criminalization
Love is A Complicated Matter
Last week marijuana.net ran a story about President Obama and his roller coaster relationship with cannabis in an article titled “Can Hemp Repair Fractured Relationship Between Obama and Marijuana?”. In it we detailed a classic American love story that is currently fractured and in pieces. The president’s re-election campaign was selling scarves made of hemp, so we started to wonder if this was the first step to the president and marijuana getting on speaking terms again.
Similar to most all romantic problems, the issue can get very complex. Normally marijuana.net does not get into the “she said/he said” but we cannot resist here. Last week the move appeared to be an attempt to mend the fences but we have found out a new twist. Critics were upset with President Obama because the hemp used for the scarves has to be imported from China. Americans are still not allowed to grow industrial hemp despite all of its known uses and quality. The president has the ability to push to legalize hemp, instead, he choose to keep it in the dark. This move hurts desperate American farmers who could benefit tremendously from a newly legal hemp market.
The president and other elected officials often say “what kind of message does this send to our children” when describing hemp, medical marijuana, or cannabis legalization. However we must ask what kind of message does it send to our children that a benign wonder fiber that could jump start the economy has been criminalized? Even further what kind of message do we send when we say it is ok for China to produce and export hemp to us, but it is not appropriate for the United States to create their own hemp. What kind of message does it send to ignore our rich hemp history, (which includes an order by none other than General George Washington to grow hemp fiber for the Revolutionary War) especially in Kentucky. It always seems that the American government looks to other nations when they need their dirty work done.
The White House had to or should have been well aware of the critical reaction to this story. How could they think they would get away with acknowledging hemp’s usefulness and diverting the profits toward a re-election campaign but keeping it illegal on U.S. soil? The only theory we have is that the president was trying to antagonize his former love marijuana. Instead of granting her legal status he decided to take her cousin out on a date. Being a gentleman is not a prerequisite for the United States presidency, but the leader of the free world should know better.