By Jonathan Miller, on Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 11:19 AM ET  Last week, I joined Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Jamie Comer in support of legalizing industrial hemp on the public broadcasting program, Kentucky Tonight. Click the picture at left to watch our debate with law enforcement officials.
Viewers of the program noticed that the two sides disagreed on some very critical underlying facts about the differences between hemp and marijuana and how the two plants are grown.
Janet Patton of the Lexington Herald-Leader spent a few weeks investigating this matter, and interviewing objective experts. Here is an excerpt from her story published today:
The nightmare hemp scenario for Kentucky State Police apparently is a field legally licensed to grow hemp for grain with illegally planted marijuana mingled in.
Unlike hemp grown for fiber (when the plants are inches apart to promote tall stalk growth), the hemp grown for grain and marijuana plants would look substantially the same, said Jeremy Triplett, supervisor of the state police forensic lab.
Both could be shorter and bushy. The only way to really know, he said, would be to test for delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical that gives marijuana smokers a high.
Such testing could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, at $755 per quantitative analysis, not to mention $1.8 million in start-up expenses, state police have estimated.
But would that really happen? Would an unscrupulous pot grower plant marijuana with hemp?
Take Canada, where marijuana also is illegal but hemp has been legally grown since 1998. “Health Canada’s Industrial Hemp Program has never found marijuana growing in hemp fields instead of hemp,” the agency said in a statement.
They’ve looked. A lot.
Canadian inspectors take samples annually from each field and have found THC levels slightly above 0.3 percent from stress during growing, but not above 0.5 percent, Health Canada said.
Keith Watson, Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives agronomist, has seen and tested most of the hemp grown in his province in the past 15 years. Does marijuana creep in?
“I’ve never run into it,” Watson said. About 95 percent of the crop is sampled annually, and he said that marijuana and grain hemp might look just alike and could be planted side by side and only an expert eye might distinguish the difference. But in his experience, it just doesn’t happen.
“Over the years, that’s taken me out to an awful lot of fields,” Watson said. “I’ve never found marijuana in the field or any trace of it.”
He said a “handful” of times he has seen paths cut into the fields, places where people have topped the plants. But it doesn’t happen much anymore.
“After a couple of years, nobody bothers it,” he said.
What about marijuana?
As for marijuana growers using hemp to pad their illegal pot, “the general impression is that’s a self-regulating industry,” Watson said. “They’ll get away with it once … but if the quality (of the marijuana) isn’t up to par, there will be a lot of broken kneecaps.”
Click here to read the full article.
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Feb 8, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET The RP’s latest column for the Huffington Post explains why immigration reform is such an urgent issue for our national economic recovery. Here’s an excerpt:
When it comes to restoring strong, long-term growth in our nation’s economy, there are few solutions more practical, bi-partisan, and urgent than immigration reform.
Our current immigration system is rigid, outdated, and simply unable to keep up with demands of the new global marketplace. For our nation to thrive and transcend international competition in the 21st century economy, it is incumbent for us to build an immigration system that welcomes people who share our values, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit that has made our country great.
No one can doubt that we are a nation whose foundation was built by immigrants. But did you know that more than 40 percent of today’s Fortune 500 companies were founded by an immigrant, or a child of an immigrant? Or that more than 75 percent of all the patents received by the top ten U.S. universities in 2011 had an immigrant inventor? While we celebrate our nation’s first immigrants every Thanksgiving — and while many of us cherish the stories shared by our own family members who made the pilgrimage to our shores — we too often forget that today, and every day, recent immigrants continue to play a vital role in the American economy.
Unfortunately, far too often, our immigration policies drive too many foreign-born entrepreneurs and job creators away, even after we have trained them and given them degrees from American universities.
This is not simply a matter of compassion or human interest. This is about the very survival of our economy, way of life, and continued global leadership. We must make it easier for foreign-born, U.S.-educated students to get visas. We must create a startup visa program for entrepreneurs and innovators who want to come to our country to start businesses and hire American workers, especially when they already have U.S. investors to back their ideas. We must be doing everything we can to keep that capital in the U.S., rather than handing the next great idea over to our competitors.
Click here to read the full column.
By RP Staff, on Thu Feb 7, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET From Lexington’s Ace Weekly:
Click to watch the full debate video Kentucky Agricultural Commissioner James Comer announced on KET’s Kentucky Tonight “On February 11, when I testify with Senator Hornback for this bill, we’re going to have Senator Rand Paul, Congressman [John] Yarmuth and Congressman Massey all there testifying in favor of this bill [Senate Bill 50]. I’ve been there 13 years, and I’ve never seen three congressmen testify on the same bill, and of different parties. Today we learned former CIA director James Woolsey will be flying in to testify on behalf of this bill…”
Comer, a Republican, has made a full media press in support of industrial hemp in Kentucky, which cannot currently be legally grown in the U.S. Tonight, he was interviewed by KET’s Bill Goodman, on a panel that included former Kentucky State Treasurer Jonathan Miller, Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer, and Dan Smoot, vice president of Operation UNITE.
