3 Cannibis bills to watch

[Floyd]

Three bills you should be mailing your senators and reps. about. Another good chance to take back some of our rights. The industrial Hemp act is especially important considering the environmental impacts of our other fiber crops. Hemp just makes sense and there's no reason it should be regulated any differently than our other crops.


Industrial Hemp Farming Act
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1009/show

Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h5842/show

Act to Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h5843/show

[dendro]

Floyd or anyone, I've wondered what the effects might be of all the pollen generated by industrial hemp farming, say in CA, on the drug cannabis production industry? Can the two industries co-exist?

Funny if the drug growers squashed the recent industrial grow bill in CA...

[Floyd]

Yeah thats a good point. I think indoor operations would be more or less unaffected. It definitely travels farther than something like corn pollen. I see figures of 1000 miles (?) Realistically though if you are out to breed seed you'll do it indoors, if your out to get a lot of seed your planting dense plantings and brushing pollen and what not. So I don't think genetics will suffer to much. They definitely have scale but good genetics will drift both ways. In some places it might be hard for them to keep their plants at a legal level. Not all hemp is bad. I collected wild hemp from asia that was fairly potent.

Keeping plants from producing seed after they come in contact with the pollen will be tough. The buds will still be the genetics of the planted seed, not of the pollen, but sinsemilla might get hard to make. In some places.

Honestly though I can deal with some bad pot if it makes hemp easier to cultivate. Its a good crop and in the long term it can solve a lot of our agricultural and ecological problems. Its not a solve all but it helps, in some cases tremendously.

Its been said that moving crops indoors was the best thing that ever happened to potency. Maybe moving them into even further sterile and isolated conditions will be another boom.

[Floyd]

Then again I can see some evil like monsanto genetically engineering industrial hemp to put out a shit load more pollen, especially light so it travels, with terminator genes that sterilize any seeds from that pollen, or no THC content genes. The government would go along with that no problem. We need to get GMO out for sure. Or more do it yourself biological engineering in.
Check out
http://diybio.org/
http://www.mefeedia.com/search/diybio

interesting eh?

[dendro]

"I collected wild hemp from asia that was fairly potent."

I just got back from India where we collected wild spring hemp leaf that was potent. The Ganges plain seemed to be covered with herb, anyplace not being otherwise cultivated might be carpeted with herb.

But it wasn't fiber hemp, or oilseed hemp, it was low-growing, delicate and branchy, and had a lot of thc. The thandai I drank was strong, and just contained leaves. So it's not likely to be escaped industrial hemp, like in Nebraska. It's prolly just the natural wild ganja that has been growing there for millennia.

Broadacre hemp ag might be good for the world, but it still might be bad news for outdoor growers like me. I live in a great herb-growing climate, and it would be sad, difficult and expensive to have to move indoors.

But I've had grow troubles even tho my nearest growing neighbor is several hundred meters away. He thot it was cool to flower his males on nearby lots, but I lost an important crop. I always flower males indoors, just to avoid inadvertently pollinating my females.

I'll read your links tomorrow...

[dendro]

diybio is way over my old cranium. It took me long enuff to learn how to grow the old fashioned way.

I love hempseed, and the world needs more of it, so I don't argue against progress. If hemp comes to Hawaii, I'll just have to enclose my GH I suppose, and install fans.  :mrgreen:

But my weed is already potent enuff for my needs, so I won't do any GM. Trying to make the plant make more actives is cool to a point, but then it gets silly. Might as well just learn chem synth.

But I'm interested to hear other opinions etc. about the thread topics.  :tea:

[Floyd]

Well diybio could potentially be much more. Say I were a rich drug lord. I would certainly be interested in putting the genes that create my favorite alkaloid into other plants. Why not transfer THC producing genes into different plants.

I don't particularly think its a good idea to play with genetics. But I also don't like the fact that big monsonto like corporations are. They're dictating whats going on. I think there should be a more level playing field. Thats were diybio becomes intersting.

are we off topic?

[Anonymous]

mmiano wants to make marijuana legal in state

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
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(02-24) 04:00 PDT Sacramento --

California would become the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use under a bill introduced Monday by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco.
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The proposal would regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis - all of which is barred by federal law.

Ammiano, a Democrat in his third month as a state lawmaker, said taxes and other fees associated with regulation could put more than a billion dollars a year into state coffers at a time when revenues continue to decline.

He said he thinks the federal government could soften its stance on marijuana under the Obama administration.

"We could in fact have the political will to do something, and certainly in the meantime this is a public policy call and I think it's worth the discussion," Ammiano said. "I think the outcome would be very healthy for California and California's economy."

A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on the proposal. A White House spokesman referred to a statement on a question-and-answer section of an Obama transition team blog that says the president "is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana."

While Californians have shown some tolerance for marijuana, such as use for medical conditions with voters' passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, the proposal will face tough opposition in Sacramento.

A lobbyist for key police associations in the state called it "a bad idea whose time has not come."

"The last thing our society needs is yet more legal intoxicants," said John Lovell, who represents the California Peace Officers' Association, California Police Chiefs Association and California Narcotic Officers' Association. "We've got enough social problems now when people aren't in charge of all five of their senses."

But Ammiano's proposal has the support of San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, who said the idea "should be the subject of legislative and public debate."

It also has the backing of Betty Yee, who chairs the state Board of Equalization, which collects taxes in California. An analysis by the agency concluded the state would collect $1.3 billion a year from tax revenues and a $50-an-ounce levy on retail sales if marijuana were legal.

The analysis also concluded that legalizing marijuana would drop its street value by 50 percent and increase consumption of the substance by 40 percent.

A spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates for reform in marijuana laws and is backing Ammiano's proposal, said any expected increase in consumption is a "false notion."

"They are making an intuitive assumption that a lot of people make that really does not have that much evidence behind it," said Bruce Mirken, the group's spokesman, who predicted it could take up to two years before the idea wins legislative approval.

"Don't tell me that doing something like (this) proposal is going to introduce another drug into society. That's a load of bull."

E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at mailto:wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com">wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.