Hague Struggling to Put North Dakota on the Hemp Map
Wayne Hauge of Ray, ND has asked a judge in Bismarck to force the DEA to abide by a North Dakota state law that makes the growing of industrial hemp legal. Currently, the DEA sees industrial hemp on the same lines as the more popular marijuana and as such, both are illegal to grow.
Hauge is joined by Monson, a Republican state legislator who helped pass a law in 1999 that would permit hemp cultivation and establish limits to ease the federal government’s worries. They have the backing of Vote Hemp, an advocacy organization, and state Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, who personally delivered paperwork to the DEA in February on the farmers’ behalf.
I am a proponent of making Marijuana legal to at least the prescription level if not to the same level as tobacco. Guess where I sit for hemp. Yep. WTF is the DEA thinking. I’ll tell you. The plants look similar. How in the hell are they supposed to differentiate between the two and make a good bust? You don’t get publicity for sawing down and burning a perfectly legal crop of hemp. Well, not the kind you want anyways.
Hemp is being used for more and more products. From the ever popular hemp rope to new uses as food products and as an oil in soaps and lotions. Why would we want to have all of our producers continue to send their money elsewhere to get it? Why wouldn’t we want some of that money to come our way up here in the north-lands?