THE CASE FOR HEMP

The Federal Government Should Grant A Waiver To Native Nations Which Seek To
Legalize The Production Of Industrial Hemp.

The August raid on the Pine Ridge hemp crop on the White Plume Tiospaye
land, illustrates a shameful era in the Drug Enforcement Agency. Over the
long term, the DEA's policies and actions set back the economic,
environmental, and public health needs of not only Native America, but also
the broader American community. Many Native nations, including the Oglala
Lakota, Navajo, and Saginaw Chippewa, to name a few, have expressed an
interest in industrial hemp production.

Natives are not the only ones interested in the benefits of industrial hemp.
More than a dozen state legislatures are discussing industrial hemp
production. Now would be the time for the Bush administration to move
forward in supporting what will be the crop of the future.

Consider the irony of this situation. Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota
has been deemed by statisticians as the economically poorest area in the
United States. The average median income on the reservation is $2,600 per
year, one fifth the national average. The unemployment rate is at 84
percent, and some 69 percent of all residents are below the poverty line.
Hundreds of tribal members are homeless, and most live in overcrowded and
substandard housing. Jobs are far away. Many residents have to travel l20
miles round trip to work in Rapid City, and even then most jobs are minimum
wage.

Now consider the alternatives. Native America could cash in on the $l00
million plus, hemp food industry. Add that to the 2 million pounds of hemp
fiber imported in l999, not including a pretty substantial market for
already produced hemp clothing (imported from countries like China, Hungary,
Poland and Romania).

Then, there is the growing interest in hemp both as a fiber source for paper
and a possible source for building materials. Hemp can be transformed into
everything from insulation to something like the "hempcrete" building
constructed at Slim Buttes on Pine Ridge.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney for South Dakota Michelle Tapken, Oglala Tribal
President John Yellowbird Steele, reiterated the irony of the situation.
"The Controlled Substance Act of l970 did not divest the Lakota people of
our reserved right to plant and harvest whatever crops we deem beneficial to
our reservation, nor did the Act abrogate Congress' ratification of the
reserved rights … Therefore, we regard the enforcement of our hemp ordinance
and prosecution of our marijuana law. tribal matters to be handled by our
Oglala Sioux Tribal Public Safety Law Enforcement."

"… We ask for your government's compassion as we try to ease the pain of our
poverty through hemp manufacturing … World War II, your government signed
contracts with members of the Pine Ridge Reservation to grow industrial hemp
for your war effort. In other words, when your government needed the
benefits of growing hemp to aid your war effort, and encouraged its growth
on the reservation, we supported your government by doing so. Now my nation
needs to grow industrial hemp to aid our efforts at becoming more
self-sufficient. We would appreciate your support in our endeavors…."

This is not a new crop. For at least l2,000 years, hemp has been grown for
fiber and food. Many of the U.S. founding fathers grew hemp, including both
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin owned a mill that
made hemp paper, and Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on
hemp paper.

Although industrial hemp is taxonomically classified under the same name as
marijuana, Cannabis Sativa, industrial hemp has less than l percent THC, the
primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. As it turns out, however, you
wouldn't want to smoke industrial hemp. It would take about a bale to get
you high, and then you'd pass out anyway. Industrial hemp is to marijuana
what non-alcoholic beer is to beer. They are related, but that is about it.

Hemp's versatility and the fact that almost the entire plant can be used has
made it a thriving crop throughout the world. Hemp seeds are the richest
known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids and are high in some
essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (a very rare nutrient
also found in mother's milk).

Hemp fiber is considered useful for many products, ranging from car parts to
rope to alternatives to gasoline. The energy production potential itself
should excite the combustion happy Bush administration.

Even the forest products industry sees hemp as an excellent option for the
future. Kimberly Clark has a mill in France that produces hemp paper, where
it is preferred for Bibles, both based on its longevity, and on its ability
to retain its whiteness. The crop also has environmental benefits with
regards to paper production. Hemp has a low lignin content, allowing it to
be pulped using fewer chemicals, especially chlorine bleach, a leading cause
of dioxin contamination in the environment.

One large paper company with a Fox River, Wis., mill suggested that if hemp
could be grown in Wisconsin, they would use it for up to 45 percent of their
feedstock at the mill within five years. Another huge paper company plans to
move up to 90 percent of its world feedstock to non-forest sources within 10
years, and sees hemp as a major component of that plan. The reality is if
the company can't grow hemp in the United States, it will grow it elsewhere.

U.S. Department of Agriculture projections soft peddle the market for hemp
and its viability. The department suggests it is, "a small, thin market" and
that a few large farms could produce the amount of annually imported hemp
fiber. The USDA, however, does note that hemp production, in eastern North
Dakota, for instance, would yield (according to l998 estimates) around $74
on the average per acre in net returns, compared to an average of $38 for
corn or 86 cents an acre for sunflowers.

USDA estimates of hemp's viability fail to consider the growing worldwide
demands for alternatives to wood fiber, in everything from the paper
industries to building industries. And indeed, there are industrial hemp
supporters inside the USDA. Jeff Gain, chairman of the board of USDA's
Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corp., says, "We
must have diversity, and crops like hemp that grow without pesticides."

Other organizations are optimistic and hopeful. The Institute for Local Self
Reliance reported that l999 hemp yields averaged 800 pounds per acre
(roughly four times as much fiber as wood per acre), and had gross earnings
of $308 to $4l0 per acre compared to $l03 to $137 per acre for wheat and
canola.

It is perhaps those figures which have driven a multitude of interests to
seek alternatives. March 23, 200l, marked the third anniversary of a
petition signed by more than 200 organizations asking the Drug Enforcement
Agency to decriminalize industrial hemp production in the United States.

Decriminalizing industrial hemp is the way of the future. The sovereign
status of Native nations raises questions about the application of DEA
regulations in the face of tribal ordinances. The need for alternative
economies in Indian country supports the need for change.

As DEA officials chopped away at the White Plume hemp crop, Alex White
Plume, " …told the plants to be brave and strong and come back again next
year." Let us hope they do.