The Herald, 08 Mar 2013 – While Washington, Colorado, and the Justice Department grapple with the intricacies and implications of the states’ historic votes to legalize recreational marijuana (with medical cannabis already on the books), our Legislature has a chance to do something noncontroversial and very belated on the other end of the weed spectrum: Allow the cultivation of industrial hemp. The difference between marijuana and hemp is vast. An important but frequently ignored fact is that the hemp plant contain the psychoactive ingredients that produce the marijuana "high." A person could smoke fields of hemp and only get a headache and burned lungs. Another important difference: Industrial hemp is an easy crop for farmers to grow – it is hardy and resistant. Marijuana, on the other hand, is fussy and difficult to grow, and prone to pests and mold. (A farmer would never want to grow the two varieties together, as the few remaining hemp opponents argue would happen to cover for an illegal grow, because it would weaken the properties of both plants.)
posted on March 10, 2013 by
