Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2001
Source: Lawrence Journal-World (KS)
Copyright: 2001 The Lawrence Journal-World
Contact:  http://www.ljworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1075

HEMP OIL FUELS LEGALIZATION DRIVE

St. Paul, Minn. - Grayson Sigler of Hampton, Va., wanted to visit a friend 
in Seattle. The trip grew into a beacon for the national call to legalize hemp.

The Hemp Car, a 1983 Mercedes 300TD wagon built to run on diesel fuel, is 
circling the country exclusively on industrial-grade hemp oil. Sigler, his 
wife and two documentarians making the 10,000-mile trek spent Wednesday in 
the Twin Cities, visiting two Minneapolis head shops and the steps of the 
Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

The project has a practical goal-to illustrate another legitimate use for 
hemp. The message behind it is decades old: There's no public benefit but 
myriad ecological, financial and social costs to America's ban of domestic 
hemp and marijuana.

That mantra met no opposition from the smattering of twentysomethings, 
middle-aged men with ponytails and two state legislators who came to cheer 
and chat up Hemp Car's founders.

Scott Blackstock and Shane Waltermeyer drove up from Marshalltown, Iowa, 
after reading about the Hemp Car on the Internet.

"Hemp has 10,000 uses and this is just the latest, but it's like the 
biggest, too," Blackstock says, speaking of the car's size. "If it were 
legal, it could save a lot of farmers in Iowa if they were allowed to grow 
it and it could save the world."

Diesel engines were built to run on vegetable oils, among other sources, so 
the Hemp Car needed no modifications. It gets 27 miles to the gallon-the 
same as it does with diesel fuel, Grayson says. Industrial-grade hemp oil 
isn't easy to come by. Legal in the United States only as an import, the 
most cost-effective sources are in China. By the time it reaches consumers, 
Grayson says, the cloudy, emerald-colored fuel can run $4 per gallon.

Around $50,000 in fuel, sponsorships and assorted services have kept Hemp 
Car on the road, along with sales of official Hemp Car T-shirts and wallets.

The Hemp Car, which began its trip on July 4 from Washington, D.C., carries 
up to 500 pounds of the fuel in clear plastic containers in the back of the 
wagon. When supplies run low, Grayson calls his supplier in Athens, Ohio, 
who ships several dozen gallons at a time to wherever the Hemp Car is 
headed within the next week. The car and its four passengers are scheduled 
to return home Oct. 2.

The mayor of Keene, N.H., rode in the car, and police in Toronto posed for 
pictures inside it. On Monday, the mayor of Tomah, Wis., declared "Hemp Car 
Day."

"One of the most surprising things is we haven't been hassled, outside of 
crossing the border from Canada into the United fascist States of America," 
Grayson says. "There's just this giant support network. Everyone's been 
like family to us."

The effort to legalize hemp is hindered in part by the politics connecting 
it to marijuana. Among Hemp Car's sponsors is the National Organization for 
the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Some are trying to distinguish the 
advocacy of marijuana from that of hemp, which carries only traces of the 
psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana.
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