Cozmo
New Member
It would be difficult to picture someone who would seem less likely to be a leading advocate for legalizing hemp than North Dakota state Rep. David Monson.
Wearing a suit and with the hair on top of his head lying over like wheat in the high wind of his home state, Monson looks exactly like what he is – a family farmer, school administrator, leader in his church and assistant majority leader in a state legislature dominated by Republican lawmakers.
But those very facts are also the reasons Monson, who testified on Friday on the issue of legalizing industrial hemp production in Vermont, has become an important supporter of the crop. He has been working for years to be allowed to grow hemp as a cash crop that can break the cycle of wheat disease and help him keep his family farm. Add to that a healthy dose of disgust at the idea of the federal government telling him what plants he can and can't grow, and an understanding of prairie politics, and it's easy to see how Monson became a force behind North Dakota's legalization of hemp grown for use as in livestock feed and to make fiber for rope or cloth.
But it's not that easy. Monson and other farmers in North Dakota must also get permission under federal law – something the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has so far declined to offer. Although growing hemp, a different strain of the same species of plant for use as the drug marijuana, is illegal under North Dakota law and federal law, federal law allows the DEA to issue permits for the farming of the "industrial hemp" strain.
So far, farmers such as Monson have been unable to get that permission.
"According to the Controlled Substances Act ... there is one definition of marijuana," DEA Spokeswoman Rogene Waite said. "What people are calling industrial hemp is marijuana under the law."
A 1998 statement on the issue from DEA has defined the agency's approach since. "DEA has not in the past granted any registrations for the cultivation of marijuana for industrial purposes. The Controlled Substances Act requires that a determination be made that any such production would be in the public interest," according to that statement. "The cultivation of the marijuana plant exclusively for commercial/industrial purposes has many associated risks relating to diversion into the illicit drug traffic."That means hemp grown under a federal permit could be used to hide marijuana grown for drug purposes, Waite said.
"It's all marijuana," she said. "It could easily be diverted, it could be used to mask crops, to try and mask crops."
Monson and other advocates of growing hemp said that strain of the plant can be tested to ensure it does not have the drug effects of marijuana, from which it is chemically very different.
Because of cross-pollination, the last thing someone planting the drug would want would be to raise it near a field of industrial hemp, they said.
And Monson seems no more likely to give up in the face of federal bureaucracy than in the face of a 100-mile-per-hour prairie wind or a wheat "scab" disease that forced him to burn more than 1,000 acres of crops in the early 1990s.
For one thing, Monson is actively working to encourage other states, including Vermont, to legalize hemp production to put more pressure on the feds.
Monson said he knows his "squeaky clean" background, reputation and appearance lend weight to his argument.
"That's what they want to see, a real farmer, and that is what I am," Monson said. "They aren't going to find any skeletons in my closet, other than maybe some of the friends I used to hang around with in college."
And, he told the Vermont lawmakers, after passing out mementos and postcards of the North Dakota Statehouse, it is not political suicide to support legalizing the crop.
"There is nothing to be afraid of. There is life after voting for an industrial hemp bill," he said. With a nearly flawless success rate at passing, with bipartisan support, each of several hemp bills in the North Dakota Legislature, politicians who don't support the idea can be hard-put to win election. Of course North Dakotans don't like to be told what do to by the federal government, either, Monson said.
"We are fairly independent," he said. "I view this is a states' rights issue."
Monson, who applied again this year for a federal permit to plant hemp on some of his land, said new legislation in his state could give him or other farmers standing to file a lawsuit against the DEA to force the agency to exercise the ability to issue a permit.
Hemp wasn't always looked at by the federal government as it is now. For instance, during World War II, the government encouraged its production for rope and other uses.
The Vermont House Agriculture Committee room where he testified last week – "We do things a bit more formally" in North Dakota, he told his Vermont counterparts – has a poster supporting the growth of hemp for the war effort on the wall.
The reason hemp is an ideal crop for his section of North Dakota – and the portion of Canada across the border where it is being grown – is that it can be put into rotation of fields with wheat or other grains to break a cycle of disease. The hemp plant, which can grow more than a dozen feet tall in a season, can be used to produce oils, seeds for livestock feed or fiber like rope or cloth.
As for its future in Vermont, Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, hopes the bill allowing hemp production will move forward in the Legislature early next year.
"Hemp could be a really good crop for Vermont farmers," said Amy Shollenberger, whose organization, Rural Vermont, sponsored Monson's trip to the Vermont Statehouse. "It's great in rotation with corn, it helps clean up weed problems. Everyone agrees it is a great product for Vermont."
