September
20, 1999 Dear
South Dakota Legislator: In
this week's message, NORML's Mt. Rushmore State
Chapter poses two questions. 1.
Under what constitutional authority have ANY laws
been passed to limit production, use or sale of ANY
pyschoactive substances ("drugs")? (Hint: There is
none.) 2.
Of what benefit to us have ANY laws been, which
restrict production, use or sale of ANY psychoactive
substances ("drugs")? (Hint: See last
hint.) The
"drug" laws have accomplished many things. Among them
are: higher drug use overall; steadily lower ages of
first experimentation; massive corruption in law
enforcement and government; violence in our streets;
higher murder rates; higher burglary and theft rates;
higher taxes; more people in prison; destabilization
of every government south of us in this hemisphere;
and more availability of drugs than ever.
(See
<http://www.nakedgov.com/accomplish.htm>) But
the drug laws have accomplished nothing of value.
If
you -- or anyone -- can provide an example of a single
beneficial accomplishment of the so-called "war on
drugs", Mt. Rushmore State Chapter of NORML will pay
$1000 to the recipient of your
choice. Until
next week, you might want to read Shattered Lives:
Portraits from America's Drug War (Creative
Xpressions; PO Box 1716; El Cerrito CA 94530;
510-215-8326) <www.hr95.org>. Very
best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML -
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September 27,
1999 - Dear South Dakota Legislator:
-
- What kind of monster have we been fighting for 30
years in the "war on drugs"? What dangers have been
worth the expenditure of 500 billion dollars, the
imprisonment of millions of people, and the ruination
by government of tens of millions of lives?
-
- Here is a breakdown of annual deaths in the United
States from several drugs. The numbers come from
various sources, and are by their nature hard to pin
down exactly, but agree in general with those of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Office of
National Drug Control Policy.
-
- Tobacco: about 390,000.
- Cocaine: about 2,200.
- Heroin: about 2,000.
- Aspirin: about 2,000.
- Caffeine from coffee: about 5000.
- Alcohol: about 150,000 (not
counting 50% of all highway deaths or 65% of all
murders).
- Unforeseen side effects from
prescription drugs administered by gov't-approved
doctors: about 125,000
-
-
- Hemp (marijuana) kills 0. Never in history has
there been a death due to ingestion of marijuana. The
only deaths due to hemp are those of people shot by
cops prosecuting the drug war.
-
- All illegal drugs combined kill about 4,500 people
per year, or less than one percent of the number
killed by alcohol and tobacco. Tobacco kills more
people each year than all of the people killed by all
illegal drugs in this century.
-
- See <http://www.drcnet.org/>
for the most complete treatment of drug policy on the
net.
-
- Very best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State Chapter--NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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October 4,
1999 - Dear South Dakota Legislator:
-
- THE LEXINGTON (KY) HERALD-LEADER: BUSINESS
SECTION: June 25, 1999;
... hemp animal bedding made from the pulp of the
stalk. ... imported from Canada, lasts longer
than straw or wood chips and composts faster. ...
three times more absorbent than cotton.
"... began selling hemp oil 2 years ago, and the
products now account for 10% of sales," Roddick said.
She imports 12 tons of hemp seed oil a year....
-
- THE INTELLIGENCER-JOURNAL: Lancaster,
Pennsylvania; April 7, 1999;
... sinking prices for corn, soybeans and tobacco, the
time is ripe to consider hemp, according to Farm
Bureau president Jane Balmer. ... a crop
grown here for over 200 years, providing textiles,
food, oil and paper. "At a return of over $700 an acre
...." ...in 1850, Lancaster Co. was growing 540
tons of hemp, the same amount imported into the US in
1996. "... you wonder: Why did we ever give this
up?"
-
- Bismarck, ND - Apr. 17, 1999; Gov. Schafer signed
HB 1428 legalizing industrial hemp.
-
- The Pacific Business News: Honolulu, Hawaii; July
12, 1999; Governor Cayetano this week approved House
Bill 22, legalizing cultivation of industrial
hemp.
-
- Sacramento: Sep. 10, 1999; California Assembly
House Res. 32, which calls on the state to consider
changing the legal status of industrial hemp to allow
for its cultivation, was approved today.
