As real as it gets

Son of a Farmer

June 17, 2006

Hemp & Marijuana

Filed under: — son of a farmer @ 4:34 pm

“Nobody knows what my crimes are. The charges are vague, but I’m actually on trial for sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” - Hunter S. Thompson

HEMP LAW PASSED IN VERMONT

All aboard the hemp bandwagon. And no, it can’t get you stoned, but thanks for asking. Somewhere long ago, a deckhand asked, “Are you gonna smoke all that rope or what, dude?”

Yes, the ballsey state of Vermont passed a law allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp to better the economy. Go to Vote Hemp’s website for the full lowdown. Finally! After all the Terdinating by the Governor of California and the debaccle in South Dakota, looks like the States are taking things into their own hands. Come to think of it, wasn’t that how this country was set up initially by the founding fathers? I believe they called it a Republic, not a Democracy, which most warned us about the evils of such a government structure following the Revolution.

So, some 75 years after the DuPont Familia, the timber industries and Big Oil conspired to rid the country of its most resourceful plant, it is slowly climbing out of the hole. Outgrow the government! Overcome mental slavery and squiggey the Third Eye!

The bill overwhelmingly passed both the House (126 to 9) and the Senate (25 to 1). The new law sets up a state-regulated program for farmers to grow non-drug industrial hemp, which is used in a wide variety of products, including nutritious foods, cosmetics, body care, clothing, tree-free paper, auto parts, building materials and much more. Learn more about industrial hemp at the Vote Hemp Web site.

HEMP IS HAPPENING

North Dakota has opened the proverbial doors for the rest of American farmers.

Since the state of South Dakota has passed legislation, allowing farmers to grow the crop legally for the first time in America for more than 80 years, ten other states have introduced industrial hemp bills this season. On top of that, South Dakota has basically told the DEA (Devil’s Evil Agency) to “stay the hell out of our fields.”

Good gravy, I love a good revolution.

MARIJUANA – THE WONDER DRUG

Lester Grinspoon
The Boston Globe
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need \”proof\” of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.
The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy.
It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
Neuropathic pain is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs. Even powerful and addictive narcotics like morphine and OxyContin often provide little relief. This study leaves no doubt that marijuana can safely ease this type of pain.
As all marijuana research in the United States must be, the new study was conducted with government-supplied marijuana of notoriously poor quality. So it probably underestimated the potential benefit.
This is all good news, but it should not be news at all. In the 40-odd years I have been studying the medicinal uses of marijuana, I have learned that the recorded history of this medicine goes back to ancient times.
In the 19th century it became a well-established Western medicine whose versatility and safety were unquestioned. From 1840 to 1900, American and European medical journals published over 100 papers on the therapeutic uses of marijuana, also known as cannabis.
Our knowledge has advanced greatly over the years. Scientists have identified over 60 unique constituents in marijuana, called cannabinoids, and we have learned much about how they work. We have also learned that our own bodies produce similar chemicals, called endocannabinoids.
The mountain of accumulated anecdotal evidence that pointed the way to the present and other clinical studies also strongly suggests there are a number of other devastating disorders and symptoms for which marijuana has been used for centuries.
They deserve the same careful, methodologically sound research.
While few such studies have so far been completed, all have lent weight to what medicine already knew but had largely forgotten or ignored: Marijuana is effective at relieving nausea and vomiting, spasticity, appetite loss, certain types of pain and other debilitating symptoms. And it is extraordinarily safe – safer than most medicines prescribed every day.
If marijuana were a new discovery rather than a well-known substance carrying cultural and political baggage, it would be hailed as a wonder drug.
The pharmaceutical industry is scrambling to isolate cannabinoids and synthesize analogs and to package them in non-smokable forms. In time, companies will almost certainly come up with products and delivery systems that are more useful and less expensive than herbal marijuana.
However, the analogs they have produced so far are more expensive than herbal marijuana, and none has shown any improvement over the plant nature gave us to take orally or to smoke.
We live in an antismoking environment. But as a method of delivering certain medicinal compounds, smoking marijuana has some real advantages: The effect is almost instantaneous, allowing the patient to fine-tune his or her dose to get the needed relief without intoxication.
Smoked marijuana has never been demonstrated to have serious pulmonary consequences, but in any case the technology to inhale these cannabinoids without smoking marijuana already exists as vaporizers that allow for smoke-free inhalation.
Hopefully the UCSF study will add to the pressure on the U.S. government to rethink its irrational ban on the medicinal use of marijuana – and its destructive attacks on patients and caregivers in states that have chosen to allow such use.
Rather than admit they have been mistaken all these years, federal officials can cite \”important new data\” and start revamping outdated and destructive policies.
Such legislation would bring much-needed relief to millions suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and other debilitating illnesses.
Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is the coauthor of \”Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine.\” This article first appeared in The Boston Globe.

