State Sen. Lynne Pancrazi, a Democrat from Yuma, recently introduced a bill asking for the creation of an industrial hemp study committee to examine the economic opportunities associated with the industry.
The one-page bill, SB 1225, lists the people who should be part of this study committee, including two members of the state Senate appointed by the Senate president, two members of the state House appointed by the speaker, the director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture, and the dean of the UA’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It also includes representatives of a statewide farm association.
This committee would have to look into the benefits of establishing a hemp industry here, and then present their results on or before Sept. 1, 2016.
One of the gubernatorial hopefuls last year, Americans Elect candidate John Lewis Mealer, used the hemp industry as one of the platforms to improve the state’s economy should he had been elected.
During his campaign, he reinforced his support for the “trillion-dollar industry.” Mealer actually owns an automobile company, where he hopes to incorporate car panels made from industrial hemp one day.
Also, industrial hemp research is mentioned in the Agriculture Act of 2014, or the Farm Bill. A section of the law authorizes university institutions or state departments, where hemp is legal, to grow hemp for research purposes. Hemp hasn’t been grown in the U.S. since 1957, according to the advocacy group Vote Hemp.
Arizona lawmakers pushed for a bill last year that would have given hemp farming the green light in the state, but that didn’t survive. It was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February 2014.
This one will likely not survive either in our very conservative state Legislature. Although, it should not be blown off, since the hemp industry could bring great revenue.
Countries like Australia and Canada grow hemp, and in a few states, among them Hawaii and Oregon, it is legal to farm industrial hemp. It’s used to make paper products, medicine, body care products and even fuel.
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2015.
Hemp was grown in Colorado last year. In 2002,the azlege passed a bill authorizing a state university to conduct studies on growing hemp. Jane Hull vetoed the bill. Darden Hamilton was the sponsor.
The last I heard about Industrial Hemp was that you could smoke a whole tree and have a bad case of snoke inhalation, but not get ‘high’. I’m told that LOTS of things can be made of it, that it grows quickly, and is a very low maintenance crop. This was another case of GOVERNMENT OVER-REACH. They said ‘MJ’ was harmful. They even gave us a stupid movie… “REEFER MADNESS” But they weren’t happy just curbing MJ… They stated that ANYTHING in the botanical family with it was ALSO to be destroyed, ‘in the public interest’. Idiots.
Industrial Hemp has NO psychoactive effect it grows quick and has for hundreds of century’s. It’s use was rope and fabrics. Because if its long strong fibers that are harder stronger than Cotton. At the turn of the 20st century America was the largest producer of industrial hemp in the world with huge exports. Then came artificial fibers came to market that didn’t mold absorb or rot. Today Hemp fibers can be treated and woven embossed layers in fabric sheets to make composite molded material like a plastic. This is just one of the uses the of Cannabis. This plant has been used since the day of Gangues Kahn Most likely the robes worn by Jesus were made of hemp .
So since the beginning of economic trade Hemp has been at the forefront.. Seems strange we are at here again like time stands still. So many have eek’d out a living working with the plant. The same is true today.
Growers processors distributors sales, on one market side another
Growers processors/packagers smugglers, thief’s,
Police, courts attorneys, jails prisons, parole probation (all of these have long term personnel costs)
So the result is a society that is already making monies off the production of Cannabis. all of the money makers in the market today are all being mandated and supported by Government. What happens if and when this hemorrhage of monetary depravation slavery is stopped. The huge tidal wave through the arteries of monetary distribution. If done all at once it would catastrophic so it has to be implemented over time an industry to complement the legalization of cannabis.
With medical the profiteers are out and Government using these as a revenue grabber.
Legislators must recognize that the No. 1 obstacle keeping medical-marijuana patients out of the state-licensed shops is price. A reworked I-502 must lower those costs for patients. The way to do that would be to follow Colorado’s low 3 percent tax on sales to qualified patients. Making that patient registration process easy, not burdensome, is equally essential to keep patients out of the black market.
The four fallacies of Cannabis
An Article about the Colorado I-502
• Medical-marijuana patients don’t really exist:
Even this fallacy is fading away because so many people know legitimate medical-marijuana patients. People understand that believing patients to be frauds is to believe that hundreds of doctors, including those practicing at Providence, Group Health and other major health providers, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, are writing bogus medical-marijuana authorizations.
• Licensed stores will make home growing and medical-marijuana outlets obsolete:
This falsehood suggests that chronically ill people, who usually suffer financial difficulties as a result of their illness, will be well-served by licensed stores. Even with a tax break, I-502 threatens to force patients to spend hundreds of dollars a month for marijuana on top of their existing health-care expenses. $50.00 an ounce =$300.00 a month for medical patient.
• Price and availability of state-approved marijuana will become affordable and abundant:
The problem is that I-502 was written not on the idea that cannabis is agriculture, but on a myth that it can be a golden cash crop the state can tax and regulate without consequence. Eliminate normal tax deductions, add an estimated 45 percent tax, add unprecedented layers of regulations, remove reliable access to banking and you begin to understand the financial pressures on state-licensed businesses growing marijuana for retail outlets.
• Medical and recreational markets are essentially the same:
They could not be more different. While there are different product needs, recreational buyers have the choice to purchase or not, while patients must purchase it to avoid daily suffering. In most cases, patients’ choices are between cannabis or narcotics or anti-seizure medications.
Today, accessing higher priced, state-licensed stores is out of the question for most patients.
If left uncorrected, I-502 will force patients back on to more harmful drugs or parking-lot drug deals. This is a return to prohibition for the poor and contrary to the basic postulates of public health.
The reality is that medical and recreational marijuana cannot be reconciled without rewriting I-502. Making this work means basing policy on expert opinion and focusing on patients instead of putting tax dollars first. Wiping out medical marijuana would cause immense collateral damage in the lives of people, but it would not by itself rescue I-502.
John Kingsbury is a medical-marijuana advocate, patient and is now reluctant activist.