Posted on 01/15/2007 2:07:51 PM PST by ellery
BISMARCK, N.D. - David Monson began pushing the idea of growing industrial hemp in the United States a decade ago. Now his goal may be within reach but first he needs to be fingerprinted. Monson plans this week to apply to become the nation's first licensed industrial hemp farmer. He will have to provide two sets of fingerprints and proof that he's not a criminal.
The farmer, school superintendent and state legislator would like to start by growing 10 acres of the crop, and he spent part of his weekend staking out the field he wants to use.
"I'm starting to see that we maybe have a chance," Monson said. "For a while, it was getting really depressing."
Last month, the state Agriculture Department finished its work on rules farmers may use to grow industrial hemp, a cousin of marijuana that does not have the drug's hallucinogenic properties. The sturdy, fibrous plant is used to make an assortment of products, ranging from paper, rope and lotions to car panels, carpet backing and animal bedding.
Applicants must provide latitude and longitude coordinates for their proposed hemp fields, furnish fingerprints and pay at least $202 in fees, including $37 to cover the cost of criminal record checks.
Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said the federal Drug Enforcement Administration still must give its permission before Monson, or anyone else, may grow industrial hemp.
"That is going to be a major hurdle," Johnson said.
Another impediment is the DEA's annual registration fee of $2,293, which is nonrefundable even if the agency does not grant permission to grow industrial hemp. Processing the paperwork for Monson's license should take about a month, Johnson said.
A DEA spokesman has said North Dakota applications to grow industrial hemp will be reviewed, and Johnson said North Dakota's rules were developed with the agency's concerns in mind. Law enforcement officials fear industrial hemp can shield illicit marijuana, although hemp supporters say the concern is unfounded.
North Dakota is one of seven states that have authorized industrial hemp farming. The others are Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana and West Virginia, according to Vote Hemp, an industrial hemp advocacy organization based in Bedford, Mass.
California lawmakers approved legislation last year that set out rules for industrial hemp production, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. The law asserted that the federal government lacked authority to regulate industrial hemp as a drug.
In 2005, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, introduced legislation to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana in federal drug laws. It never came to a vote.
Monson farms near Osnabrock, a Cavalier County community in North Dakota's northeastern corner. He is the assistant Republican majority leader in the North Dakota House and is the school superintendent in Edinburg, which has about 140 students in grades kindergarten through 12.
In 1997, during his second session in the Legislature, Monson successfully pushed a bill to require North Dakota State University to study industrial hemp as an alternative crop for the state's farmers.
Canada made it legal for farmers to grow the crop in March 1998. Last year, Canadian farmers planted 48,060 acres of hemp, government statistics say. Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the provinces along North Dakota's northern border, were Canada's biggest hemp producers.
"I do know that industrial hemp grows really well 20 miles north of me," Monson said. "I don't see any reason why that wouldn't be a major crop for me, if this could go through."
Is protecting our borders apart of our Constitution?
I don't really know maybe you have an answer?
Anyone else getting tired of all the potheads using Freerepublic as a forum for trying legalize their addiction? Its sad that any conservative would even want to popularize a dysfunctional drug that was an icon of liberal leftwing hippies of the 60's
April, -- do you dispute the position below?
"There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that authorizes the federal government to wage war against the citizens of the United States, no matter how well-meaning the intent. The Bill of Rights means just as much today, as it did on the day it was written. And its protections are just as valid and just as important to freedom today, as they were to our Founders two hundred years ago. The danger of the drug war is that it erodes away those rights. Once the fourth amendment is meaningless, it's just that much easier to erode away the first and then the second, etc. Soon we'll have no rights at all. "
I don't know how you could object to the DEA doing there job under our Constitution in these circumstances unless your an open border one world order type of person?
Read much april? -- I asked you if you dispute the constitutional position quoted above as a "pothead liberal leftwing hippies of the 60's" type comment.
Is it a using of "-- Freerepublic as a forum for trying legalize --- addiction? --"
Was our Constitution written to protect potheads and their ability to have illegal substances brought across the border for their consumption?
Silly 'loaded' question, april. Our Constitution was written to protect our rights to life, liberty, or property.
Is protecting our borders apart of our Constitution?
How obvious.
I don't really know maybe you have an answer?
You "don't know" ~is~ the answer. Pitiful.
Sorry but your linear thinking of the Constitution has the appearance of being a grand defense mechanism for supporting drug use without any consequence.
I could only imaging if our founding fathers were stoned around 1776 what direction our country would have gone.
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Read much april? -- I asked you if you dispute the constitutional position quoted above as a "pothead liberal leftwing hippies of the 60's" type comment.
Is it a using of "-- Freerepublic as a forum for trying legalize --- addiction? --"
I do dispute it.
I suggest you do not put it quite that way to the author.
In my opinion, the main reason was that the people didn't want it.
Plus, it wasn't really enforced (or enforceable) -- the speakeasies were a testament to that. The wording of the 18th Amendment banned the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, but not the possession, consumption, or transportation.
"Cleveland had 1,200 legal bars in 1919, a year before Prohibition went into effect. By 1923, the city had an estimated 3,000 illegal speakeasies, along with 10,000 stills."
That's personal.
So you're only interested in "hemp" that gets you high. That's what I figured.
Nope. Just pointing out your inability to distinguish the difference between hemp and pot.
Uh huh. I pointed out that consumable hemp is legal.
Now you're retreating.
Your anti-freedom agenda is obvious to all here.
For you, hemp is just a pretense for legalized dope.
The pro-dope crowd can insist that it was all for personal use and that none of it would ever be a part of interstate commerce.
(yawn)
Yep. Dope makes people lazy.
I guess some people think its their constitutional right to have marijuana smuggled across our border into our country from Canada and Mexico for their personal use?
Im Amazed that people can even try and make an arguement about Marijuana almost presenting in a Treaty of Versailles type of way.
In my profession we know marijuana is not a benign drug witnessing daily the multiple consequences it has on society including on many children and teenagers.
Only people I know in America that dont want any consequences are liberals. The more dysfunctional we get the more they can grow big government. I cant help to be upset at those wanting to live in an Amsterdam society where you have parents walking their children by some loser in a park with a needle stuck out of his arm. There is a reason why Jerry Springer is a Democrat.
Marijuana = the dumbing down of America
Fascist gun-grabbers bore me.
Your buddy Soros will be crushed.
Yawn
Maybe if you mixed some meth with the "hemp".
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