Misclassification of Hemp Holds Back Industrial Applications

Ron Paul’s New Bill Says It’s Time to Reconsider Regulation of Nondrug Subspecies of Cannabis

SOURCE: Purdue University

As environmental consciousness has become more popular in the United States in recent decades, one may wonder why hemp, a sustainable, organically grown plant with a multitude of uses, seems to fall beneath the public radar. Hemp has a great deal of potential in a wide range of major industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, food, and even clean energy.

Hemp can be farmed at a higher yield-per-acre than most major crops, can be cultivated in a variety of regions and climates, and requires little-to-no pesticides or herbicides. The plant’s fibers are a sustainable source of durable textiles and paper, making it a green alternative to cotton, which requires more pesticides than any other major crop, as well as the 4 billion trees cut down for paper production each year. As a complete protein with a favorable balance of omega-3 and 6 fatty acids, hemp seed can be used to produce organic and nutritious food products, such as hemp milk and hemp oil, as well as biodegradable plastics and fuels.

This sustainable superplant has much to offer, but there is a very good reason why few of these and other relevant industries have switched over to hemp: Growing it in the United States is against the law.

An issue of legality

Growing hemp wasn’t always illegal. In fact, the United States once had a viable hemp industry and the plant itself had a special role in our nation’s history. George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp on their farms, and the original Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. By the early 20th century, hemp was widely used in paper production and textile manufacturing, and Henry Ford even used hemp fiber to construct a car.

Despite hemp’s uses and successes, it has one small problem. The plant, formally referred to as Cannabis sativa (subspecies sativa) is a cultivar of the same plant species as marijuana, Cannabis sativa (subspecies indica). But unlike marijuana plants, which contain up to 20 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, hemp plants contain only 0.3 percent—an amount that is far too small to elicit a high or yield a positive drug test.

Unfortunately, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and subsequent drug enforcement laws classify all Cannabis sativa as schedule 1 controlled substances, and do not recognize that hemp and marijuana are two separate plants. As a result, hemp has been blacklisted along with its psychoactive cousin for more than 70 years and its contributions to American industries have all but been forgotten.

Hope for hemp

Since the early 1990s, a number of state legislators have introduced bills to their state legislatures that call for distinguishing hemp from marijuana and legalizing its growth and production. To date, 17 states have passed these types of bills, while numerous other states are still in the process of voting on them.  Even when states do succeed in passing hemp-farming bills, farmers cannot grow hemp without permits from the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA. Applications for these permits cost more than $2,000 and the DEA has only granted them in very few cases.

But this summer has witnessed a fresh attempt at legalization at the national level. In May 2011, Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1831, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011 to the U.S. House of Representatives. Similar bills were introduced to the House in 2005 and 2009, but had few co-sponsors and never made it to the House floor. With H.R. 1831’s 26 co-sponsors and bipartisan support, hemp advocates are more optimistic about legalization than ever before.

This change of pace can be attributed to a redoubled lobbying effort by VoteHemp, a nonprofit industrial hemp legalization advocacy group and sister group of the Hemp Industries Association, or HIA, a nonprofit organization that represents the interests of the hemp industry. VoteHemp worked closely with legislators in the introduction of H.R. 1831, and is currently working with Senate leaders to introduce an identical bill to the Senate.

New hemp policy efforts

Although the case for the legalization of hemp has made unprecedented progress in recent years, it hasn’t been easy. At present, the Senate bill cannot be introduced because it needs a Republican co-sponsor, which is why Ben Droz, a legislative assistant at VoteHemp has been spending a great deal of time on the Hill visiting potential backers for the bill.

“There has been a lot of interest, and many congressmen said they would support the bill once it was introduced” said Droz. “But very few feel safe introducing it.”

Certainly, common misperceptions of hemp’s relationship to marijuana would likely make congressmen hesitant to spearhead a congressional hemp legalization effort. And even more stigma comes from the fact that hemp has been more successful in organic food and clothing niches than in the mainstream market. Hemp is just too “hippie” for Congress, which, according to Droz, makes it difficult for congressmen to truly understand the industrial applications of hemp.

Another obstacle is general awareness and public engagement. The hemp lobby is a small operation, with too few resources and staff to regularly initiate large-scale grassroots efforts.  As a result, even if legislators are aware of hemp, many of them don’t prioritize the issue because few of their constituents contact them about it. Even so, the hemp lobby has tried to counteract this problem by focusing much of their efforts on education, whether it be teaching congressional staff about the issue or organizing the annual Hemp History Week event.