-
- June 4, 1999: Minnesota third state to pass
industrial hemp legislation
-
- July 10, 1999: Springfield, Illinois -- Illinois
passes legislation to study hemp production
-
- Prohibition works great
injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of
intemperance within itself. It goes beyond the bounds
of reason. It attempts to control man's appetite by
legislation and makes crimes of things which are not
crimes. Prohibition laws strike a blow at the very
principles upon which our government was
founded.
--Abraham Lincoln -
- Very best
regards; Bob
Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State Chapter--NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- October 11, 1999
- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
-
- I believe that every individual is naturally
entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the
fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes
with any other men's rights. --Abraham
Lincoln
- (All statistics from
South
Dakota Dept. of Corrections
website.)
-
- The South Dakota Department of Corrections budget
for Fiscal 1999 is $48,290,000.
- DOC statement of cost per year to imprison a
woman: $14,600; a man in Sioux Falls: $12,775; a man
in Springfield: $10,220. Costs for juveniles are not
listed, but probably at least equal those for
adults.
-
- Total adults now imprisoned: Men, 2309; Women,
204; Total 2513.
- Total juveniles now imprisoned: Male, 359; Female,
83; Total 442. (Breakdown for type of
violation not listed)
-
- Total incarceration costs for all imprisoned
people: about $35,460,000 (at an ave.
annual cost of $12000 per person).
- The balance of the DOC budget, about $13,000,000,
is probably for Pardons and Paroles
(P&P figures not
given).
-
- Adults imprisoned for controlled substance
violations: Men, 222; Women, 36; Total 258.
- For hemp (marijuana) violations: Men, 50; Women,
4; Total 54. For drug-free zone violations: Men,
8.
-
- Total annual cost of adult imprisonment for all
drug violations: About $3,840,000.
- Total annual cost of adult imprisonment for
hemp violations: about $672,000.
-
- Estimated cost for juvenile imprisonment for all
drug violations (if the percentage is
about the same for juveniles as for adults, i.e.
13%): about $689,520. For hemp violations:
about $106,080.
-
- Est. cost of Pardons and Paroles supervision of
all drug "criminals": $1,690,000. Of all hemp
"criminals": $33,800.
-
- Decriminalization of all "drugs" would
save SD taxpayers about $6,219,000 annually in
imprisonment costs alone, not to mention law
enforcement/welfare costs. Decriminalization of
hemp would save about $812,000 annually, not to
mention the money wasted on enforcing hemp laws, and
the resources wasted when the breadwinner of a family
goes to prison and the family goes on welfare.
-
- Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
--Montesquieu
-
- Very best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- October 18, 1999
-
- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
-
- Want to slash
illegal drug use by 77%?
Decriminalize
hemp (marijuana).
-
- According to the United States Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS), nearly 70 million
Americans have smoked marijuana. Of these, 18 million
have smoked within the past year, and approximately 10
million are current smokers (defined as having smoked
at least once in the last month). In fact, HHS found
that 57 percent of all current illicit drug
users report that marijuana is the only illegal
drug they have used; this figure rises to 77
percent if hashish (pressed hemp resin) is
included. --Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
Preliminary Estimates from 1995 National Household
Survey on Drug Abuse (Wash., DC: U.S. Dept of Health
and Human Services, 1996), pp. 56-60.
-
- 34% -- one third of the voting adults in the
country -- acknowledged having smoked
marijuana at some point in their lives.
--ACLU, Nat'l Survey
of Voters' Opinions on Use & Legalization of
Marijuana (April 5, 1995).
-
- Stop
punishing responsible hemp (marijuana)
users.
-
- I personally know over 200 business owners and
jobholders who use hemp illegally on a fairly regular
basis, and still do their jobs. This includes bankers,
lawyers, prosecutors, judges, doctors, nail drivers,
concrete finishers, cops, car dealers, store owners,
and legislators (note plural).
-
- It's time to reflect that reality in our state
and federal legislation, and stop acting as if
marijuana smokers are part of the crime problem. They
are not, and it is absurd to continue spending limited
law enforcement resources arresting them.
-
-
- "Marijuana, in its
natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to
man."
