After Kentucky’s recent dance with the DEA over confiscated hemp seeds, it is clear that an amendment is needed to keep the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from interfering in industrial hemp cultivation. Recently, the U.S. House voted on two amendments that would prohibit the DEA from over-stepping their boundaries when it comes to cultivation – a right states were already granted in the recent Farm Bill changes.
States have already been granted hemp cultivation rights, and shouldn’t have to worry about the DEA militants taking their seed from them, to be held for unknown periods, and interfering with planting seasons and the important timing for starting hemp seedlings.
Twelve states—California, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia—currently have laws to provide for hemp production as described by the Farm Bill stipulations. As long as the hemp grown has low levels of THC – the chemical compound of cannabis that is responsible for the ‘high’ – the DEA has no reason to interfere.
One amendment would prohibit the Department of Justice, including its DEA arm, from importing hemp seeds and conducting research on the crop. The amendment is to the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which controls the DEA’s budget, and was offered by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
Amendment number two (HR 4660), presented by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) keeps the DEA from spending federal funds to prevent states from growing hemp, implementing its own laws to govern its cultivation, distribution, possession, and use.
These amendments became necessary after the state of Kentucky had to sue the DEA for release of the seeds they confiscated from Italy that were en route for a huge cultivation program planned for this season. This action incensed Democratic and Republican lawmakers involved in the new industrial hemp laws, drawing condemnation from Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer (R), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), his Democratic challenger and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
It should be no surprise, however, because DEA chief Michele Leonhart is a known propagandist against hemp cultivation. Under her watch, the DEA has obstructed attempts to remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act — a classification reserved for the most dangerous drugs — and at a 2012 House committee hearing, she refused to answer a congressman’s simple question about whether heroin and crack cocaine pose more harm to the consumer than marijuana. Hemp, more importantly, couldn’t make someone high if they smoked it every day for ten years because the THC levels are so low.
You can sign a petition to have Leonhart fired, here.
I don’t drink or do drugs, but I not only think hemp in manufacturing should be legal, medical MJ should as well. Let me say that one should be able to grow or buy Marijuana if one needs to, not just allow big Pharma to distribute it. I did use medical grade marijuana (Marinol) when I was having treatments for throat cancer. All else had failed so the doctor prescribed it to me. It saved my life, period. A Baptist Deacon at 74 years old also said it saved his life as well. I consider myself a Christian, so I don’t buy the BS that this is the devil’s weed. I’m also a child of the 70s, and I did inhale back then, so I don’t buy the BS of a gateway drug. Chemical corporations, big pharma, and the Military establishment fear pot because it cuts into their profits, so don’t let them make you believe their BS. While I no longer need to use MJ, I see nothing wrong with it. It provided far better results than the morphine and other drugs they gave me, without the addiction concerns.
And to Dr Phil Roe, Congressman in TN, who told me he would never vote for the legalization of it, you won’t get my vote. Unless your opponent works for Monsanto, I’ll vote for them.