Lawmaker Brings Cannabis Products Onto U.S. Senate Floor

BY TOM ANGELL 
Source: marijuana.com


Sen. Ron Wyden (D) Oregon

A senior federal lawmaker was spotted in possession of cannabis products on the floor of the U.S. Senate last week, and not a single one of his colleagues objected. But don’t get too excited: They weren’t the kind of goods you can get high on.

Sen. Ron Wyden was trying to bring attention to the senselessness of the federal ban on industrial cannabis cultivation during a speech on Thursday and, to illustrate his point, brought out a basket of hemp products made in his home state.

“In the basket I brought, I have food, soap, clothes, and even deck sealant, all made in Oregon, bought and sold in American stores and used by Americans,” Wyden said. “Industrial hemp supports a $620 million industry in America, and our companies have found innovative ways of incorporating it into everyday products.”

Although the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of hemp products, “we are the only major industrialized nation to ban hemp farming,” Wyden said.

“This means 100 percent of the hemp used in these products is imported from other nations. The Federal ban on hemp amounts, in my view, to a restriction on free enterprise, and it doesn’t accomplish anything but stifles job creation and economic growth.”

Wyden’s speech was timed to coincide with Hemp History Week, and he concisely delivered a master class in the cannabis plant’s many uses over centuries.

“American farmers were growing this product as early as the 1600s, before our Nation was even founded,” he said. “The Declaration of Independence, colleagues, was written on paper made from hemp. In the 1800s and early 1900s, it was used to make rope, heating oil, and textiles. During World War II we used it as part of the Hemp for Victory Program to support our soldiers.

“But everything got changed when hemp got wrapped up with marijuana in Federal regulations, and it has been banned ever since.”

Wyden, a Democrat, is the lead sponsor of a bill to exclude industrial hemp containing less than 0.3 percent THC content from the federal definition of marijuana. The bipartisan legislation currently has eight cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

“Our bill is all about stopping the unfair punishment of entrepreneurs and farmers who want to be part of a growing ag industry here in America,” Wyden said. “Companies in our Nation that are importing hemp to use in food, cosmetics, soap, clothing, and auto parts, they ought to be buying that hemp from American farmers and contributing to our agricultural sector.”

Check out the video of Wyden talking up the benefits of hemp — and possessing some products made from the plant — here.