Ben

Yesterday proved that sometimes, Congress can do something good.

Rep. Bobby Scott brought the Criminal Justice Commission Act to the floor with an opening and powerful speech in support of the bill.  The bi-partisan legislation had already passed in the Senate and was now referred to the Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

I searched through the C-SPAN database to find exactly what happened, so for your convenience, I have bookmarked it exactly where you need to be.  Congressman Scott does a great job at putting the right light on this issue.

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/229319&start=30724&end=31953

(I can’t get Wordpress to embed… any tips?)

PS- Congressman Scott should do the same thing with the Industrial Hemp Farming Act HR 1866

President Obama has kept Michele Leonhart as the DEA administrator for far too long.  A Hold over from the Bush Administration, Leonhart is our worst nightmare.  She’s been working for the DEA as long as you’ve been alive, and she is a driving force behind the Hemp ban.  She was the boss that tried to ban hemp foods.  She’s declined applications from hemp farmers.  And now, she’s getting hired again.

Vote Hemp joined several other groups in Opposing her nomination. in a letter you can read hear. You can even oppose it yourself with NORML’s action alert.

Cmon, Obama.  How can we expect change if your going to nominate Leonhart to manage the DEA??

Poppyseed is highly nutritious seed (and oil) that has been used for thousands of years in international cuisine.  It is used in hundreds of different dishes, from main course to dessert, and is most commonly found in pastries or bakeries, and then there’s the American favorite- the Poppyseed bagel.  Poppyseed is high value- it costs nearly 3x the cost of hempseed per pound, and 60,000 tons are produced annually, globally.

Perhaps the only food product besides hempseed that is also regulated under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is Poppyseeds.  Believe it or not, edible poppyseed comes from Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the Opium Poppy.  There are hundreds of varieties of Poppy, many are ornamental flowers, others can be noxious weeds (the State of West Virginia classifies Poppy as such).  However, it is Opium Poppy that poppyseed comes from.  So…… WTF??!!  HOW in the world does that work?!?!

The CSA classifies Opium and Opium derivatives as a Schedule II narcotic, which means that, unlike Medical Marijuana, the Government actually produces opium in quantities to supply doctors and hospitals for Morphine and Heroin.  However, I think that most opiates these days are synthetic, and Opium production is generally banned throughout the world.  Afghanistan produces the over 90% of the world’s opium, although just a few years ago, there was a very strict ban, under the taliBAN. 

The Czech Republic is listed as producing the most Poppyseed of any other country, but this does not seem to correlate to Opium Production.  Most medicines are now made, not with the latex sap from the Opium Poppy, but from “Poppy Straw”, the stalks of the plant, from which morphine can be extracted.  This is a by-product of seed production.  Imagine if there was a hemp field, and after the seed was harvested, you could smoke the stalk!  The fact is, this is NOT the case, but with Poppy, this is EXACTLY the case.

The main thing that turns a legal Poppy field into an illicit Poppy field, is whether or not the budding flowers are “Scored”.  To make Opium, a farmer will use a knife to create a cut in the bud.  From this cut will ooze or bleed, a white latex sap that is the Opium.  If these scores are not made, Opium is not collected.  However, like I said, Poppystraw, a controlled substance, can be used to manufacture opioids.

So, producing Poppyseed DOES actually produce opiates: they are the same genus and species and variety and cultivar, it is called the opium poppy.  If you ate enough poppy seeds, you could hypothetically get a buzz, and you would definitely fail a drug test.  IRONICALLY, producing hempseed does NOT produce marijuana as a byproduct, will not make you fail a drug test, the genetics are very different, as well as farming methods and even physical appearance.

It is ridiculous that the DEA tried to enforce a “Zero-Tolerance” Ban on Hemp Foods , yet at the same time, actually changed the tolerance of standardized drug testing procedures — because what wacko would try to impose a zero tolerance on Opium Poppyseed??  Hopefully someone will have this realization one day and say about hemp,

“if we don’t enforce laws against Poppyseed production, why would we enforce laws against hempseed production??”

One of the many uses of hemp is as insulation for the construction industry.

Currently, insulation is often made of fiberglass, it might look like a cotton mattress, but you don’t actually want to touch it.  Or get near it, you might get micro-glass splinters.  Or if breathe too much, then you might get the micro-glass particles in your lungs.

But not all building insulation is made out of fiberglass.

In fact, there are dozens of other synthetic materials that claim to have higher performance; I’m really not sure why there are so many.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_insulation_materials

Here’s a brief list:

Material

The vast majority of these are some type of foam plastic, which are far from healthy.  They are produced using petroleum byproducts, using lots of toxic chemicals in some complicated chemistry process that I know nothing about, probably releasing all types of fumes in a large factory, made by a company that we don’t like but have no choice but to consume from (ie, DuPont).

Here is yet another example of where hemp can be used to create a higher quality product, that is better for the environment, and overall, much healthier for us to use.  Hemp is all natural, all the way.  Inexpensively renewable, no harsh chemicals, and it’s completely biodegradable!

Did I mention that it’s actually a higher quality product?  Hemp “Breathes”, which means that it can absorb and release moisture.  This makes a room feel much more comfortable- it will naturally minimize the excessive humidity or dryness in the air.  And of course, the actual amount of  insulation that it provides is comparable to anything else on the market.

Here is yet another industrial use of hemp.  Imagine a day when construction workers are hauling loads of hemp insulation to a building site.

Look at how focused he is, on the hemp he is about to install….

To learn more about Hemp insulation, visit the Hemcore website