Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jan 2016
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2016 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: John Heidel
Note: The Rev. John Heidel is a retired United Church of Christ 
minister and former president of The Interfaith Alliance Hawii.

IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE DOWNSIDE TO INDUSTRIAL HEMP IN HAWAII

Hemp production could save agriculture in Hawaii. The recent 
reporting on the University of Hawaii's study about growing hemp here 
is extremely hopeful. The preliminary results of the College of 
Tropical Agriculture and Human Resource's experimental study on its 
farmland in Waimanalo point toward excellent possibilities.

The timing of agricultural land becoming available on Maui and the 
announcement that Alexander & Baldwin (A&B), through its agricultural 
subsidiary Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. (HC&S), is considering 
hemp as a viable crop indicates how views have changed since 
industrial hemp was erroneously classified as a drug over 50 years ago.

Fear and misinformation were responsible for this connection and it 
has taken far too long for public and governmental perception to find 
its way back to reality. Other countries around the world have been 
reaping the benefits of hemp (literally) as an agricultural product, 
an industrial staple and a boost to their economies for many years. 
Even though hemp research is now permitted in Hawaii, federal 
restrictions based on the laws from the "war on drugs" make it very 
difficult to import the necessary seeds.

There is a need for legislators and law enforcement officials to look 
at this issue from a fresh perspective and, in addition, legalize the 
commercial growing of hemp - on the federal and state levels both.

State Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe Bay) has been an 
articulate spokesperson on behalf of hemp for a long time. She was 
the first - and for a long time, the only - political leader to grasp 
the difference between hemp and marijuana and to have the courage to 
talk about it. Until recently, very few people understood or were 
interested. Thankfully, more state legislators now support industrial 
hemp and its vast potential.

Public and private opinion are quickly changing. People are finally 
listening and becoming aware that hemp only contains 0.3 percent THC, 
rendering it non-psychoactive (unlike its cousin, recreational 
marijuana). This emerging perception is quite promising.

Among the talking points referenced by Thielen and HC&S are the many 
commercial uses of hemp, including food, clothing, paper and building 
materials. Of course, science and industry have and will produce many more.

The UH project indicates that the growing conditions in Hawaii are 
ideal and that our climate allows for multiple crops each year.

The wisdom of assessing this important study would be beneficial in 
many areas: to the Legislature as it considers the continuation of 
funding the study and establishing any necessary guidelines for the 
industry, to farmers as they consider things such as crop rotation 
and the viability of a new "cash crop," to businesses as they 
consider the many industrial uses of hemp, and to landowners as they 
seek continued agricultural use of the land.

It's difficult to imagine a downside to growing hemp.

Our state and communities should extend a huge mahalo to UH, to 
Thielen and to A&B for this progressive thinking and for the great 
potential their ideas have for the growth of our economy and the 
health of the aina.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom