Body:     by John Stossel - co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20"
Posted Jan 31, 2007

Two weeks ago, U.S. drug agents launched raids on 11 medical-marijuana centers in Los Angeles County. The U.S. attorney's office says they violated the laws against cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

Whatever happened to America's federal system, which recognized the states as "laboratories of democracy"?

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 11 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have eliminated the penalties for physician-approved possession of marijuana by seriously ill patients. In those states people with AIDS and other catastrophic diseases may either grow their own marijuana or get it from registered dispensaries.

But the U.S. government says its drug laws trump the states' laws, and in 2005, the Supreme Court agreed.

This is not the way it was supposed to work. The constitutional plan presented in the Federalist Papers delegated only a few powers to the federal government, with the rest reserved to the states. The system was hailed for its genius. Instead of having decisions made in the center -- where errors would harm the entire country -- most policies would be determined in a decentralized environment. A mistake in California would affect only Californians. New Yorkers, Ohioans, and others could try something else. Everyone would learn and benefit from the various experiments.

It made a lot of sense. It still does. Too bad the idea is being tossed on the trash heap by big-government Republicans and their DEA goons.

Drug prohibition -- like alcohol prohibition -- is a silly idea, as the late free-market economist Milton Friedman often pointed out. Something doesn't go away just because the government decrees it illegal. It simply goes underground. Then a black market creates worse problems. Since sellers cannot rely on police to protect their property, they arm themselves, form gangs, charge monopoly prices, and kill their competitors. Buyers steal to pay the high prices.

Alcohol prohibition in the 1920s gave America Al Capone and organized crime. Drug prohibition has given us South American and Asian cartels that finance terrorism. Even the government admits that the heroin trade bankrolls terrorists. Prohibition's exorbitant black-market prices make that possible. In the United States, drug prohibition spawns gangs that are sometimes better armed than the police. Drug prohibition does more harm than drugs.

The war on drugs hasn't even accomplished what it promised to do. Drugs are abundant and cheaper than ever. "ABC News" reported last month, "marijuana is the U.S.'s most valuable crop. The report, 'Marijuana Production in the United States,' by marijuana policy researcher Jon Gettman, concludes that despite massive eradication efforts at the hands of the federal government, 'marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy.'"

The destructive failure of the drug war is why it makes so much sense to let states experiment, which 11 of them have done with medical marijuana.

Legalizing only medical marijuana brings its own problems. For one thing, it invites state authorities to monitor the practice of medicine to make sure doctors don't prescribe pot promiscuously.

But government officials shouldn't be the judges of what is and isn't medicine. That should be left to medical researchers, doctors, and patients. The effectiveness of medicine is too dependent on individual circumstances and biochemistry. One size does not fit all, so politicians and bureaucrats should butt out.

More fundamentally, why should only people whom the state defines as sick be able to use marijuana? This is supposed to be a free country, and in a free country adults should have the right to ingest whatever they want. A drug user who harms someone else should be punished, but a peaceful user should be left alone.

Despite my reservations about medical marijuana, the states' experimentation is still better than a brutal federal one-size-fits-all crackdown. There is no role here for the federal government. If the people of a state want to experiment by loosening drug prohibition, that should be their right. Washington should mind its own business. The feds and rest of us should watch. We might learn something.

Mr. Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20" and the author of "Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel -- Why Everything You Know is Wrong".

From:
http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/print_article.asp?aID=59263

SEED MONEY: Entrepreneur says hemp deserves another look

By Phil Landesberg

Central Penn Business Journal

January 19, 2007


Julius Sturgis opened the first commercial pretzel bakery in 1861. William and Salie Utz started making potato chips in their summer kitchen in 1921. Their pioneering efforts helped make Central Pennsylvania a major snack-food producer by growing the market for their products. Other entrepreneurs followed, providing jobs and contributing to a sustainable economy.

Shawn Patrick House, a 43-year-old businessman from Columbia, Lancaster County, wants to have a similar effect by promoting the growth of the hemp-food industry in Pennsylvania.

He's starting small but hopes to have a big impact.

"I'd like to get to the point where I could operate a fleet of biofueled trucks distributing great tasting, highly nutritional snack foods made from hemp," House said.

"It's all about the seed" is the tagline for Lancaster Trading House Inc., the business House incorporated in May 2005 to develop, manufacture and distribute hemp-food products. It may be more common to think of the hemp plant as the source of fiber used for ropes. But hemp seeds, hemp flour and hemp oil are being used in an increasing number of foods.

Hemp and marijuana are different varieties of the same plant, cannibis. House explained that industrial hemp (a common name given to the variety of the plant used for food, fiber and oil) contains only trace amounts of THC, which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol. THC is the primary psychoactive chemical substance in marijuana that was isolated and identified in 1964.

