A Herculean endeavor
What do you have when you pit a couple of North Dakota farmers against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency?
A modern-day tale of David and Goliath.
The farmers brought a lawsuit seeking to reverse the ban on growing commercial hemp. It was dismissed, and the two have now filed an appeal.
The issue revolves around the classic clash of state versus federal opinions on how to handle local issues. In 2005, North Dakota passed a law allowing people in their state to grow industrial hemp to reap the benefits of this versatile crop— as long as they obtained a license.
That's reasonable, because anyone who hears "hemp" still thinks "marijuana." The state legislature is fully aware of this association. They have implemented a requirement that the hemp grown could only have an infinitesimally minute amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gets it classified as a controlled substance.
But the DEA refused to grant them licenses. The DEA's argument is that allowing any growing of hemp is in direct contradiction of the Controlled Substance Act.
I'm certainly not advocating the rampant explosion of illegal drugs here. Yes, it's true that one excipient of it can be grown for those psychotropic properties. (You can get that from a lot of Big Pharma's products that are too readily available. But there's much more to hemp than THC.
Hemp is packed with protein—25 percent of its content trailing only behind the soybean. In addition, hemp is high in essential fatty acids, especially the omega- 3 alpha linolenic acid. To you and me, this all sounds pretty good. But to the huge corporations invested in making the soybean practically required eating, it poses a threat. Of course, the soybean is a heavily subsidized crop with huge moneyed interests backing it, so I smell a problem right there. In addition, hemp is high in essential fatty acids, especially the omega-3 alpha linolenic acid.
I can't say for certain that the powers behind the soybean are lobbying against hemp. I can tell you that
The insanity behind this is the fact that we're not allowed to grow it here in the States, but there's no restriction on importing it from places like Canada. In fact, the overwhelming majority of Canada's hemp products are shipped right here to the U.S. So we're allowed to have it, just not to grow to it. It seems to me the concern is more over control than this so-called controlled substance.
The farmers filed a notice of appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. I'll keep watch on what comes out of it and if David is able to best this Goliath.