HEMP, HEMP – HOORAY!! Finally!!! At long last, for the first time since 1944, American farmers will be producing hemp legally and commercially once again. This is huge! Ever since the Dupont family, along with the timber and paper industry began their freakin’ scam witch hunt on hemp and marijuana in 1926, these plants have been destroyed by robotic idiots so man might prosper off our precious tree supply and moronic inventions like nylon that we’ve been brainwashed into thinking is better than hemp. This is not only a monumental victory for agriculture but the environment and all living creatures. That’s the good news.

The weird news? Only in North Dakota. And those farmers must each pay a ridiculous $4,000 and change fee to the Devil’s Evil Agency to do so.

Told ya’ it was a comin’. Congrats to North Dakota for having grande huevos rancheros!!This train can’t be stopped. Not even by the DuPonts this time. Buy hemp. Support the cause. Read full story below!!!!

I love a good revolution.

Find out more about DEA and government lies and coverups about hemp.

Also, read about the latest Hemp Farming Act of 2007.

North Dakota Issues First Hemp Production Licenses

By Associated Press
In-Forum News
February 6, 2007

BISMARCK, ND  North Dakota officials have issued the nation’s first licenses to grow industrial hemp.

Farmers Dave Monson and Wayne Hauge, who got the licenses Tuesday, still must meet federal requirements before they can grow the crop. The Drug Enforcement Agency requires a $2,293 annual registration fee, which is nonrefundable even if the agency does not grant a farmer permission to grow hemp.

“It’s taken us a lot longer than (expected) to get here, and I’m thinking we still have a ways to go,” said Monson, of Osnabrock, who first became interested in growing industrial hemp 10 years ago.

The North Dakota Agriculture Department approved rules late last year for the production of hemp, a non-hallucinogenic cousin of marijuana that can be used to make everything from paper to lotion.

Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson in late December asked the DEA to waive the registration fee, but federal officials rejected that request.

Monson, who also is a state lawmaker, and Hauge, a farmer from Ray, said they will pay the federal fee. Johnson said he will hand-deliver the applications when he meets with DEA officials in Washington, DC early next week to try again to persuade them to relax what he said is the “unreasonable” federal fee requirement.

Johnson said the state Agriculture Department is processing 16 other hemp applications from farmers.

“I think it’s a viable crop,” Hauge said. “I think it would work well in rotations in both eastern and western North Dakota.”

