THE BILLION DOLLAR CROP: HEMP

Dear Editor,

Reilly Capps got a bull's-eye (What Drives Cop Shop, Dec. 17, 2008)
calling to end cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. Although the cannabis
initiative failed a few years ago, all the ski town / counties pass
it; Summit with 62% and San Miguel with a very respectable 74 percent.
One of the most luciferous consequence of cannabis prohibition though
is how it affects "climate change" and America's economy by also
prohibiting and exterminating hemp (without THC). The United States
uses corn for ethanol because hemp is illegal. America has had
technology to build and fuel cars using hemp since the 1930s. Nearly
every product produced from petroleum can be made with hemp resins.
Some estimates indicate using 10 percent of America's farmland to
cultivate hemp would eliminate any need for foreign petroleum. Before
greedy ignoids conspired to prohibit hemp, it was referred to as the
billion-dollar crop, when the B-word wasn't thrown around so loosely.
A sane argument to perpetuate prohibiting free American farmers from
utilizing the plant doesn't exist. Even communist Chinese farmers grow
hemp; You know, that country America has the highest debt with. And
consider how many factories and factory jobs America has lost overseas
due to hemp prohibition. If America still grew hemp as it did back in
the day, We'd still have those factories because hemp fields need
factories nearby. America's future political atmosphere may be more
conducive to changing hemp's status as a Schedule I drug along side
heroin and LSD. Americans must work hard the next few years to
re-introduce hemp as a component of American agriculture. In fact,
environmentally conscientious Americans must fight harder than big oil
and other mega corporations which profit immensely off hemp
prohibition and spend huge fortunes to guarantee its existence.
Because hemp prohibition is anti-American and it's shucking the country.

Truthfully,

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado