Dennis Kucinich Surprises Hemp Activists on Capitol Hil

By Nikki Schwab
Source: usnews.com

They spent the day lobbying staffers, hoping to get industrial hemp no longer treated like a drug.

Former Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich holds a copy 
of a farm bill amendment, made out of hemp.

There’s nothing like scheduling a lobbying day and then finding out Congress isn’t going to be in session. That’s what happened to hemp enthusiasts this week, when they descended on the U.S. Capitol Monday to find only the staffers in town, as most members were already home thinking about the upcoming elections. (They had originally thought senators would still be around, one activist told Whispers.)

But that’s OK. The group still talked to staff. And the brie with hemp seed was still served at Monday night’s reception in the Cannon House Office Building, where former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, made a surprise appearance.

“I know that you’ve been covering Capitol Hill with the important message about hemp,” Kucinich told the crowd. “And it’s your work that’s raising awareness on Capitol Hill, so I thank you.” His wife, Elizabeth Kucinich – a food activist in her own right – was there, too.

Industrial hemp saw its first big victory in February when President Barack Obama signed into law the farm bill, which included an amendment that allowed for hemp to be grown for academic or agricultural research purposes in states that permitted such a thing. Kucinich on Monday clutched a copy of the amendment – made from hemp, of course.

Hemp comes from the same cannabis plant species as marijuana, but plants grown for industrial hemp use typically have much lower levels of THC (the compound that gets people high). The plants' stalks and seeds are turned into a variety of things: clothing, food, jewelry – even automobiles and houses.

Still, because hemp is treated like “marihuana” (yes, that’s the spelling) under the Controlled Substances Act, farmers in the U.S. generally can’t grow it. The hemp eaten and worn in the U.S., instead, has to be imported from countries like Canada and China. 

A bizarre political coalition has come together to get hemp redefined via the hemp farming act. On the House side, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is leading the charge, along with Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo. In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., are on board (it’s good for Kentucky jobs, they say), along with a slew of liberals – Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Most recently, the retiring Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, signed on to be a co-sponsor.

“That was absolutely a surprise,” says Anndrea Hermann, president of the Hemp Industries Association. “This is what we’re going to start seeing – we’re going to start seeing people we did not know are our allies coming forward.”

But so far, even with powerful allies on both sides of the aisle, hemp will probably remain considered a drug. Needed are people to “clarify the misunderstandings,” Kucinich recommended. Hermann, who trekked the Hill’s halls all day Monday, was trying to do just that, but found that there was still a bit of a learning curve to conquer. She recounted her interaction with one staffer to Whispers.

“He said his boss would not be interested in this, because it’s marijuana,” she says. “They are really worried because there’s still a stigma around industrial hemp and marijuana.”