I passed an earlier version of this at a Clinton-Gore appearance

in LaCrosse a month ago. Went over well with older folks, farmers.

Feel free to reprint, give your address

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HOW THE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN SAVE THE FARM ECONOMY

(and balance the budget) (and protect the environment)

America cannot return to prosperity without restoring prosperity

to its farmers. Subsidies are not the answer, as they only lead to

further overproduction of food crops the market doesn't want. We

must move toward high yielding agricultural crops as primary

feedstocks for industry.

PROTECTIONISM IN REVERSE

Hemp, the single most prolific and versatile plant for these uses

is off limits to the American farmer. Russian farmers typically

yield 5 tons of hemp stalk per acre per year. They lack modern

factories for turning hemp into useful products. The Dutch

government has invested $20 million in a research project to

develop improved strains and machinery. Unless a similar effort is

undertaken here we will find ourselves once again aced out of huge

markets.

PAPER

Hemp outyields trees at least 3 to 1. Because of its higher

cellulose content, hemp requires less chemical processing, and

thus has lower costs and pollution, according to the Dutch

Studies.* Last year the first shiploads of Brazilian eucalyptus

pulp unloaded at the Port of Green Bay. The US Department of

Agriculture has promoted kenaf, a traditional African fiber plant

as a paper alternative. Two years ago Pat LeMahieu, a former

agronomy researcher at the UW-Madison now director of operations

with Agrecol, achieved an impressive 6 ton per acre yield of

kenaf. In the Feb 8, 1991 Isthmus, (Madison's weekly,) LeMahieu

said hemp has higher quality fiber, more potential uses, the

ability to withstand cold better, and possibly higher yields. "If

it weren't for the alkaloids [psychoactive ingredients] in hemp,

we wouldn't even be talking about kenaf." Hemp is also far more

drought resistant than Kenaf.

FIBER

Historically hemp supplied fabrics from the finest linens to the

sails for seagoing ships. (Canvass is the Old Dutch word for

cannabis.) Cotton, with only 1/3 the fiber yield, is the most

chemical intensive crop in production. Hemp chokes out competing

weeds, and has few insect pests, so hemp farmers have little use

for pesticides. While hemp likes a rich soil, most of the

nutrients migrate to the leaves and eventually flowers, which are

returned to the soil when growing hemp for stalk, so with

appropriate rotation fertilizers are unneccessary. Hemp's long

taproot brings minerals from deep soil layers, leaving them

accessible to the following crop. Unlike cotton, hemp can be grown

throughout the United States, and its lower cost makes it

competitive with synthetic fibres. Fabric used to be the most

recycled item in commerce. Now it is the least because no one has

discovered a way to seperate the cotton from the polyester.

FUEL

Like any biomass (plant derived) fuel, burning hemp releases into

the atmosphere only as much Carbon Dioxide as was removed in

photosynthesis, with no net contribution to the Greenhouse Effect.

Hemp's low Sulfur content contributes little to Acid Rain. Recent

advances in Biomass Gasification technologies suggest hemp

replacing coal in our electric power stations. Technology for

conversion to liquid fuels is farther behind, and still expensive

when compared to current oil prices as subsidised by our military

presence in the Persian Gulf. Shifting more of the tax burden to

environmentally destructive use of fossil fuels would stimulate

research, and hasten the inevitable changeover to clean biomass.

FOOD and MEDECINE Cultivation of hemp seed for food and livestock

feed dates at least to the ancient Sumerians. While it is second

to soybeans in total protein content, hemp seed has a more

complete balance of amino acids. More importantly, hemp seed oil

is the top plant source for linoleic and linolenic acids, the

essential fatty acids for which fish oil is touted to lower blood

colesterol and strengthen the immune system. Of course pressing

the oil from hemp seed makes these nutrients available at a tiny

fraction of the cost of fish oil. Hemp flowers provide a medecine

useful for the treatment of such diverse problems as Muscular

Sclerosis, Anorexia, Glaucoma, and the Nausea associated with

Chemotherapy and AIDS.

ONE OBSTACLE REMAINS.

The flowers of the hemp plant, when smoked or otherwise ingested,

produce a mild euphoria, which we have culturally and legally

labeled as inherently evil. The law defines any part of the plant

other than stalk, fiber, or sterilized seed as marijuana, and

there is no way to raise stalks without leaves. While low potency

fiber strains are available in Europe, and fiber crops are

harvested before the flowers form, (much more potent than leaves,)

US law makes no distinction.

No-one has ever died from using marijuana. Indeed, in a review of

its medical use, US Administative Law Judge Francis Young found it

to be "among the safest therapeutically active substances known to

man." The sole remaining argument against it is the so-called

"Gateway Effect.," which states that its use leads to hard drugs.

In fact, it is the prohibition of the plant which puts it in the

same marketplace as heroin or cocaine. When the supply of

marijuana is interrupted retailers find themselves without any

income, and some shift to selling whatever they can get, luring

their customers to truly dangerous drugs. In a legal cannabis

market, supply would be continuous and regulated.

DOES GEORGE BUSH REALLY CARE ABOUT DRUG ABUSE?

As Vice President he headed the South Florida Drug Interdiction

Task Force, and simultaneously oversaw Ollie North's Contra supply

operation, whose planes returned from Cental America loaded with

Cocaine. The Task Force decided which drug smugglers would be

targeted by law enforcement, and consequently which would not. If

he was really "out of the loop" on contra supply, why did he

protect their illicit fundraising? Is the government's war on

marijuana a cover for continuing intelligence agency involvement

in the importation of hard drugs? Can you fool all of the people

all of the time? To find out, tune in in November.

Ben Masel, Wiscsconsin State Director

National Organization to Reform the Marijuana

Laws 911 Williamson St, Madison, WI 53703

(608) 257-5456

* Characterization and Processing of Annual Crops (Esp. Hemp) for

Pulp and Paper by Marie-Jose de Smet, Agrotechnical Research

Institute, ATO- DLO, Haagsteeg 6, 6700AA Wageningen, The

Netherlands, as presented at the First European Conference on

Industrial Uses for Agricultural Crops, Maastricht, the

Netherlands, November 1991.

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