--Francis L. Young;
Administrative Law Judge: Drug Enforcement
Administration (1988) -
- Very best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
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- Go to Card #
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- October 25, 1999
- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
-
- Prohibition was introduced as a fraud; it has
been nursed as a fraud. It is wrapped in the livery of
Heaven, but it comes to serve the devil. It comes to
regulate by law our appetites and our daily lives. It
comes to tear down liberty and build up fanaticism,
hypocrisy, and intolerance. It comes to confiscate by
legislative decree the property of many of our fellow
citizens. It comes to send spies, detectives, and
informers into our homes; to have us arrested and
carried before courts and condemned to fines
and imprisonments. It comes to dissipate the sunlight
of happiness, peace, and prosperity in which we are
now living and to fill our land with alienations,
estrangements, and bitterness.
-
- It comes to bring us evil --only evil-- and
that continually. Let us rise in our might as one and
overwhelm it with such indignation that we shall never
hear of it again as long as grass grows and water
runs.
- (From an 1887 speech by Roger Q.
Mills of Texas; quoted more than once during the
alcohol prohibition debates in Congress. He proved to
be a prophet, as the years 1918-1933 taught us. We're
learning the truth of this prophecy again in the
so-called "war on drugs".)
-
- Four in 10 violent crimes involve alcohol,
according to the crime victim, as do four in 10 fatal
motor vehicle accidents. Four in 10 criminal offenders
report that they were using alcohol at the time of
their offense. Two-thirds of the violent crime victims
who were attacked by an intimate --a current or former
spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend-- report that
alcohol had been a factor.
(US Dept. of
Justice statistics) -
- There is no link between hemp (marijuana) and
violence, or any crime except its own
presence.
-
- Very best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
- =============================================================
- For text of previous postcards to legislators,
see
- <http://www.nakedgov.com/postcard1.htm>
-
- Go to Card #
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- November 1, 1999
- Dear South Dakota Legislator;
-
- In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an outbreak of
"witchcraft" occurred. Witches were purported to
exhibit their affliction by antisocial behavior --
including blasphemous speech, appearing to be in a
trance-like state, and indoctrination of children into
witchcraft.
-
- Witch-spotters were employed, able to discern a
witch using a profile including physical and social
traits and patterns. A witch had identifying marks,
discovery of which required shaving of body hair to
disclose the body to prosecutors. Witch-spotters often
operated as a private enterprise, travelling from town
to town offering their services for profit.
-
- Denying their guilt, accused witches were placed
under heavy stones for however long it took them to
confess, accuse others, or die. After confessing or
being convicted in trial, witches were hanged. Those
who questioned the existence and/or the definitions of
witchcraft, the profiling methods, or the penalties
were often also hanged as witches.
-
- In South Dakota, in 1999, an outbreak of "drug
abuse" has existed for more than thirty years,
according to government. Drug abusers are purported to
exhibit their affliction by antisocial behavior --
including blasphemous speech, appearing to be in
trance-like states, and indoctrination of children
into drug abuse.
-
- Drug-abuse spotters are employed, purportedly able
to discern drug abusers by a profile including
physical and social traits and patterns. Such
spotters, often criminals, are employed by law
enforcement agencies. Some travel from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction, offering their services for profit. Law
enforcement agencies frequently examine the bare
bodies of suspected drug abusers, looking for
identifying marks and probing their body
orifices.
-
- Denying their guilt, suspected drug abusers are
often placed under the weight of heavy lists of
accusations until they either confess, accuse others,
or are sent to government facilities to be further
tortured. After confessing or being convicted in
trial, they are either relieved of their personal
possessions, sent to government facilities for
torture, or both. Those who question the government's
definitions, profiles, discovery tactics, or penalties
are often accused of being drug abusers or
sympathizers thereof, and often suffer the same
fates.
-
- Very best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
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- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
November 8, 1999
-
- According to SD Unified Judicial System
statistics, from July 1, 1998 to June 30, 1999, there
were 5388 arrests for "drug" violations under SDCL
22-42. Of these, 3606 arrests were for marijuana
violations, and 1782 were for other drug violations.
One arrest every 100 minutes.
-
- These arrests resulted in 2751 convictions -- 1849
for marijuana, 902 for other drugs.
-
- What's going
on!
-
- Why are fully half of all drug arrests resulting
in no conviction for the charges? I submit that the
arresting officers had all the evidence (the offending
substance itself) needed in at least 95% of these
cases. Without that, almost certainly the drug charge
would not have been preferred.
-
- Illegal searches probably accounted for some cases
being dropped, but not a large percentage.
