Washington, DC: The United States is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop, according to Congressional Resource Service (CRS) report published last week. Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa that contains only minute (less than 1%) amounts of TetraHydroCannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Farmers worldwide grow hemp commercially for fiber, seed, and oil for use in a variety of industrial and consumer products, including food.

"In all, more than 30 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America grow hemp," the report states, adding that the European Union instituted a subsidy program in the 1990s for hemp fiber production:

"The United States is the only developed nation in which industrial hemp is not an established crop."

Federal law makes no distinctions between cannabis and industrial hemp, and makes it illegal to grow hemp without a license from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). According to the CRS, "The DEA has been unwilling to grant licenses for growing small plots of hemp for research purposes," even when such research is authorized by state law, because the agency believes that doing so would "send the wrong message to the American public concerning the government's position on drugs."

As an example, the report notes that the DEA "has still not ruled on an application submitted in 1999 by a North Dakota researcher" to grow a trial plot of hemp in compliance with state law. More than a dozen states have enacted laws authorizing the licensed cultivation of hemp for research purposes.

The Congressional Research Service report, entitled "Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity," is available online here at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32725.pdf

 HempFarm.com Comments: The Diesel engine was invented by Rudolph Diesel and it was meant by him to be run on  vegetable oil, not mineral oil.

Now, after a good hundred years, we (in the western world) are totally dependent on (mostly) foreign oil. And, we can see the consequences of this in pre-emptive wars for this invaluable resource and increased geo-political pressure to 'mine the black gold' as it is a monopoly by the virtue of the suppression of vegetable oil and hemp oil in particular.

Andrew Weil, MD calls hemp oil; "Natures Perfectly Balanced Oil." Aside from all of this, diesel engines run on vegetable or hemp oil do not pollute the environment with trace minerals that are in mineral oil as in mineral. Also it is much better for the engine and it in turn increases the life span of the diesel engine and it runs cleaner and smoother. A hemp seed crop can yield up to 300 Gallons per acre.

Hemp is also an excellent wood replacement as wood prices will continue to go up and forests are cut thin or clear. Additionally there is a shortage in raw materials and wood and paper making materials in general world-wide. It is yet unclear if a pillage of China and its resources would postpone our dire destiny; a hopelessly polluted planet in the grip of global warming set in motion by the suppression of hemp that started in the US in 1937.

Hemp was made illegal in 1937 through a conspiracy of prominent industrials and because of the perjury, lies and blasphemy of a man named Harry J. Anslinger.