Kentucky

[Midnight toker]

Baby Eats Pot: Two Arrested

Aug 24, 2006 03:25 PM PDT
14 WFIE

A mother and grandmother have been charged after a baby in their care ingested marijuana.

Kentucky State Police say the mother, 24-year-old Samantha Drake and the grandmother, 47-year-old Peggy Krahwinkel, both of Utica, are charged with endangering the welfare of a minor.

Earlier this month, the one-year-old child was taken to Owensboro Mercy Medical Systems and transferred to Kosair Hospital in Louisville where doctors found marijuana in her system. The child was eventually released from the hospital.

[budman]

OPINION

Medical field against legalized marijuana

Sunday, September 3, 2006
The Central Kentucky News-Journal

Even with my busy schedule, I usually make the monthly meetings for the Campbellsville-Taylor County Anti-Drug Coalition held at Taylor Regional Hospital. It matters. Removing illegal drugs from the community will help us reach many goals. We want health, prosperity and hope for our community, not despair, hopelessness and poverty.

I laughed to myself when I read the recent letter from Colorado stating that marijuana could and would be used in a responsible way by responsible adults if made legal. I just don't believe that. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. I watched nickel and dime bags being passed around at concerts and festivals as the police just watched. I helped friends get home safely after they had indulged themselves in smoking the weed. And then I read that "responsible adults" would handle it properly.

I have also noticed that the medical field consistently stands against legalizing the general use of marijuana. The medical field presently uses a synthetic cannabis in some treatments. These treatments are developed and supervised by scientists, pharmacists and medical doctors who have the training, expertise and experience to use a synthetic cannabis in a way that aids their patients. The medical field is using narcotics (both natural and synthetic) in a similar way, to aid their patients. I doubt that most citizens (regardless of how responsible we might be) have the knowledge and skill to use marijuana in a way that does not diminish our mental capacity or even diminish our health.

These are just my personal observations; however, I would like to address one statement made by the citizen of Colorado when he stated that the Bible, even the first page of the Bible, supported the human consumption of marijuana because it bore seeds which caused reproduction. This conclusion is flawed because he makes a leap in logic that just cannot be justified.

The scripture is my area of expertise, with three earned graduate degrees in Bible and theology. The reader from Colorado has a simple argument: God gave all plants that bore seeds and reproduced to humans for consumption. I disagree. If every plant that reproduced itself was given by God for us to consume, then there is an automatic conclusion ... that would mean every plant. This would include coca from which we produce cocaine, peyote cactus and Psilocybe mushroom each from which we produce hallucinogens, none of which have a positive medical use.

If the reader from Colorado is correct in his interpretation of the Bible, then God also intends for us to ingest poison ivy, poison oak and any other poisonous plant. According to Google.com, there are 5.5 million listings for poisonous plants, plants listed as toxic to humans (I don't see a reason to include the multiple names of plants God created that would kill humans). I'm just not convinced God intended for these plants to be eaten, smoked or their resins to be injected. As a matter of fact, Genesis Chapter 2 actually says that those plants that are "good for food" are the only ones given by God to humanity to consume.

I think common sense would conclude that plants which produce health and life are given by God for human consumption. Plants which would alter the state of mind, cause other harm or even death were not given by God for human consumption. God is not in the business of harming the very people He loves. It seems like a no-brainer to me.

Dr. Ted Beam, Senior Pastor

Campbellsville First UMC

Campbellsville

What an idiot.

[budman]

OPINION

Pay attention to scripture

The Central Kentucky News-Journal
September 11, 2006


It seems to me Dr. Ted Beam, senior pastor, should pay a little more attention to the actual wording of scripture. The verses that are being referred to in his letter, "Medical Against legalized Marijuana, Sun. Sept. 3, 2006," are Gen: 1 verses 29-31. It states "GREEN, SEED bearing HERBS," depending on what version of the Bible you are reading.

I didn't know poison ivy and many other poisonous plants were seed bearing "herbs." I don't know of an herb that is greener or produces more seeds than the cannabis hemp plant (also known as marijuana). I am surprised that Beam condemns God-created mind-altering substances that he doesn't understand, and condones man created synthetics. Like it or not, God created pot.

