer and dial-up, it would be unfair to read anything into measures she must take to protect herself from the uglies of spam, hackers, etc.Thanks for this, FoM!El
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Comment #18 posted by Jose Melendez on April 05, 2002 at 05:59:35 PT:
what should I do?
Joyce Nalepka has sent me an email in which she claims she publicly accused Kieth Stroup of mass murder. I have asked her if I might post these comments, but have not heard a reply. I suppose she will not want those comments posted, since (as I commented to her) they contain admissions of slander and are libelous. Not sure what to do...
Arest Prohibition
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on April 04, 2002 at 16:14:01 PT
Dankhank
That's OK. I respect you and your opinion. I never meant to upset you at all. I unfortunately have enemies. You'd think it would be antis but it's people who want things to stay as they are. They don't want change. They want Cannabis to stay illegal. They are very aggressive and mean spirited. Very sad. You're OK in my book and always will be.
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Comment #16 posted by Dankhank on April 04, 2002 at 16:06:21 PT:
egg ...
on my face ...FOM ...abject apologies for crassness ...You the bomb ... I self-medicated after tough day and see the error of my ways ....
Hemp N Stuff ...
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Comment #15 posted by Jose Melendez on April 04, 2002 at 15:51:10 PT
Jose Melendez
...the Japanese call hemp "asa"...Now, THAT"S irony, considering a certain Asa Hutchinson is the head of the DEA. There's another instance where it is hard to believe the person does not already know the truth, and is therefore lying, instead of simply being ignorant.
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Comment #14 posted by TaP2F on April 04, 2002 at 15:16:28 PT:
Maybe he didn't know about the hemp car
About Mr Hamp,Perhaps he truly didn't know about it. It's possible that the information was destroyed or lost during an earlier hysterical anti-cannabis era, when somebody at Ford felt even being associated with hemp was tantamount to a business risk. Or maybe he does know and is willfully denying its viability today. If so, he's making a mistake because, with Ford's previous research, the company is in a good position to get involved today in renewable, plant-derived plastics.
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Comment #13 posted by DdC on April 04, 2002 at 14:48:13 PT
btw a note...
I've been hearing that Betsy Ross never actually did much sewing and is doubtful if she made the first flag in reality, another fable like Columbus. Though the first flag was made of hemp none the less. And crude plastic or stiff cotton flags don't ripple in dawn's early light, only hemp.Levi Strauss denies the use of hemp and claims its records were all lost in a fire at the beginning of the century. But so what, its a moot point if they want to maintain a lie, cotton kills, wear hemp jeans that are stronger, ripple instead of spastic jerks or standing stiff while hemp gets softer by the wash. Like the Church avoiding the truth of hashish incense Jesus breathed, burlap sackcloth and ship sails of canvas or gruel of hempseed, Levi will be judged by their integrity or rather lack thereof. So will Unkle Scam and the Politically Correct Historically inaccurate Smithsonian, re-rigging the USS Constitution with plastic Iraqi crude oil sails! How utterly unAmerican!Many of the Smithsonian artifacts made of hemp were name changed by Raygun/Bush paranoia, to linen or just called fiber or canvas or burlap with no reference. Linen usually means flax but much of the church linen and robes are of hemp. Armoni? suits from Italy, one of the few countries that never stopped growing hemp. Suits that ripple. Now they're joined by 30 other countries while American farmers get plowed under, prohited from growing! It also went by the name oakum, when used to repair leaks. Hemp rope was unravelled and mixed with pine resin and stuffed into the cracks and inbetween the shipboards. Also as valve packing using a grafite material today. Fire hoses to uniforms to napsacks to awnings. It was also called tow, and made the first towels. Ditchweed is hemp that grows wild and comprises 99% of the Feds cannabis suppression program eradications. Raising statistics to justify inflated WoD budgets. Utilizing the police to spray poison on the pheasant habitat that does nothing to stop kids from booze and crack. The Chinese call the seed "ma", while the Japanese call hemp "asa" and also use it in religious cerimonial uses.Fighting wars protecting crude oil while Henry Fords biomass/biofiber stays shelved to rape Alaska and send Detroit jobs overseas, stripmine ore for the tank size gashog SUV's or the nutritional value outlawed while kids starve, burning, bulldozing rainforest to raise Burger King cattle since US beef is too fat with the chemical grain it eats. Hemp in competition with the chemically saturated alternatives. Prohibited because of its versatility. By the same fascist low life's pushing the unlisted tobacco chemicals and booze and nukes and hormonal injections or Pharmaceutical side effects or dioxins and pop's, pcb's hebegebe they give me the creeps!
