By Richard Rose
Marijuana felons are the unheralded heroes of the hemp and marijuana movements. Without them working in great danger for years to satisfy a marketmonopolizedby the government, none of this happens. Not hemp, not medical marijuana, not the bloated stock market valuations making the rich richer.
Therefore, one of the most-abhorrentideas is to ban them from industrial hemp and the legal marijuana industry. Even theHemp Industries Associationitself was started by a pot felon, and a drug defense attorney, before it started taking orders from an anti-pot zealot. CEO of the public companyHemp, IncBruce Perlowinis a notorious marijuana felon, as is Silver TourRobert Platshornof Florida, andMarc Emeryof Canada. This discredited provision may rear its ugly head again in DC with the considering of the Farm Bill and various hemp bills, but has also re-surfaced in Colorado, of all places.
That it targets ONLY pot felons is particularly cruel, as there is zero public safety logic in it: still allowed are baby rapers, mother murderers, and violent armed robbers, only those merely growing or selling a plant are banned. This appears to be yet another attempt to hurt US hemp and put it at a disadvantage against hemp from Canada, likely by US investors in Canadian hemp. Introducing manufactured controversy in Colorado, a male lobbyist has been floating his pet misogynistic proposal since at least 2014, to target one person only: an effectivefemalehemp activist and farmer. Marijuana felons have had their lives turned upside-down to satisfy private prison industry investors with an unconstitutional law, and have alreadypaid their debtto society. Penalizing them this way is against public policy, many states even restore their vote. They deserve a hand up, not a heel down.
Make no mistake, those running the hemp associations and their lobbyists would throw felons under the bus in a heartbeat to get even only hemp fiber legal federally. Theyve told me as much. A cheap win to fatten their coffers and proverelevanceas they daily become less so. But we should all cross the finish line together, especially those who have ...