-
- In most cases, the accused first drew an officer's
attention because (s)he was doing something else
suspicious or illegal. The prosecutor then dropped the
drug charge in return for a guilty plea on, say, DWI
or petty theft or something. In more than a few cases,
the accused drug possessor simply gave the cops
someone else to arrest on a "more substantial" drug
charge, in return for absolution.
-
- One in every 134 South
Dakotans was arrested on a drug charge last
year. Assuming that almost all arrests had
some basis, then how many South Dakotans actually
possessed and used illicit drugs in that time period?
Does law enforcement catch and arrest one in ten
users? One in 20? Can it be
that one in 13 South Dakotans used illicit drugs last
year? Or one in seven?
- If 10% of the population is ignoring the law, what
does that say about the law? My personal observation
suggests that 10% is close to the actual figure. If
drugs create other crime, where is the havoc being
wrought by these 72,000 drug-crazed maniacs? Why are
half of those arrested not convicted? Are the drug
laws simply window dressing, leverage, or money
extractors? All bad. No good. Get rid of them.
-
- Very best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
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- Go to Card #
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- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
November 15, 1999
-
- The international illicit drug business generates
about $400 billion annually according to the World
Drug Report, commissioned by the United Nations
International Drug Control Program. That amounts to 8%
of all international trade, comparable to annual
turnover in textiles.
- About 140 million people -- nearly 2.5% of the
world's population -- smoke marijuana.
Associated Press,
"U.N. Estimates Drug Business Equal to 8 Percent of
World Trade," (1997, June 26) -
- Marijuana was first federally prohibited in 1937.
Today, nearly 70 million Americans admit to having
tried it. 10 million ADMIT to smoking it
regularly.
Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration, National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse (1997) -
- Commissioned by Pres. Nixon in 1972, the Nat'l
Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that
"Marihuana's potential for harm to individual users
and its impact on society doesn't justify a policy
designed to seek out and punish those who use it. This
judgment is based on prevalent use patterns, on
behavior exhibited by the vast majority of users and
on our interpretations of existing medical and
scientific data. This position also is consistent
with the estimate by law enforcement personnel that
the elimination of use is unattainable."
Shafer, R. P., et
al, "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding": Nat'l
Comm. on Marihuana & Drug Abuse,
(1972) -
- 84% of the increase in state and federal prison
admissions since 1980 is accounted for by nonviolent
(mostly drug) offenders.
Ambrosio, T. &
Schiraldi, V., Executive Summary--Feb. 1997,
Washington D.C.: The Justice Policy
Institute -
- The United States operates the biggest
[read "most expensive"] prison system on
Earth.
Currie, E., Crime
and Punishment in America, New York, NY:
(1998) -
- Very best regards; Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
November 22, 1999
-
- Lakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover
you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to
dismount. However, in organizations like governments
and bureaucracies, we often try other strategies.
These can include any or all of the following:
-
- Buying a stronger whip.
- Changing riders.
- Saying things like "this is the way we
always have ridden this horse".
- Appointing a committee to study the
horse.
- Visiting other sites to see how they
ride dead horses.
- Increasing the standards to ride dead
horses.
- Appointing a team to revive the dead
horse.
- Training sessions to increase our
riding ability.
- Comparing the state of dead horses in
today's environment.
- Passing a resolution declaring that
"this horse is not dead".
- Harnessing several dead horses
together for increased efficiency.
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- Blaming the horse's parents.
- Declaring that, "No horse is too dead
to beat."
- Providing additional funding to
increase the horse's performance.
- Doing a study to see if contractors
can ride it cheaper.
- Declaring the dead horse "better,
faster, and cheaper".
- Forming a quality circle to find uses
for dead horses.
- Revisiting the performance
requirements for horses.
- Saying this horse was procured with
cost as an independent variable.
- Promoting the dead horse to a
supervisory position.
- Criticizing all who dare to observe
that the horse is dead.
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- All of these tacks are being taken
in the so-called "war on drugs".
-
- Happy
Thanksgiving!
-
- Very best regards, Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
November 29, 1999
-
- The cannabis plant, from which is derived a
euphoriant known as marijuana, and from which is
derived over 60000 industrial products, also has been
demonstrated to provide medically-effective treatments
for a variety of afflictions.