Peace, Love and Liberty or DEAth!
DdCProduction of Heart Disease By Consumption of Meat and Dairy Products
http://www.trufax.org/research/f3.htmlThe Dairy Industry Gambit
http://www.trufax.org/research/f5.htmlMcSpotlight
http://www.mcspotlight.org/Collusion Between the Government and Dairy-Meat Industries
http://www.trufax.org/research/f6.htmlMontanto Sucks
http://www.monsantosucks.com/Monsantos
http://www.monsantos.comFight Frankenfoods
http://fightfrankenfood.com/Hemp links
http://www.hempseed.com/linkability.htmlAnnual Ditchweed Eradication Boondoggle Underway Again
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/194.html#ditchweed
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Comment #12 posted by The GCW on April 04, 2002 at 14:43:34 PT
Instead of put put put put pow pow:
It should be pot pot pot pot power power.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on April 04, 2002 at 14:40:41 PT
Dankhank
I don't know why you thought I was talking about you. I wasn't. I know you wouldn't send me a virus. Please don't assume it was directed at you because it sure wasn't.
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on April 04, 2002 at 14:32:46 PT
Dankhank
I'm not telling you I'm just saying I don't respond because I have been sent viruses.
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Comment #9 posted by Dankhank on April 04, 2002 at 14:29:54 PT:
Whatt ???
FOM, why would you presume to tell me what email acct I should use, or infer something apparently detrimental from the fact that I use a free email acct?As a DSL surfer I do not even HAVE an ISP email acct to use. Check with SWBell if you need to.Never thought I would be considered ... "second-class?" ... based on my email address.Will wonders never cease?
Hemp N Stuff ...
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Comment #8 posted by Jose Melendez on April 04, 2002 at 14:20:18 PT:
huh...
So, even though I called and faxed Ford's Mr. Hamp, he was still unwilling to even admit this was true? I wonder what possible benefit that company could get by trying to keep this under wraps, or perhaps he thought he was doing the right thing?
Narcosoft.com - technology with substance
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on April 04, 2002 at 13:45:52 PT
Picture w/Ford hitting car w/hammer...
Is in, The Great Book Of Hemp 
By Rowan Robinson  page 138; with caption: Henry Ford demonstrates the strength of his car "grown" from a combination of hemp and other annual crops, and designed to run on hemp fuel. Photograph from the collections of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.
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Comment #6 posted by DdC on April 04, 2002 at 13:36:22 PT
D.E.A. = Dubya's Environmental Assassins
KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- An acute food shortage has forced thousands of malnourished Afghans to eat grass and thousands more may face starvation if they do not receive help, international aid agencies warned Tuesday."There is an urgent need to diversify distribution of food supplies in remote areas of northwest Afghanistan," said the World Food Program...WFP began distributing food coupons to over 50,000 families (approximately 340,000 people out of a total population of 430,000) in the western Herat region this week. More than 2,600 metric tons of wheat will be distributed over the next 10 days.But the International Rescue Committee, one of the aid agencies working in Afghanistan, warned that about 10,000 people in the northern mountainous region of Abdullah Jan have been forced to eat grass.Read more on the sad results of U.S. sponsored terrorism:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=08012002-024722-3570rHemp grain is the most nutritionally complete seed on the planet for human consumption. Each hemp seed contains 25% protein. This protein is more easily digestible than the protein in soybeans because it contains a perfect ratio of essential fatty acids (EFA's). EFA's are important for strengthening your immune system and protecting you from disease. Fish oil and flax oil are also high in EFA's, but hemp contains the most perfect ratio of EFA's for human consumption. Hemp grain is also high in iron and calcium and is an excellent source of dietary fiber.
