GROW HEMP

I enjoyed reading George Will's recent column on medical marijuana
and have asked my local planning department where it would zone
property for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Cannabis Sativa L. Hemp has been documented as medicine for more
than 2,000 years. The slang name, marijuana, was introduced in the
early 1930s.

I personally hope the state will stand up and change its laws
regulating cannabis. Legalization of cannabis would provide enormous
agri-business advantages for Kansas, one of the states chosen by the
federal government to grow hemp for the World War II Hemp For
Victory campaign.

Hemp once was so vital in the Kansas economy that when the Capitol
was constructed in Topeka, hemp leaves were painted around the
murals at the top of the rotunda.

Should Kansas engage in economic development of cannabis hemp, the
profits of the labors produced from cultivating this plant would
stay in the state. Kansas could grow its own protein, paper, fiber
and fuel. The state would not need to import these raw fiber resources.

Other countries build shipping crates, fiber board for building
supplies, solvents to restore centuries-old wood framing and
plastics for the automobile industry from their hemp crops.

Why not Kansas?

DEBBY MOORE,

director of research,

Hemp Industries of Kansas,

Wichita