In February of 1983, I returned home after four very good years in the United States Submarine Force to find my grandfather dying of cancer. Early one spring morning, I received a phone call from my grandmother asking me if I knew where she could find some marijuana. I was very shocked and surprised. Then she went on to explain why.

A doctor had told her that marijuana might help my grandfather's appetite. My grandmother would allow my grandfather one hand rolled Bull Durham cigarette a day. She started adding small amounts of marijuana to his cigarette. I will never forget the excitement in her voice the next time she called me, which was the very next day, stating that my grandfather had eaten five times since the day before and hadn't thrown up once.

It was less than three weeks and my grandfather was able to get out of bed, the same bed the doctors were saying he would never get out of again, and eat at the table. It wasn't very long until my grandfather was able to walk outside and enjoy his beautiful garden he had spent the better part of 40 years creating.

Marijuana was allowing the medicines that were able to save his life to stay in his stomach to do the job they were meant to do. I don't care what or how many pills you take, they cannot work if they keep being thrown up. Bottom line, munchies save lives!

There are synthetic marijuanas being created, but no one can make it better than God.

I have two questions for Dr. Ted Beam.

Is he going to go out and start smoking marijuana if it becomes legal? I'm sure his answer would be "no." My second question is, then why does Beam think everyone else will? Education and regulation is the answer, not prohibition and incarceration.

The Rev. Meril Draper




Brinnon, Wash.

[budman]

OPINION

Medicinal use of cannabis is real

The Central Kentucky News-Journal
September 11, 2006


We all agree drug abuse is a problem. Reformers say there is a better way to handle it. Our politicians play on our fears to make us more accepting of their waste of our precious lives and resources.

Drug abuse, including alcohol, is a medical problem and we'll do a better job of keeping kids drug free and inebriated folks off the road with compassionate policy offering helpful treatment

War creates a booming economy for some on the suffering of many. Drug warriors are so befuddled by the noble idea of preventing drug abuse, they ignore the lessons of history.

No legitimate business lasts long if it kills its customers or shoots the competition. No legitimate business would sell drugs to children or recruit minors to sell to their peers. This happened during alcohol prohibition and it is happening today. Once again, prohibition triggers more danger to the user and society by increasing violent crime and corruption of public officials.

It is down right sinister, a crime against humanity, for the medicinal use of cannabis to be suppressed!

Patients all over the world testify to cannabis' help in treating chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, gastrointestinal tract disorders and HIV/AIDS. Some scientists speculate that cannabinoids play a protective role in the brain, slowing the rate of disease. Studies have shown it to slow the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice - lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia and in another study THC destroyed incurable brain tumors in rats. Most recently, a study has shown it is far more effective than available Alzheimer drugs to halt the disease's progression.

Leaders responsible for current quagmire will one day answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity. It's time to end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable.

Bonnie Colleen McCool




Stephenville, Texas

[budman]

OPINION

Have compassion

The Central Kentucky News-Journal
September 11, 2006


This letter to the editor is in reference to the latest marijuana/cannabis debate letter from the Rev. Ted Beam.

Maybe if Mr. Beam had paid more attention in theology school he would be more clearly focused on this debate. Instead, he has blurred the lines of the conversation about cannabis legalization and research. No one was stating that mushrooms and cocaine are anything good for society, but Mr. Beam sure breached the topic really quickly. I'm sure this is happening all over the country where theologians and politicians blur the actual context of the debate in order to make a point.

Mr. Beam is avoiding the simple word "compassion" from theology and going straight to ethics and morality. There are members of all denominations - Methodist and even Southern Baptist, with cancer, aids, eating disorders and mental illness who could benefit from just the research alone of cannabis treatment, but theologians like Mr. Beam aren't even allowing medical doctors like Lester Grinspoon of Harvard to conduct research.

He may have family members who need this treatment, and his compassion isn't present in his faith - due to his moral convictions about "drug" use. These morals of his seem to reach out to other people who are sick and that is just tragic that people like him have lost the faith to have compassion. This doesn't seem like the compassion of Jesus - Jesus may be offering a new solution to our medical problems, and with your faith centered on tradition, you may not be able to allow God to work through this new avenue.

