Oregon legalizes hemp cultivation
Published: June 30, 2009
Updated 7 months ago
Oregon’s House of Representatives voted Monday night to legalize the cultivation of hemp, becoming the sixth state to do so just this year.
Oregon’s Senate voted 27 to 2 in favor of the new law last week. Monday’s 46 to 11 House vote means that the measure will become law, barring an unlikely veto by Governor Ted Kulongoski.
The move is part of a rapidly growing nationwide trend to liberalize laws relating to marijuana. Hemp is a botanical cousin of marijuana, traditionally used to make clothing, rope and other durable fiber goods.
“Hemp is a versatile, environmentally-friendly crop that has not been grown in the U.S. for over fifty years because of a misguided and politicized interpretation of the nation’s drug laws by the Drug Enforcement Administration,” Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra said in a statement.
“While a new bill in Congress, HR 1866, is a welcome step, the hemp industry is hopeful that President Obama’s administration will recognize hemp’s myriad benefits to farmers, businesses and the environment.”
According to Vote Hemp, this year Maine, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Vermont and ”all passed resolutions or memorials urging Congress to allow states to regulate hemp farming.”
California is at the forefront of the marijuana debate, with a movement growing to decriminalize marijuana for personal use in the state by 2010.
But in Oregon’s debate, politicians were careful to distinguish between hemp and weed, and to highlight the fact that the new law would allow farmers to cultivate hemp, not grow marijuana.
Some members of Oregon’s legislature displayed t-shirts reading “Senate Bill 676 is about rope, not dope.”
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Rope not dope. Great slogan! Talk about a renewable resource that flies under the rader. Hemp could help solve many of our issues.
Gotta love states flexing their 10th Amendment Right, too.
DEA.
Forming a government agency with such a narrow focus was a huge mistake. When the problem goes away… the DEA goes away. They also get “funding” from their activities (seasures of vehicles– cars, boats, and airplanes used for trafficing).
That is a perverse incentive and a temptation to do wrong if I’ve ever heard of one!
exactly correct.
Our government has gotten away from us. It no longer serves to protect us, it serves to hold us down while corporations (the top 1%) abuse us at their leisure.
We need to change that, and fast.
The vicious cycle breaks when we start to value science and education in our society. Until then, we’re screwed because the voting public is ignorant and easily duped. Until that changes, the rest of us will have to suffer with a nanny state.
So happy I live in this state!
Finally some intelligence making agricultural policies. Maybe now we can help some of those depressed loggers do something besides cut down trees for their livelihoods in Oregon.
This has the potential to create a lot of jobs in new renewable industries in rural Oregon. Hell, just switching up to using hemp for paper instead of wood will go a long way.
Thanks Ted, and thank you Oregon Legislature!!!!
HA! good luck, faggots.. Legalize all you want, nobody cares.
You see, long ago we decided that EVERYTHING should be federalized and that our Tenth Amendment was nothing but a quaint notion which America had outgrown.
Then our Supreme Court ruled that, for the purposes of regulation, drug possession constituted “Interstate Commerce” and handed the issue to the fed. This is pure bullshit, and here is why.
If I drive across the state line and sell you a bag of pot, THAT’S INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
If I grow pot in my backyard and walk across the road to sell you some, that’s INTRA-STATE COMMERCE.
If I fucking give you a bag of pot, that’s NOT COMMERCE AT ALL.
But, thanks to the geniuses in DC, they just lump it all together and call it “Interstate Commerce” regardless.
This problem really goes way beyond drugs.. It’s about federalizing things that the Constitution leaves to the people and the States via the Tenth. We’ve looked the other way and let this sort of thing happen for so long, we’re at serious risk of losing many rights and liberties forever.
It’s senseless too. Why in the world would you rather be one voice in 330 million (On the national level) as opposed to one in 300, 3000 or 300,000 on the local level? Where’s the advantage in that?
Sadly and in spite of the wisdom of this, far too many people and groups are all too willing to federalize 10th amendment issues if it means they get their way or profit from this extra-constitutional usurpation.
You should REALLY GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS and think about it the next time some DC ding-dong talks about trampling the tenth and putting themselves in charge. You can’t compete with the kind of money lobbies spend on the national level. You won’t be listened to and once they take an issue out of the hands, and ESPECIALLY if there’s a buck to be made on it, of your state or community, you’ll NEVER GET IT BACK.
