HEMP GOOD FOR IOWA

According to most religious texts, God gave mankind dominion over all
the plants of the earth.

Apparently the point was to encourage us to explore the many uses items
that can be made from plants: medicine, clothing, food, shelter, boats,
paper and weapons can all be made with plants.

The rain forest is made of millions of acres of trees, flowers and ferns
hiding a horn-of-plenty filled with medical wonders researchers have yet
to fully tap.

Cotton, wool and synthetic fibers are commonly used to make the clothes
the entire planet wears.

Few trees are safe from being turned into paper or lumber.

Yet in the United States we have made one of the best alternative
sources for all of these items illegal: hemp.

Few plants in history have been as unfairly demonized as the cannabis
plant, but Iowa legislators are taking the initiative to undo all this
and bring hemp production back to America in time for the new
millennium.

This is a decision full of wisdom and could help Iowa farmers produce a
crop the rest of the world has been happy to utilize fully for decades.

Fear of marijuana has kept hemp down in this country for too long.

It has become something of a joke to even talk about legalizing hemp as
we snicker at the guys at the NORML table for their passion, but the
real joke is in making a plant this useful illegal in the first place.

No one will be getting high off hemp and our state legislators are
willing to overcome that false perception.

For that, they should be commended.