The hemp market: small and mighty

The United States is the largest importer of hemp products from the 30 countries that produce them, but it has been difficult to make an economic case for legalization due to a lack of accurate data on the size of the U.S. hemp market (a 2010 CRS report on industrial hemp estimated it to be $300 million dollars). Furthermore, the acreage of hemp planted in these countries tends to be small. The same CRS report recorded that the European Union planted 30,000 acres in 2008, and Canada planted 48,000 acres in 2006 and 13,800 in 2009. China is the largest exporter of hemp, but little is known about the acreage it produces.

Most countries’ hemp industries are small, but they have grown significantly during the short 15 to 20 year period they have been in existence. U.S. markets for hemp products—particularly hemp foods—have also increased over the last two decades, matching similar increases in the popularity of healthy and organic products in general.

“One major thing that has been very beneficial in growing the market is the introduction of hemp food products,” said Droz, noting that the recent introduction of these products has increased the visibility and relevance of hemp products for consumers.

The upswing in sustainable industries overall also means that companies have been creating production infrastructures for plants with industrial and commercial applications, such as flax and corn, that could one day be retrofitted for hemp. One such company, Naturally Advanced Technologies, started working on a new enzyme bath process for producing textiles out of hemp fibers. However, the new textile, called Crailar, is currently being produced with flax due to a lack of access to hemp plants in the United States. Meanwhile, the company has signed contracts with Hanes, Levis, and other manufacturers, and if industrial hemp is legalized, Naturally Advanced will likely reincorporate it into their production process.

Two entangled movements

Before hemp can be legalized, the general public, the federal government, and the DEA need recognize hemp as a separate plant from marijuana. That’s why VoteHemp tries to discourage the perpetuation of the idea that hemp and marijuana are the same plant by encouraging other groups to treat the legalization of hemp as a completely separate issue from the legalization, or medicinal use, of marijuana.

“We would rather have [drug reform groups] not call about hemp than have them conflate the issue with marijuana,” said Droz.  “Some people have not liked that because it’s shut out a lot of our members who are also advocates for medicinal marijuana use.”

This outlook certainly has distanced VoteHemp from some of the more vocal subsets of the national hemp movement. Jack Herer, a folk leader of the hemp legalization movement, helped promote the hemp cause but has not effectively distanced himself and his followers from marijuana. In his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Herer propagated a theory that marijuana was used as a tool to outlaw hemp in the 1930s. He has also been known to call for the legalization of marijuana in addition to hemp—a tactic that may obscure the legitimate industrial applications of hemp by portraying the movement as a group of unruly potheads.

Meanwhile, one of the DEA’s main concerns is that legalized hemp production could facilitate the concealed growth of marijuana, citing the possibility that farmers may hide marijuana plants among their hemp plants. However, the two plants are not easy to grow side by side—marijuana plants are small and bushy and require a lot of space, while industrial hemp plants are tall and plotted close together.

Cross-pollination between hemp and marijuana plants has also been a major concern, but industrial hemp supporters do not believe this possibility will pose problems for hemp farmers. Hemp plants that are cross-pollinated with marijuana plants produce a new generation of hemp plants with only a slightly higher concentration of THC. Marijuana plants that are cross-pollinated with hemp plants produce a new generation of marijuana plants with significantly lower THC levels—a scenario most marijuana growers would try to avoid. Even so, an easy way to alleviate concerns of cross-pollination is to test hemp products for THC before production and distribution—something many hemp companies already do.

Though the hemp movement has never been stronger, and legalization has never been closer, it still has a long way to go. But despite the challenges facing the movement and legalization, the issue of hemp comes down to common sense: Banning a nondrug agricultural commodity with market potential in agriculture, textiles, biofuels, food products, construction materials, and more, seems to simply be bad policy. Preventing these industries from taking advantage of a sustainable, organic, multiuse plant seems to be contrary to a growing nationwide effort to replace environmentally unfriendly technologies with clean, green alternatives. The potential of industrial hemp in the United States is enormous, but we will never be able to truly reap the benefits until it is legalized.

Michelle Spektor recently completed her internship at Science Progress and will complete her Bachelor’s degree at Cornell University this year.

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