Washington, DC: Republican Ron Paul (R-TX), along with co-sponsors Sam Farr (D-CA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Jim McDermott (D-WA), George Miller (D-CA), and Peter Stark (D-CA), have introduced legislation in Congress to allow for the state-sanctioned cultivation of industrial hemp for commercial purposes.
HR 3037, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005, would remove non-psychoactive industrial hemp from the federal Controlled Substances Act and grant state legislatures “exclusive authority” to regulate the growing and processing of the crop.
Currently, the United States is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp, which is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa that contains only minute (less than 1%) amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Farmers in Canada, the European Union, and in numerous countries throughout the world grow hemp commercially for fiber, seed, and oil for use in a variety of industrial and consumer products, including food. Hemp fiber and hemp-based products are legally imported to the United States in compliance with several economic treaties, including NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).
Several US states have passed legislation authorizing the cultivation of industrial hemp for research and commercial purposes. However, farmers in these states cannot legally grow hemp without federal permission. House Bill 3037 would remove this hurdle by creating a distinction in federal law between marijuana and industrial hemp (defined as cannabis with less than 0.3% THC), and granting states the authority to regulate it as a legal agricultural crop.
“The federal ban on hemp cultivation and production is a direct outgrowth of the government’s absurd war on cannabis,” said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. “Industrial hemp cultivation has been a successful cash crop for farmers in Canada and Europe, and there is no logical reason why US farmers should be denied the legal authority to participate in this growing worldwide industry.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano at (202) 483-5500. Additional information on HR 3037 is available on NORML’s website at:
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=7766166&type=CO