Source: Toronto Star (Canada)
Copyright: 1999, The Toronto Star
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Contact:  Sat, 23 Jan 1999
Page: B3
Section: Letters of the Week
Author: Kane Slater, Toronto

HEMP CROP WAS MEANT FOR OIL PRODUCTION

Canadian entrepreneur Paul Wylie rots in a Nicaraguan prison -- presumed
guilty -- because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency continues to prop up the
ridiculous and evil prohibition of cannabis hemp.

Marijuana is the flower of certain strains of hemp that have been specially
bred for high levels of THC (6 to 22 per cent). According to information
given by Nicaraguan authorities at Wylie's preliminary hearing, his crop
tested at 1.6 per cent THC; that is industrial hemp, not marijuana. All you
have to do is look at the plant to tell the difference: If there are no
buds, it's not marijuana.

Wylie is charged with growing 400 million pounds of marijuana. That is
beyond absurd. That's four pounds of marijuana for each of the estimated 100
million users worldwide.

Four pounds is enough pot for five joints per day -- enough to stay high
every waking moment, every day for five years and four months.

Obviously Wylie was not growing 57 hectares of marijuana; he was growing
hemp for the nutritious seed oil. Does anyone really believe these charges?

How long must this farce go on?

Did Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy do something about this when he
went to Nicaragua?

Marijuana was made illegal to make hemp illegal. Hemp is the most useful and
versatile plant on Earth.

The industrialization of hemp will eventually eliminate any need for
petroleum, cotton, wood pulp and at least a quarter of all pharmaceuticals.

The corporations that control U.S. and Canadian policy do not want this to
happen and that's why Wylie rots in jail.

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