This morning I got up to go to work like every weekday morning. I work an early AM shift, but I still check my email before I leave. This morning there was an email with this stunning subject line in my Vote Hemp and HIA Board in boxes "Fwd: White Plume home burned down today."

Alex White Plume on his back steps
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - Manderson, SD
AP Photo/Chet Brokaw

The email was from Tom Cook and he writes:

I am a senior at Oak Mountain High School in Shelby County, Alabama.  On August 16, 2007, I was forced to remove my shirt and to change into one provided to me because the shirt had the word "hemp" on it.  The principals claimed that because hemp is associated with marijuana and that school and county rules claim you cannot wear clothing that refers to illegal substances, that I could no longer wear the shirt.  I explained to them the difference between hemp and marijuana and explained that because hemp is legal in the United States that the rule did not apply.  They refused to acknowledge the facts that I presented to them and forced me to change shirts.  I am absolutely disgusted in the suppression of my freedom of speech and the suppression of the hemp movement in my school.  I am looking for legal assistance, but if you could even contact my school and let them know that they are WRONG, it would be greatly appreciated!

Brian Simpson

I was stunned to read the hatchet piece "Don't get sucked in by hemp-laced foods" by Michael C. Barnes in yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Mr. Barnes' ability to conflate legal and healthy hemp foods with the flavorings and marketing tactics of marijuana-flavored candy makers is just not to be believed. These lollipops are, in the eyes of the law, pot-on-a-stick and should not in any way be associated with nutritious hemp foods.

Fusarium wilt. The name strikes fear into the hearts of backyard tomato growers everywhere. Once introduced, the fungus Fusarium oxysporum can survive for many years in the soil. Fusarium wilt attacks a number of plants - food crops, industrial crops, and weeds. Your parents might remember the Gros Michel or 'Big Mike' variety of bananas. This variety was wiped out by Panama disease, or fusarium wilt, in the 1950s. A similar fate now befalls the Cavendish banana, the industry's successor the Gros Michel. Some scientists think that the Cavendish banana will be essentially gone in ten years. The banana is the world's number one fruit the fourth leading plant-based food in the world, after rice, corn and wheat. The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain and other organizations are working hard to get funding for research to come up with ways to halt the spread of the disease and come up with new cultivars of bananas that are resistant to this disease.

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Dear All,
    Please encourage everyone you know to go to the Vote Hemp web site to send a letter to their US representative urging them to cosponsor the first-ever hemp farming bill, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005 - H.R. 3037. Here is the link:

First-Ever Hemp Bill Introduced in Congress
The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005

enter your Zip Code and click Go! and follow the instructions to contact your representative.

You can help pay for this service by making a donation to Vote Hemp via credit card or PayPal at:
http://www.VoteHemp.com/contribute.html

Or mailing your donation to us at: Vote Hemp, P.O. Box 862,
Bedford, MA 01730.

Sincerely,

Tom Murphy
Board Member
Vote Hemp
http://www.votehemp.com/

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