Don’t be afraid of hemp

I am not sure whether it is ignorance, fear, or culture war silos that account for the Republican Legislature’s and governor’s unconscionable attack on children who have seizures by taking away their easy access to CBD hemp products that help alleviate those seizures. And, taking away my easy access to CBD hemp products for my seizures from the cerebral form of malaria contracted while a combat Marine in Vietnam.

CBD’s treat many of the maladies that OxyContin and other opiates supposedly treat. Do the Republicans want us to continue with all the addiction problems and deaths that the opiates have caused for the people of Iowa and this country? Are the Republicans unaware of the history of and opportunities for, Iowa that hemp brings?

The U.S. Constitution was written on hemp paper. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp. Hemp has been around as an agricultural product for 10,000 years. The U.S. is the largest importer of hemp products in the world. There was a hemp quota for farmers in the 1700s. There are thousands of food and manufacturing products that can be made from hemp, many of which replace petrochemical products that add to our changing climate issues.

Hemp is a deep rooted cover crop which needs little or no help growing from fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. We could quit being the largest contributor of agricultural pollution to the Gulf dead zone, and clean up our own surface and groundwaters. Hemp’s deep roots can help rejuvenate and build soils, along with holding water in place that would lessen flooding. Hemp is a bulk product which would lend itself to being processed in factories once again here in Iowa. That would help repopulate and reinvigorate our rural small towns and cities.

The last eleven hemp factories in Iowa were put up for sale by the federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1945, according to Aug. 23, 1945 Wall Street Journal article. Those factories were in Algona, Boone, Britt, Eagle Grove, Grundy Center, Hampton, Humboldt, Iowa Falls, Mason City, Rockford, and Traer.

So: opiates with their associated drug addictions and deaths/ or CBD hemp with its non-addiction and no deaths relieving multiple health issues for young and old Iowans alike.

The Republicans in this state need to understand humans’ history with and use of hemp over the last 10,000 years. They don’t have to be afraid of hemp, they don’t have to remain ignorant of hemp, they should just educate themselves about hemp. Republicans have an opportunity to help people with health problems, to revitalize rural Iowa, and to clean up much of the agricultural pollution that we have to live with.

The choice seems fairly self-evident.

Bob Watson lives in Decorah.