Industrial Hemp & Marijuana

Hemp, Industrial  -  I would like to suggest that you get a DVD copy of "Hempsters"  and get the story on commercial hemp production.  One of the tragedies today for agriculture is that we lack vital crops which could take the place of some which either cannot be grown and shouldn't be:   tobacco for one,  GMO crops for another.   Hemp was grown widely in the U.S. during the second world war and is grown commercially all over the world,  including Canada.  If it gets planted here the  DEA comes in a removes it and the grower is prosecuted. 

What is the confusion?  Seems that the DEA/U.S. Government doesn't understand that although Hemp is in the same plant family as marijuana,  they are very different plants and the affect of using them is completely different.  Marijuana, which was approved for personal use in two states in the last election,  and is now used widely as a medicinal  substance in several states is still widely considered illegal by government authorities.   Thus the confused actions of the DEA where industrial hemp is concerned.   Kentucky is the state leading the charge to replace tobacco with hemp as a replacement cash  crop.  The fight goes on,  the National Farmer Union has approved it as a crop that should be grown in the United States.  

Have I smoked pot?  Yes,  more than a few times,  many years ago;   but I could never have been considered a "user"  of it.  So,  I would like to share a couple of stories from California about the plant.  The first was in L.A. when I attended USC for graduate work.  Looking down out the bathroom window into the adjacent alley I watched a man go up and down attending plants.  I went down later on and found that marijuana plants had been planted in many yards in the block,  and this fellow was obviously taking care of them and harvesting as needed;  the home owners took care of the watering and, I guess,  some of the weeding.   Ron Le B. was a crafty fellow who I met shortly thereafter and he offered to give me some pot if I could keep his secret.  Instead we became fellow jazz loving neighbors,  he made it possible for me to go to after hours places in parts of town in which I wouldn't have been welcomed without his  (black) presence;   and I had wheels and he had not. 

Years later in Venice, Calif.  there was a local named "Shag" Nightingale ("Shag" because he loved shag carpet and used in heavily in his residence,  and even in his car).  Shag was  a dealer,  but he went to prison because he didn't keep up with child support.  Turns out that while in jail he was put in charge of road crews doing clean ups on the Pacific Coast Highway.  And, like Mr. Le B. he managed to plant pot along the road which was then harvested at  surreptitious times and sold in the community by civilian crews.  When he finished his sentence he returned to Venice after having picked up a brand  new El Dorado Cadillac,  which was then upholstered in shag.   Could it be that these two law abiding citizens might be an avant garde which would go beyond our present drug wars?  Stay tuned.