Carl Sagan once wrote, "Credulous acceptance of baloney can be dangerous." This certainly applies to the proposed legalization of industrial cannabis hemp.

In his April 9 Commentary article Daniel Kraker paints a glowing economic picture of hemp’s success among Canadian farmers. A far less rosy picture is painted by the March issue of the Farm Journal.

The Journal first reminds us that with any new crop, there are people who "promise the moon." It recalled the case of the Jerusalem artichoke, American Energy Farming System’s debacle of the early ‘80s. The company, located in Marshall, Minn., sold $25 million worth of seed to 2,500 growers from 31 states. They never got around to making a single kilowatt of energy and went bankrupt after less than two years. Some Minnesota farmers lost their farms.

In the same Journal article, both a Canadian processor, Hempola Inc., and a Manitoba farmer expressed concern about the difficulty of finding a market—for less than a projected 2000 acres—for next year. Hempola Inc.’s Kelly Smith says, "(We) continue to emphasize caution with (our) growers. We told them right up front not to expect to make a lot of money since it’s such an experimental crop." Farmer Rene Saquet adds, "Right now we’re getting more request for seed than we’ll probably be able to meet next year, but if we get too many people growing it, the price could drop so low that no one will grow it, and there goes the consistent supply you need to build the market."

Kraker claimed remarkable success of hemp in Canada. Yet Ontario Ministry of Agriculture market analyst, Bill Baxter, warns Ontarians, "If you don’t have a contract, don’t grow anything because you aren’t going to be able to sell it; and secondly, if you do have a contract, check out the ability of the contract owner to follow through. From a dollar prospective, right now, I’m saying that if you can sell the stuff you’re talking break-even, and if you can’t sell the stuff, then you’re talking losing $600 per acre."

(Marijuananews note: The farmers seem to think that they will do better than break-even, but breaking-even sounds pretty good some years, particularly for a new crop.)
See
Canadian Farmers Get High Yields From Hemp Harvest;
24-Fold Increase In Acreage In Western Canada Over Last Year!
DEAland Farmers Find DEA Unyielding In Hate Harvest
and
Wisconsin Legislator Wants To Legalize Hemp; Fears Support Of Marijuana Reform Advocates;
Attorney General Is Opposed; Narks Claim Local Weed Is 25% THC!

Kraker’s article asserted that more and more companies are attracted to the special properties of hemp. Vantreese reports, however, that, "Various sources have reported 20-25,000 different uses for industrial hemp fiber, oil, and seeds. Not to be deprecating, figures such as these can be easily exaggerated, or matched by other products (for example, corn)."
See
A Look At Hemp’s Uses and Competition From A Pre-Prohibition Perspective

Kraker claimed "policymakers in virtually every other country have learned that hemp is not marijuana and that hemp cultivation does not lead to increased marijuana cultivation." The European Union subsidizes industrial cannabis hemp in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain (up to $300 per acre). Yet Kraker must have missed a June 1998 Reuters news report that EU farm ministers agreed to cut subsidies to hemp growers in a bid to curb a massive increase in production fueled by illegal cannabis cultivation and growing purely for aid.
(Marijuananews note: That has become the party line, without any evidence, of course.)

Both fiber and drug hemp are Cannabis sativa L., and contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the drug that gets people high. In fact, the marijuana smoked at Woodstock contained "industrial hemp" levels of THC (1.0 percent or less).

(Marijuananews note: When someone says that, you can be sure that they are either lying or they don’t know what they are talking about, or both. There is no data on THC levels from the 1960’s, much less from Woodstock.)
See
Marijuana Prohibition And Potency, Price, And Safety -- 
"Is Marijuana Stronger Than It Was Back In the '60s, When Everyone Thought It Was Harmless?"
Analysis By Richard Cowan

Sagan further warned that, "when governments and societies lose the capacity for critical thinking, the results can be catastrophic." We should remain skeptical of legalizing industrial Cannabis hemp.
(Marijuananews note: The punch line: The late, great Carl Sagan was an opponent of marijuana prohibition, and his widow, writer Ann Druyan serves on the NORML Board of Directors. However, he was certainly right about the importance of critical thinking.)

• Jeanette McDougal, St. Paul. Drug-abuse prevention teacher and cochair, DrugWatch Minnesota.

Copyright 1999 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.