MAP - Hemp

Independent on Sunday, 18 Dec 2011 - A crowd of about 300 people participated in a lively demonstration in Valletta yesterday, organised by the group 'Legalise it, Malta!' which is calling for the decriminalisation, classification and the eventual legalisation of cannabis. The demonstrators, consisting mainly of people in their 20s, walked along Republic Street, chanting "Legalise it, legalise it" and "We're no criminals" to the beat of bongos as they stopped in front of the Law Courts building before proceeding to Palace Square.

The Northern River Echo, 15 Dec 2011 - It isn't every day that you meet a former stockbroker turned hippie. I'm sitting with Nimbin's unofficial mayor, Michael Balderstone, at the Nimbin HEMP Embassy, watching locals and tourists wandering past colourful painted shopfronts. The little village of Nimbin has a unique laid-back lifestyle and it's going on around us. People are drinking coffee, chatting with others as they pass by, some are shopping for organic vegetable seedlings and hemp-based soaps. For the past 20 years, Michael has been the public face of the North Coast's Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) movement. As the president of the Nimbin HEMP Embassy and the founder of the Nimbin Museum, Michael is a self-proclaimed hippie and advocate for all things hemp; but his life wasn't always about living the alternative lifestyle and promoting decriminalisation. Before finding his way to the North Coast 26 years ago, Michael spent his school days at a private boarding school in Victoria before heading off to find his fame and fortune as a high flyer on the stockmarket.

The Herald, 14 Dec 2011 - A BETTER WAY TO MAKE PAPER It's particularly frustrating that the sale of the Kimberly-Clark paper plant apparently fell through over environmental clean-up concerns, after the company spent $300 million since 1995 upgrading its wastewater and pulp-making systems. Now, the company plans to raze the waterfront site and sell it for development.

Chicago Reader, 05 Dec 2011 - On the morning of October 27, after several weeks of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Cook County commissioner John Fritchey stepped before reporters to make a demand that would have been unthinkable just a short time earlier: Chicago police should stop arresting people for possessing small amounts of marijuana. As recently as the summer, many elected officials viewed marijuana decriminalization as a daring if not suicidal political move-and that's among the pols who think it's a good idea. But this fall, Fritchey coaxed a rainbow coalition of three aldermen-one black, one white, one Hispanic-to stand at his side as he called on city officials to implement a smarter, more lenient pot policy.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 14 Nov 2011 - FAIRBANKS -- The Fairbanks City Council passed a resolution Monday "emphatically" urging the state to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp. The resolution, introduced by Councilman Lloyd Hilling, also urges the state "to petition the president of the United States and his Drug Enforcement Administration either to justify constitutionally its ban on hemp or to nullify its restriction on its cultivation and distribution in the United States.

The Gainesville Sun, 06 Nov 2011 - The Event Returns After an 11-Year Absence, and a Few Hundred Show Up to Watch. The revival of Gainesville's Hemp Fest - a celebration of the many uses of the hemp plant - may have attracted a smaller crowd Saturday than in the past, but organizers believe they are closer than ever to their goal of at least limited legalization of marijuana.

Columbia Daily Tribune, 26 Oct 2011 - Question: If total legalization of marijuana was a ballot issue in our state, how would you vote? You would be allowed to grow it, sell it, smoke it, chew it, drink it, eat it legally - no misdemeanor, no felony. Maybe marijuana would be kept under thumb as we do with age restrictions on tobacco and alcohol, but for those older than 18 or 21 - legal.

The Bakersfield Californian, 11 Oct 2011 - Central Valley congressmen, including Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, need to come to a consensus about the regulation of industrial hemp -- a harmless, nondrug cousin of marijuana with many commercial uses in clothing, food and bath products. Should federal laws be changed to allow its cultivation? We say yes, and so do many valley growers -- along with Gov. Jerry Brown, who was nevertheless compelled to veto SB 676, which would have allowed hemp cultivation in four California counties, including Kern, as part of an eight-year pilot program. Brown's lone complaint: the conflict with federal law.

The Bakersfield Californian, 11 Oct 2011 - Though Gov. Jerry Brown called federal regulation of industrial hemp plants "absurd," potential enforcement of those regulations ultimately led to his veto of state Senate Bill 676, which would have allowed hemp cultivation in four California counties, including Kern, as part of an eight-year pilot program. Supporters of the bill said the federal categorization of industrial hemp plants as the same as marijuana plants is woefully outdated and the fact that industrial hemp is imported for legal products means Californians are missing out on a cash crop.

The Bakersfield Californian, 01 Oct 2011 - It may be distantly related to pot, but industrial hemp most definitely is not, say supporters of a California Senate Bill aimed at legalizing cultivation of the cannabis cousin in four counties, including Kern. Senate Bill 676 or the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act -- which is on the governor's desk for signing by Oct. 9 -- would create an eight-year pilot program permitting farmers in Imperial, Kern, Kings and San Joaquin counties to grow industrial hemp for sale of its seed, oil and fiber to manufacturers.