Let's say that cannabis is everything wrong that Mr. Beam points out ... we "still" don't even have scientific proof to even back him up because of the harsh limitations posed on researchers. This rhetoric seems reminiscent of a church that fought all scientific progress during the time of Gallileo.

Mr. Beam, please quit fantasizing and criminalizing people with opinions about cannabis research and medication - after all, if Christians had to endure the persecution of a medical cannabis user (jail, criminalization, losing everything even their own family) - first off, that would be the kind of Christianity the Bible talks about, and secondly, I guarantee that a Cost of Discipleship that high would bring modern Christianity to a halt.

Robert Joseph Blevins

Campbellsville

[palmspringsbum]

Preachers against marijuana not unusual

The Kentucky News-Journal
September 24, 2006

Pastor Ted Beam's letter (Medical Field Against Legalized Marijuana, Sept. 3, 2006) could more accurately be titled: Pastor Against Legalized Marijuana.

Biblically, clergy supporting cannabis prohibition isn't new and is referred to as the "Sin of the Priests" as subtitled in the New American Standard Bible (see Malachi 1:6-14).

While dishonorable priests claim "the table of the Lord is to be despised," "the table of the Lord is defiled" and "as for its fruit, its food is to be despised," Our Heavenly Father, says otherwise and does so starting on the first page of the Bible.

Further, in 1936, it was discovered, kaneh bosm is the pre-Semitic Hebrew origins of cannabis in the Old Testament and was mistranslated in five locations before the King James Version. In 1980, Hebrew University in Jerusalem confirmed kaneh bosm was used in the holy anointing oil described in Exodus 30:23.

Biblically, caging humans for using cannabis (kaneh bosm) is a sin and for clergy to support cannabis persecution, prohibition and extermination is very regrettable.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[palmspringsbum]

Posted on Mon, Jan. 15, 2007


Galbraith says he'll run for governor

BRUCE SCHREINER
Kentucky.com

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Lexington attorney Gatewood Galbraith, a fixture on Kentucky's ballot, said Monday he plans to enter the growing field of Democrats running for governor this year.

Meanwhile, former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry pushed back his planned gubernatorial announcement because of the death of longtime supporter and political mentor Bettie Weyler, a retired Jefferson County teacher. Henry, a Democrat, had planned to make his announcement Wednesday, but said it now probably won't come until next week.

Asked if he has selected a running mate, Henry replied, "I think it's safe to say I have," but wouldn't elaborate.

The 60-year-old Galbraith said he intends to file his candidacy papers next week in Frankfort. He said he has a running mate lined up but declined to identify who will fill out his slate.

Galbraith ran unsuccessfully for governor three times before - twice as a Democrat and once as a Reform Party candidate drawing 15 percent of the vote in 1999. His losing campaigns include two bids for Congress, once for agriculture commissioner and in 2003 as an independent candidate for attorney general.

Galbraith portrayed himself as the most conservative candidate in this year's race.

"I'm for limited government," he said. "That's what the constitution was set up to do."

Already seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination are state Treasurer Jonathan Miller, former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear and Otis Hensley of Harlan. House Speaker Jody Richards plans to announce in the coming days whether he'll run for governor. Attorney General Greg Stumbo also is considering entering the race.

Henry welcomed the large field of Democratic rivals, saying it would benefit him. Henry has been on the statewide ballot as a candidate for lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate. He also has ties to several areas - he grew up in Daviess County, graduated from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green and has been a surgeon in Louisville. His wife, former Miss America Heather French Henry, is from northern Kentucky.

"I think the higher number of people in the race, the more that favors my candidacy," he said.

Galbraith tried to link other candidates to the party's decline in Kentucky, where Republicans hold both U.S. Senate seats, four of six congressional seats, the governorship and the state Senate.

"The Democratic Party needs to be resurrected, but it cannot be in its past image," he said. "We offer the only ticket that has enough sense not to take part in what the Democratic Party became."

Galbraith said state officials have not put enough money into education.

He said he will propose giving every Kentucky high school graduate a $5,000 voucher to use for college, vocational school or other specialized worker training. He said rising university tuition rates are "casting off a lot of middle-income families from being able to" afford college.

Galbraith said underfunding for education has contributed to Kentucky's economic underperformance.

"Our economic development policy is not working and has not been working for a long time," he said.

