I urge you to explore the Hempseed.com web site. It is remarkably well done. Also, take a look at their free email address program. Given its already large and rapidly growing base, this will become a major tool in the struggle to end the war on hemp -- and all that this means. You will be hearing much more about this soon. Many thanks. RCC)

Press Release
March 20, 1998

Hempseed.com Invites You to "Explore the Cannabis Controversies"

Visitors to the Hempseed.com web site will notice a new feature. On the Home page, Hemp News page, and Activism page they are invited to "Explore the Cannabis Controversies."

On the Hemp News page they will also find the caption:

"If you would like to read about other Hemp-related issues, such as Medical Marijuana, Recreational Marijuana or The Drug War, please visit Marijuananews.com. This site is edited by Richard Cowan, former head of National NORML. His site is updated twice a day with original content, and we highly recommend it!"

Hempseed.com is the information and communication network of the international industrial hemp community. As such it has always been scrupulous in its efforts to keep the hemp issue separate from the marijuana and even medical cannabis issues. It will continue to do so.

"We don’t promote or advocate marijuana on our site," says Hempseed.com VP Dave Unger. However, the link with Marijuananews.com is a way that Hempseed.com can give its visitors the opportunity to explore the context in which the hemp industry must operate.

Cowan adds, "I don’t promote or advocate marijuana use either. My interest is really in promoting freedom to use the cannabis plant in whatever way a person finds beneficial." The site’s motto is "Freedom has nothing to fear from the truth."

Marijuananews.com also has extensive coverage on industrial hemp, much of it provided by John Dvorak, the editor of Hemp Magazine. Ironically, the first news story that Cowan posted on his site last November was a press release from Hempseed.com about our free e-mail service.

In addition to reporting the news, Cowan makes often biting comments on the media’s coverage of the issues. His perspective on the issue is not what you might suspect. His first article on the subject - "Why Conservatives Should Support the Legalization of Marijuana" - was written in 1972 for William F. Buckley’s National Review.

He adds, "I make every effort to be accurate, but I make no pretense of ‘objectivity.’ I try to put the news in context so someone new to the subject can get a better grasp of something that really does not make a lot of sense."

Hempseed.com and Cowan will also be working together on other projects. Cowan will assist us in developing special on-line "events" for Hemp Talk. He will also use the Hempseed.com bulletin boards to help generate discussion. Cowan will be editing a weekly news summary exclusively for Hempseed.com, and we will work together to promote hemp and our web sites to the college market.

Cowan is a passionate promoter of the Internet.

He says, "The Internet is changing the economics of both information and advocacy. We must do more than end the suppression of hemp. We must learn the methods and develop the tools to keep anything like this from ever happening again.

I was attracted to Hempseed.com because - like my own web site - it is an experiment in using the Internet to harness the forces of the market in the defense of freedom. One of the ways of doing this will be by reporting on the development of cannabis-related businesses around the world. I hope that both entrepreneurs and potential risk capital investors will use us to develop a network to help speed the growth of the cannabis industries."