- Among these are treatments for: glaucoma,
migraine headaches, facial neuralgia, hypertension,
depression, epilepsy, anxiety, convulsions, symptoms
of a wide variety of infectious diseases, and the
pain, nausea and loss of appetite caused by radiation-
and chemo-therapy for cancer. In addition, it has been
shown to be a mild general anasthetic and an
antibiotic (germ-killer).
-
- Much information about this marvelous herb can be
found at <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/>
on the Internet. This is a huge resource, with
documentation of all aspects of the harm caused by the
so-called "war on drugs".
-
- Pres. Nixon's 1972 Nat'l. Commission on Marihuana
and Drug Abuse documented most of these therapeutic
uses. Nixon's crew, though, discounted all
complimentary information about the cannabis plant, as
did Drug Czar McCaffrey's gang in 1999 to the
Institute of Medicine report, which McCaffrey had
commissioned.
-
- Current national policy prevents even research on
these possible and probable benefits from the most
versatile plant God ever created. Willful ignorance on
the part of politicians denies millions of people the
relief from pain and misery which could be obtained
from the cannabis plant. Willful stupidity on the part
of the news media continues to support this travesty.
South Dakota politicians continue to willfully ignore
these benefits as well, in their continued support of
the counter-productive federal policies.
-
- Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the
safest therapeutically active substances known to
man. --Francis L. Young,
Administrative Law Judge: Drug Enforcement
Administration (1988)
-
- Very best regards, Bob Newland;
Chair: Mt
Rushmore State
Chapter--NORML
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- Go to Card #
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- December 20, 1999
-
- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
-
- Hello again. We missed sending the last two weeks'
postcards due to funerals and flus.
-
- As we move through the Christmas and New Year's
seasons, we thought it would be nice to contemplate
some nice gifts you, as legislators, could give to
South Dakotans.
-
- Wouldn't it be wonderful if sick people who
need the well-established medical benefits of cannabis
could legally obtain these benefits in South Dakota,
as they can in some other states?
-
- Wouldn't it be great if South Dakota
farmers who would like to grow the most
versatile plant in the world -- for clothing, fuel,
and building materials -- could do so legally?
-
- Wouldn't it be pleasant if, by strokes of his pen
in signing medical and industrial hemp bills you pass,
Governor Janklow would say "NO!" to the current
violence, crime, and unfettered access of children to
marijuana now endorsed by state policies?
-
- Wouldn't it be nice for the taxpayers to be able
to stop funding the corruption of police
officers caused by the current drug laws, and to stop
feeding and lodging -- in prison -- harmless people
whose only crime is attempting to feel better?
-
- Wouldn't it be terrific to see new textile,
fuel, and building materials industries establish,
grow and thrive in South Dakota's new atmosphere
of enlightened awareness of the thousands and
thousands of benefits -- already well-documented --
which re-legalization of the hemp plant will bring to
our state?
-
- We in the Mount Rushmore State Chapter of NORML
wish all of you and your families a Merry Christmas
and the very best for the coming year.
-
- Very best regards, Bob Newland; Chair: Mt
Rushmore State Chapter --NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- December 27, 1999
-
- Dear South Dakota Legislator:
-
-
- This act was passed by the North Dakota
Legislature and signed by the governor during the 1999
session. Minnesota and Hawaii have passed similar
bills. Hawaii just planted a test plot.
-
- NORTH DAKOTA INDUSTRIAL HEMP BILL (56th
Legislative Assembly of North Dakota)
-
- HOUSE BILL NO. 1428 -- Introduced by:
Representatives Monson, R. Kelsch, Nichols; Senators
Heitkamp, D. Mathern, Thane
-
- A BILL for an Act to authorize the production of
industrial hemp.
-
- BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF NORTH
DAKOTA:
-
- Industrial hemp - Cannabis sativa - Oilseed.
Industrial hemp, cannabis sativa, having no more than
three-tenths of one percent tetrahydracannibol, is
recognized as an oilseed. Any person in this state may
plant, grow, harvest, possess, process, sell, and buy
industrial hemp, cannabis sativa having no more than
three-tenths of one percent tetrahydracannibol.
-
- North Dakota Legislative Website: http://ranch.state.nd.us/LR/text/JBFM0700.pdf
-
- Very best regards,
- Bob Newland; Chair:
- Mt
Rushmore State Chapter --NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- Dear South Dakota
Legislator: January 3,
1999
-
- Hemp can save troubled South Dakota
farms. Not all, but certainly some. It is simply
insane to continue to deny this option to South Dakota
farmers.
