Hemp Farming Now Legal In Oregon

From NORML.org:
Oregon: Legislation To Regulate Commercial Hemp Production Becomes Law

Salem, OR: Democrat Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed legislation into law this week that seeks to license farmers to cultivate hemp as an agricultural commodity. Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa that contains only trace (less than one percent) amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana.

As approved by the legislature, Senate Bill 676 authorizes the state Department of Agriculture to regulate the commercial production of cannabis containing levels of THC under 0.3 percent THC.

Similar legislation was also signed into law in June in Maine.

A handful of states – including North Dakota, Montana, and Vermont – have enacted regulations to allow for the licensing of industrial hemp production under state law. However, such production remains criminally prohibited under federal law, which defines all varieties of cannabis as illegal under the Controlled Substances Act.

Legislation pending in Congress, HR 1866, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009, seeks to amend federal law to allow for the state-licensed production of hemp, free from federal interference.

Giving Blunts A Bad Wrap

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/06/22/gvl10622.htm

It's all the way at the bottom of the article, but here it is: "Ban flavoring in cigarettes, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon and vanilla."

The reason is generally cited as these are aimed at children. But anybody familiar with the advertising and packaging of these products knows that they're clearly not. Here's a sample:

I've only seen one flavor that was arguably child friendly, and that was "purple." I can't find any information about it on the internet, but you'll have to take my word that there was a half naked girl on the package, again clearly not child aimed advertisements. I think a more useful ban would be on those candy cigarettes or something like that, or maybe reducing foreign chemical content in the cigarettes to make them harder to smoke and less child-friendly. This reaction is probably in part due to what people have been calling a reverse nicotine addiction that's way more prominent in urban areas. Here, people have observed that kids get addicted to cigarettes without smoking them, by getting addicted to the tobacco in blunts first and then cigarettes in turn. I can personally attest to this effect, but the flavor is not the catch. I think you'd find that the vast majority of buyers are partial to unflavored products anyway, especially initially.

Feral Hemp

I hadn't heard that phrase until I read this article from Talkleft.com but as it turns out the DEA spends 98% of their time with their heads up their asses. Just kidding, what actually is going on is the fact that they are eradicating feral hemp, or wild pot plants with little or no THC. Now, either they can't tell the difference or they're trying to prevent the public from realizing one thing, that cannabis is only a plant - not only a plant but a healthy, prolific, plant with lots of uses. Turns out Indiana seized 212 million plants by the DEA's count. So now we're not just the only country in the world that doesn't recognize industrial hemp as a legitimate crop, but we're also the only country that's trying to get rid of it - hemp, not pot. To compare that to real pot eradicated in that same year (2005), California counted only 2 million purposefully cultivated plants that were disposed of, the highest of any state. Ironically, the states with the highest number of what the DEA refers to as "ditchweed" generally tend to have lower cannabis consumption rates on average. To me, this seems like an attempt to keep the public ignorant about the plant and continue the stigmatization of its cultivation.

Hip Hop's Blunt Daze

Snoop Dogg speaks with High Times in 1999 about marijuana's positive benefits on the hip hop industry. Three years later, Snoop was awarded High Times' Stoner of the Year award. Here, Snoop talks about his beliefs regarding the peacefulness of potsmokers, the benefits of legalization, his own history of cocaine dealing and the detrimental effects of the drug on hip hop. Found via an article on 13 Classic Snoop Dogg Weed Smoking Moments at hailmaryjane.com Here's another track of mine, this one staying in theme with hip hop and ganja. It's a remix of the Carpenters' song "Rainy Days and Mondays" - originally worked on this beat years ago with a rapper and friend of mine and reworked the idea a few years later with another friend, musician and guitarist Timbo Slice (search for him on myspace to hear his tracks). Anyway, here it is, Rainy Haze: