Pubdate: Fri, 18 Jan 2008
Source: Bismarck Tribune (ND)
Copyright: 2008 The Bismarck Tribune
Contact: http://www.bismarcktribune.com/forms/letters.php
Website: http://www.bismarcktribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/47
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n054/a06.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n053/a07.html
Author: Wayne Hauge

NO EVIDENCE FOR VILIFYING HEMP

Response to letters by Jeanette McDougal and John Coleman:

I am proud and honored by the negative comments by McDougal and 
Coleman, as well as being mystified by their statements, which 
provide little evidence to support their negative stance on industrial hemp.

I am proud and honored that McDougal recognizes North Dakota farmers 
as solid citizens; however, to state that marijuana has any 
correlation to the efforts by me and everyone I have to date come in 
contact with is sorely mistaken. I personally will have nothing to do 
with legalization of pot.

To suppose that marijuana can be planted inside a field of industrial 
hemp and achieve any degree of so-called recreational high is again 
misleading. Far more likely would be to grow pot inside a corn field.

Coleman's assertion that our nation's legislators have been swindled 
by past drug proponents is intriguing, to say the least. In order to 
make this assertion, you have to assume that the governor of North 
Dakota has been duped, along with the attorney general, agriculture 
commissioner, vast majority of both houses of the Legislature and 
many learned professors with degrees longer than can be printed here.

North Dakota is known as a state with hard-working people who are 
respected for their ingenuity and integrity. Coleman's assertions are 
akin to the idiocy put forth in the article about the Buffalo Commons 
as written by Frank and Deborah Poppers in 1987 about our drier upper 
Midwest plains not being sustainable for agriculture.

If industrial hemp is not a profitable rotational crop well-suited to 
North Dakota, then why have our state's legislators and governmental 
leaders supported legalization of industrial hemp for the past 10 years?

Further, if industrial hemp is as readily available from other 
sources across the world as they presume, then freight must be free 
to get it to domestic markets.

I look forward to farming in a new era of alternative opportunity.

When the stigma of marijuana has been separated from industrial hemp, 
then the creative talents of bright minds across our great nation 
will truly shine with new and innovative ideas.

Wayne Hauge

Ray

(The two North Dakota farmers granted state hemp farming licenses, 
Rep. David Monson of Osnabrock and Hauge, filed a lawsuit in U.S. 
District Court to end the Drug Enforcement Administration's ban on 
commercial hemp farming in the United States. - Editor)
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom