PoliticalAction.com Blog

It all started in the 1920’s with Yellow Journalism.

William Randolph Hearst, who arrived on the scene in 1887, was already in control of the headlines on a day-to-day basis because of his efficient business practice within the industry. He was able to produce his Newspapers at next to nothing by manufacturing the tree pulp used and controlling the channel of production down to his papers, the San Francisco Examiner, and eventually the New York Journal (Which became a leading Newspaper).

He teamed up with Henry Dupont to manufacture the ink used in the New York Journal and the partnership began to grow.

ALONG CAME HEMP

Hemp grows 4 times faster than the timber used for tree pulp by Hearst.

Hemp grows annually and can be grown more times

Hemp produces a better quality paper.

Hemp can be grown in any region of the United States.

Since Hemp grew so fast and it grew in every region, Hearst could not stop the middle class farmer from decentralizing the industry. Hearst knew that he could not provide the intellectual property to keep Hemp from destroying his industry and replacing it with middle class producers

In other words he was afraid of the free market. He was afraid of us… he had to stop it!

Dupont and Hearst knew then that not many Americans understood the difference between Hemp and Cannabis. So they used it against the Americans by claiming Cannabis will make you rape and kill your sister if smoked, illustrating the dangers of inhaling by using grim reapers in their newspapers with joints. And people believed it!

Time and Time again they would use this propaganda through the New York Journal, claiming that Mexicans bringing Marijuana across the border would sleep with White Wives and take White Jobs. They were also saying this about Black Americans who took up smoking and started the Jazz movement.

Dupont’s banker was Andrew Mellon, Mellon bank of Pittsburgh (5th largest bank at the time). Andrew Mellon had a Nephew, Harry Anslinger. Andrew Mellon financially backed Anslinger and threw all of his weight into convincing the U.S. treasury that Marijuana is dangerous and it should be heavily regulated by way of taxation and prohibition.

The treasury could use a program that would generate that much income for the government so in June of 1930 the treasury gave birth to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

Ansligner hated Mexicans, Blacks, and Cannabis. He was on a mission to eliminate all of them. Immediately Ansliger waged war on Cannabis regurgitating claims made by Hearst in his Newspapers. (Success stories followed in the New York Journal).

Then, in 1937 Anslinger approached congress with intent to fully regulate all Cannabis. The entire meeting was comprised of Ansliger making emotional outbursts and attempting to offer evidence, all of which was newspaper clippings out of Hearst’s Newspapers.

With the exception of one congressman, all agreed and the act passed, Marijuana became criminal giving birth to the Drug War.

Not to mention Hearst, Dupont, and Mellon were all filthy rich now and had their hands in official pockets.

But the story doesn’t stop here. Andrew Mellon had to study the enemy, He saw what happened with Alcohol Prohibition and he knew it wouldn’t be long before the public caught on.

Mr. Mellon then financed Pharmaceutical companies through government grants and private equity to try to create a synthetic substitute for the over 60 different medicinal properties Cannabis contains. (They have yet to accomplish this goal)

If you look into the history you will find that fossil fuels would have never existed if it wasn’t for this intervention in the market place.

CANNABIS CAN SUPPLY THE ENTIRE NATION WITH ENERGY ON ONLY 1% OF U.S. LAND. ALL CARBON CLEAN.

(AND REMEMBER IT GROWS EVERYWHERE)

This is where the Federal Reserve comes in. The Federal Reserve System does not want to see the decentralization of resources towards localism because if that were to happen the Fed would lose a stronghold on the liquidity pools it artificially creates. It would also mean they couldn’t use the Carbon Tax to consolidate wealth across the world.

With Cannabis being legal and having over 25,000 uses there would be no way to compete against local and more sustainable banks.

So, the Federal Reserve uses banks like the Mellon to fund the DEA and keep money flowing and keep marijuana illegal. The Fed knows that with Cannabis being legal our GDP would boom but not in favor of large monopolies like the FED, but quite the contrary.

This is why I always say… the day we legalize it is the day we end the FED!

Last week, Maine’s House passed LD 1159 without objection and the Senate later passed it by a vote of 25 to 10. The bill was Passed To Be Enacted by the House and Senate this week. LD 1159 would establish a licensing regime for farming industrial hemp. Maine previously passed a study bill and has defined industrial hemp in the law.

The State of Oregon is also on the verge of passing industrial hemp legislation. If the Oregon bill succeeds it would join fifteen others that have passed hemp bills.

As many of you know, since 1937, this highly versatile crop (uses include food, fuel, building material, textile, and energy to name a few) has been linked — via the Marijuana Tax Act — to the recreational and medicinal strains of the same species: Cannabis sativa L. But make no mistake, they are genetically distinct and nothing like the other.

The battle has been long. The last legal hemp crop grown in the U.S. was harvested 50 years ago. In 1970, with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act, farming hemp in the U.S. was effectively outlawed. And since then, the courts have offered no relief claiming only Congress can change the status quo.

Nonetheless, with the hemp renaissance’s onset in the 80s — and the 90s when states began introducing hemp legislation — grassroots efforts have led to a growing hemp ground swell headed straight towards D.C.

As farmers find themselves mired in the effects of the Great Recession, common sense dictates legal barriers be removed to allow U.S. farmers to add this cash crop to their increasingly limited options as have virtually all other industrialized nations.

Earlier this month, our new drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, told the Wall Street Journal that the War on Drugs was on its way out. Using this logic, the end of the ludicrous U.S. ban on hemp farming is a no brainer.

Sadly, most elected officials inside the beltway have bought into the “hemp is marijuana” paradigm and have become afraid of their own shadows on this issue. Rep. Ron Paul repeatedly introduces hemp legislation only to be denied a committee hearing in the House.

Gratefully, state legislatures have been willing to step in and lead the way. The tipping point appears near. All that’s needed now is for the Obama Administration to take simple measures leaving it to the states to determine their own fate regarding industrial hemp. Yes, the ban on U.S. hemp farming draws near — thanks in no small part to federalism. Please make a donation today to our General Fund to help us continue our work and bring hemp farming back to its rightful place in America.

Sincerely,

Patrick Goggin
Vote Hemp Director

HR 1866 IH
(Introduced in House)

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 1866

To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marihuana, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 2, 2009

Mr. PAUL (for himself, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. CLAY, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. STARK, and Ms. WOOLSEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marihuana, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009′.

SEC. 2. EXCLUSION OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP FROM DEFINITION OF MARIHUANA.

Paragraph (16) of section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802(16)) is amended–

(1) by striking `(16)’ at the beginning and inserting `(16)(A)'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

`(B) The term `marihuana’ does not include industrial hemp. As used in the preceding sentence, the term `industrial hemp’ means the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of such plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration that does not exceed 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.’.

SEC. 3. INDUSTRIAL HEMP DETERMINATION TO BE MADE BY STATES.

Section 201 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 811) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

`(i) Industrial Hemp Determination To Be Made by States- In any criminal action, civil action, or administrative proceeding, a State regulating the growing and processing of industrial hemp under State law shall have exclusive authority to determine whether any such plant meets the concentration limitation set forth in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (16) of section 102 and such determination shall be conclusive and binding.’.