Potimus Prime

City council members of Pullman, Washington shall gather Tuesday, 08/22/2011, to discuss the topic of medical marijuana and the possibility of regulating newly approved “community gardens” that have been sprouting up all across the Evergreen State. In a recent (July 22) law change, patients in groups of up to 10 are allowed to join together and cultivate “community gardens” for the benefit of supplying themselves with medical marijuana.

Each garden would be limited to a maximum of 45 marijuana plants. The law also authorizes cities and counties to adopt zoning regulations, business licensing requirements, taxes and health and safety regulations related to these dispensaries.

Source: Standard Examiner

One week ago yesterday the Washington D.C. Department of Health issued a series of strict guidelines and strictures that govern the application process and even acts as an initial screening process.

Potential applicants must consider a detailed security plan and outline the entire cultivation, harvesting and storage processes; then they must submit these along with a $5,000 application fee, $2,500 of which is non-refundable. Applications received are run through a vigorous and meticulous screening process.

Last month, the health department rejected 31 letters of intent to apply for one of 10 cultivation licenses or five dispensary licenses because of errors as simple as forgetting to put down an email address. [...] Applicants also must heed the finer points of the process, such as making 10 printed copies and one electronic PDF of all application materials. [...] No one can “amend, add to, correct, revise, or supplement” an application after it is submitted, so the health department advises applicants to take heed of revised rules in the regulations posted Friday.

You can view more information about the Washington D.C. Medical Marijuana Program at the Health Regulation and Licensing Administration website.

Recovered last year at a garage sale outside the city of Buffalo, New York, the “lost hemp diaries” detail the work of Lyster Hoxie Dewey, who served as an assistant botanist of the United States Department of Agriculture from 1890 to 1902, and afterwards as botanist in charge of fibre investigations. In these marijuanalogues (for real) Lyster Dewey recorded his painstaking efforts cultivating varieties of hemp on a parcel of land belonging to the US Government, this parcel of land was then known as Arlington Farms, the chosen site for what is now the United States Pentagon, the largest office building in the world.

As early as 1914, Dewey writes of inspecting hemp at Arlington Farms. For nearly a quarter-century, he carefully notes his quotidian progress as a grower and hemp advocate: “Thursday, October 19, 1922. Fair, cool. Go to Arlington Farm on the 9 a.m. bus and work all day,” he wrote. “Harvesting Kymington, Yarrow, Tochigi, Tochimington, Keijo and Chinamington hemp.”

What was just another day at a garage sale will go down as another page in history of the United State’s twisted and sometimes ambiguous affair with hemp. David Sitarski was looking for local historical artifacts and stumbled upon several dusty diaries and yellowed photo albums and paid $130 for the items, planning on using them for a website he was creating. Eventually, after researching more about the artifacts, he deduced that the old man in the photographs was a crucial hemp pioneer, and jobless and hurting for cash, Sitarski auctioned off the items, asking $10,000. Michael Krawitz, funded by David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, was able to purchase the historic objects for $4,000 and has put them on display in a public museum. (Fun fact: Bronner was arrested in October 2010 for planting hemp seeds on a lawn at DEA headquarters.)

Download Hemp by Lyster H. Dewey (USDA Yearbook of Agriculture 1914)

News Source: Washington Post

Public support for the legalization of industrial hemp farming is accelerating rapidly and garnering media attention as a federal bill (H.R. 1831) to remove the restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp was introduced by Representative Ron Paul yesterday, which marks the fourth attempt to overturn ruling since the United States government outlawed hemp farming over half a century ago.

“We are pleased to see the re-introduction of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act in Congress. Vote Hemp is currently working with a Democratic Senator who is preparing to introduce companion legislation in the Senate in support of industrial hemp farming,” says Vote Hemp President, Eric Steenstra. “It is due time for the Senate as well as President Obama and the Attorney General to prioritize the crop’s benefits to farmers and to take action like Rep. Paul and the cosponsors of H.R. 1831 have done. With the U.S. hemp industry valued at over $400 million in annual retail sales and growing, a change in federal policy to allow hemp farming would mean instant job creation, among many other economic and environmental benefits,” adds Steenstra.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have passed pro-cannabis legislation to date, and of those, six states (Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia) have authorized hemp farmers to legally grow their plants. However, despite state acceptance, the farmers in these states still risk raids by federal agents, prison time, and forfeiture of land if they are caught cultivating the plant.

Source: PR News Wire