The Uncomfortable Truth

Once again, the California legislature is considering a bill to legalize the growing of hemp. Once again, the governor will need to decide if the people or private interests will gain.
For the uninitiated, hemp is the more productive cousin of marijuana. They both carry the scientific name, cannabis sativa, but genes are about all they have in common.
Marijuana is proven to treat a variety of ailments, and is capable of producing a non-violent, non-hangover-inducing high—unlike alcohol. Although, “paranoia may destroy ya.”
Hemp has hundreds—some claim thousands—of uses. It does double duty for the environment both as a commercial crop and in the production of its products. One modest example is when it is grown for clothing: It requires no pesticides to grow, and fewer chemicals to transform it into fabric.
This is one of the reasons it faces a veto from the governor.
Back when I was an undergraduate at Chico State, the farm planted an experimental cotton field. Being employed at the farm, I learned that one pound of a certain pesticide—I cannot recall the name—cost 1100 dollars! True, it did treat the entire 10-acre field, but how many pounds of that stuff are sold every year? The Agricultural Water Quality Alliance reports that in 2004, 780,000 acres of cotton were planted. How much do you want to bet that the pesticide companies don’t want to see hemp legalized?
Further, people were not allowed to enter the field for three weeks. How good is that for the planet?
Last year, I blasted the governor in this space because of his veto of similar legislation. As I recall, his veto message spoke of County Sheriffs who did not want clandestine marijuana growers camouflaging their product by hiding it in a hemp field.
This is proof that, either
A The governor thinks we are stupid. Or,
B Those sheriff’s are crooks. Or,
C The governor is a liar—and a crook, too. Or,
D All of the above.
What makes marijuana and hemp different is the amount of THC each contains. Again, for the uninitiated, THC—tetrahydracannibinol—is the ingredient in marijuana that gets people high, as well as curing their ailments.
A little horticulture lesson here:
Cannabis is a dioecious plant, requiring both a male and female for reproduction. It is wind-pollinated. Marijuana is the female flowering tops of the plant. Without a male plant in proximity, the female will secrete THC-containing resins to catch any pollen that might float by on the wind. The longer the female goes without pollination, the more THC she will secrete. It is not unheard of for a female plant to be fertilized by a male at a distance measured in miles. Marijuana cultivation absolutely requires the absence of pollination sources.
You know what happens when you plant marijuana in a hemp field? You get more hemp.
So why would sheriffs in this state oppose hemp? Wouldn’t it make their jobs easier?
Did some sheriffs really tell the governor that? If so, there is only one reason for them to oppose hemp: Someone is paying them money to look the other way when it comes to marijuana production.
Many private interests will gain if the governor again vetoes hemp. The people of California will gain if he signs the bill.
I wonder what he will do.