A crop harvested by the Chinese 8,500 years ago has provoked contemporary debate. Legalization of industrial hemp is being touted as a economic shot in the arm for Kentucky and elsewhere in America. At the same time, industrial hemp is being criticized by law enforcement as a way to hide illegal marijuana.

Meanwhile, local lawmakers and local law enforcement officials have no desire to see Kentucky allow medical marijuana, the subject of a pre-filed bill in the Kentucky General Assembly, which begins Jan. 8, meets for four days, then comes back into session in February for a 30-day session.

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INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana seems to be experiencing a fresh outbreak of reefer madness.

And it may be just the time for it.

The most recent symptom came when the head of the Indiana State Police testified before members of the State Budget Committee.

State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell told the panel that he would legalize marijuana in Indiana if the decision were left to him.

"My thought is, toward the zenith of my career, it is here. It is going to stay," Whitesell said of pot. "That's an awful lot of victimization that goes with it.

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On questions surrounding cannabis aka marijuana aka hemp, the states are light years ahead of the federal government.

The Obama administration and Congress should get out of the way of state reforms aimed at transforming a vast underground economy into a regulated source of taxation.

Unlike about half the states, Kentucky has shown little official interest in legitimizing marijuana for medical or recreational use.

But there is long-standing support in Kentucky for bringing back a crop that was once common here. Fiber, oil and seed from industrial hemp are in demand by U.S. manufacturers but now have to be imported.

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Support for Industrial Hemp Has Moved into Mainstream

Voter approval in Colorado and Washington of ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana has encouraged Kentuckians to increase their efforts to bring industrial hemp back to a state where it was once a major cash crop. If Colorado and Washington are blazing a path for the legalization of marijuana, they want Kentucky to be a national leader in the legalization of industrial hemp.

There is no serious effort in Kentucky to legalize marijuana, mind you, but the same federal laws that ban the growing of marijuana also outlaw industrial hemp, a first cousin of pot in the plant kingdom. Despite the passage of the ballot initiatives in Washington and Colorado, it will take a change in those federal laws for marijuana to be legalized for recreational use in those two and any other states, just as it would to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky.

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Forty years ago, the United States locked up fewer than 200 of every 100,000 Americans. Then President Nixon declared war on drugs. Now we lock up more of our people than any other country more even than the authoritarian regimes in Russia and China.

A war on drugs on people, that is is unworthy of a country that claims to be free.

Unfortunately, this outrage probably won't be discussed in Tampa or Charlotte.

The media ( including Fox News) run frightening stories about Mexican cocaine cartels and marijuana gangs. Few of my colleagues stop to think that this is a consequence of the war, that decriminalization would end the violence.

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The effort to legalize industrial hemp reached the Kentucky State Fair on Thursday as U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer promoted their efforts to eliminate federal restrictions that amount to a ban on growing the plant.

Comer said he will restart the Kentucky Hemp Commission to advocate the elimination of the federal restrictions. Paul, R-Ky., is a co-sponsor of a bill in the Senate that would take industrial hemp out of the control of the Drug Enforcement Administration so it could be treated like other agricultural crops. Comer also said he hopes for a similar bill to be filed in the Kentucky General Assembly to deal with the issue.

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FRANKFORT - For a Frankfort press conference, it was a pretty laid-back affair, but the 40 or so proponents of legalizing medicinal marijuana were nonetheless passionate about their cause.

State Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville, held the press conference to announce "the time has come" to end the "absurd" prohibition on a drug supporters say can alleviate pain, nausea and cure a variety of ills and diseases and that he will again file a bill to make medicinal marijuana legal in Kentucky.

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FRANKFORT, KY. - Sen. Perry Clark says he plans to try again in 2013 to pass a bill to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

Clark, a Louisville Democrat, has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. Thursday in Frankfort at the Capitol Annex to unveil legislation that would make marijuana a schedule II drug, legal for doctors to prescribe.

"So far 19 states and the District of Columbia have done this because studies have shown it's effective in treating so many diseases and conditions," Clark said in an interview.

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Family-Owned 'Budget' Motel Threatened With Civil Forfeiture for Crimes of Guests

TEWKSBURY, Mass. -- Russ Caswell, 68, is bewildered: "What country are we in?" He and his wife Pat are ensnared in a Kafkaesque nightmare unfolding in Orwellian language.

This town's police department is conniving with the federal government to circumvent Massachusetts law -- which is less permissive than federal law -- in order to seize his livelihood and retirement asset. In the lawsuit titled "United States of America vs. 434 Main Street, Tewksbury, Massachusetts," the government is suing an inanimate object, the motel Caswell's father built in 1955. The U.S. Department of Justice intends to seize it, sell it for perhaps $1.5 million and give up to 80 percent of that to the Tewksbury Police Department, whose budget is just $5.5 million. The Caswells have not been charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime. They are being persecuted by two governments eager to profit from what is antiseptically called the "equitable sharing" of the fruits of civil forfeiture, a process of government enrichment that often is indistinguishable from robbery.