- We have everything we need -- water,
power, and great hemp-growing soil and climate -- to
become the first state to build a thriving
seed-to-useable-product hemp industry.
- Hemp lasts longer and is stronger than wood
or cotton. Hemp clothing is warmer in winter,
cooler in summer than cotton. Hemp seed and oil are
more nutritious even than soybeans, and easier to
grow.
- Hemp-product manufacturing is dramatically
cleaner than that for all products it could
replace, such as paper, cloth, building materials, and
fuel. Its cultivation requires dramatically less toxic
chemicals.
- Hemp cultivated and harvested for industrial
uses is not intoxicating. In fact,
cross-pollination from it would reduce the
intoxication potential of marijuana grown nearby.
- South Dakota could become the hemp capital of
America (the world, perhaps) supplying
manufacturers and retailers with raw materials and
products now imported -- to the tune of $100 Million
-- from Canada, Hungary, China and 27 other countries.
The desirability of hemp products will increase this
market in a steep curve for some time as hemp becomes
more available and its products less expensive due to
competition and lowered manufacturing costs. Some
estimate the worldwide market for hemp products at in
excess of $500 Billion.
- Hemp has over 60,000 practical, industrial,
and medical uses. Why don't we in South Dakota
capitalize on the need and demand for this amazing,
environmentally-friendly, and profitable plant? It is
stupid to import hemp products from other countries.
There are NO reasons not to grow it here, and many
reasons to do so.
-
- Very best regards,
- Bob Newland; Chair:
- Mt
Rushmore State Chapter --NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- Dear South Dakota
Legislator: January 10,
1999
-
- It's a simple, practical, profitable,
politically-perfect idea. Let 'em grow
hemp!
- Here's an idea for a law which will make things
better for everyone in South Dakota.
-
- Any person in South
Dakota, having registered with the Secretary of
Agriculture to do so, may plant, harvest, possess,
process, sell or buy industrial hemp, cannabis sativa
L., with a tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) content of 1% or
less. It shall be considered an unintentional
violation of this act if some plants exceed 1% THC but
do not exceed 3% THC.
-
- North Dakota has a similar law. Hawaii is growing
a test plot. Minnesota asked the DEA to reschedule
industrial-strength cannabis. Nebraska is considering
it now. Montana asked the feds to reschedule it.
Canada is growing it and selling it to importers here.
The Farm Bureau in 51 states and the National Farm
Bureau want their members to be able to grow hemp.
There are millions of proponents.
-
- There is no chance that this law will increase
marijuana use!
- You can't get high smoking pot with only 3% THC.
If you smoke enough of it you'll get a headache.
Industrial hemp cross-pollinates with and reduces the
potency of marijuana growing nearby. After learning
this last week, a pot-smoking acquaintance called me
and said, "Don't do this. They'll ruin the good shit."
Do you need to know more?
-
- Watch for news of our informational seminar next
week in Pierre!
-
- Very best regards,
- Bob Newland; Chair:
- Mt
Rushmore State Chapter --NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- Dear South Dakota
Legislator: January 13, 1999
-
- For Information on
Industrial Hemp,
- visit with Bob Newland in the Capitol
Rotunda on
- Tuesday, Jan. 18 from 3 to 5 pm
or Friday, Jan. 21 from 2 to 5
pm
-
- We intend to introduce the following
legislation in the House Agriculture
Committee:
- (We respectfully request House Leadership
to assign it to Agriculture.)
-
- Any person in South
Dakota, having registered with the Secretary of
Agriculture to do so, may plant, harvest, possess,
process, sell or buy industrial hemp, cannabis sativa
L., with a tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) content of 1% or
less. It shall be considered an unintentional
violation of this act if some plants exceed 1% THC but
do not exceed 3% THC.
-
- This is a simple,
practical, straightforward opportunity to give South
Dakota
- farmers another
CHOICE in marketing their skills, knowledge and
products.
- Be Informed. Come visit with someone who
knows.
-
- There is NO CHANCE that this bill will increase
marijuana use in South Dakota.
-
- Very best regards,
- Bob Newland; Chair:
- Mt
Rushmore State Chapter --NORML
-
- Go to Card #
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- See
press
releases sent
to over 300 news organizations,
- including about
100 South Dakota newspapers.
|
