In 2005, President Bush gave a speech at the San Diego Naval Air Station in which he compared the struggle against terrorism to World War II. If he is right, President Bush should be considering how he can use marijuana. (Yes…again.)

Back then, Slate.com reported:

The clear claims of this speech: Bin Laden and Zarqawi = Hitler and Mussolini. Terrorists = Nazis. Suicide bombers = kamikaze pilots. 1930s isolationists = Clinton-era Democrats. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s determination to spread democracy across the globe = … (could it be?) Bush’s own freedom-spreading policies.

There is no doubt that President Bush (along with a good number of Americans) believes that the Global War on Terror is just as serious a threat to the future of the US as World War II was. With the Iraq war costing over $8 billion per month, and the Global War on Terror already costing $500 billion, the news out of New Hampshire should give these war supporters cause to reflect.

Today:

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The House voted yesterday to allow farmers to grow hemp - a close relative of marijuana - despite federal hurdles to planting the controversial crop.

Supporters pointed out that hemp, which has a very low content of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, has unfairly been characterized as the same as marijuana.

“You don’t smoke hemp. A wheelbarrow full would only make you sick,” insisted Hopkinton Democrat Derek Owen.

“Hemp is one of the oldest and most useful and strongest natural plants known to man,” he told the House.
Peterborough Republican Andrew Peterson spoke briefly against the bill, urging the House to kill it.
But the House voted 190-76 to send it to the Senate.

Hemp, known for its strong fiber, is used in a wide range of products, including clothing, canvas, rope, fiberglass, insulation, automobile clutch- and brake-liners, cement and paper. It can be grown legally in other countries, including Canada.

“No one confuses water with vodka though they look the same,” Owen said.

Hemp can be grown only with permission from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. North Dakota farmers are currently trying to get DEA permission to grow hemp under that state’s rules.

“This is in the end an issue of liberty. Small farmers in the state need all the help they can get,” Owen said.

The bill would let farmers grow hemp after obtaining a permit. The state would issue licenses to grow hemp and be the sole supplier of the seed. The state also would regulate the industry. People with criminal records involving drug offenses within 10 years would not qualify for a permit.

The House passed a bill two years ago to allow farmers to grow hemp, but the Senate killed it.

Source

Also today in Albany, NY:

Members of the Albany Law School Democrats, Law School Professors, local politicians, and community activists gathered at DeJohn’s on Lark Street in Downtown Albany on Thursday night from 6-9 pm to raise money for body armor for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To date, Bake Sales for Body Armor has held more than a dozen events nationwide and raised $23,105.23 primarily through bake sales as well as private donations.

During World War II, the government experienced a similar equipment and budgetary crisis. The solution was found in the versatility of the hemp plant. As difficult as it may be for some of us to believe, there are many Americans who can remember when the US government demanded we all grow marijuana.

Hemp for Victory explains the government program:

• “For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable.”
• “The very word ‘canvas’ comes from the Arabic word for hemp.”
• “In 1942, patriotic farmers, at the governments request, planted 36,000 acres of seed hemp, an increase of several thousand percent.”

We no longer need sails and rigging, but we desperately need money. The nation’s farmers should be called upon once again.

In Dec 2006, a study titled “Marijuana Production in the United States,” by researcher Jon Gettman, concluded that, “marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy.”

Contrasting government figures for traditional crops — like corn and wheat — against the study’s projections for marijuana production, the report cited marijuana as the top cash crop in 12 states and among the top three cash crops in 30.

The study estimated that marijuana production, at a value of $35.8 billion, exceeds the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).

A 2005 analysis signed by over 500 economists (including the esteemed Milton Friedman, economist of the Nixon and Reagan administrations) estimated that if the United States legalized marijuana, the country would save $7.7 billion in law enforcement costs and could generate as much as $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like alcohol or tobacco.

With a total fiscal benefit of at least $14 billion per year, Marijuana could provide our troops with the body and vehicle armor our government cannot currently afford. It could also fund reinforcements. [If we really wanted to get creative, $14 billion could buy each one of the men and women over there a first class ticket home, a pay raise, and all the marijuana they could smoke responsibly.]

The farmers would benefit by being permitted to grow and sell the nation’s most valuable crop.

The sick would benefit by having better access to the medicine that they need.

And the federal government would have more money to waste chasing boogeymen and scaring the shit out of us.

We must tax and regulate marijuana. It seems so easy.

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