❝Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.❞ ~ Thomas Jefferson
The Chinese character for hemp (麻 or má) depicts two plants under a shelter. Cannabis cultivation dates back at least 10,000 years in Taiwan. (Wikipedia)
Legal Hemp? It’s still a fairly bold prediction, considering lawmakers’ track record on the issue.
From David Borden for Alternet
I attended a forum on marijuana legalization at The Brookings Institution Monday, where Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), one of a handful of Congressional champions of marijuana law reform, was one of the speakers. Along with his general optimism for where the issue is going, Blumenauer predicted that the current Congress — #113, in office this year and next — will legalize hemp growing.
That may be a less bold prediction than in the past — with the highest-ranking Republican senator supporting hemp now, Mitch McConnell, it should be more likely — but it’s still a fairly bold prediction, when one thinks about just how long Congress has refused to do anything for this utterly no-brainer of an issue. One of Blumenauer’s reasons was that a House bill to legalize hemp growing, H.R. 525, also is being sponsored by a Kentucky Republican, Thomas Massie.
~ David Borden is executive director of DRCnet.
Patients for Medical Cannabis 
We all know that someday, soon, this prohibition will end.
I spent 5 years in Federal Prison for a marijuana offense.
The memorable day that I met with the parole panel, I asked, “When pot becomes legal, what will my 5 years spent in prison have meant?”
Their response, “That is a very philosophical question. We don’t deal with philosophy in this office.”
Case closed…go back to your cell.
When the 5 years were gone, I walked out and never looked back. But, I know to this day, there are thousands of Americans still rotting in jail over a plant.
I wrote about the escapades that led to my imprisonment. The book:
Shoulda Robbed a Bank
I would be honored by your review. Available at Amazon.com.
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“According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), 30 to 40 percent of all current prison admissions involve crimes that have no direct or obvious victim other than the perpetrator,” says a 2008 DOJ report. “The drug category constitutes the largest offense category, with 31 percent of all prison admissions resulting from such crimes.”
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The stigma and suffering of imprisonment, of millions of Americans losing their homes, their cars, their futures along with the agony of all the patients who could have been saved years of pain meant nothing when contrasted with the money made from prohibition.It must be that soon legal marijuana will be more profitable for the establishment than keeping it a crime. Sadly only money matters in politics. Follow the dollar!
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