Tax Dollars Fuel The Ditch Weed Fire

LTE: Find Profitable Use for Ditch Weed

James Getman
August 4, 2006
Quad-City Times

Time to cull the hemp. The annual destruction of wild cannabis a.k.a. ditch weed is your tax dollars at waste. Again county resources are used to hunt down and destroy a plant that brought our fathers to America, provided clothing, food and the paper that propagated liberty. Cannabis hemp was a most important resource for life in the 18th and 19th centuries.

I was told the funding for this activity comes from the state. Regardless of where the money comes from, does this activity really justify the cost on the environment? Using harmful chemicals to kill a plant that is non-toxic to humans, resists soil erosion and provides food for small animals and birds is not wise. Pollution from the fuel used and exposure of workers to motor traffic hazards add to the cost of hemp eradication.

Hemp cannabis lacks sufficient THC, the active chemical in recreational marijuana, to produce intoxication. Many an Iowa kid can tell you not to smoke it. Wild hemp actually interferes with the production of recreational marijuana by pollinating flowers, ruining seed stock genetics.

Cannabis hemp imported from Canada and other countries is currently being used here as paper, clothing, cosmetics, food and building materials. Germany is incorporating hemp into automobile parts. Why can't we grow it here in Iowa? Increase income for farmers and jobs producing value added products. Please ask our leaders to redirect these funds towards using cannabis hemp, not destroying it.

James Getman

Davenport

i totally agree we need to use the hemp plant for what its worth cause its worth a whole lot. there are hundreds of ditch weed patches growing in iowa there is one down the street from here. y not use it for something usefull.

Because it's more useful for the government to say that they're destroying marijuana and saving our society from destruction. Bullshit. Facts are becoming more and more evident. There's too many college students smoking marijuana now days than to allow it to remain against the law to grow a plant, smoke a plant, or eat the plant.

hate to say it but there were a heck of a lot more college students in the 60's smokin weed than today, and things haven't changed as they've grown older and come into power of the country