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Maligned and banned: The American comeback of industrial hemp
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
Posted: January 19th, 2015
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Maligned-and-banned-Th...
Hemp is back, semi-legalized in the 2014 Farm Bill. Humankinds most ancient cultivated plant has never had an easy time in America, and theres no reason to believe that its return is going to be accompanied by a red carpet. Its back and its legal, but ... farmers cant legally get the seeds. You, as a citizen, cant legally grow it. It would be easier to grow medical marijuana, hemps twin (same species, Cannabis sativa linnaeus). The Drug Enforcement Agency, a policing arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, remains an anti-hemp force to be reckoned with despite federal rules (in the Farm Bill and the Dec. 9 Congressional budget bill that cut DOJ enforcement funding) that have purportedly removed it from hemp oversight. Nineteen states have declared hemp farming to be legal, but state officials cant guarantee there will be no federal raids. These contradictions are part of hemps new world: The promise of a brilliant future amid political and regulatory uncertainty. Re-establishing hemp as a viable American industry will take rebuilding, piece by piece, a working infrastructure that would include contract farming, growers associations, trade lines, material transportation, research and development and niche manufacturing, and, more importantly, further legislation fully guaranteeing its legal status. By the time the landmark Farm Bill was signed, 18 states had declared hemp legal, 33 states had introduced hemp farming legislation and 22 had passed other various pro-hemp bills.
Note: The article linked to above provides a detailed history of hemp's complex legal status under US federal law. Although industrial hemp remains entangled with the failed war on drugs, American companies may eventually join Canadian manufacturers in building cars out of hemp.
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