Murphy said he's heard that people have planted hemp on leased land in Colorado.

Transcription

1 Federal Clash Looms as 10 States Allow Farmers to Grow Hemp Lisa Rathke, Associated Press July 21, WAITSFIELD, VT (AP) -- Some Vermont farmers want to plant hemp now that the state has a law setting up rules to grow the plant, a cousin of marijuana that's more suitable for making sandals than getting high. But federal law forbids growing hemp without a permit, so farmers could be risking the farm if they decide to grow the plant that the Drug Enforcement Agency basically considers marijuana. Hemp is marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin. Hemp and marijuana share the same species cannabis sativa but hemp has a negligible content of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are cultivated differently to enhance or reduce marijuana's THC level. Under federal law, all cannabis plants fall under the marijuana label, regardless of THC content. But supporters say that comparing hemp with potent strains of marijuana is like comparing a nonalcoholic beer with a bottle of vodka. The 1970 Controlled Substances Act required hemp growers to get a permit from the DEA, the last of which was issued in 1999 for a quarter-acre experimental plot in Hawaii. That permit expired in A national nonprofit group is pushing to change current law and move regulation of hemp farming from the DEA to the state. In the meantime, the group, Vote Hemp, does not recommend growing hemp while state and federal laws conflict. "It's literally betting the farm," said Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for the group. Farmers who grow it, or even conspire to grow it and import the seeds face jail time and the forfeiture of their land, he said. But it's unclear how seriously the DEA will enforce it. Murphy said he's heard that people have planted hemp on leased land in Colorado. "Now if somebody chooses to do it as civil disobedience, knowing full well what's going to happen, then that's on them," he said. So far, 19 states have passed hemp legislation, including ten that allow its production if it is ever legalized by the federal government (including Vermont as of June 2013). Eight states have

2 passed bills calling for the study of hemp, while three states passed bills setting up commissions or authorizing the study of it, according to Vote Hemp. The states hope to nudge the federal government to change its law. John Vitko would like to grow hemp on his Vermont farm to use as feed for his chickens now that Vermont has passed a law setting up rules to grow it. He doesn't know where to find any seed and knows he would be breaking federal law if he finds some and grows a small amount of the plant. With the cost of feed continually rising, he said hemp provides an economical way to feed and provide bedding for his 100 birds, whose eggs are used in the custard-based ice cream he sells to restaurants and in a dessert shop in Waitsfield. "It's one of the few things that are manageable for a small farmer to handle," he said of hemp, which doesn't require large equipment to plant and harvest like corn does. "It's complete protein," he said. "It has all their amino acids. It's a seed which birds like." At the age of 76, longtime farmer Will Allen has been looking for ways to diversify a 40-acre operation in East Thetford that already includes everything from pick-your-own pumpkins to a field-side café. He is seriously looking in hemp now that it will be legal to cultivate in Vermont. You can grow it for food, for fuel, for fiber, Allen said recently. There s already a proven market for hemp locally, and there s no reason for us not to be growing it here. Hemp has been grown in the U.S. in the past to make rope, fabric and even the paper that used to draft the Declaration of Independence. The country even launched a "Hemp for Victory" campaign during World War II as supplies for other overseas fibers dwindled. Now most hemp products in the U.S. are imported from Canada, China and Europe and some farmers think the U.S. is missing out on a lucrative crop. U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado was granted a request to fly an American flag made of hemp over the capitol in Washington on the Fourth of July. He held the flag during the U.S. House debate in over a hemp amendment to the farm bill that he introduced with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. The measure would have allowed colleges and universities to grow hemp for research in states where its cultivation is permitted. The amendment passed but the farm bill failed. "Support for our recent farm bill amendment demonstrated that there is growing consensus to revisit the antiquated drug laws that now keep U.S. farmers from participating in the $300 million hemp retail market," Blumenauer said. "A hemp flag flown over the Capitol on the Fourth of July is a powerful symbol of this reform movement."

3 The figure Blumenauer referenced comes from a Congressional Research Service report that says the industry estimates that U.S. retail sales of hemp-based products may exceed $300 million per year. The bill that Democratic Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law in June 2013 (S.157, the Hemp Bill) is intended to push the federal government to change its law after Canada reintroduced industrial hemp in the late 1990s. Hemp, a different variety of the same plant that produces marijuana, is not a drug but instead a crop with many constructive uses, Shumlin said. Under the bill, hemp is defined as Cannabis Sativa with a tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, concentration of 0.3 percent or less. The low-potency form of marijuana is touted in the bill for its long-standing market presence and strength in industries like textiles, clothing, bio-fuel, paper, cosmetics and more. "The reason we want to push for a change is that hemp is potentially a valuable crop," said Democratic Rep. Caroline Partridge, chairwoman of the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture and Forest Products. "People want to grow it. Hemp oil is a valuable product, and there's so much of the hemp plant that can be used for very, very productive purposes," Vermont has passed the law allowing farmers to grow hemp used for everything from rope to clothing. But the law clashes with federal rules that ban cultivation of the plant that is a distant cousin of marijuana. The legislation replaces an earlier law that legalized hemp here but prohibited Vermont farmers from cultivating it until federal policy changed. The registration process that the State of Vermont is much more lax than the federal law. It requires the grower to submit to the state Secretary of Agriculture his or her name and address, a statement that the cannabis variety does not exceed the state potency threshold, and the location and acreage of the hemp parcels. The bill gives the state Agriculture Secretary the power to leverage an annual $25 registration fee for administration purposes. The grower also must allow the hemp crops to be inspected and tested at the discretion of the Agriculture Agency, which warns growers that cultivating and possessing hemp in Vermont is a violation of federal law. The Vermont registration literature will also come with the following caveat: Federal prosecution for growing hemp in violation of federal law may include criminal penalties, forfeiture of property, and loss of access to federal agricultural benefits, including agricultural loans, conservation programs, and insurance programs. Basically, the state is warning farmers who want to register as hemp growers that they risk losing their agricultural subsidies, farm equipment and livelihoods if federal agents decide to swoop in.

