When minds are closed…

Those of us who are advocates for industrial hemp know one thing all too well when the subject of reintroduction comes up:  Closed minds will do their best to keep hemp illegal.  This was made all too apparent in the article “Pending industrial hemp could go to pot”, from The Kentucky Standard, reprinted in the Weekend Edition of the Appalachian Express.

Yep, doesn’t matter that all the arguments against hemp have been knocked down before.   Just trot ‘em out again whenever this subject is brought up.  Opponents don’t mind using a circular, albeit illogical, defense against changing the status quo.

First of all, let’s all just say “We don’t know.”  We don’t know if this is right for Kentucky farmers.  This comes from Nelson County Extension Agent Ron Bowman.  Sure, everyone knows that Kentucky was a major source of hemp until we all went crazy and outlawed it 1937.  But that was a long time ago.  Heck, it might not even grow here now.  We need studies.

So, if we need studies, why doesn’t someone do those studies?  This is where law enforcement comes in.  You see, according to the article, both the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University were encouraged to study hemp production, but uh oh, the Drug Enforcement Administration just won’t play ball. 

Hemp, says this article, is considered to be a controlled substance by the DEA.   Hemp, a controlled substance, you say?  Is the federal government concerned that a rash of headaches might hit the U S if hemp was legal to grow?  Because that’s all you’d get if you smoked any of it.

Okay, says the DEA, we are “bound by international treaty laws”.  Yes, and because we are so bound, we as a nation can only issue one permit “at a time” to study hemp.  Did I hear you right?  What genius signed off on a treaty with a clause that stupid? 

We are the fourth largest country in the whole freakin’ world, with fifty states and any number of “entities” that could study hemp and tell you anything you would want to know about it that 10,000 years of cultivation hasn’t already told us, and some bureaucratic Einstein says “Let’s sign this treaty that will limit a country with a population of over 300,000,000 to exactly one permit to study the feasibility of reintroducing the most versatile plant on the whole planet”?  I bet he got a raise.

Kentucky’s newly elected Commissioner of Agriculture, James Comer, aka the voice of reason, was quoted as saying “We will continue to educate people statewide to address the misinformation and the potential (hemp) has for (our state).

That educational process cannot begin too quickly if we are to overcome the ignorance spread by those not yet convinced of hemp’s qualities.