Hemp Is Marijuana

Jeanette McDougal, Co-chair, Drug Watch/Minnesota

    It is shocking that former CIA director James Woolsey -- at one time the chief intelligence gatherer for the whole United States -- failed to properly gather information about his client, North American Industrial Hemp Council (NAIHC). Woolsey assures us that none of NAIHC's members wears tie-dyed shirts [Federal Page, April 30]. Perhaps he should check their boxers. Some of the group's members and directors are vigorous pro-drug advocates.
    Had he checked, lobbyist Woolsey would have discovered that founding member and immediate past-NAIHC vice president David Morris has been pushing legalization of marijuana, marijuana cigarettes for medicine and industrial cannabis hemp for years in his columns in the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.
    Another board member, Andrew Graves, is party to a lawsuit brought by the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative to force the federal government to legally permit the growing of industrial cannabis (marijuana) hemp. The two lead lawyers in the suit -- Michael Kennedy of New York and Burl McCoy of Kentucky -- are on the roster of NORML, the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, an aggressive pro-marijuana legalization advocate.
    Surfing the 'Net would have further edified lobbyist Woolsey. He could have observed for himself the hemp-marijuana drug connection; he could see for himself that NAIHC appears in alphabetical order right after NORML, the Lindesmith Center, Marijuana Policy Project and other pro-marijuana organizations on the International Hemp Association Web site.
    Had Woolsey done a proper background check on "industrial hemp," he would have found that the market does not support the need for another expensive, labor-intensive, hard-to-process, bast fiber, "industrial hemp." We are keenly aware, as should Woolsey be, that industrial cannabis hemp can be refined or "cut" for marijuana street dealing. That is exactly one of the reasons NORML and other pro-drug groups support Woolsey and the NAIHC effort.
    It is my hope that upon review of so-called "industrial hemp," Woolsey will honorably resign.

Jeanette McDougal, Co-chair, Drug Watch/Minnesota. Washington Post, Saturday, May 8, 1999; Page A17
 

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