"You can't get high from eating my hemp-food products," he said.

He adheres to industry standards for THC levels in hemp foods, ensuring that you won't fail a drug test by eating his products.

Hemp seeds contain a high level of protein and an ideal ratio of the essential fatty acids omega 3 and omega 6 that nutritionists find are often deficient in our diets.

"I've been more sensitive to children's health and nutrition issues since the birth of my daughter earlier this year and my first wife's battle with cancer from 1993 to 2004," House said.

His first product was Hempzels, his trademarked crunchy, hard pretzels made from hemp seed and flour blended with natural ingredients. Hempzels, introduced in 1999, are handmade by the Revonah Pretzel bakery in Hanover. Through trial and error, he developed and introduced new food products, all processed in Pennsylvania. Those snacks include peanut-filled pretzel nuggets; organic, whole, toasted hemp seeds; honey mustard and baklava.

House lacks a background in food preparation but has skills in working with people, acquired from jobs in marketing and sales. These skills have enabled him to build personal and contractual relationships with farmers, processors and manufacturers. He wants to do more than just help his own business.

"I want to provide for the sustainable growth of the regional economy," he said.

House became interested in

industrial-hemp products after reading "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," by Jack Herer. The book tells the history of hemp, which includes a rich Colonial heritage. Former Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, and Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.

As a native of Chester County and a history buff, House was excited to learn that hemp was once grown and milled in Pennsylvania.

"One of the things that caught my interest about hemp was learning that Henry Ford was looking into developing synthetic products and fuel from hemp and other farm crops versus coal and petroleum," House said.

House is conscious of ecological and health issues, and wants manufacturers to reduce their reliance on petroleum-based products.

The Web site for Hempline Inc., a Canadian producer of hemp fibers, notes that hemp is increasingly used as a reinforcement material in the automobile industry, especially among European car makers. House is aware of the trend.

"I'm not trying to do anything new, just return to older and healthier products," he said. "Almost anything made from petroleum can be made from hemp."

He has worked for years to promote and demonstrate the benefits of hemp products. House was a sponsor of the "Hemp Car" that completed a 13,000-mile trip through he U.S. in 2001, fueled by hemp biofuel.

He likes to educate people about hemp's historical contributions as well as its potential, pointing out that hemp ropes and rigging were used on Naval ships through World War II.

Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for the nonprofit hemp-advocacy organization Vote Hemp, called House a pioneer in the hemp-food industry. House was recently elected to the board of directors of the Hemp Industries Association, Eidinger said.

House has worked to educate the local farming community about the benefits of growing hemp. It's a good rotation crop that grows quickly and requires little or no pesticide treatment. He imports hemp seed from Canada, but he would prefer to buy from local farmers. He's unable to do that now.

Hemp can't be grown domestically because of a succession of federal laws and regulations, dating back to the 1930s (see "Hemp and the law," this page).

In the meantime, House plans to introduce new products and expand his distribution network. He will roll out a substitute for peanut butter that will be an alternative for people with allergies to peanuts.

House sells directly to the public through his Web site (www.hempzels.com). The Web site lists out-of-state store locations and provides a timeline of hemp's history.
#

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AT A GLANCE: Lancaster Trading House Inc.

Location: Columbia

What it does: Makes and distributes a variety of snack foods made from hemp

President and chief executive officer: Shawn Patrick House

Employees: 1

2006 revenue: Did not disclose

Where to find its products: At health stores, including Avatar's Natural Grocery in New Cumberland and Genesee Natural Foods Inc. in Lower Paxton Township. This year, House added Karns Foods in Derry Township and started selling at the Columbia Central Market (open every Thursday). House hopes Giant Food Stores and Wegmans Food Markets Inc. will stock his products.

On the Web: www.hempzels.com

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Hemp and the law

According to Shawn Patrick House, owner of Lancaster Trading House Inc., ignorance and the self-interest of paper and petroleum industries halted the domestic farming of hemp, with passage of the "Marihuana (sic) Tax Act in 1937." While the intent was to prohibit the use of marijuana, in accordance to the anti-drug sentiments of the times, the act imposed a tax on growing hemp that effectively ended the domestic hemp industry.

After the 1937 law was found unconstitutional in 1969, Congress quickly passed the 1970 Controlled Substance Act, which treats hemp and marijuana the same and outlaws them both. More than 30 countries distinguish between these two plant varieties and permit the farming of hemp. Canadian farmers are already benefiting from increased demand for hemp for food, fuel and fiber.

