Galbraith claims no allegiance to party; calls for legalization of industrial hemp

Maybe it is time for a Hemp Party? Industrial hemp does appeal to people on the left and the right, on the top and on the bottom. It is an issue that 99% of Americans can agree on and no other issue in Washington DC seems to expose so clearly the corruption and government-for-sale status quo that dominates politics in the USA.

Posted: Wednesday, June 8, 2011 12:00 pm

By HAWKINS TEAGUE • Staff Writer

Source: murrayledger.com

KYSER LOUGH / Ledger & Times

Gatewood Galbraith

Gatewood Galbraith smiles as he sits down for an interview in the Murray Ledger & Times conference room Tuesday. While Galbraith has run for governor several times in the Democratic Primary, he is running as an independent for the first time this year.

Although Gatewood Galbraith has often been called a perennial gubernatorial candidate in the past, he says he has a good shot at winning this year as an independent.

The Lexington (Kentucky) attorney has run for governor in the Democratic primary three times – 1991, 1995 and 2007 – and once in 1999 on the Reform Party ticket, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. This is the first time he has run as an independent. He said dissatisfaction with state government is higher than it has ever been and he that thought he could pull votes this November from both Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, and David Williams, the Republican nominee who is currently president of the Kentucky Senate. Galbraith’s running mate is Dea Riley.

“I’m an independent candidate for governor,” Galbraith said during a stop at the Murray Ledger & Times office Tuesday. “My running mate and I have no party affiliation whatsoever. We don’t want one. The problem with Kentucky and the reason we’re dysfunctional as a state government in Kentucky is because both parties have their horns locked up like two bull elk fighting over territory while the business of the people lays dead in the dust.

“People have said, ‘Galbraith, you’re a perennial candidate.’ And I say, ‘Well, Kentucky’s got perennial problems.’ If the people who had beaten me the first time had solved the problems, I wouldn’t have had to run again. But they didn’t, and they can’t because neither party can produce a candidate that can disengage from the partisanship long enough to work with the other side long enough to get the job done.”

Galbraith said he wants to freeze tuition of all public universities and to offer all high school graduates a $5,000 voucher for tuition, books and fees at any college or job-training institution in the state. He said the voucher would be offered to all graduates regardless of grades, and that he would keep the KEES program that rewards high grades. While state appropriations to public universities have shrunk in recent years, Galbraith said the vouchers would help them because it would increase enrollment.

Galbraith discussed several other issues, including his belief that hemp should be a legal cash crop in Kentucky, especially for the purpose of making bio-fuels. He said it is superior to corn as a bio-fuel because flat land, pesticides, herbicide and fertilizer is not needed. He said hemp is the most efficient bio-mass on the planet and that 20 barrels of petroleum can be produced from one acre. He also said he did not think marijuana should be fully legalized, but should be taxed and regulated and allowed as prescribed medicine.