Marijuana fibrosis

June 20, 6:48 PMPortland Drug Policy ExaminerJohn English

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To borrow from James Carville's famous remark: “It’s the stalks, Stupid!” 

Though taking every opportunity to legitimize marijuana, growing hemp, is touted by legalizers as a highly profitable endeavor. Yet farmers have been burning marijuana stalks in Canada, since 1998! Burning hemp stalks, at this point, is the only realistic disposal method because the U.S. has no hemp fiber infrastructure (stalk/fiber processing factories), nor have they expressed plans to build one!

Leaving hemp stalks in the field is not feasible and in Oregon, field burning is not a viable option, because of health concerns and carbon-dioxide - greenhouse gas emissions. Marijuana legalization advocates (Vote Hemp and Hemp Industries Association), and the Oregon legislature need to be aware of potential unintended consequences growing “industrial hemp” which would be authorized by Oregon Senate Bill 676 - sponsored by Senators Prozanski and Nelson!

Does Oregon have plans for a hemp fiber processing plant? Canada has one lone plant (Hempline), located in Ontario, Canada. The cost for building an additional plant in Manitoba ranges from $14,000,000 to $24,000,000. Taking into account all variables, analysis by the industry has shown that for a plant to be profitable, processing hemp fiber it must be located to draw hemp from an area no more than 80 miles in any direction.

"One p

To quote extensively from mainstream Canadian agriculture publication, Ag-West Bio, Inc., “Farmers currently treat both hemp and flax residues [stalks/leaves] as waste products. Hemp crops grow to massive heights so handling crop residue is a major headache. Flax residue is so durable and tough that even small amounts can snarl farm machinery for years afterwards. Since flax straw and hemp residues have little economic value, farmers are left with little choice but to burn the residue before planting new crops the following year. This releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributes to Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.” [1]

When harvesting for seeds, up to 2 tons of stalks / acre left over; hemp oil, also marketed for soap and cosmetics – enough hemp oil to supply the United States’ markets is already produced by Canadian farmers on approximately 80 acres of hemp.

See other issues regarding hemp

Senate Bill 528, introduced this session, which if enacted would prohibit certain field burning in specified Oregon counties. Legislators should make clear to environmentally conscious Oregonians just what is to be done with the excess stalks of this questionable crop.

Much of the information for my above article is taken from / credited to: Jeanette McDougal, MM, CCDP, Chair, Hemp Committee, Drug Watch International, Director, N.A.H.A.S. (National Alliance for Health and Safety), P.O. Box 164, Osceola, Ar 72370.

[1] ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS - from a Canadian agriculture publication, Ag-West Bio, Inc., November 2005 http://www.agwest.sk.ca/publications/documents/BPNov05_000.rtf

For more info: http://www.examiner.com/x-11932-Portland-Drug-Policy-Examiner~y2009m6d12-Hemp-the-silver-bullet