As a country that engages in war, you'd think that the least America can do is offer some level of comfort to veterans once they return. Unfortunately, that's not as simple as providing traditional benefits. A sizable chunk of veterans from the past four major US international interventions (Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq II, and Afghanistan) return with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and afterward endure flashbacks to horrific events, severe mood instability, and debilitating sleeplessness, among other problems. Could marijuana be the solution America's vets have been waiting for, and if so, why does the federal government continues to stand in the way?
In a memo that went public last Thursday, the Department of Justice directed U.S. attorneys to back off any Indian tribes collectively choosing to grow or sell marijuana on reservation lands. Amidst the sweeping changes in American cannabis law, you can add reservations to the complicated hodgepodge.
Tucked away inside February’s trillion-dollar Farm Bill was industrial hemp, a crop that’s been banned by the Feds for over 40 years. After a handful of months since its passage, new state laws are encouraging farmers to look into what's likely to be America's other cannabis industry.
Just about a year ago, I was harvesting hemp as part of an illegal – and very much patriotic – protest at Loflin Farms in Springfield, Colorado, and so I made my return to see what activist-hemp farmer Ryan Loflin is up to under the now regulated hemp industry.
Decades spent growling as the frontman for the punk outfit Black Flag and rants against the American political machine's fear-mongering marijuana propaganda has prepared Henry Rollins for this educational moment, exposing a television audience to the history of cannabis in America.
A bipartisan amendment to the farm bill passed the House last month that would legalize hemp farming for research purposes. Dubbed the Polis Amendment, it's the first piece of hemp legislation to survive a congressional vote in over 50 years. Representatives Polis (D-CO), Blumenauer (D-OR), and Massie (R-KY) introduced the addition to the bill, passing by a vote of 225 to 200. “Yea” votes consisted of 63 Republicans and 162 Democrats.