Source: dailycamera.com
With the passage Amendment 64, it is clear to me that the people want a robust and profitable industrial hemp industry in Colorado.
I, (Randy Luallin) attended the Industrial Hemp Forum hosted by Representative Jared Polis in Ft. Collins. After hearing about some of the rules that farmers must follow to grow industrial hemp, the odds are significantly against it. Usually when an industry is encouraged by the community they are offered incentives in the form of tax breaks, free land, and other aids to get it off the ground. Not so with industrial hemp. Despite the rhetoric by the newly-formed Colorado Department of Agriculture Hemp Commission that they want to be "partners" in the research and development of this brand new industry, their regulations speak just the opposite.
The commission's guidelines force the individual farmer to bear all the costs for the research and development of industrial hemp. (The state agricultural schools are not allowed to do research and development).
Instead, the farmer first must pay a registration fee and then pay a fee for each acre cultivated. What other crop do you know has this requirement? The farmer must then have the seeds smuggled in through undercover and illegal operations. After bearing the cost to purchase, plant and grow the crop, the farmer must then pay for the inspection and diagnosis of the THC content. If the THC contend is over 0.3 percent the crop then becomes illegal and unmarketable.
If the THC content is over 1 percent, the federal authorities will be called in and the farmer stands the risk of arrest as a felon and the loss of his property.
On top of all these other risks, no one will sell crop insurance for this crop.
Against the Colorado backdrop of governmental antipathy, certified seed of THC balanced industrial hemp are available in Canada, the European Union, and Asia.
Why should Colorado reinvent the wheel? The commission and the feds should allow for importation of certified seed into Colorado.
Colorado should actively become a partner by minimizing the regulatory burdens. Colorado should promote this business by getting out of the way. A profitable industrial hemp industry would contribute to Colorado's tax base as well as providing jobs.
Consumers and users of industrial hemp attended the forum and are poised to purchase this crop in Colorado. The market is there.
As it stands none of this will happen under the current environment of hostile rules and regulations. Would you as a farmer venture take the risk of fines, forfeiture, and imprisonment.
We are asking the governor to recall the commission and re-evaluate what the commission is doing in light of what the citizens want when they passed Amendment 64.
Our government should create an environment where risk takers should have a chance to profitably fill market needs.
Let's make Colorado be a constructive partner with farmers who want to re-introduce industrial hemp in Colorado.
Randy Luallin and Ralph Shnelvar are Libertarian Party activists in Boulder County.
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