Galbraith gained notoriety early in his political career for his support to legalize marijuana. He said Monday that he supports allowing marijuana use for some medical purposes for the "sick and dying."

"That's as far as I go," he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky's 5th District, appeared to rule out a run for governor in an interview on WYMT-TV's "Issues and Answers" program that aired Monday night.

Rogers, mentioned as a possible candidate for governor, said he thought he could do more good for the state, and especially his eastern Kentucky district, in Washington than in Frankfort.

Rogers said he did not plan to endorse anyone in the GOP primary for governor.

Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher is facing a primary-election challenge from Paducah businessman Billy Harper. Former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup of Louisville may announce a possible bid in the coming days.

[palmspringsbum]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 23, 2007

Galbraith announces his run for governor

By Jack Brammer
HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU

FRANKFORT — Gatewood Galbraith, a Lexington attorney who promotes the use of marijuana for medical purposes and who has run for various state offices without success since 1983, filed his Democratic candidacy for governor on Tuesday.

Tuesday also was Galbraith’s 60th birthday.

At a news conference in the Capitol rotunda, Galbraith introduced his running mate, Mark Wireman, 48, of Jackson.

Wireman is a retired Transportation Cabinet employee.

Galbraith said that as governor, he would create a program to provide $5,000 to each high school student who enters an institution of higher learning. He said the money would go directly to the institution, and that it would cost the state about $250 million.

He said that money could come from waste in state government.

Galbraith said leadership in both the Democratic and Republican parties has failed the state and that he could give the state “vision and hope.”

Other Democrats who have announced their candidacies for governor so far are former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, state Treasurer Jonathan Miller, former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear and Harlan demolition contractor Otis Hensley.

House Speaker Jody Richards is expected to announce his candidacy Wednesday.

[palmspringsbum]

Galbraith once supported legalizing marijuana but said yesterday he opposes that but doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for medical reasons.

<table class=posttable align=right width=120><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/galbraith-gatewood.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcell>Lexington attorney Gatewood Galbraith announced he was running for governor.</td></tr></table>Posted on Wed, Jan. 24, 2007



Gatewood Galbraith files for governor's race

<span class=postbold>STATE'S PERENNIAL PROBLEMS REQUIRE 'NEW BLOOD,' HE SAYS</span>

By Jack Brammer
HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU

FRANKFORT - Gatewood Galbraith, a Lexington lawyer who has run for various state offices without success since 1983, filed his Democratic candidacy for governor yesterday.

Galbraith, marking his 60th birthday, also introduced his running mate, Mark Wireman, 48, of Jackson, at a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda.

Wireman retired yesterday as a state transportation engineer branch manager. Galbraith said Wireman is an avid sportsman and accomplished gospel mandolin artist who would help him run "a highly intelligent and uplifting campaign."

Wireman said the campaign's priorities will be "education and clean government."

Galbraith received about 110,000 votes as an independent candidate for attorney general in 2003 on a campaign budget of $20,000. He ran for agriculture commissioner in 1983, governor in 1991, 1995 and 1999 and Congress in 2000 and 2002.

Asked about being a perennial candidate, Galbraith said Kentucky has "perennial" problems.

As governor, Galbraith said, he would create a program to provide $5,000 to each high school student who enters an institution of higher learning for tuition and fees. He said the money would go directly to the institution, and that it would cost the state $250 million.

"This is not for pizza, rent and beer," Galbraith said of his proposal, expressing concern that some high school graduates "can't make change for a $10 bill."

Dollars to pay for the voucher program would come from eliminating waste in state government, he said.

"If we quit spending money on the plasma TVs and opulent offices, we might have more money," he said to cheers from a small but vocal crowd in a reference to recent expenses to refurbish Senate Republican offices.

"Both parties are guilty of that. That's not a slam particularly against Republicans," the candidate said. "Both parties have been architects of decline in Kentucky."

On expansion of gambling in Kentucky, Galbraith said voters should decide the issue.

Galbraith once supported legalizing marijuana but said yesterday he opposes that but doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for medical reasons.

Leadership in both the Democratic and Republican parties has failed the state and he could offer the state "vision and hope," Galbraith said. "We need new blood."

Galbraith, author of The Last Free Man in America, said he will use the book to raise campaign funds and will not be contacting special interests for money. He asked each of the 15,000 people who have read his book to contribute $100 to his campaign.