Copyright  2007 Forum Communications Co.
Fargo, ND 58102

HEMP IS ON THE WAY

Cool things happening in the hemp industry. Even after The Terdinator terminated the industrial hemp vote in California, North Dakota passed the law on the local level for its farmers to farm hemp commercially and legally in 2007. The problem? Oh, the government has figured out a way to make money off the deal by shafting farmers with a $3,440 fee to the DEA (Devil’s Evil Agency) so as to compensate them for the added trouble of weeding (yes, pun intended) through the THC levels. You can go to our friends at www.votehemp.com or read this article to find out how to donate or help these farmers re-introduce hemp to America once again. Buy hemp, America! And lots of it.Cool things happening in the hemp industry. Even after The Terdinator terminated the industrial hemp vote in California, North Dakota passed the law on the local level for its farmers to farm hemp commercially and legally in 2007. The problem? Oh, the government has figured out a way to make money off the deal by shafting farmers with a $3,440 fee to the DEA (Devil’s Evil Agency) so as to compensate them for the added trouble of weeding (yes, pun intended) through the THC levels. You can go to our friends at or read to find out how to donate or help these farmers re-introduce hemp to America once again. Buy hemp, America! And lots of it.

HEMP MILK LEADING HEMP FOOD MARKET

WASHINGTON, DC  Vote Hemp (www.VoteHemp.com), the nation’s largest grassroots organization working to allow American farmers to once again grow industrial hemp under state or federal regulation, is predicting major growth in the hemp food market in 2007. Two new non-dairy hemp “milk” beverages were exhibited at the Natural Products Expo East 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland earlier this month and have received rave reviews. Gourmet Retailer wrote, “We were particularly impressed with the newly developed crop of hemp milks, packing a powerhouse punch of omega-3 essential fatty acids and protein.” Living Harvest Hempmilk and Manitoba Harvest Hemp Bliss are the latest entries in the continually-growing hemp food market. Both brands come in Original, Vanilla and Chocolate flavors and are expected to make their public debuts in January of 2007.

Never sold before commercially, hemp milk is high in protein like soy milk, but hemp does not contain the phytic acid and trypsin inhibitors that soy does. Hemp milk is a good source of balanced omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, unlike rice milk, and it also contains a wide range of naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin E, Folic Acid, Iron, Niacin, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Thiamin and Zinc.

“We expect the double-digit growth of the hemp food sector to continue in 2007, now that hemp milk will finally be available to waiting consumers,” says Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra. “I tried all of the flavors available at Expo East in Baltimore, and they were just amazing, as were their nutritional profiles. I can’t wait to try some on my homemade hemp granola for breakfast,” added Steenstra.

Hemp milk is a refreshing alternative to nut- and grain-based beverages as well as dairy beverages. Grain-based beverages are often lacking in Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), protein and minerals, unless they are fortified. Nut-based milks and dairy beverages are nutritionally better, but more and more people, especially children, are developing allergies to tree nuts and dairy products.

“We wanted to offer a great-tasting, healthy product that we can feel good about giving our own kids,” says Christina Volgyesi, President of Living Harvest (www.LivingHarvest.com). “As more and more consumers begin searching the shelves for alternative dairy products that are enjoyable to drink and contain unprocessed ingredients, we thought this was the perfect time to introduce a real essential and balanced nutritional beverage that the whole family can enjoy.”

“Hemp seed is nature’s best and most-balanced source of omega-3 and omega-6 EFAs, and that is fueling interest from nutrition experts, consumers, retailers and manufacturers,” says Mike Fata, President and Co-Founder of Manitoba Harvest (www.ManitobaHarvest.com). In addition to its high concentration of EFAs, hemp milk has a strong digestible protein profile, is a good source of Iron and contains no trans-fats.

“Despite the fact that no U.S. farmer can grow industrial hemp due to federal restrictions, new and innovative hemp food products continue to be introduced to a waiting U.S. marketplace,” says Alexis Baden-Mayer, Director of Government Affairs for Vote Hemp. “As the demand for hemp seed continues to rise with the introduction of these new and innovative hemp food products, so will the pressure on state and federal officials to allow hemp farming. We are already seeing this kind of increased demand for change in a number of states including North Dakota which is about to finalize new hemp farming rules.”

Vote Hemp is a non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and a free market for industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to grow low-THC industrial hemp. More information about hemp legislation and the crop’s many uses may be found at www.VoteHemp.com and www.HempIndustries.org. BETA SP or DVD Video News Releases featuring footage of hemp farming in other countries are available upon request by contacting Adam Eidinger at 202-744-2671.

