Clarification on Commercial Hemp

In rapid fire context of live Science Friday show in SL, I made a couple of factual transposition errors that require correction here.

Three NOBEL LAUREATES including Milton Friedman, George A. Akerlof, and Vernon L. Smith, in addition to over 500 prominent economists, endorse Professor Jeffrey A. Miron’s, The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition.

Summary of HR 5843: A Federal Act to Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults (would not affect federal laws prohibiting the sale of marijuana for profit, import and export of marijuana, or manufacturing (cultivating) marijuana.) CORRECTED.

California legislators actually PASSED Assembly Bill 684, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act, TWICE … for second year in a row, on April 30, 2007. Only to be vetoed by admitted Marijuana Smoker – albeit, in his youth – and now Governor Arnold. A recent survey reports that 71% of Californians support changing state law to allow hemp farming. And today, more than 30 industrialized nations grow industrial hemp and export to the United States, making it the only crop that is illegal to grow but legal for Americans to import.

Some longer standing Myths and Misperceptions about hemp, marijuana, cannabis.

Our governmental agencies are so paranoid over this issue, it makes one wonder what THEY are smoking. The sound data on hemp for ethanol production seems hopelessly obfuscated on the DOE site and I have just not had sufficient time and good fortune to find the HARD DATA that presents an authoritative, unbiased, and unvarnished comparison between hemp, sugar cane, switch grass, etc. for the production of cellulosic ethanol.

Why is hemp always omitted from these lists? If hemp is at the dead bottom of the list of ethanol yields, opponents of hemp would have a powerful tool in their cause. The fact that the data seems so elusive leads me to suspect that the opposite is possibly true, that hemp may well be in the top 3 to 5 crops for ethanol yield; however, I can not rely upon potential hyperbole from groups such as NORML or MPP (though they are often surprisingly rigorous, as they’ve learned that intellectual honesty is their only hope) on this one, because in order to be compelling, the sources I’m seeking must be authoritative and enjoy a reputation for unbiased analysis in the public’s eye.