GUEST
EDITORIAL
Are Some Hemp Advocates
Tied
to the Illicit Drug Culture?
By:
Jeanette McDougal, MM CCDP, Chair, Drug Watch International Hemp Committee,
For
years, marijuana advocates have promoted hemp (industrial marijuana) as a farm
crop, claiming that it is useful for different products, including food items.
Recently, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) took action to ban hemp
products meant for human consumption, because they contain THC--the
psychoactive compound in marijuana that is prohibited by the Controlled
Substances Act.
Hemp
advocates, led by the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), have sued the DEA in
San Francisco Federal Court to prevent implementation of the hemp food ban.
At first
glance, the HIA seems to merely be a trade association of hemp growers,
processors, and food retailers. A closer examination of some of its key
members, however, suggests close ties to the drug culture and the drug
legalization movement.
The
National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is the oldest and
most militant pro-marijuana organization in the
The Hemp
Industries Association, now involved in the Federal suit to prevent the banning
of hemp foods, was formed in the mid-1990s. High Times, the drug culture
magazine, reported on the Association's first organizational meeting. High
Times stated that--although the hotel asked attendees to curb their
"pleasure" and keep it (marijuana smoking) indoors--the last day's
impromptu networking session featured uninhibited outdoor marijuana smoking on
the part of some members. High Times said of the meeting that, "It's HIGH (sic)
Jack
Herer, an admitted longtime marijuana smoker and member of HIA, is universally
recognized as the "patriarch of the modern hemp movement." He
admonished attendees of this first HIA conference, "Don't forget that the
joints you smoke and the fiber you make into clothes are the same plant."
The article went on to say, "Some hempsters strained to get Jack to
acknowledge that hemp just might be the most realistic avenue to legalization
of marijuana." Among Herer's last remarks about the HIA conference
were, "....this organization will be attacked like any other
marijuana organization...."
Chris
Conrad, first HIA President and current board member, recently appeared on High
Times' "Top 25 Pot Stars" list. High Times quoted Conrad as saying,
"I'm amazed at how many of the predictions I made in the late 1980s about
industrial hemp and medical marijuana have since come true. We've linked ...(various groups)...into an alliance that knows hemp is
here for good. Now the pot smokers need to come out of the closet to win their
equal rights."
Conrad
will speak on a panel at the 2002 NORML annual meeting on the subject of
"Marijuana Cultivation: Growing Your Own Medicine." Conrad is billed
on the agenda as an "author and cultivation expert."
Ken
Friedman, first HIA Vice President and current member of the HIA
Advisory Board, is an attorney and president of the American Hemp Mercantile.
He said, "I used to represent all those marijuana growers who are now in
jail and I couldn't do it anymore. It was too painful. You can't fight in the
courts and win. You'll win a case here and there but the system goes on. Maybe
if we throw hemp products in people's faces, they'll begin to think
differently."
Don
Wirtshafter became Chairman of the HIA's Board at the first meeting and until
recently was a member of the NORML Board of Directors. This marijuana
"reform" group recently changed its annual meeting date so it occurs
on April 20 (4/20), which is often called "National Get High Day."
Wirtshafter
is one of 3 speakers at this year's pro-marijuana NORML Conference on "The
Legal Status of Industrial Hemp." The other two speakers with Wirtshafter
on this hemp panel also are closely affiliated with HIA. One is an HIA Board
Member and the other is Chairman of HIA's Food & Oil Committee. This hemp
panel is scheduled to speak immediately before admitted marijuana smoker and
hemp activist Woody Harrelson.
As these
relationships and links demonstrate, the hemp movement has always had strong
ties to the advocates of marijuana legalization. As early as March 1990, High
Times published its "extraordinary" plan to legalize marijuana via
industrial hemp legalization. "For years information about how pot can be
used as fiber, food, (etc.) ,"...has been
spreading through the marijuana movement." The magazine went on to state
that two hemp product retailers felt that the "way to legalize marijuana
is to sell marijuana (hemp) legally. When you can buy it (hemp) at your
neighborhood shopping mall, IT'S LEGAL (sic)!"
In 1994,
High Times magazine said that it had been instrumental in getting the hemp movement
off the ground, and added, "Now it's time for us to step back and let the
movement run itself." Perhaps not coincidentally, 1994 was also the year
the Hemp Industries Association was founded.
REFERENCES:
1. High Times, May 1995, Pages 48,49,52,66
2. www.norml.org/hemp/alliance_list.shtml
3. www.norml.org/hemp/alliance.shtml
4. www.thehia.org/news_report/convention/hia_8annual_report.html
5. High Times, December 1999 and www.equalrights4all.org/articles/high_times.htm
6. www.norml.org/calendar/conf2002intro.shtm
7. www.thehia.org
8. www.cannabisculture.com/cgi/aricle.cgi?num=1562
9. www.hightimes.com/420/whats/recognition.html
10. High Times, March 1990, Page 74
11. High Times, April 1994, Pages 44-47
www.thehia.org/news_&_report/convention/hia6_annual_report.htm
www.thehia.org/news_&_reports/convention/hia_7annual_report.html
www.lindesmith.org/hemp
(END)