He said he also will try to distribute another 10,000 to 30,000 copies of the book during the campaign. "If you're a Democrat, you get it for free. If you're a Republican, it costs you $10."

Other Democrats who have announced their campaigns for governor are former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, state Treasurer Jonathan Miller, former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear and Harlan demolition contractor Otis Hensley. House Speaker Jody Richards is to announce today.


<hr class=postrule>
Reach Jack Brammer at (859)231-1302 or jbrammer@herald-leader.com.

[palmspringsbum]

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Galbraith says he'll reverse education decline

<span class=postbigbold>$5,000 voucher part of platform </span>

<table class=posttable align=right width=300><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg width=300 src=bin/galbraith-gatewood_wireman-mark.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap>Gatewood Galbraith, right, and his running mate, Mark Wireman, announced that they would be candidates for governor. </td></tr></table>By Tom Loftus
tloftus@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal


FRANKFORT, Ky. — Lexington attorney Gatewood Galbraith announced yesterday that he will seek the Democratic nomination for governor in the May 22 primary.

Galbraith and his running mate, Mark Wireman, a retired state highway engineer from Paintsville, promised at a press conference in the Capitol they could reverse what they said was Kentucky's decline in education.

"We are unfunding education and dumbing our children down," Galbraith said.

If elected, he said, he would give every high school graduate a $5,000 voucher good for tuition, fees and books at any postsecondary education institution in the state.

He said the program could be funded without a tax increase by reworking priorities on state spending.

One area for recovering money for taxpayers, he said, would be to change the program that offers incentives to businesses to locate or expand in Kentucky.

Galbraith, 60, ran for governor as a Democrat in 1991 and 1995 and as a Reform Party candidate in 1999. He has also run for attorney general, agriculture commissioner and twice for the U.S. House. Each time he lost.

But he said voters should not consider his candidacy in a crowded Democratic field as a joke.

"The people who've run this state over the past 12 years" are the joke, he said to cheers from about 20 supporters.

Although he spoke in some of his early campaigns about relaxing laws against use of marijuana, Galbraith did not raise the issue at his press conference. In response to questions, he said he opposes the legalization of marijuana but supports letting doctors prescribe the drug for medical purposes.

He also said he supports the idea of a referendum on allowing expanded gambling in the state.

Galbraith said he will pay for his campaign by asking people who have read his autobiography -- "The Last Free Man in America" -- to contribute $100 each.

He estimated that 15,000 people have read the book, and he said he will distribute it as he campaigns.

"If you're a Democrat, you get it for free. If you're a Republican, it'll cost you $10," he said.

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.

[palmspringsbum]

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Visits Eastern Kentucky

WYMT TV News 57
February 8, 2007


A Democratic candidate for governor made several campaign stops around Eastern Kentucky Thursday.

Gatewood Galbraith of Lexington has run for governor four times and been a longtime advocate of medical marijuana use. His running mate is former transportation cabinet employee Mark Wireman of Breathitt County. Thursday, Galbraith issued a challenge to pharmaceutical companies.

"I'm gonna ask the attorney general's office to join with the governor's office to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies for them to furnish a billion dollars to allow this state to set up drug treatment programs for those people hooked and addicted on pharmaceutical medicine," Galbraith said.

Galbraith says he wants to rid Eastern Kentucky of the chronic problems of addiction and poverty.

[palmspringsbum]

Kentucky must consider decriminalizing marijuana

March 24, 2009 by Opinions
Column by Richard Becker
The Kentucky Kernel

Gatewood Galbraith, Kentucky author, activist and perennial political candidate, is a man for whom no cow is too sacred to be dragged out into the great sanitizer of the public eye. The most sacred of these are America’s draconian drug laws, which have earned the brunt of Galbraith’s abundant ire. Galbraith is celebrated and praised by some and maligned and criticized by others all for the same basic idea: his advocacy on behalf of saner marijuana laws in Kentucky and across the country.

