US NC: INDUSTRIAL HEMP... AND KATRINA?

The same day our nation commemorated the one year anniversary of
Hurricane Katrina, I learned that the state of California had
passed—and was now waiting for Governor Schwarzenegger to sign—a new
measure legalizing industrial hemp crops.

This is very encouraging news. It's just unfortunate no one realizes
this is part of the Hurricane Katrina story.

With all due respect for those who died or were stranded on their
rooftops, if I were in charge of a cable news station, I would have
made industrial hemp a main part of my anniversary coverage.

Hemp used to be a common thing in America. It also used to be an
integral part of our nation's economy. This changed in the 1930s,
when fear over its mind-altering cousin, marijuana, led to a national
hemp ban. Except for a short reprieve during World War II, it's been
illegal to farm the stuff ever since.

Today, many products—such as clothing, food, and rope—are made from
hemp imported from Canada. Most Americans understand that owning such
products in no way, shape or form makes them part of some underground
drug culture.

Hemp remains illegal, however, for two important reasons:

1) because Washington insists hemp crops would serve as cover for
marijuana growers

2) because the rest of us have accepted—or at least decided to live
with—Washington's assessment

As a result, it is very difficult to have a rational industrial hemp
discussion. Most people realize hemp isn't the same as marijuana.

However, most people think you'd have to be a paranoid stoner to so
much as bring it up.

When you really start to consider this issue, you start to wonder,
though: Who's paranoid here? The stoners who brag about hemp's many
uses? Or the people too frightened by visions of stoners to have this
conversation?

Hemp is a viable alternative fuel source.

It's clean.

It's renewable.

And it can be used in place of many synthetic, oil-based materials.

It's actually quite odd that we'd choose to import it rather than
grow it—especially in light of our usual "Made In America" mentality.

Just think what this crop could do to ease our dependence on Middle
Eastern oil. Even if it was the same as marijuana, you'd still have
to be crazy—or paranoid—not to use it.

This brings me back to Hurricane Katrina. By now, most people seem to
agree Washington failed the city of New Orleans. Why this happened is
up for debate, but one possible reason I don't hear many people
discuss anymore is the fact that our soldiers were too busy overseas
to help rescue all those folks on their rooftops.

Leaving aside whether disaster recovery is the military's job, I
would say this is a fair argument.

Our men and women sign up to defend our country.

That's why they're "our" men and women.

Often, though, they end up defending other countries.

It's been this way since September 11th, but it was like this long
before September 11th, too. America maintains a military presence of
some size or another in roughly 130 countries.

This makes it hard for us to defend the only country that ought to
matter to America, which, of course, is America.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you the Iraq War, for
instance, was "all about oil." Like all conflicts, it was about many
things—some more or less noble than others.

But if it's true our military was too busy in Iraq to help the people
of New Orleans, then you have to ask yourself: Why does America
maintain such a broad overseas presence to begin with? Why do we care
what happens in the Middle East? Why should it even concern us? Oil
isn't the only answer to these questions, but it is an answer for
each of them. Oil is crucial to us. We need it. And this means we
need to worry about other countries, because they're the ones who have it.

I'm not naive enough to think industrial hemp would cut our ties with
the Middle East overnight.

If I had to guess, it wouldn't even cut our ties with the Middle East
altogether. We would still need oil for something or another. But
that's okay. There's nothing wrong with doing business.

Just imagine how things in New Orleans might have been different if
we hadn't been draining our resources elsewhere, though.

Maybe the military would have been here to help rescue people more quickly.

Or maybe we would have simply fixed the levees before they broke and
drowned the city.

Of course, this is all conjecture. There's no way to actually prove
it. But before you complain about Washington failing New Orleans,
just consider how industrial hemp would alter such problems as oil,
war and pollution.

Until this useful crop becomes legal, I would argue Washington is
failing us all.

[Sidebars]

WORD FROM THE STREET

Q: As many may already know, hemp can be used in place of many
synthetic, oil-based materials. However, it's illegal to grow in the
U.S. Do you think this is justified?

A: "Just because it looks like marijuana, doesn't mean it offers the
same intoxicating effects.

You can also make rope/paper products from Kudzu, and our area can
attest to the legal status of this plant."—Steve Gibbons

i think it is a shame to waste good hemp on synthetic, oil based
materials."—George Bailey

The ban on growing hemp is patently absurd, as is the fact that
marijuana, which is basically the same plant, is illegal.

Marijuana has been proven to be far less harmful than either alcohol
or cigarettes, both of which are of course legal… and it is far less
harmful than a whole range of addictive, prescription drugs that the
government actively endorses. The only reason why hemp production
(and marijuana) continues to be banned is so every blustering idiot
of a congressman can pound his fat fist on a table and
harrumph-harrumph about being ''tough in the war on drugs." Which
'war,' by the way, has been an abject failure.

And the only reason why the politicians keep making stupid laws like
this one is that we voters are stupid enough to fall for them."—Joe Dougherty

Hemp—isn't that the stuff that is a gateway drug to cocaine use, teen
pregnancy and alcoholism?

Nevermind the truth, believe what the fat cats tell the politicians
to tell you to believe.

Why should it be used as a cheap alternative to oil? Our government
sat back and watched oil companies jack up prices then gloat their
record profits.

What oil execs want, oil execs get. This is, after all, the US."­--J. Clarkson