Cannabis Hempseed as a Basic World Food
http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch08.html The Really Good-Guy Fats
http://www.cyberparent.com/nutrition/reallygoodfats.htm
Certain fatty acids are vital for good health and cannot be manufactured by the body. These are called essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids fall into two categories: omega3, linolenic acid, and omega6, linoleic acid. These good fats do a lot for you.Hemp Food
http://www.hempfood.com
Hempnut
http://www.thehempnut.com
Pacific Hemp
http://www.pacifichemp.com
Ohio Hempery
http://www.hempery.com
SAVE OUR SEEDS DEA vs. Industrial Hemp
http://www.levellers.org/dea
Hemp Seed Contains Both LA & LNA
http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip091.htmQuick Hemp Facts - - - - - Did you know???
Hemp is natures longest, strongest, most durable fiber. As a fabric it is softer, more insulating, more absorbent, more breathable, and longer lasting than cotton. While cotton occupies only 3 percent of the world's farmland, it uses 25 percent of the world's chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Conventional cotton textile manufacturing involves the use of detergents, bleaches, dyes, silicone spinning resins, fabric finishes including formaldehyde, crease resistant finishes that are bonded to fibers so as to make them unable to wash out. As consumers, we can keep the organic fields growing and expanding by looking for, asking for, and purchasing products made from organically grown.The most common hemp product found in the US is hemp clothing. Clothing made from hemp is warmer, softer, more absorbent, and significantly longer lasting than clothing made from cotton and it grows herbicide, fungicide, and pesticide free in many industrialized countries around the world. Presently in the United States 60% of our pesticides are used on cotton, this is our number one ground water pollutant.
Hemp.com
http://www.hemp.com
http://www.mendohemp.com
http://www.ecogoods.com
http://www.hempery.com
http://www.ecolution.comMon$anto'$ WoD on Ditchweed 
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionffffhyperlinked.showMessage?topicID=23.topicdioxins in cotton
http://dioxins-r-us.ucdavis.edu/Dioxin.HTMLdocuments and data 
http://www.hempology.org
                
You can also check out literary references to Industrial Hemp from Aesop's Fables to the present: 
http://ecofields.com/hmphistory.htmAnything that can be made out of wood or plastic can be made from hemp, and is biodegradable.Hawaian Industrial Hemp Report
VERSATILITY AND ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP
http://www.gametec.com/hemp/hawaii.rpt.html
Industrial hemp produces three main raw materials: bast fiber, hurds, and seeds. Using these three ingredients in different manners make industrial hemp a versatile product. Moreover, all hemp-based products, including plastics, are biodegradable.In 1941 Henry Ford built a hemp fueled and fabricated automobile that weighed only two/thirds the amount of a steel car and could resist blows 10 times as great without dentingPopular Mechanics - Putting Cannabis Into Cars 
http://www.globalhemp.com/Archives/Magazines/putting_cannabis_into_car.shtml
               
Seeking to put more environment-friendly materials in its cars, Daimler-Benz may replace fiber-glass matte with industrial hemp. 
