cannabisnews.com: Ohio Student Groups To Hold Annual Hempfest 





Ohio Student Groups To Hold Annual Hempfest 
Posted by FoM on June 02, 2000 at 22:58:07 PT
By Laura Bates, The Lantern, Ohio State U.
Source: U-WIRE
The student organizations For a Better Ohio and Students for Sensible Drug Policies will be hosting the fifth annual Hempfest Saturday on the South Oval. This event is aimed at educating the public on the harm the groups feel that the U.S. government's drug policies are causing. Hemp is the same plant as marijuana. Its scientific name is cannabis sativa. 
For thousands of years, hemp was used to make dozens of commercial products like paper, rope, canvas and textiles, and today pro-hemp organizations boast of more than 30,000 known products that can be produced from hemp. In 1937, hemp and marijuana were banned. "As students and young citizens in this country, we believe that the current U.S. policies concerning illicit drugs are harmful and ineffective," said Sean Luse, member of both student groups. "We are spending billions of dollars, giving up our constitutional rights and imprisoning hundreds of thousands of our citizens in a vain effort to stop drug use." Organizations such as these support the legalization of hemp for the enormous environmental, economic and commercial potential of the plant. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one acre of hemp can produce four times more paper than one acre of trees. These statistics imply that paper production from hemp would save billions of trees and millions of acres of forests and that areas of wildlife habitats would be preserved. Hemp can also be substituted for cotton to make textiles as much as 10 times stronger. Hemp requires little water and can be grown in all 50 states, as opposed to cotton which requires enormous amounts of water and can only be grown in the warmer states. Many medical reports within the last few years have proved that marijuana holds some medicinal value. Marijuana is more effective, less toxic and less expensive as an alternative to the synthetic medicines currently used. People who suffer from AIDS, cancer, leukemia and glaucoma can benefit from marijuana as a medicine, one report claims. Hemp is legally grown for commercial use throughout much of Europe, India, China, Russia and the Ukraine. During the festival, volunteers will be collecting signatures in support of the Ohio Industrial Hemp and Medical Marijuana ballot initiative. These are two separate initiatives that are aimed at legalization for those respective uses of cannabis. They were started in 1997 after cannabis legislation was narrowly defeated in the state legislature. "We support an end to prohibition of all forms of cannabis sativa, for whatever the purpose. We feel that, quoting Thomas Reed, 'One of the greatest delusions is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation,'" Luse said. The event will include a Hempfest raffle, dozens of vendors and a fun house where students can bust down the door like a real drug enforcement agent, "seize" the criminal's assets and send them to prison. The evening will end with a candlelight vigil for the "prisoners of the drug war." June 2, 2000(U-WIRE) Columbus, Ohio(C) 2000 The Lantern via U-WIRE  Copyright © 2000 At Home CorporationRelated Articles & Web Sites:Students For Sensible Drug Policyhttp://www.ssdp.org/For A Better Ohiohttp://www.ohiohemp.org/home.htmHempfest 2000 http://www.ohiohemp.org/festival.htmOhio's Industrial Hemp & Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative http://www.ohiohemp.org/petition.htm
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Comment #1 posted by Jamie M. Dailey on October 24, 2000 at 08:41:53 PT:
the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act
Please go and look at this bill, especially the way in which they are pushing it through to law WITHOUT INTERFERENCE FROM LAWMAKERS!!!
CRRH
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