NO EVIDENCE FOR VILIFYING HEMP

Response to letters by Jeanette McDougal and John Coleman:

I am proud and honored by the negative comments by McDougal and
Coleman, as well as being mystified by their statements, which
provide little evidence to support their negative stance on industrial hemp.

I am proud and honored that McDougal recognizes North Dakota farmers
as solid citizens; however, to state that marijuana has any
correlation to the efforts by me and everyone I have to date come in
contact with is sorely mistaken. I personally will have nothing to do
with legalization of pot.

To suppose that marijuana can be planted inside a field of industrial
hemp and achieve any degree of so-called recreational high is again
misleading. Far more likely would be to grow pot inside a corn field.

Coleman's assertion that our nation's legislators have been swindled
by past drug proponents is intriguing, to say the least. In order to
make this assertion, you have to assume that the governor of North
Dakota has been duped, along with the attorney general, agriculture
commissioner, vast majority of both houses of the Legislature and
many learned professors with degrees longer than can be printed here.

North Dakota is known as a state with hard-working people who are
respected for their ingenuity and integrity. Coleman's assertions are
akin to the idiocy put forth in the article about the Buffalo Commons
as written by Frank and Deborah Poppers in 1987 about our drier upper
Midwest plains not being sustainable for agriculture.

If industrial hemp is not a profitable rotational crop well-suited to
North Dakota, then why have our state's legislators and governmental
leaders supported legalization of industrial hemp for the past 10 years?

Further, if industrial hemp is as readily available from other
sources across the world as they presume, then freight must be free
to get it to domestic markets.

I look forward to farming in a new era of alternative opportunity.

When the stigma of marijuana has been separated from industrial hemp,
then the creative talents of bright minds across our great nation
will truly shine with new and innovative ideas.

Wayne Hauge

Ray

(The two North Dakota farmers granted state hemp farming licenses,
Rep. David Monson of Osnabrock and Hauge, filed a lawsuit in U.S.
District Court to end the Drug Enforcement Administration's ban on
commercial hemp farming in the United States. - Editor)