Industrial Hemp Supporters Wait On Federal OK To Grow

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Supporters had high hopes -- sorry -- when the 2009 Oregon Legislature legalized industrial hemp, but it appears the crop is growing nowhere fast.

Even though Oregon made it legal to grow and possess industrial hemp and to buy and sell hemp commodities and products, the federal government hasn't yet signed on. The feds still equate hemp with pot, and no one can grow it until they say so.

"It's rolled into the definition of marijuana at the federal level," said state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. David Nelson, R-Pendleton.

That may change. Hemp activists -- including the CEO of a Portland company that makes food from the oil-rich hemp seeds -- are lobbying Congress this month to legalize the crop.

The Industrial Hemp Farming Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, would remove industrial hemp from the federal definition of marijuana and permit states to regulate growers and processors, exactly as Oregon and six other states have proposed.

North Dakota went so far as to issue growing permits to two farmers, but the effort stalled when the federal Drug Enforcement Administration would not acknowledge the permits. The farmers have since filed suit, and the case is pending.

Meanwhile, activists are pursuing another option -- asking the Obama administration for a policy change that would allow hemp production. If Congress won't act, Prozanski said it may be more prudent to direct the DEA to treat industrial hemp as it does medical marijuana, and not prosecute legitimate growers and producers.

Industrial hemp is a variety of Cannabis sativa L. -- marijuana -- but is low in THC, the substance that makes people high. Backers say the fibrous plant can be a sustainable substitute for trees used to make paper, and that hemp also can be used to make textiles, rope and other products. Its seeds contain oil that can be used to make lubricants, detergents, paint, varnish, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

A Portland company, Living Harvest Inc., uses hemp seeds to make protein powder, ice cream and milk. Any food made with soy can be made with hemp, said Christina Volgyesi, the company's vice president of marketing. She said emerging hemp products could result in explosive growth for the company.

The company now imports hemp from Canada, where it's legal to grow. "We want to give those dollars to Oregon farmers," Volgyesi said. "It's a big issue, everybody wants to move it forward."

The Oregon legislation gave the Oregon Department of Agriculture authority to license hemp growers and to test field samples for THC content. The state could seize crops that had a THC level higher than 0.3 percent.

Department spokesman Bruce Pokarney said some people have accused the department of stalling the permit process, but that's not the case.

"We're still sitting and waiting" for federal approval, he said.

A 1998 Oregon State University study concluded that industrial hemp would grow well in the Columbia and Snake River basins and in the lowland areas between the Coast Range and the Cascades from the Rogue Valley in the south to Puget Sound in the north. It would require irrigation, adding to the cost of production, but anywhere sweet corn grows well, hemp would do the same, OSU concluded.

Researchers doubted hemp would replace high-value commodities grown in the state but said it could be put to "excellent" use as a rotational crop planted to break insect and disease cycles or to suppress weeds.

Hemp has been grown off and on in the United States, including during World War II when shortages of raw material forced industrial plants to look for alternatives.



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Source: Oregon Live
Author: News Hawk- Weedpipe http://www.420Magazine.com
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