Pubdate: Thu, 01 Sep 2005
Source: Daily Lobo (U of NM, Edu, NM)
Copyright: 2005 Daily Lobo
Contact: http://www.dailylobo.com/main.cfm?include=submit
Website: http://www.dailylobo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/766
Author: Colin Donoghue, Daily Lobo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)

COLUMN: CANNABIS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE

Changing our hemp and marijuana laws is a policy reform usually called
for by Independents, Greens and Democrats, but now Republicans are
calling for change too.

You may recall that former Republican governor of New Mexico, Gary
Johnson, was an outspoken opponent of marijuana and hemp prohibition.
Just this June, Republican Rep. Ron Paul from Texas introduced the
Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005 to Congress. The bill would once
again allow the cultivation of industrial hemp in the United States,
as was done by our founding fathers, including George Washington.
Several other representatives have joined Paul in co-sponsoring this
hemp legislation, and more co-sponsors are expected as more citizens
ask their representatives to sign on.

Industrial hemp is the tough, course fiber of the cannabis sativa
plant, which contains less than 1 percent tetrahydrocannabinol - THC -
the main active ingredient in marijuana. Marijuana is a strain of
cannabis that contains much higher levels of THC. You can't get high
from smoking hemp, and eating hemp foods will not make you test
positive for marijuana use in a drug test.

Hemp can easily replace trees for paper and building materials with a
higher-quality fiber, significantly reducing the deforestation that
accelerates global warming and the extinction of wildlife and plant
species. Hemp is also an alternative to cotton for clothing that does
not require the use of toxic pesticides. Hemp seeds are a nutritious
food source, and the high cellulose content of the hemp plant makes it
ideal for conversion into ethanol fuel, which can be used by flexible
fuel vehicles.

Industrial hemp is legal to grow in more than 30 countries, including
Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, New Zealand, Romania,
Russia and Spain. The U.S. federal government is certainly out of step
with other countries concerning hemp policy. However, things are
better at the state level: Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North
Dakota and West Virginia have

Many prohibitionists discredit the need for a hemp industry, saying
hemp relegalization is being used as a vehicle to relegalize
marijuana. The Drug Enforcement Administration said hemp legalization
would interfere with its marijuana eradication program because of the
similarities between the two types of cannabis plants. Therefore, hemp
will probably never be relegalized as long as marijuana remains
prohibited. Marginalizing the legitimacy of the call to legalize
marijuana by focusing solely on hemp relegalization would be fruitless
as well as wrong. After all, marijuana prohibition is an
unconstitutional and oppressive policy, violating citizens' right to
control their own bodies without harming others or their property.
Therefore, the call for legalization should be for industrial hemp,
medical marijuana and the private and responsible recreational adult
use of marijuana.

Drugs are placed into one of five schedules under the federal
Controlled Substances Act. Marijuana is listed as a Schedule 1 drug,
the most dangerous category, defined as having a high potential for
abuse and having no currently accepted medical use in the United
States. Claiming that natural marijuana has no medicinal value by
placing it in the Schedule 1 drug category goes against the findings
of doctors throughout the world, and is contradicted by the 10 states
that have laws allowing seriously ill patients to use natural medical
marijuana with their doctors' recommendation.

The argument that marijuana prohibition protects our children is also
not based in reality. Illegal drug dealers do not care how young a
buyer is, and without legalizing and regulating marijuana, many
children find it easier to buy than alcohol or tobacco. In Holland,
where the sale of marijuana to adults is not criminalized, the
percentage of teenagers using marijuana is less than half that of
American teenagers.

Cannabis should be removed from the Schedule 1 category and be
legalized and regulated like alcohol and tobacco - a minimum age of 21
for purchase and use, illegal for use while driving, and so on.
Marijuana and hemp prohibition costs billions every year to enforce,
creates a black market that generates violence and corruption, and
makes criminals out of millions of productive and harmless adults.
Americans should once again have the legal right to use the cannabis
plant for its many beneficial uses including medicine, paper, fuel,
clothing and food.
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