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| mr.smartypants... |
 Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:50 pm |
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/14-2
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Associated Press
Farmers Try to Plant Hemp at DEA Office, Arrested
by James MacPherson
BISMARCK, N.D. ‹ A 51-year-old grandfather who grows garbanzo beans and
other crops in northwestern North Dakota was among the protesters
arrested for planting hemp seeds on the lawn of the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration offices.
Wayne Hauge and five other people were arrested Tuesday for trespassing
and part of a group of about 20 protesting the ban on growing hemp, said
authorities in Arlington, Va. Hemp, which is used to make paper, lotion
and other products, is related to the illegal drug marijuana.
Proponents argue it contains too little of the mind-altering chemical
THC to make people high.
Hauge and David Monson, a Republican state legislator and farmer from
Osnabrock, received the North Dakota's first state licenses to grow
industrial hemp in 2007, but they've never received approval from the
DEA, which considers hemp a drug. They've sued the DEA, and their case
has been before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for about a year
after a federal judge in Bismarck dismissed it and told the farmers to
take their case to Congress.
"You might say this is outside of my normal character, and I don't
intend to make it a practice," Hauge said in a telephone interview,
after spending about five hours in jail. "My interest here was to show
that hemp is just a crop. Hemp is not a drug."
The Hemp Industries Association, which has been lobbying lawmakers on
Capitol Hill to allow the growing of hemp for industrial uses, said it's
the first time the protesters engaged in civil disobedience.
DEA officials did not return telephone calls for comment Tuesday.
David Bronner, president of Escondido, Calif.-based Dr. Bronner's Magic
Soaps, said his company has used hemp for a decade in its products. The
company imports hemp from Europe and Canada, but Bronner said he would
like to buy it from U.S. farmers.
"With the weak dollar and the high cost of freight, it's something we
should be able to source in the U.S.," said Bronner, who invited Hauge
to Tuesday's demonstration.
Bronner said he, Hauge and four others dug several holes on the lawn of
the DEA headquarters and planted about 1,000 hemp seeds. Hauge was one
of two farmers arrested. The other was Will Allen of East Thetford, Vt.
"He dug a better hole than anyone," Bronner said of Hauge.
Hauge and Allen's trip was paid for by Vote Hemp, the lobbying arm of
the hemp industry.
Hauge, who lives in Ray, a town of about 500 people, still has 400 acres
of beans to harvest at home. He would like to add hemp to his other
crops, which include lentils, barley and durum, and said he and other
hemp proponents are frustrated by the lack of progress in legalization.
"My interest has been and will always be raising it for a crop, as part
of my rotation," said Hauge, who also is an accountant.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson, who pushed for
legalizing the growing of industrial hemp in the U.S. while serving as
North Dakota's agriculture commissioner, said he was surprised by
Hauge's arrest.
"Wow, he didn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd wind up in jail,"
Johnson said. "He's a rational kind of guy. He's an accountant, for
crying out loud, and a farmer."
The National Farmers Union has not taken a position on hemp. But Johnson
said he still believes U.S. farmers should be allowed to plant it.
"We still have folks in high places that seem to think hemp and
marijuana are the same thing ‹ they aren't," Johnson said. "We need to
get past that."
Vote Hemp
http://www.votehemp.com/
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
All laws are good, to those who draw a salary for
their enforcement.
-- Clark Ashton Smith
--
money; what a concept! |
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