Outdoor Life - Marijuana is for the Birds 
http://www.globalhemp.com/Archives/Magazines/marijuana_is_for_the_bird.shtmlRearview Mirror 
http://www.globalhemp.com/Archives/Magazines/rearview_mirror.shtml
59 Years Ago: Hoping to find a way to avoid the effects of a steel shortage, Ford Motor Co. unveils a version of its standard production car with experimental composite body panels reportedly made from compressed soybean material. (Other reports indicate that the 'soybean' car's body panels were made from synthetic resin reinforced with material derived from hemp and spruce pulp). From the Ground Up Fords Biomass Car
http://www.electricemperor.com/eecdrom/HTML/EMP/09/ECH09_15.HTM#carGrass on Wheels
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread9962.shtmlHempcar Tours America!
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread8150.shtmlSalient Facts: Biodegradable Cars
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread9454.shtmlHemp car
http://www.hempcar.orgHempron
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/35/35341.gifTHE OIL WAR OF 1872
http://pub3.ezboard.com/           fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=22.topicProducts being made today. Not grown in the US. 
http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/29/29799.gifIn January of 1996 The American Farm Bureau Federation, more than 4.6 million-members strong, unanimously endorsed the researching and growing of industrial hemp.Welcome to Sacramental Cannabis Food, Fuel, Fiber, FARMaceuticals, Hardrug and Booze Alternative
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/index.htmlHemp 'Eats' Chernobyl Waste: 
http://www.ccguide.org.uk/chenobyl.html
ws/v99.n251.a07.htmlStepping Off Hard Drugs With Cannabis
http://www.potpride.com/steppingstone.htmCHA
http://members.aol.com/chaxh/
The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber or Why They Call it DOPE!!!
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 04, 2002 at 13:32:30 PT
E-Mail 
Sorry to jump in here but again I must say thank you for all the emails and questions. I don't respond to most of them but read them all. I don't respond to any free email accounts. I figure if a person really wants an answer they will use there regular isp email. Just needed to mention it once again. Thanks everyone!
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Comment #4 posted by TaP2F on April 04, 2002 at 13:24:39 PT:
The Hemp Car: Evidence
Jose,From Popular Mechanics December, 1941 as contained in the archives of "The Emporer Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer"After 12 years of research, the Ford Motor Company has completed an experimental automobile with a plastic body ... the only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame ... panels moulded from 70% cellulose fibers from wheat straw, hemp and sisal plus 30% resin binder."This article, with images, show Henry Ford had at least one prototype car as well as individual panels.I'll email you the full article if you want (jpeg image, 273 Kb)References to Ford's production of automobile parts from hemp:
http://www.scn.org/~bc616/ford
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 04, 2002 at 12:44:50 PT
Picture of Hemp Car
http://www.electricemperor.com/eecdrom/HTML/EMP/09/ECH09_15.HTM#car
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Comment #2 posted by John Markes on April 04, 2002 at 12:42:25 PT
Umm...
So how come the law enforement officers of every other country can differentiate between hemp and marijuana, but here in the USA, they are completely helpless?
ARDPArk
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Comment #1 posted by Jose Melendez on April 04, 2002 at 12:31:44 PT:
Attention Ford Motor Company:
In the 1930s, Henry Ford made a car from hempA few years ago, I called into CSPAN and asked a then spokesperson for Ford, Steve Hamp about that car. 
He said that reports of such a nature were apocryphal. Had I known what the word meant, my next question should have been, "well I have seen references to a Popular Mechanics magazine from 1941 that shows Henry Ford swinging an axe against a trunk lid made with hemp fibers. Are you saying hemp was never even a part of your company history worth acknowledging?"
I since bought a copy of that magazine, but it does not mention that an entire car was built. So, was he right, and just dancing around the "H" word? (I even mentioned I thought he would have known a bit more on the subject, considering his last name is Hamp) So does anyone know? Was there no hemp car built, only parts that were tremendously stronger and lighter and could be built from materials grown locally at each plant?
If so, someone from Ford corporate please contact me, because I have access to the builders of a carbon fiber turbine aircraft that flies at 400 mph, is pressurized and can be mass produced, like toy airplanes. 
Jose Melendez
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