TERMINATOR TERMINATES HEMP

That goofy Austrian (who’s tried every drug under the sun) gunned down the Industrial Hemp bill that would’ve boosted California’s agriculture and overall economy tenfold. South Dakota still has their bill in the works and it might pan out there before all is said and done.
MARIJUANA STONES ALZHEIMER’S

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) — Good news for aging hippies: Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer’s disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana’s active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs. THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer’s patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly. Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.

Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment. Possessing marijuana for recreational use is illegal in many parts of the world, including the United States, though some states allow possession for medical purposes.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

GOING BACK TO CALI, TO CALI…

Lots is going on with the whole Hemp Movement in this country. Finally! California is in the process of legalizing hemp farming. (And no, you can’t get high off hemp. It’s the equivalent of getting drunk off O’Douls or Coors Cutter.) We’ll see it soon. Let’s make it sooner than later. It is an herb that has been around since the beginning of time. This one plant has literally hundreds of uses. The only reason it is illegal is because corporate America (DuPont and its patent on Nylon) conned and bought enough politicians in 1937 to do so. Let’s bring it back. Become active and do something. Click here to find out more about the incredibly miraculous plant our government is shamelessly concealing from millions for the sake of financial gain for a few rich bastards. Outgrow the government!!!!!!!! Overthrow corrupt ideas and perverse legislation that hinders (not protects) mankind.

CALIFORNIA APPROVES HEMP FARMING!!

Big victory for farmers, hippies, heads, poets, our kids, grandkids, and all ye average Johns and Janes out there who purchase and consume. The State Senate of California has approved hemp farming in the Golden State. How fitting? Crazy Cali is always the first to lead to way these days. That’s huge. And the trend is sure to start spreading soon. Who’s next? The bogus 1937 Marijuana Tax Act is slowly being torn apart one seed at a time. The Third Eye is being pried open once again.

THE SKINNY ON A PHAT HERB

Oh, how we’ve been taught to think marijuana is the corruption of our youth. “That boy ain’t right. He’s takin’ that dope.” Dope meaning the sister herb of hemp. Sweet ol’ Mary Jane never did hurt anybody, and hemp certainly has not. What most people fail to realize is that hemp and/or marijuana is the only plant you could build a house, fuel your car, build a car, make a little food, paper, plastics, and clothing all from one single little plant. Yes sir-ee. The very plant our government continues to persaude you to think is the evil of mankind.

Thankfully, someone in politics is doing something about the ridiculous prohibition of hemp in this country. Well, at least he tried. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, of dear ol’ Texas, proposed The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005, to help get this wonderful herb back in agriculture in America. And it went over like a fart during a church prayer.

I wonder why our government outlawed marijuana and hemp in 1937, and continues its war against an herb because its flower supposedly makes you want to go out and commit crimes against humanity. This herb is a blessing, and would completely rejuvenate our economy. But alas, what corporations would suffer greatly from the legalization or even the decriminalization of hemp and marijuana?

a. Perhaps the timber industry. The very industry ridding this country’s oldest and most fantastic trees. How could these billion dollar companies profit off a plant grown annually and virtually anywhere in farmers’ fields? They couldn’t. Why do we continue to rape our National Forests (Bush and Company continue to auction off government land that is supposed to be protected) by cutting down trees that have stood for thousands of years to build homes and buildings when we could do the same thing out of hemp? Hmm, let’s think about this. Well, for example the Timber industry contributed $3.4 million dollars to the Republicans in the 2000 elections, over $1 milllion of that going to W and Darth Vader, also known as VP Dick Cheney. They’ve tried their bribery tactics to stay in control with most elected officials and continue to succeed.
b. Oh, perhaps a company like DuPont (Robert DuPont was Nixon’s main man on the War on Drugs.) All the little plastic trinkets they contrive in unison with oil companies could be done with hemp plastics. Ya’ think DuPont’s 1938 patent on the invention of NYLON had anything to do with the incredelous Marijuana & Hemp Tax Act of 1937? Yeah. Do we actually think anymore? Or have we become so programmed we’ve forgotten not only what our freedoms could be but what they should be. DuPont made billions off substituting nylon for everything that used to be made of hemp fibers. You better believe anytime Mother Nature has the cure, some rich white man will form a company, invent something in a lab, and payoff politicians so that his alternative method may be substituted in its place. How convenient.

