GRASS IS NOT GREEN

I almost choked when I read the article "Left on Green: Udall wants third
party support" in which my congressional representative Mark Udall was
quoted as saying he has "a strong record of standing for all of the issues
that the Greens embrace." (News, July 6-12.)

I am the co-owner of the Boulder Hemp Company. Since 1998, our company
has been manufacturing organic tortilla chips in the U.S. made with
sterile hemp grain imported from Canada. Since last October, I have
been trying to get Mark Udall's help with my concern that the Drug
Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs and Drug Czar Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey are acting illegally by prohibiting sterilized hemp grain
from being imported into the U.S.

Infertile hemp seeds, along with all other hemp products, are now
legal in the U.S. under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which
specifically exempts sterilized seed and all hemp products from the
federal definition of "marijuana."

Despite this, since last August, U.S. Customs has seized several
shipments of legal hemp seed and other products being imported from
Canada and other countries. Officials at Customs say they are acting
on orders from the DEA and Drug Czar McCaffrey. In addition, McCaffrey
is lobbying members of Congress to introduce legislation to outlaw
legal hemp products entirely.

The illegal actions of these federal agencies are a real and immediate
threat to the livelihood of my business, so I went to my federal
representative, Mark Udall, for help. I have written Udall four
letters and visited his office personally in D.C. once. I received one
reply which Udall said he was sending the information I sent him
directly to the DEA for a response. Shortly thereafter, I got a reply
from the DEA "thanking" me for the information that Udall sent them
(like my name, address and phone number, I suppose). But otherwise, I
have gotten zero help from Mark Udall. Where are his supposed "Green"
values?

Ron Forthofer, Udall's Green Party opponent, is on the record as
supporting industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis re-legalization. If
elected, he has promised to work to end the War on Drugs and the
prison-industrial complex that is supported by this war and funnel
this taxpayer money into rehabilitation and education. Forthofer even
came to speak at a recent hemp rally in Denver. Where was Mark Udall?

Udall and other Democrats had better pay heed to the seeds of dissent
coming from their grassroots. The corporate-controlled Democratic
Party has become indistinguishable from the corporate-controlled
Republican Party. Former Democratic voters will vote Green if you
don't start to bring the Democratic Party more in line with voters'
environmental and social justice values. You're losing votes, Mark
Udall, and unless I see some real work from you on the issue of
industrial hemp and the DEA, then you will lose my vote in November.

Not only will you lose my vote, but I will see to it that you are
indicted and tried for war crimes for bankrupting the American farmer
and decimating our old growth forests by prohibiting hemp production;
for destroying thousands of families by incarcerating their members
for use of one of God's plants; for sending more kids to jail than to
college; for promoting slavery in privatized prisons, where inmates
work for 30 cents a day; and for aiding and abetting the destruction
of our Constitution by perpetuating this failed War on Drugs, which is
really just a war on minorities and poor people. For more information,
see: www.levellers.org/dea, www.hempfoods.com or www.forthofer.org.

Kathleen Chippi/Nederland
Boulder Hemp Company