As more hemp food, fiber and oil products have been successful in the marketplace, several states have introduced bills that would permit the regulated growth of hemp. California's legislature passed such a bill this fall, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

House believes that a better approach than new state laws, which would likely be challenged by the federal government, is passage of H.R. 3037, "The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005." Introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), H.R. 3037 would amend the Controlled Substance Act by asserting that "marihuana" does not include industrial hemp and by allowing states to regulate the growing of industrial hemp under state law.

According to Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for the nonprofit hemp-advocacy organization Vote Hemp, the hemp industry may focus in 2007 on adding favorable language to the congressional farm bill, thereby removing the threat of federal action against farmers who decide to grow hemp. Fears that hemp fields could hide marijuana plants are unfounded, Eidinger said, because cross-pollination would effectively ruin the potency of the marijuana.


Copyright (c) 2007 Central Penn Business Journal

From:
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070124/NEWS/101240044

Ask Eartha: A grown-up conversation about hemp

By Eartha Steward

Summit Daily News

January 24, 2007


Hemp is an environmentally friendly, sturdy and durable plant with an interesting history. But before getting into the history, I'd like to clear things up because when people hear hemp, they automatically think marijuana. Comparing hemp to marijuana is like telling Grandma Steward that the beautiful ornamental poppies in her yard could be used for recreational purposes, too. I think she would be quite appalled at the comparison.

One way hemp and marijuana differ is in the levels of molecular compounds each contains. Hemp has a high percentage of an anti-psychoactive compound - meaning can't get you stoned - which counteracts the very low level of the psychoactive compound; whereas marijuana is the other way around. Basically, if someone tried to smoke hemp, it would show a great lack of intelligence on his or her part. Furthermore, if someone tried to eat hemp, that person should make sure to be close to a toilet because hemp is so fibrous that eating it is like the equivalent of taking three, or more, strong laxatives - and you still don't get a buzz.

Since that discussion is out of the way, we can move on to more grown-up information - like the environmental benefits, uses and history of hemp.

The environmental benefits from growing hemp include: less water use, shorter growing season, no pesticide or herbicide use, no need for chlorine bleaching when being processed, and it purges the soil of weeds for future crops to be planted in the same field.

Traditional uses of hemp include: using it for canvas, rope and clothing. Through technological advances, it can also be made into building products, like medium-density fiber board, beams or studs, or used for cars - the largest use for hemp fiber in Germany is for automotive panels. Hemp can also be consumed internally for its nutrient-rich properties.

Hemp oil and seeds contain unsaturated essential fatty acids and amino acids. The amino acids in hemp oil are similar to "complete" proteins like milk, eggs or meat. In recent years hemp oil and seeds in food have come under legal attack in the U.S. due to a trace level of the psychoactive compound found in hemp; the plant is regulated to contain 0.3 percent or less of the compound. In 2004, after years of court appeals, a Ninth Circuit judge ruled that the sale and import of industrial hemp remain legal. Meaning we can buy it from other countries, but it is still illegal for farmers to grow industrial hemp in the U.S. However, it was not always illegal to grow hemp in the U.S.

In fact, during World War II the U.S. Department of Agriculture started a campaign with the slogan "Hemp for Victory" to encourage farmers to grow hemp for rope, canvas and uniforms for soldiers. Farmers started growing hemp and it became a large crop - second to cotton in some southeastern states. So, what happened?

What changed was a definition. A law called the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act taxed people who were growing marijuana and hemp. Except our predecessors understood the difference between hemp and marijuana, so growing hemp was also taxed, yet legal. The definition changed in 1970 when a governmental department, along with help from chemical industry lobbying, changed the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act definition to include industrial hemp in the same category as the narcotic marijuana, therefore making it illegal to grow hemp in the U.S. Unfortunately, not many noticed the change in law at that time because the hemp industry has lost steam, and there wasn't really anyone to argue the case.

Nowadays, industrial hemp is gaining back its value and importance. In 1998, Canada started growing hemp and profits by selling it to consumers in the U.S. Recently, North Dakota state law legalized industrial hemp production because of the potential of the crop to help farmers. Even though the law passed there, farmers still have to get federal permission to grow hemp. So for now we'll just have to continue purchasing hemp from other countries and hope economic and scientific evidence will be considered, eventually allowing industrial hemp to be grown in the U.S.


Eartha Steward is written by Carly Wier, Holly Loff, and Beth Orstad, consultants on all things eco and chic at the High Country Conservation Center, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to waste reduction and resource conservation in our mountain community. Eartha believes that you can walk gently on our planet, even if you're wearing stylie shoes.

Ask Eartha!

Submit questions to Eartha at recycle@colorado.net with Ask Eartha as the subject, or to High Country Conservation Center, PO Box 4506, Frisco, CO 80443.

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