HEMP GROUP CLOUDED RIGHTS ISSUE

The Fourth of July came and went this year without the corresponding bang of
fireworks. For some people it just wasn't the same. For anyone feeling the
day was too flat, it is time for a lesson on perspective. For many people
Independence Day is just a picnic and pyrotechnics, maybe even a parade
depending on where you live. Reflecting on the issues of liberty and the
price paid by patriots to birth our nation seems too sentimental to some.

This weekend at the SeaWalk Pavilion there is evidence of how radical our
Constitution and the Bill of Rights remain. The Hempfest, coordinated by the
Cannabis Action Network (CAN), arrives in Jacksonville Beach today via a
judicial ruling on the group's First Amendment right to assemble and
exercise its freedom of speech.

Although no one in Jacksonville Beach's city government sought to persecute
this group, the leaders of CAN employed their typical tactics. With a large
chip on their shoulder, they rushed to the media wailing about the
abridgment of their constitutional rights.

Well, it just didn't happen like that.

They wanted to hold a festival. Before applying for a special events permit,
or working through things in any fashion at the lower levels, CAN was having
its day in court. The judge issued a 15-page legal opinion that included a
disturbing message for those charged with running a city: Any group can
exercise its right to assemble in your town, whenever it wants, and even if
you fear that rioting and mayhem may follow, you must tolerate the gathering
of even the most intolerant groups.

CAN is a body of believers for a repeal of the laws prohibiting the growth
of hemp, whose by-product is marijuana. The group also advocates the medical
use of marijuana. Many people will automatically dismiss CAN's battle cry
regarding hemp as a cloak concealing its real purpose: the legalization of
recreational drug use. In educating myself on the topic on the Internet, I
passed many underground Web sites. I sympathetically passed the Marijuana
Anonymous site that seeks to help the thousands who wrestle to break their
addiction to the drug. My final destination was www.cannabis.com. This
10-page site offered solid information that revealed some economically based
hypocrisy on the part of our government regarding the prohibition of growing
hemp.

One interesting inclusion is a Popular Mechanics article written in 1938, a
year before the hemp prohibition went into effect. It reveals the incredible
agricultural benefits of hemp in land reclamation and notes the amazing
economical opportunities of this sturdy plant. It is possible that the
prohibition of hemp in the 1930s occurred because it would have replaced
other cash crops, like cotton, and could have put a dent in the timber
industry's profits because a hemp by-product can be substituted for wood
pulp in paper. This site was a good source of political, economical and
medical information on this complex issue.

Today is a good day to witness the exercise of free speech in the pavilion.
You can exercise your view on the subject by adding your name to the
numerous petitions CAN will be promoting or by avoiding the site if you are
not in favor of the cause.

Hopefully, before any of us exercises our right to free speech, we will all
keep America strong by having an open mind and an educated opinion. The
blood of our patriot forefathers is at least worth that much effort.

Ronda Steinke-McDonald is a free-lance writer who lives in Jacksonville Beach.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett