V.P. debate faces hemp and marijuana issues (Video)

• BY: DEBORAH MORGAN

Source: examiner.com

Industrial hemp is not a narcotic. It has no drug-like attributes of any kind. It is a commercial crop, capable of producing fuel, textiles, building materials, paper, cosmetics, and much more.
And it is illegal, classified by the federal government as a narcotic in the same class with marijuana.
Cannabis is a genus of plant which consists of hemp and what is commonly referred to as marijuana, the medicinal and recreational drug which produces a "high" feeling as well as lowering blood pressure, relieving pain, killing cancer cells, reducing tremors and ocular pressure in glaucoma sufferers, and increasing appetites in withering patients.
Kentucky will play host on October 11, 2012, to the Vice-presidential debate between current V.P. Joe Biden and GOP candidate Paul Ryan. The state is also considering legalizing industrial hemp.
"Recent calls by high-ranking Kentucky officeholders to legalize industrial hemp have put the spotlight on the crop and what it might mean for Bluegrass State farmers. Both U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer say they want to see federal and state law changed to allow farmers to grow hemp legally.
WKU agriculture professor Todd Willian says legalizing hemp at the state level could create a clash with federal drug laws."
Comer says one of the main products that can be used by growing hemp is paper.
"The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper," he said to the Ledger Independent, a Kentucky newspaper.
"Comer has already talked with Caudill Seed Company, in Louisville, which said it would gladly buy the hemp seed to sell if farmers are allowed to grow the crop.
'It's a product that just about every nation grows, except the United States,' he said."
Job creation in Kentucky through a legal hemp industry is estimated at more than 25,000 jobs, badly needed in these painful economic times.
Vice-president Biden and Sen. Paul Ryan may be facing industrial hemp questions during their debate, mainly due to the federal laws against the valuable plant.
In addition, Massachusetts and Arkansas are both voting on medical marijuana programs this election cycle, as well as Washington, Oregon, and Colorado's ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana for adult use.
GOP running mate Ryan was recently quoted supporting medical marijuana reform when he told KRDO-TV, in Colorado Springs, that he "personally doesn't approve of medical marijuana laws. But he says that states should have the right to choose whether to legalize the drug for medical purposes."
Between the issues of marijuana legalization, patients' rights to medical marijuana, and industrial hemp, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan may have to bite the partisan bullet and frankly answer questions during their debate this week.
It will be interesting to hear how they respond to rational calls for marijuana law reform, not only for the host state of Kentucky, but for anxious states across the nation.