North Dakota Legalizes Hemp Cultivation
Haven't seen this mentioned on the thread here, so it might be news to some.
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April 22, 1999, Bismarck, ND: Governor Ed Schafer (R) signed
legislation Saturday allowing local farmers to "plant, grow, harvest,
possess, sell, and buy industrial hemp." North Dakota is the first
state to remove criminal penalties for hemp cultivation.
House Bill 1428 reclassifies hemp containing no more than
three-tenths of one percent THC as a legal commercial crop, and
allows licensed farmers to grow it. The House and Senate
overwhelmingly approved the measure before the governor signed it.
The Legislature commissioned a study two years ago that determined
locally grown hemp could yield profits as high as $141 per acre.
North Dakota's new regulations are modeled closely after Canada's,
which legalized commercial hemp cultivation last year. Bill sponsor
Rep. David Monson (D-Osnabrock) said that local farmers are eager to
grow hemp after seeing the crop's economic success north of the
border.
Farmers who wish to grow hemp must have no prior criminal history,
use certified seeds, and allow random inspections of their crop for
THC content. Farmers must pay a minimum $150 fee to apply for a
hemp license.
John Howell, CEO of New York City's Hemp Company of America and a
plaintiff in a 1998 federal lawsuit to legalize hemp cultivation, said
that "the future of hemp in America now looks much, much brighter."
He noted that federal permits to grow hemp require applicants to
answer whether cultivation is legal in their state. "Until now, every
applicant had to check 'no' and applications were denied. Now that
Catch-22 cycle has been broken by North Dakota's action."
The Legislature also approved measures allowing university
researchers who have federal permission to grow small quantities of
hemp, and urging Congress to acknowledge legal distinctions between
hemp and marijuana. Twenty-nine nations, including France, England,
Germany, Japan, and Australia allow farmers to grow
non-psychoactive hemp for its fiber content.
The text of the North Dakota legislation can is online at
ranch.state.nd.us
More information on state-level legislation can be found online at
norml.org
(from the NORML Weekly News, norml.org)
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...Mezz - Write your representatives. Let it grow! Save the family farms. |
