Posted on 04/01/2018 9:06:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
Hemp is not marijuana.
And yet it is.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he will introduce legislation to legalize industrial hemp.
He is not concerning himself with marijuana, which is what we call the plant Cannabis sativa when cultivated for its Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, the principal chemical in the plant that makes it ideal for recreational (and other) uses. Industrial hemp is Cannabis sativa, too, just with minuscule THC.
Actually, he insists that hemp and marijuana are more than merely distinct: I think weve worked our way through the education process of making sure everybody understands this is really a different plant, he said.
Well, I guess that is one way to sell a bill. But it is not quite believable. While hemp as an industrial product is not the same as marijuana as a recreational-medicinal drug, the two are not separate species. You cannot tell them apart without some chemical analysis.
Or a bong hit.
So, what is going on here?
The plant has been used for many purposes for thousands upon thousands of years. It makes great rope and other fiber products. And much more. And it contains a number of chemicals that have much-valued pharmacological properties, from anti-carcinogenic to psychoactive.
Thomas Jefferson grew hemp. And it was once a major cash crop of Kentucky, which is the state that Mitch McConnell represents, along with Rand Paul, in the U.S. Senate. Both senators are eager to re-introduce the cash crop into their state, though it is apparent that at least one of them is trepidatious about the whole marijuana thing.
Now, hemp products are actually legal to buy and sell in the United States.
Sort of.
But growing it is murky, considering that ingestible hemp is a Schedule 1 drug no matter how little THC it has despite the fact that, under the leadership of McConnell, Congress has allowed states to regulate the research and development of low-THC hemp for industrial purposes since 2014.
But there are complications, especially for McConnells politic theory that hemp and marijuana are two different plants.
One complication? Even industrial hemp contains an ingestible oil, Cannabidiol (CBD), which induces neither euphoria nor anything else reality-bending, but is widely believed to have many therapeutic powers. It is also, apparently, one of the good oils, like olive oil. (If you believe current nutritional theory.) CBD products are widely sold all over the country, wherever states have allowed for medical marijuana. Indeed, everywhere in the course of my research, I just so happened to receive an email for a CBD product, in which I was told in no uncertain terms that CBD is legal everywhere.
Nevertheless the DEA objects to CBD as much as to THC, saying that all ingestible forms of hemp are illegal. And well within the agencys expansive purview.
What makes the industrial plant different from the weed grown for altering consciousness is how the plant is cultivated and harvested. There is a fair amount of trouble required to get the native plant to produce THC, so the popular term weed is the very opposite of apt.
And if this were not confusing enough, there is also the question of the two major strains of the plant, Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica of which scientists do not yet agree whether they are actually separate species or not. Sativa tends to produce less THC than indica, but there is a range.
Because of all this murkiness, McConnells bill might seem to be welcome step towards clarity.
Trouble is, since, sans harvesting context, industrial hemp is indistinguishable from cannabis with THC to look at; to smell; to touch officials adamant about cracking down on marijuana-as-a-psychoactive-drug would be much hampered were industrial hemp commonly and legally grown. Indeed, their reconaissance, impounding and court cases would all be severely hobbled were industrial hemp common and legal everywhere.
So, there is a coming turf war, and not just between the DEA and those states that have defied Congress by legalizing marijuana for medicinal or recreational uses (or both), but also between the Agriculture Department and the aforementioned DEA.
This could get interesting. Expect a lot of testimony against McConnells hemp bill from professionals associated with the War on Drugs. And a lot of hysteria from the usual sources.
Americans are increasingly tired of the War on Drugs in general, and especially the prohibition of marijuana in particular. A majority wants to see marijuana de-listed from Schedule 1 of prohibited drugs. And the science does more than suggest that lumping the drug with methamphetamines or heroin makes little sense. But, frankly, the whole drug war makes no sense to huge swaths of Americans.
And, of course, there is the unconstitutionality of it all.
When I covered this story a few days ago on Common Sense (High on Hemp? March 29), one of my astute readers (you could be one, too!) touched on this disturbing aspect of the story. Ive always considered it interesting that absolutely everyone accepted that the only possible way the federal government could legitimately prohibit alcohol was by a Constitutional Amendment, wrote Ken in my sites comments section. Then, only a few years later, that same federal government arrogated to itself the authority to regulate and prohibit the production, ingestion, and possession of a broad assortment of plants and chemicals without even a nod to the Constitution. Even today, hardly anyone seems to raise the issue. One has to wonder if theyre all on drugs.
Politicians are high on power, of course.
And remember, it was during the Roosevelt Administration that 1937s bizarre Marijuana Tax Act began the federal governments persecution of marijuana users and regulation of hemp producers. It was part and parcel of the New Deals assault on the Constitution.
Could it be time, after 80 years, for conservatives to throw off their thralldom to the progressives and socialists of the Great Depression?
And speaking of time, it seems fitting to question the hesitant, ultra-cautious aspect of McConnells proposed legalization of hemp, especially on April Fools Day not because legalization is foolish, but because the federal government so obviously is.
And we are, for putting up with it.
For your interest.
It’s whatever you make of it.
A plant can’t be evil, as evil is a characteristic of human beings.
They used to grow it all over Ohio Penn KY and WV in the 1800s
You could still find it growing wild in the 1970s
Wild Turkey Weed?
If you support a policy that would have thrown all the Founders in jail, you may just be a tyrant.
And a poppy is just a poppy.
That 1937 Act was a gift/protection for Big Lumber & the traditional Newsprint from wood pulp folks. It prevented Hemp based Newsprint as competition.
I really don’t believe people who say it’s all they have that works for pain. It makes young people lazy. It’s a gateway drug. It’s gotta be worse on the lungs than tobacco. The libertarian in me says legalization. Slippery slope. Leads to tattoos.
Hemp is not Marijauna, but so what if it was?
They used it for rope and for lamp oil
Kentucky is covered in tobacco and bourbon, next thing you know they’ll have horse races!
Speaking of horse races...
When I was a kid, My Uncle, who raced horses, got me a job at the Speed barns, right beside the track.
Oh Boy oh boy! ME! working at the speed barns?!
Yup.
Shoveling **** LOL
Paul Jacobs is a pharmacologist?
I doubt it.
More like a Soros drug pusher.
Next thing you know Blackie Gennero has a boxer named Ernie Shaver working out in his speed barns...
Ernie is a good ol guy
Correct. Some varieties that are good fiber don’t make THC. Most medicines come from plants, why should this one be different if it is properly controlled.
Legislation to permit these uses does not and has never had any impact on those who grow it for recreational drug purposes.
Sometimes I forget how interesting mylife is LOL
Happy Easter to you all!
You ever hear of the “Sugar War”? The Pittsburgh Mob figured out during Prohibition, if you controlled the sugar, you control the market.
Back then Welch’s grape juice made a thing called Welch’s Bar
Non descript package, Size of a bar of soap.
It was sugar and yeast.
You bought that and the grape juice, kerplunk! and through the miracle of time you had hootch
Then I met this Fellow called James Trafficant, He was the Sheriff, Then a Congressman...
“it was once a major cash crop of Kentucky, which is the state that Mitch McConnell represents, along with Rand Paul, in the U.S. Senate”
LOL
Hemp is only for rope and oil. Probably could make paper and a linin type fabric too.
There is zero THC in it.
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