4 Every year, the federal authorities seize and destroy millions of marijuana plants a crackdown that has rattled the medical marijuana industry in California but the pace of seizures has dropped sharply in recent years. In 2012, federal officials reported that 3.9 million cannabis plants had been destroyed under D.E.A. eradication efforts. A year earlier, officials said they had eradicated 6.7 million plants. Even without the threat of federal raids, transforming hemp into a cash crop will be like asking a clear sky for rain. Viable seeds are illegal and scarce. Few working farmers or experts in the United States have any expertise in growing hemp. And there is basically no infrastructure to process the plants into legal components like oil, fibers and proteins. It's too late this growing season in Vermont for Vitko to grow hemp, but he hopes to plant just an acre of the plant next spring if the rules are worked out. "I'm going to be a little farmer that's growing hemp, they've got bigger problems than me," he said of the DEA. It gives farmers that additional crop in the rotation that can benefit the farm income, said Robb Kidd, an organizer at Rural Vermont, the Montpelier-based nonprofit that helped shepherd the legislation through the Statehouse. It doesn t require pesticides or herbicides, it does well in marginal soils, and it s a quick-growing crop, so there are lots of reasons why farmers would want to grow it. Netaka White, bioenergy program director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, said the state s farmers have a legitimate economic interest in seeing hemp become part of the agriculture mix. Based on data from Canada, where farmers harvest more than 50,000 acres of hemp annually, White said Vermonters could expect to see net yields of $250 to $500 per acre, as much or more than conventional crops. Kidd said he expects only a few farmers to roll the dice and sow hemp seeds in their fields in Vermont, though, despite the legislation as it is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government. Federal authorities would most likely only eradicate the plot, rather than prosecute the farmer, as has been general practice in the handful of other states that have legalized hemp. But penalties for getting caught with a field full of the crop could land a grower in federal prison for decades. Federal legislation, Shumlin said in a statement, means farmers who choose to grow hemp do so at their own risk and need to be aware of the possible consequences. (farmer Will Allen on the Vermont hemp bill) Colorado In 2012, as Colorado voters legalized marijuana for recreational use, they also approved a measure laying a path for farmers to once again grow and harvest hemp, a potentially lucrative crop that can be processed into goods as diverse as cooking oil, clothing and building material.

5 In the spring of 2013, farmer Ryan Loflin, 40, became the first farmer in Colorado to publicly sow his fields with hemp seed. I m not going to hide anymore, he said one recent morning after striding through a sea of hiphigh plants growing fast under the sun. Mr. Loflin s 60-acre experiment is one of an estimated two dozen small hemp plantings sprouting in Colorado. Hemp cultivation presents a vexing problem for the federal government, which draws no distinction between hemp and marijuana, as it decides how to respond to a new era of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington State. State agencies have worked quickly to create new rules, licenses and taxes for hemp and recreational marijuana. Many towns have voted to ban the new retailers; others have decided to regulate them. Denver, for example, is proposing a 5 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales. Colorado has set up an industrial hemp commission to write rules to register hemp farmers and charge them a fee to grow the crop commercially. It s something that can be copied and used nationally, said Michael Bowman, a farmer in northeastern Colorado who sits on the state hemp commission. The state will also be able to randomly test crops to ensure that they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, far below the level found in marijuana. A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Denver said hemp farmers were not on our radar, but R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Obama administration s Office of National Drug Control Policy, has offered stern words against both marijuana and hemp, saying that no matter what states did, the plants were still illegal in the federal government s view. Hemp and marijuana are part of the same species of cannabis plant, Mr. Kerlikowske wrote in response to a 2011 petition that sought to legalize hemp cultivation. While most of the THC in cannabis plants is concentrated in the marijuana, all parts of the plant, including hemp, can contain THC, a Schedule I controlled substance. Loflin spent the winter assembling a seed collection from suppliers in Britain, Canada, China and Germany, where hemp is legal. They entered the country via U.P.S., labeled bird seed or toasted hemp seed. One bag was seized by customs officials, he said. Some 1,500 pounds of seeds were not. At the end of June 2013, with more than $15,000 invested in the venture, he planted his crop. He said he alerted his neighbors and has not gotten any complaints from people around his farm in Springfield, Colorado or from federal officials. He believes he can stake a living in hemp s oily seeds and versatile fibers. To him, hemp s outlaw status is just another hazard of starting a business.