Why is industrial hemp still illegal?

[lisab]

Let's face it, there's not really any free market in the US anymore. It has become all about which industry can best lobby congress to protect their interests. If you could convince cotton farmers that they could make a better profit off hemp grown on their same land, it would probably be legalized in a heartbeat.

Political decisions are rarely based on fact, they are based on perception.

So true. And so sad.

 

[gravenewworld]

Let's face it, there's not really any free market in the US anymore. It has become all about which industry can best lobby congress to protect their interests. If you could convince cotton farmers that they could make a better profit off hemp grown on their same land, it would probably be legalized in a heartbeat.

Political decisions are rarely based on fact, they are based on perception.

But that's the thing, you probably can! The amount of labor, resources, energy, pesticides, etc. needed to grow hemp is soooo much less than something like cotton. The number of uses for hemp absolutely dwarfs the number of uses for cotton. A hemp farmer should be able to make more money off of growing hemp than cotton and need less land.

 

[Galteeth]

A similar question might be: Given the questionable health profile of high fructose corn syrup, why are imports of sugar from the caribbean so heavily tariffed?