More sense on hemp

Hemp laws are being challenged in Fiji. Rup Singh, of Banaras, Lautoka, told a Senate ad hoc committee in Ba on Wednesday that the laws dealing with marijuana were draconian and unjust and rightfully pointed out hemp is the best source of raw material ever known to mankind."

"There are 40 varieties of cannabis and only two of these are illicit while the other 38 are not, one of which is industrial hemp," he said. "The Government is losing out on thousands of untaxed dollars every day from [fibre crop] marijuana sales and it should seriously look into the hemp industry."

Advice our own legislators would do well to take. The prohibition on agricultural hemp, is the most ridiculous aspect of this war on some drugs. In decades past the government encouraged it's cultivation - Hemp for Victory - as part of its war effort. Now they declare war on the same plant that could save the planet from deforestation for one thing, just because it looks like a drug? Boggles the mind.