Galbraith and I don’t agree on much in the way of our positions on the various political issues of the day, but we most assuredly do agree on one thing: The time has come for us to end our insane, draconian marijuana laws. With economic instability and pain sweeping across the land and with state budgets strapped for cash and looking into every nook and cranny for new sources of revenue, renewed attention is being paid to a notion that Galbraith has been discussing for upward of 30 years: the decriminalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana for medicinal use in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

That we have reached this point as a society in terms of our social development and economic stature and still have not made the common sense moves toward fiscal solvency by way of the regulation and taxation of marijuana use is, in a word, insane.

Galbraith’s latest project is working on a narrow facet of the issue, specifically advocacy of marijuana use for strictly medical purposes. The obvious problem this poses for the law enforcement officials whose job it is to enforce our drug laws is that police will now have the added requirement of legitimately determining the veracity of each individual user’s claim to need the drug for medical purposes. His new organization is called Kentuckians for Medical Marijuana (K4MM) and has as its charge, according to its Web site, “to organize and lobby for an Immediate Change in Kentucky’s marijuana laws to allow the use of marijuana for all the ailments for which it is therapeutic.”

Galbraith’s group is calling for “reasonable” marijuana laws in the state. Kentucky’s number one cash crop is in fact marijuana despite the state’s absurd and outdated laws on the matter.

According to the FBI, in 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, 11,883 people were arrested for drug-related crimes in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. When one takes into account that Kentucky has among the highest incarceration rates of any state of similar size, this makes for quite a little black mark on our image as a state. Which is perhaps why I had such a difficult time finding any relevant or even up-to-date statistics on drug crime in Kentucky. Drug crime, of course, is the great unspoken of elephant in the room in any discussion about the quality of life in a given state.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Galbraith, who told me he believes the political will “already exists” in Kentucky for a change in our marijuana laws. Yet he acknowledged the difficulties that advocates like him face in their fight.

Galbraith had particularly harsh words for Kentucky State Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, whose recent quashing of a bill, which would have loosened Kentucky’s marijuana laws, earned him Galbraith’s characterization as having “arrogance and ignorance [that] has cost Kentucky hundreds of millions of dollars.” While Galbraith maintains his characteristic optimism about the prospects of his life’s cause, it seems to me that Kentucky will remain in the legal dark ages on the issue until such political roadblocks as Williams’ Senate presidency have been wiped from the slate.

The national mood with regards to decriminalization is growing better and better by the day, with celebrities like comedian and public commentator Bill Maher loosely joining ranks with conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan in the public fight for saner drug laws. On the official level, the Obama administration, through Attorney General Eric Holder, has recently slackened the federal restrictions that have prevented states from having sovereignty over their own drug laws. Essentially, the federal government had, until Holder’s ruling, continued drug-related raids even in states that have loosened their own drug laws, thus circumventing the loosening of those state laws in the first place.

So, in the end, there is reason for hope. Galbraith, while taking a more conservative tack in his approach than I, believes, as I do, that “freedom is about self-determination, about being your own individual,” and that the best exemplification of this aphorism is a revolutionary, back-to-the-basics reform of our unreasonable drug laws. The very fiscal health of our state depends on us finally coming to the conclusion that as uncomfortable as people toking up may make us, their paying taxes for it is infinitely healthier for our society than their not doing so.

Richard Becker is a history senior. E-mail opinions@kykernel.com.

[palmspringsbum]

Posted on Sun, Oct. 11, 2009

'Timing is right' for hemp, state senator says

<span class="postbigbold">Bill would promote plant's use for fuel and fiber</span>

<table class="posttable" align="right" width="320"><tr><td class="postcell"><img class="postimg" src="bin/hemp-plant_kentucky-1908.jpg" width="320"></td></tr><tr><td class="postcell">A hemp processing plant from around 1908 still stands on land owned by Margaret McCauley's family in Versailles. She preserves artifacts from the era when hemp was legally raised in Kentucky.  </td></tr></table>The Lexington Herald-Leader | By Valarie Honeycutt Spears
vhoneycutt@herald-leader.com


Within the next three weeks, State Sen. Joey Pendleton plans to take a group of Kentucky farmers to study the industrial hemp trade in Canada where the crop has been grown legally for the past 10 years.

Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville, has introduced a bill for 2010, renewing a push to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky as a cash crop and as a source for alternative fuels.

"The timing is right," Pendleton said. "It would give farmers another crop to raise." Production of hemp is already legal for research purposes in Kentucky but is untried due to federal barriers.

