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(Pre-Written letter you can modify, cut and paste. Contact information for your District.)
Thursday, March 8, 2001
Phoenix, Arizona
Press Release
With an Adopted Amendment, Arizona Senate Bill 1519, Authorizing Industrial Hemp Research, with an eye to
Deregulation of Industrial Hemp for Arizona, passed an important first hurdle with unanimous approval by the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment Committee. 7 ayes, 1 not voting, (Sen. Bowers).
Industrial
Hemp, the crop touted in the February 1938 issue of "Popular Mechanics" magazine as the "New Billion-Dollar Crop" but taxed out of existence and made partially illegal in 1937, may finally be permitted to deliver on the "Billion-Dollar" promise.
The measure, sponsored by Senator Darden Hamilton and House Representative Dean Cooley, will authorize a research effort concerning those varieties of Industrial Hemp certified to contain
ultra-low THC, which is the compound pot smokers desire. These varieties have been bred for hundreds of years; some are commonly known as "Ditch-Weed", or feral hemp.
Â
The DEA
Spends $50 million each year trying to eradicate this variety of hemp because it looks very similar to the variety that does contain high THC levels. It is interesting to note that this feral hemp is
there because the US Government paid farmers to plant it during World War II.Â
Proponents claim the hemp plant is capable of supplying raw material to supplement and even replace
petroleum and timber in thousands of products. Citing numerous scientific
studies by private industry, government and academia, they find that the only real barriers to development have historically been political. With the number of special interests affected, this assertion may not be so far out.
Opponents claim there are no markets, that kids will get the "wrong message" and that law enforcement personnel will have a hard time distinguishing it from the real thing.
To
these claims Tim Castleman, a supporter of the bill responds, "Market demand for environmentally sound natural products, as measured by Natural Products Expo West 2001, the world's largest natural
products trade show, topped $28 billion in 1999. Industrial Hemp alone already accounts for almost $1 billion of that, and we have only scratched the surface. With oil at $25 to $30 a barrel, folks are more willing to look at alternatives. As far as kids getting the wrong message, I suggest the misinformation disseminated by drug enforcement authorities about this crop is the real "wrong message".
Castleman continues, "Orincon Industries, Inc. has developed a
"Spy in the Sky" technology which can find marijuana crops from a helicopter and can distinguish marijuana from Industrial Hemp. The technology was tested successfully by law enforcement in West Virginia."
The bill will also
appropriate resources to Arizona State University-East, School of Agribusiness and Natural Resource Management, to conduct a research effort aimed at determining the following: required soils and growing conditions, seed availability and varieties, including in the ground seed variety trials, harvest methods, market economies, and environmental benefits.
Also to be
considered in the effort are Law Enforcement concerns expressed at today's hearing by representatives from several agencies. "There remain many obstacles, and we need public support now more than ever, but this is an important, and historical, first step for Arizona. Please contact your representatives and let them know how you feel about this important issue." concludes Castleman.
Contact:
Tim Castleman
(480) 804-9555
SB1519 Amendment that passed Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture &
Environment Committee
Bill Status Page on AZ Legislature
Senate Fact Sheet.
Takes you to AZ Legislature site, you may need to
do a search for SB1519 if the link above doesn't work.
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