This is the “central” issue. Centralization = Monopoly, the end result of unregulated, or insufficiently regulated Capitalism.
But what makes you think the posters here are federalizers? Granted there are plenty, but what’s your plan to resist and reverse this, admittedly, treasonous trend?
I doubt if you’ll get too many arguments on this page about the benefits of decentralization and distribution.
Are you familiar with the Bank of North Dakota, the only state-run bank in the land? And coincidentally, one of only 3 states currently solvent? Anyone interested should read Ellen Brown’s great piece at HuffPo, “But Governor, You Can Create Money! Just Form Your Own Bank” (google it — if I link to it it delays my posting).
That’s one of the strongest ways a state can deny the monopolists power: cut ‘em off at the pockets!
>But what makes you think the posters here are federalizers?
No, no.. I was talking out loud. Not to anyone in particular.
Frankly, both sides of the political spectrum have sold us out on the tenth. As I said, if there’s a political advantage or a fast buck to be made, both sides sell us out in a nano-second.
But we’re the ones who suffer for this. We lose local control. It’s a big issue and one I feel passionately about..
Once you federalize something, you can’t compete. The monied interests take it over and you never get it back.
The tenth empowers US. We can’t afford to lose that kind of leverage.
>That’s one of the strongest ways a state can deny the >monopolists power: cut ‘em off at the pockets!
PS: As an aside, the ultimate benefit and end result of political power is more about creating and maintaining monopolies than serving the rank and file.
Ignore what they say and watch what they do.. They create and maintain monopolies.. and profit from it. Greatly.
not necessarily by choice, though. Remember, every senator has to beg $20,000 every day from somebody. And who’s got that kind of money? The cartels. Only a few have a seat so safe they can get away with heroic truth-telling and unwavering adherence to principle like Kucinich and Ron Paul. Look what happened to Cynthia McKinney. They ran a Republican against her in the Democratic primary, and all the Republicans voted her out. Look what happened to Paul Wellstone. They sabotaged his plane and killed him, after very clear threats in ads with a tombstone as the image.
The only hope is to redraw the election laws, and that will require a new SCOTUS, or some very strong legislation and a very strong grass roots groundswell to bully this current monopolist court into backing down, as a news article today says they are somewhat, not pressing their case as strongly as they did during Bush.
Wait — you mean it wasn’t legal until now? I hope I’m not the only one in Oregon breaking the law since the 1970s. . . .
Good message: “rope not dope”.
On the other hand, there’s the
right-wing anti-everything and everyone
” dopes-on-a-rope.”
How about “Dope not Popes”? Religion is at the core of all our intolerance.
This is about like legalizing burlap.
Whoopie! Party time!
Hey!Yyou can’t log in! You have to be logged in to do that!
Sorry, I just had to say that.
Hemp, hemp, hooray! Oregon needs new industry jobs.
It’s high time for hemp textiles.
I’m probably paranoid, but you notice that you have to register yourself to grow any hemp/pot. It is still illegal at the federal level. In fact growing hemp/pot is exactly the same as trafficing in Heroin as far as the federal sentencing is concerned. I am waiting for the feds to come rolling in with the “Patriot?” Act in their pocket and seize all the assets of the pot/hemp growers and lock them up for life. They have been trying to destroy the old hippies in every way possible for the last 35+ years. Their motto, “Never Forget, Never Forgive”. Be careful.
You can apply for a federal permit “today” if you want to grow hemp (provided it’s legal in your State).
There’s a big fee to apply, something like three grand or so.. and just applying doesn’t mean you’ll get approval, but you’ll have spent that cash.
Obama is trying to get the Federal Gov. OUT of the “hemp” business, pot will remain illegal at that level for a while (since Obama is a bit of a hypocrite and douche tag).
Signing up for growing hemp isn’t any different than signing on with Monsanto to grow their seeds.. it’s all tracked in various databases and subject to abuse. Kind of why all of those agreements/permits/licenses are a bad idea; but letting people make money without proving they are showing deference to the public safety is a bad idea too..
Too many bad people in the world for us all to just “live our lives”. Sad, really.
Spot on Savanster, spot on. Many people and states are seeing that they may actually have an administration that may change many of the decades long laws and issues that have ravaged our country and our society.