Pendleton's bill comes at a time when federal legislation decriminalizing hemp for industrial use has been introduced in Congress and proponents are encouraged by stances taken by the Obama Administration.

In Versailles, where the remnants of an old hemp processing plant still stand on property that Margaret McCauley's family owns, McCauley said she hopes Pendleton is successful.

"I think industrial hemp would do a lot for the farming community," said McCauley, who has preserved artifacts from decades ago when hemp was grown legally in Kentucky.

McCauley said she hopes lawmakers won't confuse industrial hemp with its controversial cousin, marijuana.

Although industrial hemp comes from the same plant species as marijuana, industrial hemp does not have enough THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, to produce the "high" marijuana users feel, proponents say. Hemp and marijuana look alike. But hemp is grown for fiber found in the stalk while marijuana is grown for leaves and flower buds.

Industrial hemp is used in alternative automobile fuels and in such products as paper, cloths, cosmetics, and carpet.

Pendleton's bill would require that individuals wanting to grow or process industrial hemp be licensed by the state Department of Agriculture. The legislation would require criminal history checks of growers and would require sheriffs to monitor and randomly test industrial hemp fields.

The bill calls for an assessment fee of $5 per acre for every acre of industrial hemp grown, with a minimum fee of $150, to be divided equally between the state and the appropriate sheriff's department.

Phillip Garnett, a Christian County farmer, said he plans to go to Canada with Pendleton to investigate industrial hemp farming as a potential "new source of income and energy." Pendleton said he'd pay for his portion of the trip.

Garnett who raises tobacco, corn, wheat, and soybeans, said he wants to know more about the economics before he would consider raising industrial hemp. But he said "I'm always looking for alternative crops, and it sounds like it makes sense."

Because of current federal law, all hemp included in products sold in the United States must be imported.

Federal law includes industrial hemp in the definition of marijuana, and prohibits American farmers from growing hemp.

But the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, introduced in Congress in April by Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Ron Paul, R-Texas, would require the federal government to respect state laws allowing hemp production.

Pendleton says he sees new hope that federal barriers will be lessened, pointing to positions taken by the Obama administration.

In February, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the federal government was going to yield medical marijuana jurisdiction to states. As a state lawmaker in Illinois, Barack Obama voted for a resolution urging Congress to allow the production of industrial hemp.

In addition to production of hemp, research on hemp has been affected. A federal permit is required for industrial hemp research, Laura E. Sweeney, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice, said Friday.

The University of Kentucky would probably grow industrial hemp for research if allowed in the future, said Scott Smith, dean of the UK School of Agriculture.

When UK applied for a federal permit to grow a research plot of industrial hemp after Kentucky passed the 2001 law allowing analysis, the federal government denied permission, Smith said.

Kentucky is one of eight states that allows hemp research or production.

The federal government has given North Dakota State University permission to grow industrial hemp for research purposes under strict security measures, but money has been an issue.

In Kentucky, a similar bill filed in the 2009 General Assembly by Pendleton was not given a hearing.

But for 2010, state State Sen. David P. Givens, R-Greensburg, the chair of the Senate Agricultural Committee, said he is interested in seeing new economic studies.

The most prominent studies on the profitability of industrialized hemp in Kentucky are a decade old. They reached conflicting conclusions.

A study released in 1998 included work by researchers at UK's Center for Business and Economic Research. It showed that had hemp production been legalized at that time, Kentucky would have benefitted, with farmers making profits of between $220 and $605 an acre.

The returns would have fallen somewhere between tobacco and other crops that were already grown in Kentucky, the research showed.

However, a study released in 1997 by the UK College of Agriculture did not find much of a market for Kentucky hemp.

Smith, who served on an industrial hemp study commission convened by then Gov. Brereton Jones in the 1990s, remains skeptical of the potential profits from hemp.

Givens said he is also interested in hearing from law enforcement officials, who have expressed misgivings in the past.

Christian County Sheriff Livy Leavell Jr. said additional revenue for sheriff's departments "would be a plus" and that he hoped members of the Kentucky Sheriff's Association would take a close look at the legislation.
Reach Valarie Honeycutt Spears at (859) 231-3409 or 1-800-950-6397, ext. 3409