Asinine DEA Proposal The DEA has now officially announced that it intends to ban most hemp products in the United States, including food made from sterile (non-psychoactive) hemp seeds and hemp-based personal-care products. Under the DEA's proposed regulation, literally millions of Americans will be criminalized for possessing shampoos, lotions, clothing and soaps that have the slightest amount of naturally occurring THC, the primary active ingredient in marijuana. (It is impossible to get a psychoactive effect from hemp-based shampoos and soaps, but the DEA is proposing to ban them nevertheless.) Talk about communism and dictatorship. Those who are arrested for shampoo or soap will face up to one year in federal prison and a $10,000 fine the same penalties they would face if they were arrested for possessing a small amount of marijuana. If someone is arrested with a stockpile of (currently legal) hemp products that weighs hundreds of pounds, it stands to reason that the defendant would face a 5 or 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence - or even the death penalty - under federal law. There are already 700,000 arrests every year in the U.S. for marijuana offenses. Our nation's beleaguered criminal justice system doesn't need the additional strain of processing hundreds of thousands of additional arrests that will result from the illegal possession of non-psychoactive shampoos lotions, clothing and soaps. We don't need another front in our nation's failed war on drugs. Please oppose the DEA's hemp ban before it is allowed to take effect. Help us make HEMP and Cannabis legal -- time is of the essence.
Cannabis sativa is the oldest and most resourceful crop sown. In fact, sativa means 'useful' in Latin. Canvas is derived from "cannabis". Industrial hemp & Cannabis Sativa could supply most of mankind's fuel, fiber and food needs and will be the agent of transformation for our economy away from many toxic petrochemical products to nontoxic, agriculturally-based alternatives.
Cannabis sativa produces more fuel, fiber and food per land area cultivated than any other plant. Archaeologists agree that cannabis has been purposely cultivated for over 12,000 years and all archeaologists agree it is among the first few crops purposely cultivated by humans, and could well be the first. Cannabis flowers produce a medicine, sacrament and social drug that mimics newly discovered neurotransmiters, or brain chemicals.
For 3000 Years prior to 1842, marijuana and hashish extracts were the most widely-used medicines in the world.
Benjamin Franklin started one of America's first paper mills with cannabis, allowing a colonial press free from English control.
The U.S. Government distributed 400,000 pounds of cannabis seeds to American farmers in 1942 to aid the war effort
ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS TOBACCO …………………… 400,000 ALCOHOL …………………… 100,000 ALL LEGAL DRUGS ………….20,000 ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS ……….15,000 CAFFEINE …………………….2,000 ASPIRIN ………………………500 MARIJUANA …………………. 0 —————————————- Source: United States government… National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bureau of Mortality Statistics