c. Perhaps oil companies, who continue to pollute and rape our earth with fossil fuels instead of completely environmentally friendly hempfuel.

d. And certainly the prison industry, which has become a multi-billion dollar enterpise in this country. (67% of American prisoners are drug users not drug dealers). The business of incarceration is booming, with revenue passing the $1 billion mark in 1998.

Two companies dominate the for-profit incarceration industry Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections. These two companies control 75 percent of the for-profit incarceration market. (According to American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, The Evidence is Clear: Crime Shouldn’t Pay, 2001.

Locally, Cornell Correction Company (home to over 2,600 nonviolent illegal aliens who have five years or less remaining on their sentences) has a strong representation in Big Spring. On their website they boast, Cornell currently has contracts to operate 82 facilities in 18 states and the District of Columbia and has a service capacity of 19,442. Their philosophy? People change people. How sweet and thoughtful of them. You know it’s funny. If their main goal is changing people, why then is their stock quotes the first readable graph on their website homepage? Then I realized, it’s not the prisoners they’re changing, but the portfolios of investors.

Back to the hemp and marijuana issue. Funny, it was against the law for farmers not to grow hemp in the 17th and 18th century (they were jailed in the colonies) yet in the 20th and 21st, it is a felony to do so. Something got screwed up somewhere. Our country even legalized hemp temporarily in 1942 to help produce sails and ropes for our Navy during WWII. From 1942-1946, farmers from Kentucky to Wisconsin riased 42,000 tons per year. Hell, Henry Ford made a car out of hemp, blending it with asbestos. We could do that today and substitute fiberglass for that cancerous stuff. Hemp farming is an answer to our problems. It is not a problem. We’ve been lied to for more than 50 years. Aren’t you tired of being taken for a fool?
Find out more

At Son of a Farmer, we’ll take a look at what marijuana and hemp could do not only for agriculture, but for our country’s economy, and for your third eye.

Do Something

Get active. Let’s try to get the most important herb/plant we could imagine raised on the family farm. Let’s be WE THE PEOPLE again, and turn the ship around! Click here to find out how you can do that. It’s time.

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3 Comments »

  1. Right on! At least some farmers and/or revolutionaries are telling like it is down in Texas. WE thought we were the only ones up here in the Pacific Northwest who were trying to fight these colossal lies. OUr neighbors in Canada have worked wonders in the last 12 or 13 years. They are the perfect example what hemp can do for agriculture.
    Grow your own! Clothe yourself! Outgrow the government!!!!!!
    Keep it up, Son of a Farmer. May more of you multiply and fill the void left by the ignorance of the majority.

    Comment by Emerson — July 9, 2006 @ 10:40 am

  2. [...] Check out the HEMP/MARIJUANA page here at SOAF to find out about an extremely monumental vote in one of our innovative states concerning modern Hemp Farming. I believe ol’ Bob Dylan said it best when he sang, “The times…they are a change-in.” [...]

    Pingback by Son of a Farmer » It’s gotta be the seed! — August 27, 2006 @ 10:15 am

  3. eric, i can see that you & my son are “2 peas in a pod”. we will most certainly have to call you when we comes to lamesa (within the next couple of days). i really enjoyed our visit at the delinter. thanks, michille

    Comment by michille stamper — August 20, 2008 @ 11:57 am

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