99HEMP

Issue's Rope,Not Dope.

In November, Alaskans will have the opportunity to vote on an
initiative, known as 99HEMP, to legalize the various derivatives of
cannabis sativa. If the measure passed, it would legalize marijuana
cultivation, possession and use. It also would make it possible for
Alaskans to grow industrial hemp.

Sounds good at first. I support the legalization of both industrial
hemp and marijuana. But the reasons for legalizing hemp are different
than the reasons for legalizing marijuana. Industrial hemp is a
nonpsychoactive crop with practical applications as a source of fuel,
food and fiber. One acre of hemp will yield 1,000 gallons of ethanol
through a relatively simple refining process.

Hemp is a low-maintenance crop, and the amount of carbon dioxide it
takes in during the growth cycle balances out the amount of carbon
dioxide emitted by burning ethanol. Clearly, hemp biomass could prove
to be a valuable energy resource in the coming years. Since one could
get no higher smoking industrial hemp than by smoking asparagus, it
makes little sense for anti-marijuana statutes to outlaw hemp's
cultivation.

Unfortunately, the 99HEMP supporters have chosen to lump industrial
hemp in with marijuana. The initiative petition, found online at the
Free Hemp in Alaska Web site (www.freehempinak.org), defines hemp as
"hemp, cannabis or marijuana, or any part or preparation of cannabis
sativa, cannabis indica. . .or any variety of cannabis."

That's wrong. Cannabis indica is not hemp, it is an entirely different
species, and a far more psychoactive one. This distinction was made by
Pierre Lamarck as early as 1783.

The movement to legalize industrial hemp will meet with limited
success if it is linked with efforts to legalize marijuana. If voters
are reliably informed that industrial hemp cannot be smoked
recreationally, and of the numerous economic and environmental
advantages that hemp has to offer, then it is reasonable to expect
that they might vote to legalize it. On the other hand, many Alaskans
do not support the legalization of drugs, and will reject a measure
like 99HEMP because it would make marijuana legal.

Even something like using the same term for industrial hemp and
marijuana indicates a faulty concept of botany and chemistry on the
user's part and can perpetuate a similar misunderstanding on the
reader's part. This misunderstanding is why hemp was outlawed in the
first place.

Furthermore, the Free Hemp in Alaska site, which is decorated with
goofy images of bongs and pot leaves, makes the effort to legalize
hemp look less like a legitimate endeavor and more like the work of
oafish potheads.

In a 1996 interview with High Times magazine (the work of decidedly
less oafish potheads), International Hemp Association project manager
Robert Connell Clarke said, "There's recreational marijuana, there's
industrial hemp and there's medical marijuana. That's three distinct
issues. And they should not be linked together.

"The hempsters feel that linking them together allows medical
marijuana, or more likely industrial hemp, to lead the way toward the
eventual legalization of recreational marijuana. But in my view,
that's not putting your best foot forward, that's tying your shoelaces
together. Believe me, I have a lot of contact with the industrial
side, and they don't want to hear about marijuana. They just want to
have hemp be hemp. They wish. . .it came from a different plant."

The focus of a pro-hemp initiative should be to legalize industrial
hemp and should not be bogged down by the stigma of marijuana. But I
believe that marijuana should be legal as well.

Conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr. maintains that the war on
drugs is lost.

While the legality of the cannabis genus is justifiable, any attempts
to bring about this freedom should be gradual. Right now, a more
reasonable and feasible step would be to lobby for an initiative to
legalize industrial hemp and maintain the proscriptions against
marijuana. Hopefully, these will be overcome someday. If not, at least
we'll have better fuel and rope.

When November rolls around, I will vote yes on the 99HEMP initiative.
If it passes, Alaskans will probably enjoy a wide range of benefits
from access to cannabis. But the tactics of people at Free Hemp in
Alaska are not only limiting the likelihood of passage but
disseminating more of the misinformation that continues to cloud the
minds of the anti-hemp crowd.

There's a list of quotes at www.freehempinak.org, and among them is
this one, from Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph
of evil is for good people to do nothing." That's also incorrect. Evil
does just fine when good people do the wrong thing.

Perfect World editor Isaac Schapira is a recent graduate of West.