Veto of hemp bill was a lost opportunity

I’m a natural fiber kind of person. Whenever I can, I prefer to purchase and wear clothing that is 100 percent cotton.

I have learned recently about the pollution involved in the growing of my favorite fiber. Conventional cotton is filthy. It uses more herbicides and pesticides per acre than most other crops.

For that reason I was doubly disappointed when Governor Susana Martinez vetoed the industrial hemp bill.

Hemp has been demonized in the USA because it is biologically very close to marijuana, but it won’t get anyone high. It’s a useful and amazingly versatile plant. Until it was banned because of its similarity to marijuana, hemp was used all over the world for centuries for an astonishing variety of purposes – food, clothing, paper, building material, and, famously, rope.

Sources agree growing conventional cotton uses as much as 50 percent of all the pesticides consumed in the US. Hemp grows like a weed and requires much less.

Hemp should be of special interest to New Mexico because it doesn’t need much water. Wouldn’t it be useful if New Mexico researchers could help New Mexico farmers know when to use hemp as an alternative crop?

A massive amount of information is widely available extolling the benefits of hemp and refuting the old bugaboos about its similarity to pot. I don’t have to repeat any of that. I just note that New Mexico is an agricultural state in a drought. Farmers and ranchers will be hurt this year as in the last few years. My modest knowledge of agriculture policy tells me that the freedom to diversify crops in response to climate conditions is very helpful to farmers.

It’s hard to make sense of the rationale for the veto.

The bill, Senate Bill 94, passed the senate 33-8 and the House 54-12. It would have allowed hemp cultivation only for research and development purposes, in conformance with recent changes in federal law.

The veto message mentioned potential conflict with federal law and placing a burden on law enforcement agencies, which would have to monitor that the crop in the field was hemp and not pot. That contention is hard to buy.

I noted that Rep Candy Ezzell, R-Chaves, voted for this bill and was quoted in the Santa Fe Reporter as supporting it. Ezzell is a rancher and as conservative as anyone in New Mexico. She’s also the chair of the House Agriculture, Water and Wildlife Committee. I would assume that if there were a law enforcement concern, conservatives in the House could have amended the bill to fix it. Based on the Yes votes by conservative legislators from agricultural districts, I surmise the law enforcement concerns do not outweigh the economic benefits.

Because of this veto, New Mexico has missed an opportunity get ahead economically in a growth industry that is consistent with both its climate and its long agricultural tradition. California, where the drought is much worse, has OK’ed research hemp cultivation. So have several other states.

Besides what the veto message says, a couple of reasons for the veto suggest themselves.

One: The bill’s sponsor was Sen. Cisco McSorley, now notorious for the filibuster in the last minutes of the session that prevented a vote on the capital outlay bill.

Two: some conservative orthodox circles still resist anything that looks to be soft on marijuana, regardless of how unscientific. Let’s hope the Governor is not trying to appeal to those constituencies or putting political relationships ahead of our state’s economic best interests.

Though I now know about the toxicity involved in cotton production, I doubt poison is leaching into my body from my underwear. I’m also pretty sure that wearing undies made of hemp won’t get me high. Or anyone else, either.

I never thought I’d say this, but where is Gary Johnson when we need him?

Triple Spaced Again, © New Mexico News Services 2015

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