*Menu
Search
Submit
McCook Gazette
Letter to the Editor

Legalize hemp

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Dear Editor,

As per my article of April 29, of this year, I am again soap-boxing for industrial hemp. There are thousands of uses for it, including everything from biofuels to building materials. Namely, a couple of uses are for making the best kind of rope there is and some car makers use it in some of their cars. A very important additional use is making making paper, as I said before.

There is a negligible amount of THC in industrial hemp. Our government, probably in error, ruled its production in the United States illegal, confusing it with marijuana.

It would seem that Nebraska is "missing the boat" in not being permitted to grow it. The income from it would be great for our farmers and it would save many dollars for our companies that use hemp in their productions. Newsprint has to be shipped at a very high price from Canada, which uses hemp in their production. The cost of transportation as well as the purchase price is no doubt being reflected in our subscription price for our newspapers as well as magazines and various other items used in our homes.

Do you value the privilege of having reading material in hand and being able to lay it aside for reference later on? Maybe you like to clip out an article. How about re-reading a letter? Can this be done on the Web? We need to do all we can to help keep our reading materials, especially.

I'm adding to this article a copy of an article from the September Rural Enterprise Assistance Program newsletter. Nebraska should follow suit.

"Oregon: With the signature of Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the state has legalized the production, trade and possession of industrial hemp. Bi-partisan support passed the bill quickly with a vote of 46-11 in the state House of Representatives and 27-2 in the Senate.

Oregon joins Maine, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Vermont, all passing pro-hemp laws or resolutions in 2009. A total of 16 states have passed similar pro-hemp legislation since industrial hemp production was outlawed over 50 years ago. Federal law permits only the import of industrial hemp, not its production."

Readers, please contact our state officials by phone, letter or email.

Listed below is for your information on contacts.

Sen. Mark Christensen

PO Box 1000

State Capitol

Lincoln, NE 68509.

Phone (402) 471-2244

email mchristensen@leg.ne.gov

Ask him to please introduce legislation for this to be voted on.

Gov. Dave Heineman

PO Box 94848

Lincoln, NE 68509

Phone (402) 471-6031

Web -mail http//www.governor.nebraska

Ask him to consider passing legislation when this comes across his desk.

A copy of this article is being mailed to Sen. Christensen and Gov. Heineman.

Sincerely,

Esther Wissbaum

McCook

Comments
View 3 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

  • Finally some sanity regarding industrial hemp.

    As us dumb ol' country boys know, hemp was a major resource during WWII, found in webbing, strapping, canvas and hundreds of GI-issued clothing, personal gear and transport equipment items.

    There has been virtually no commercial industrial fiber production since WWII, but across rural mid-America "country boys and girls" have harvested the plentiful ditch weed, dried it on shed roofs, processed the dried product, rolled and smoked.

    The result was about like 3.2 beer, providing false feelings of unrestrited freedom, with little actual effect.

    With modern tractors there isn't even the fun of watching horses wandering around corrals with rubber legs after nibbling on the crop all day.

    Let's hope the nonsensical restrictions on industrial hemp are lifted from the farm crop produced by Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Bobbie Lee, Zachary Taylor and virtually every sizable planter and landowner prior to 1950.

    -- Posted by HerndonHank on Thu, Sep 17, 2009, at 9:02 PM

  • We imported $2.2 billion worth of hemp products from China and Canada mainly. The uses are endless. Seems like insanity to keep this up. By the way marijuana has been proven safer than alcohol. Yet we drag down this country with our lame laws that feed on all our pockets, and support the blackmarket. Which was proven early this year with the Forbes list of the worlds richest, which had a drug cartel in the top ten. As for bible thumpers... what can you say? Insults and hatered are the norm. Really nice bunch! NOT!!

    -- Posted by Grandma111 on Wed, Sep 30, 2009, at 4:04 PM

  • How odd that someone with the screen name Grnadma111 could sound so bitter. Not really a ringing endorsement for legalizing hemp, I have to say.

    -- Posted by bjo on Thu, Oct 1, 2009, at 2:32 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: