Were We Stand In Pennsylvania On Cannabis And Hemp Reform And Where The Battle Is Right Now One thing I need to urgently emphasize to people is that the real battle in Pennsylvania is not some time in the distant future, it is NOW. You may have held your opinion on the need for reform for many years but in doubt and discouragement and the belief that change was impossible in Pennsylvania you kept it to yourself, thinking that perhaps some time in the distant future when the issue is taken up seriously you would get involved. Well, that time is now. Get ready to jump into the fight. In my mind there are three aspects to cannabis and hemp reform in the state. To me, they are equally important. Industrial hemp, medical cannabis and full legalization. I favor all encompassing legislation that would re-legalize all of them. If I am to make a serious and credible contribution to the movement for reform then I must asses the situation from time to time and decide where to fully place my efforts and attention. I must see clearly where the battle is and then join in the fight. If you know who I am and have been following this page for awhile then you know that I often lead, sometimes I follow and often join in with the efforts of others. I am trying to learn at the same time that I am teaching others. I spend hours every day in strategic thinking and developing the vision for how we can win in Pennsylvania. (I want change on a federal level and believe that change in Pennsylvania will force federal change faster than any other state.) Let me discuss the three aspects of reform and tell you where the real battle is right now and how we can effectively organize and bring about victory. Industrial Hemp. I am the Pennsylvania hemp historian and author of Hempstone Heritage, a book about the history of the hemp industry in Pennsylvania. In 1997 I immersed myself in a 5 year study of the old historic hemp industry in Pennsylvania. What I found was astonishing! Nobody had ever written about our unique and extensive hemp industry. The knowledge had been completely erased in the collective conscience. I documented a story that practically turns our previous historical knowledge on its head. Nobody ever knew, and I had the privilege and honor to document it! I documented that between the years of 1720-1870 there were over 100 water-powered mills in Lancaster County alone with dozens more hemp mills in all of the surrounding counties and hundreds al across the state! Who could have known? Hemp was grown by virtually every single farmer in Pennsylvania from 1681 until the 1830s and it was common right up into the 1930s. There is so much to the story that I can not do it justice in a few paragraphs. Suffice it to say that the story blew my mind and I made it my lifes mission to tell the story of the Pennsylvania hemp industry to the world. Starting in around 1998 I started giving speeches to places like the New Holland Rotary Club, New Holland Kiwanis Club, Cocalico Historical Society, Strasburg Historical Society, Millersville College, Elizabethtown College, etc. etc. I started to talk to farmers and farm organizations. I joined in with the efforts of local hemp entrepreneur Shawn Patrick House of Hempzels. We through a hemp festival in Lancaster County in 1998 and thats when we started getting a lot of press. In 1999 and again in 2000 the Lancaster Farm Bureau passed resolution in favor of hemp. In November of 2000 they took it to the Pennsylvania State Farm Bureau and they passed a resolution in favor of hemp. Since then the Pennsylvania State Grange and the Pennsylvania Farmers Union also passed pro-hemp resolution. Thats about a short of a summation as possible. We did a LOT of work on the hemp issue. Despite all of our efforts though, the hemp issue barely registers a blip on the political radar screen as of now. There still has not been even one bill for industrial hemp even though bills for medical cannabis and full legalization HAVE been introduced. There is a strong possibility that we can pick up on the momentum that we had in 1998,1999, 2000 and 2001 and really build this hemp movement into a real force. We can win and efforts need to pick up again. However, all work on hemp is in preparation for a future battle, when there is an actual bill introduced, it has been assigned a committee and it is up for consideration. I will alert you when that time is. My favorite aspect of reform is full legalization, of course. If you have full legalization then that takes care of everything, medical, industrial, spiritual and social. I devoted myself completely to industrial hemp from 1997 until around 2011 or so. Thats when I decided that I would also fight for full legalization. On August 2, 2012, the 75 year anniversary of federal marihuana prohibition, I dove full time into my current activist work. I knew then that voters in two, possibly three states would legalize cannabis and I was right. I knew also that this would have a tremendous impact in what we were doing here in Pennsylvania and I was right. For years we talked about legalization in vague, hypothetical and theoretical terms. That changed in February of 2013 when state Senator Daylin Leach introduce his Senate Bill 528, also known as the Regulate Marijuana Act. Over the course of the last year activist have done as much as we could to try to educate our legislators and the general public about SB 528 but it got nowhere. Basically, SB 528 will probably die. In the current climate, full legalization is not possible right now. Therefore, any work done on full legalization, which we intend to pursue vigorously, is actually work done in preparation for a future battle as well. It is not being considered right now. So where is the battle at right now? The battle right now is medical cannabis. The battle is passing Senate Bill 1182, also known as the Governor Raymond Shafer Compassionate Use of Cannabis Act. The bill was introduced back in November by Republican state Senator Mike Folmer and Democrat state Senator Daylin Leach. The bill has gotten tons of press and on January 28 it got a committee hearing. Believe it or not but it may actually pass in the senate this year! We are talking like within the next few months! If it passes the senate then it goes to the House where it could possibly be butchered and amended but it has a chance of passing there too. If so, Governor Corbett has vowed to veto it but there is a chance that we can get him to change his mind or force him to sigh it with political pressure, or, better yet, the issue gets voted on early in 2015 when there is a new governor! So right now, if you believe in industrial hemp, work for it. Get your state congressman or senator to introduce a bill. Educate your farmers and farm organizations, colleges, etc. If you support full legalization start making your voices heard now and helping to build this movement. But the number one contribution you can make right now is to write letters to your newspapers about passing the medical cannabis bill, SB 1182, write, email, call and visit your representatives and tell them to support SB 1182 and do everything in your individual and our collective power to pass SB 1182. This is where the battle is right now. It is not some time in the distant future. It is now. Whether you support industrial hemp, medical cannabis or full legalization, there is one HUGELY important thing that you can do, coming up in less that two weeks. You can attend the Keystone Cannabis Reform Rally on March 31 at 10:00 AM in the Rotunda of the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. I can not emphasize the impression that we are going to make and the profound effect of 500 people gathered in the State Capitol building. This will force the issue of the urgent need for reform in Pennsylvania more than anything right now. We have over 700 people signed up as coming and over 350 maybes with close to two more weeks to get the word out. The Keystone Cannabis Reform Rally will present and support the three main areas of reform - medical cannabis, industrial hemp and full legalization but there will be a strong emphasis on the immediate battle - passing the medical cannabis bill, SB 1182. After that, there will be a lot of work to do but if we all work together in 2014 we are going to get it done and we WILL win. We think we are close to getting a hemp bill introduced too and hope to see it happen this year. If not, then next year for sure. We also know that all of the Democratic candidates for Governor of Pennsylvania have come out in favor of medical cannabis and decriminalization of cannabis so if a Dem wins over Corbett expect also to battle for decriminalization on a state level as we continue to work towards full legalization. But those are future battles, right now, we MUST make sure that SB 1182 passes. I hope this gave some of you a few things to think about. Les Stark Author of Hempstone Heritage and founder of Pennsylvania Hempland Security
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:54:49 +0000
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