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Regarding the March 28 Inbox letter "Retire, Mitch" by Thomas Clay Jr.: Mitch McConnell shamelessly supports marijuana laws based on racist fictions and tall tales about cannabis-induced mass murder that never happened:

"Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice." (Hearst newspapers, 1934)

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." (Federal Bureau of Narcotics director Harry J. Anslinger, 1937)

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We call ourselves a free country, yet it is illegal to use marijuana on a recreational basis.

Seriously? Think about this, marijuana funds 60 percent of illegal drug operations across the United States. This market dictated by violence and extortion is really an unregulated form of capitalism. Ever wonder what capitalism would be without regulation? Just look at what the war on drugs has done to America. Some $1.5 trillion spent and nothing gained on the home front when it comes to the usage of drugs.

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It's no surprise that the shameless hypocrisy and lies of Republicans know no bounds. But there are times when they shock even the most jaded critic with the outrageous whoppers they tell. Consider the flat imbecility of Mitch McConnell's recent response to a constituent's letter urging him to legalize medical cannabis: "The detrimental effects of drugs have been well documented: short-term memory loss, loss of core motor functions, heightened risk of lung disease, and even death."

NORML has posted a $10 million reward to anyone who can show one death from an overdose of THC. Nobody has collected it and never will. He goes on: "Second, I am troubled by the manner in which many of the legalization proposals make marijuana available to the public without following the scientific processes of the FDA."

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State Legislators Are at Least Discussing Industrial Hemp

Is industrial hemp - once a major cash crop in Kentucky - about to make a comeback in the state? Maybe although major obstacles would still have to be overcome before Kentucky farmers could again legally grow hemp, which produces strong fibers used in fabrics, ropes and other materials.

The biggest of those obstacles is the federal ban on hemp production. While the Kentucky General Assembly could legalize hemp, it will do little good unless Congress lifts the federal restrictions on hemp, a cousin to marijuana.

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Rapid Rise of Synthetic Marijuana, Bath Salts Discussed

At a point in Monday night's drug forum at Corbin High School, Operation UNITE President/CEO Karen Kelly asked everyone in the auditorium to stand up. Then Kelly said the following words.

"If you do not know somebody who's been affected by drugs, please sit down." Only two people did.

The demonstration showed how drugs have taken a toll on Corbin and the Tri-County region. And it was the focus of the forum called "Addicted: A Dose of Reality." Held at the school's Betty Hamilton Center for Performing Arts, the 90-minute presentation showed the stark reality of how easy and available drugs -- both legal and illegal -- are to students and adults.

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Synthetic marijuana: It's here and it's a problem

CORBIN

At 28,251 feet, K2 is the second highest mountain in the world. Located on the Chinese-Pakistan border in the continent of Asia, it's the highest peak in Pakistan.

But some say that high's nothing compared to the high they get from a package of K2, which they can easily buy.

The Scooby Doo that's become popular in the Tri-County region in recent months has nothing to do with the cartoon character of the same name -- the Scooby Doo that parents of a generation ago used to watch on TV.

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Jonathan Miller hit many bull's-eyes. I want to add, in thousands of years of recorded usage not only are deaths from cannabis (marijuana) overdose extraordinarily rare, as he said, they are completely nonexistent.

That's safety on a Biblical scale.

For Kentucky's farmers: It's interesting that free American farmers may not grow hemp, while communist Chinese farmers can and America's greatest foreign debt is with China. It's time to re-introduce hemp as a component of American agriculture. It's time to end the vulgar and sinful practice of caging responsible adults for using what God says is good on the very first page of the Bible.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

Regarding Jonathan Miller's Jan. 15 op-ed, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2010, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession.

At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete.

As long as organized crime controls distribution, marijuana consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition.

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst,Common Sense for Drug Policy

Arlington, Va.

[end]

I want to remind former treasurer Jonathan Miler that marijuana is often referred to as the "gateway" drug. This is because users who first smoke it will often move on to bigger and "better" drugs to get the high they long for - like OxyContin and meth.

Ask any recovering addict. Most started out using marijuana. How could this be better for our state? We already have some of the highest drug-abuse rates in the country.

Furthermore, how much more of the state's budget can we afford to supplement drug-rehab centers? Legalizing marijuana would only increase the need for more rehab centers. Most importantly though, what about the negative effect drugs and addicts have on our families? How will legalizing marijuana help the already-declining home and family lives of Kentuckians?

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Kentucky Loses a True Original With the Death of Gatewood Galbraith

Gatewood Galbraith, one of the most memorable and iconic figures in the history of Kentucky politics, died in his sleep on Jan. 4 at the age of 64.

Galbraith - standing at 6-foot-4, with his booming baritone voice, classic one-liners and signature fedora - was a larger-than-life character. Like a pop star, he was typically referred to as simply "Gatewood."

He will be remembered for his many quixotic campaigns - running for governor five times, Congress twice, as well as commissioner of agriculture and attorney general.

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When my one-time political rival and always friendly acquaintance Gatewood Galbraith passed away this month, his eulogies invariably noted that his insightful political reform ideas were often overshadowed by his strident advocacy for marijuana legalization, consigning him to the role of perennial candidate and courthouse jester.

Part of Gatewood's problem was that he looked the part: often disheveled, always mellow. He also preached an admirably consistent, but widely controversial, libertarian philosophy that scolded government whenever it tried to establish moral standards for society.

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