Bring hemp back to Wisconsin

It's legal to buy and sell hemp goods. Why can't our farmers grow it?

By Jim Maas

Source: wausaudailyherald.com

Hemp is a variety of cannabis sativa that has been used by mankind to produce fibers and oils for thousands of years. Hemp was one of the first crops domestically cultivated, becoming a staple crop and the most traded commodity in the world, up until the middle of the last century, when the government banned it as part of its misguided war-on-drugs paranoia.

Today, according to the U.S. Congressional Resource Service, the United States is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop. Therefore, American companies that specialize in hempen goods are forced to import materials from farms in China and Canada, making them artificially more expensive.

The CRS reported last year, hemp is an “economically viable alternative crop. … (T)he U.S. market for hemp-based products has a highly dedicated and growing demand base, as indicated by recent U.S. market and import data for hemp products and ingredients, as well as market trends for some natural foods and body care products.”

We can buy hemp products, from rope and clothing to soap and lotions, as well as nutritional additives in everything from milk to cooking oil. Our farmers are not allowed to grow hemp.

The American Farm Bureau has endorsed ending the federal prohibition on industrial hemp. This year, Congress approved language in the farm bill to allow pilot studies on hemp cultivation to take place where states have authorized them. Perhaps they should study how it was done in Wisconsin, once a leader in cultivation of this sustainable crop. So what is the delay in implementing this reform for our farmers, implement dealers, businesses, and consumers in Wisconsin?

The good news is that Wisconsin legislators introduced Assembly Bill 638, a common-sense bill that would stimulate the economy and create jobs, at no cost to the state, while enabling Wisconsin farmers to grow a low-maintenance alternative crop again.

Well, who would want that? Not the supposedly pro-business, pro-free market, pro-small government Republicans in the Assembly, who unanimously voted against bringing up industrial hemp bill for a vote! What were they thinking? Which lobbyists have been able to distract their attention? Of course, there are many other states taking advantage of this golden opportunity.

Jim Maas of Rothschild is secretary of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin.