Comment by James Pirtle on July 4, 2011 at 11:56am

It is a notable idea to legalize US hemp. Not for reasons many people believe it should be allowed, but for US Security and economy.

Each day a flood of marijuana crosses our borders, putting the lives of our Border Patrol in peril, and increases the violence along our borders. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of hemp is seized at every border-crossing each day. Supply and demand.

During prohibition, liquor streamed in from across our northern border and from Europe making millionaires out of those willing to break the law. Most notable is Joseph Kennedy and Alfonse Capone. The demand was within the US and the supply was outside our borders and from a foreign manufacturer. Taxes were not collected on sales and huge sums of tax dollars spent to support upholding a closed market law. Only those that imported (smuggled) liquor to meet the demand made money.

Today, who is it that is benefiting from the hemp industry? Mexican Cartels!
For every pound seized at the border, 10 pounds make it across. Every pound that makes it to our streets puts another untaxed dollar into the pockets of the cartels and out of our tax coffers. Even within the US, who is benefitting from the sales? Street dealers. Untaxed sales, untaxed income.

Through legalization, we remove the demand for foreign grown crops which in turn reduces the trafficking across our borders. Farmers have the availability of another cash crop and earn income, taxable income. Farms hire workers which increases the economy in our hard hit rural areas. Manufacturers have another product to make, adding workers to support the demand, increasing our manufacturing base, and again adding to the economy and our tax system. Sales of the end product is within our taxable structure increasing our revenues.

So where is the down side?

Addiction; this is the main argument against legalization. Addiction and it would create desire for harder drugs. With this in mind, did repealing Article 18 (prohibition) lead our citizens to harder and harder liquor? In some cases yes. Those that are predisposed to addiction can become addicted to anything, Coke-cola, Pepsi, chewing gum, biting fingernails. We are all addicted to something.

Does drinking beer (responsibly) lead to wine or whiskey? Putting hemp into a controlled, FDA approved environment is no worse than liquor sales.

Why lose taxable income from a product you cannot stop? Why allow those breaking the law to make huge profits from it being illegal?

Legalize hemp, tax the cultivation, manufacture and sales, thus removing the perceived need for Cartels to violate our borders.

Comment by Scolos Narbarson on July 25, 2011 at 7:15pm

I think Hemp offers a great potential for clothing, cordage and other products. A real shotin the arm for new manufacturing.

Comment by Daniel Moore on March 19, 2013 at 9:39am

It looks as though there have been no comments for almost two years but, here goes. There is (was) a house resolution calling for the repeal of hemp production prohibition. I believe it was introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), no surprise there. I have customers visiting my all American store asking for hemp products; belts, wallets, backpacks, etc. We will not sell any imported products in our store. Why the prohibition, I do not know. I can get hemp from Canada if I want. As far as cannabis and legalization, I'm all for it. Anyone should be free to grow what they feel is a benefit to them without any government control. All we do when we make a substance illegal is create a gangster sub-culture. And we pay for these gangster's lifestyle in tow. We waste too much money and time keeping things illegal in this country. I hope this post gets read.

Comment by Citizens Party on March 21, 2013 at 4:37pm

Thanks for the comment Daniel. A repeal of the hemp production prohibition would go a long way towards creating new U.S. manufacturing and agriculture jobs. We added a photo in the group listing just some of the many uses of hemp. 

Comment