Newshawk: CoZmO - 420Magazine.com
Source: Louis Porter (VT)
Author: Louis Porter
Contact: louis.porter@rutlandherald.com
Copyright: 2007 Rutland Herald
Website: Rutland Herald: Rutland Vermont News & Information
Wearing a suit and with the hair on top of his head lying over like wheat in the high wind of his home state, Monson looks exactly like what he is – a family farmer, school administrator, leader in his church and assistant majority leader in a state legislature dominated by Republican lawmakers.
But those very facts are also the reasons Monson, who testified on Friday on the issue of legalizing industrial hemp production in Vermont, has become an important supporter of the crop. He has been working for years to be allowed to grow hemp as a cash crop that can break the cycle of wheat disease and help him keep his family farm. Add to that a healthy dose of disgust at the idea of the federal government telling him what plants he can and can't grow, and an understanding of prairie politics, and it's easy to see how Monson became a force behind North Dakota's legalization of hemp grown for use as in livestock feed and to make fiber for rope or cloth.
But it's not that easy. Monson and other farmers in North Dakota must also get permission under federal law – something the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has so far declined to offer. Although growing hemp, a different strain of the same species of plant for use as the drug marijuana, is illegal under North Dakota law and federal law, federal law allows the DEA to issue permits for the farming of the "industrial hemp" strain.
So far, farmers such as Monson have been unable to get that permission.
"According to the Controlled Substances Act ... there is one definition of marijuana," DEA Spokeswoman Rogene Waite said. "What people are calling industrial hemp is marijuana under the law."
A 1998 statement on the issue from DEA has defined the agency's approach since. "DEA has not in the past granted any registrations for the cultivation of marijuana for industrial purposes. The Controlled Substances Act requires that a determination be made that any such production would be in the public interest," according to that statement. "The cultivation of the marijuana plant exclusively for commercial/industrial purposes has many associated risks relating to diversion into the illicit drug traffic."That means hemp grown under a federal permit could be used to hide marijuana grown for drug purposes, Waite said.
"It's all marijuana," she said. "It could easily be diverted, it could be used to mask crops, to try and mask crops."
Monson and other advocates of growing hemp said that strain of the plant can be tested to ensure it does not have the drug effects of marijuana, from which it is chemically very different.
Because of cross-pollination, the last thing someone planting the drug would want would be to raise it near a field of industrial hemp, they said.
And Monson seems no more likely to give up in the face of federal bureaucracy than in the face of a 100-mile-per-hour prairie wind or a wheat "scab" disease that forced him to burn more than 1,000 acres of crops in the early 1990s.
For one thing, Monson is actively working to encourage other states, including Vermont, to legalize hemp production to put more pressure on the feds.
Monson said he knows his "squeaky clean" background, reputation and appearance lend weight to his argument.
"That's what they want to see, a real farmer, and that is what I am," Monson said. "They aren't going to find any skeletons in my closet, other than maybe some of the friends I used to hang around with in college."
And, he told the Vermont lawmakers, after passing out mementos and postcards of the North Dakota Statehouse, it is not political suicide to support legalizing the crop.
"There is nothing to be afraid of. There is life after voting for an industrial hemp bill," he said. With a nearly flawless success rate at passing, with bipartisan support, each of several hemp bills in the North Dakota Legislature, politicians who don't support the idea can be hard-put to win election. Of course North Dakotans don't like to be told what do to by the federal government, either, Monson said.
"We are fairly independent," he said. "I view this is a states' rights issue."
Monson, who applied again this year for a federal permit to plant hemp on some of his land, said new legislation in his state could give him or other farmers standing to file a lawsuit against the DEA to force the agency to exercise the ability to issue a permit.
Hemp wasn't always looked at by the federal government as it is now. For instance, during World War II, the government encouraged its production for rope and other uses.
The Vermont House Agriculture Committee room where he testified last week – "We do things a bit more formally" in North Dakota, he told his Vermont counterparts – has a poster supporting the growth of hemp for the war effort on the wall.
The reason hemp is an ideal crop for his section of North Dakota – and the portion of Canada across the border where it is being grown – is that it can be put into rotation of fields with wheat or other grains to break a cycle of disease. The hemp plant, which can grow more than a dozen feet tall in a season, can be used to produce oils, seeds for livestock feed or fiber like rope or cloth.
As for its future in Vermont, Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, hopes the bill allowing hemp production will move forward in the Legislature early next year.
"Hemp could be a really good crop for Vermont farmers," said Amy Shollenberger, whose organization, Rural Vermont, sponsored Monson's trip to the Vermont Statehouse. "It's great in rotation with corn, it helps clean up weed problems. Everyone agrees it is a great product for Vermont."
Newshawk: CoZmO - 420Magazine.com
Source: Louis Porter (VT)
Author: Louis Porter
Contact: louis.porter@rutlandherald.com
Copyright: 2007 Rutland Herald
Website: Rutland Herald: Rutland Vermont News & Information
