HEMP OFFERS HOPE FOR HARD TIMES

Wonderful little Lompoc is no refuge from, let's call it what it is,
our present economic recession. Celite is in transition and our
school system is facing budget cuts and lay-offs. As our economy
continues to contract, farmers worry yet again about the amount of
rain we have received this year.

Nonetheless, with a few creative, entrepreneurial pioneers there
looms a major, widespread economic opportunity for our community. It
is perfect serendipity in its fit with Lompoc. Here is a boom for
agriculture with an opportunity for generating multiple light-support
industries paying strong, competitive wages and engaging the talents
of product developers, marketers, designers, as well as a rich use of
our city wi-fi system. Could it be a new grape variety added to our
buoyant, thriving wine industry? No, it is hemp.

If you shake your head and roll your eyes, then read no more as you
are neither pioneer nor entrepreneur. You dwell in the past.

What is your judgment of the following parent? Child, "Can I have
some grape juice?" Parent, "No. You can't have any wine." Child,
"Sorry, I wanted grape juice." Parent, "I know, but you see wine has
alcohol in it." Child, "OK, but I wanted grape JUICE." Parent,
"Sweetheart, wine is grape juice. So, no. Please stop asking or you
will be punished."

Hemp has so little THC in it, the psychoactive component in
marijuana, that it cannot be ingested in any manner to get the
marijuana high. Yet, hemp cannot be grown commercially in the United
States because the DEA, not the Department of Agriculture, seems
unable to distinguish between grape juice and wine. As of the fall
of ‘07, two North Dakota farmers have been tied up in federal
court by the DEA as the farmers' state issued, state condoned permit
to grow industrial hemp was overridden by federal Judge Daniel
Hovland. (see www.VoteHemp.com/legal-cases-ND.html watch the video.)
However, things do not seem to be going well for the DEA as they face
irritated farmers in North Dakota, Kentucky, Vermont, California,
Oregon, and the list goes on.

While Europe is converting tens of thousands of acres to growing
hemp, as is Canada, the United States remains the only major
industrialized nation to prohibit the growing or processing of hemp.
From the founding of Jamestown in 1607, in which residents were
required to grow hemp, to the World War II "Hemp for Victory"
program, the United States had made abundant use of hemp throughout
its history. We've all heard how the Declaration of Independence was
written on hemp paper as nearly all paper at the time came from hemp.
Henry Ford even built a car out of hemp that could run on hemp oil.

From the whole hemp stalk come multiple textiles, industrial
products, building materials and a wide variety of papers along with
energy products such as ethanol, and the hemp version is supposedly
cheaper than corn ethanol. From the hemp seed come hemp nuts, seed
cakes, foods, body care products and many technical products such as
paints, solvents, varnish, lubricants, diesel fuel and more. Hemp
seeds even appear more nutritious, concerning omega 3, than fish
oil. The list of products is rather astounding and the markets appear
to be exponentially expanding.

Please go online to see some of the thriving hemp farms in Canada and
Europe (www.Hempindustries.org). What a wonderful contribution to
North County agriculture this could make. I hope that our city and
county representatives get actively involved in educating our
federal representatives and supporting our local farmers to tap into
this billion dollar vital, vibrant, growing international and
domestic market.

Economically difficult times are upon us and the end does not seem
near. Let's not confuse grape juice with wine.

At www.VoteHemp.com/legal-cases-ND.html you can watch a video of
Roger Johnson, North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner, and you'll
realize the significant, unique, broad-based economic opportunities
that exist for a community like Lompoc.

The hemp industry would probably dwarf our wine industry, not only in
terms of agricultural acreage and income but in the number of
auxiliary businesses it would generate and the number of additional
employment opportunities.

A final note in dealing with the heavy case loads our law enforcement
faces in the midst of shrinking budgets. Perhaps some cost savings
can be found in a serious reassessment of our three decades of the
Drug War. With approximately $500 billion having now been spent
nationally, with annual costs now approximately at $21.38 billion,
with 40,000 people in jail for marijuana possession (Lompoc's
population) and 700,000 arrested annually for possession, the number
of Americans using illicit drugs has remained at about 15 percent of
the population over the past 20 years. The National Drug Threat
Assessment for 2008 has concluded that increases in domestic
marijuana production, combined with the continued flow from abroad,
point to a future of market saturation, which could reduce the price
significantly (New Yorker 2/25/08).

Candidly, hasn't the Attorney General's office failed in its
multibillion dollar decades-long war? Let's take law enforcement out
of the drug punishment business and turn over the drug health issue
to the Surgeon General. If our local law enforcement agencies no
longer had to focus on illegal drugs, as they no longer focused upon
alcohol after Prohibition, what precisely would be the savings to
their budget? After all, concerning the most addictive and toxic
drug, tobacco, which the Surgeon General warned of so long ago, the
smoking rate amongst U.S. adults has dropped from 42 percent in 1965
to less than 21 percent today.

If you respect the intelligence of the American public, then
education should prove sufficient in their exercise of their rights
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.