STOP CLAIMING HEMP, POT, FROM SAME PLANT

Industrial Growers Try To Set Public Straight

After seven years of working with industrial hemp, I am still dismayed to
find that the news media cannot understand that industrial hemp and
marijuana are not the same plant.

While reading "Fashion high on hemp" in Tuesday's Journal, I was annoyed to
find erroneous statements such as " While both hemp and marijuana come from
the cannabis plant, they are not the same."

The two do not come from the same plant, so therefore they definitely are
not the same (at least you got that part correct).

Industrial hemp is cannabis sativa, while marijuana is cannabis indica.
They belong to the same plant family, along with the hemp nettle weed and
hops used to make beer, but they are not the same plant.

While I realize that headlines linking hemp with marijuana are used to
attract readers, it is frustrating to those of us who work to educate the
public and government alike that industrial hemp is not marijuana, nor do
most industrial hemp growers and advocates want to be associated with the
marijuana supporters.

J.M. McCormick,

Meadowlark Industries Ltd.,