Senate Bill 50, proposed by senator Paul Hornback (Republican, Shelbyville), doesn’t legalize hemp. It establishes the framework for a regulatory agency (the Kentucky Department of Agriculture) to regulate this crop, if and when the federal government allows the growing of industrial hemp in the U.S. Key provisions: any grower would have to pass a criminal background check. Growers would have to submit GPS coordinates of their hemp fields. Growers would have to agree to inspections and grow a minimum of ten acres.
Comer says industrial hemp grows well in Kentucky (it was prevalent in Kentucky in the 1900s), and it “has a growing demand…. It’s a green crop,” adding “we’re at a crossroads in Kentucky agriculture.”
Jonathan Miller, citing his background as a Henry Clay high school graduate, and a childhood growing up on land that was once part of Henry Clay’s estate, reminded viewers that industrial hemp was Henry Clay’s key crop, but he was most excited about the environmental possibilities. “We’re facing some real issues here in terms of developing energy and developing clean energy.”
“Instead of trying to find examples of other places to follow, I’d love to see Kentucky take the lead. We need to be first in something we can be really proud of.”
Not everyone on the panel agreed with Comer and Miller.
Commissioner Brewer says he agrees with Comer that hemp and marijuana grow well in Kentucky. He says the problem is “you cannot distinguish between hemp and marijuana with the naked eye. You’ll hear a lot of proponents say that you can…but you cannot tell the difference.” He asks what would keep an enterprising or unscrupulous farmer from adding a few marijuana plants to the interior of a hemp tract, “when the going rate for marijuana is about $2300/lb,” adding that “the research has not been done to show [hemp’s] a viable product in Kentucky yet.”
Smoot, of Operation Unite, refers to UK’s 1998 study “concluding there was no market for hemp.” He says the market’s only declined since. He says, “The United States Department of Agriculture says ‘thin market at best, novelty item.’”
SB50 requires that the seeds that the certified growers use will have only trace amounts of THC. It’s an agricultural crop, with no narcotic value.
Comer says he appreciates the concerns of the law enforcement panelists, but that “there is a concern in Kentucky to create jobs. This is an opportunity.”
Brewer says “marijuana and hemp are not first cousins, they are twin brothers.” He adds, “you can get high off of hemp.” [If they are brothers, however, they are Cain and Abel — destroying each other every chance they get. “Hemp and marijuana, both members of the cannabis family, aggressively cross-pollinate with undesirable results for both. Interbreeding marijuana valued for high THC content with low-THC hemp dramatically lowers THC content and thus economic value of smoked marijuana. Likewise, lanky hemp plants grown for the fiber in their stems would lose those desired characteristics if interbred with bushy pot plants.” Ace 2000 archive.]
Miller says, this debate makes it “so compelling why we need Senate Bill 50. It’s not legalizing hemp. It says IF hemp is legalized at the federal level,” this establishes a strong regulatory framework around it.
He spoke of “empowering” the farmers with “new opportunities,” particularly as tobacco has faded from the economic landscape…
Host Bill Goodman then read an email from James Higdon, author of Cornbread Mafia:
“In reporting my book, I found that many illegal pot farmers were against the idea of reviving Kentucky’s hemp industry out of fear of what the increase in hemp pollen would do to the value of their crops. Why is it that Operation Unite and the Kentucky State Police agree with criminal marijuana growers that hemp is a bad idea?”
Smoot responded, first to the caller:
“I will guarantee you that those people that died of the pill overdoses, their first experience with illegal drugs was marijuana. “
He then suggested that anyone growing industrialized hemp should be prepared to hire armed guards.
Smoot countered, “If you take our whole federal delegation from Kentucky to DC, combined, I don’t think they have put a fraction of the time and effort into the drug crisis in Kentucky and this nation as Congressman Hal Rogers…He has made battling drugs a priority.”
Goodman adds, “he is one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress because he is chair of the appropriations and revenue committee.”
Comer says he respects Rogers’ point of view, but stresses “when Senate Bill 50 passes, that still doesn’t legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky. It just sets up the framework for how it will be regulated in Kentucky,” referring to the arguments against the bill as “shallow,” saying “it’s ok to be bold.”
Miller says, “we don’t claim this is a magic crop or panacea. It’s not gonna solve all of Kentucky’s problems.” But he referenced UK’s 1998 survey (before new applications for hemp were developed) identifying one processing plant as capable of generating 300 new jobs and $6.7 million of revenue.
Commissioner Brewer says law enforcement will have to prepare for “The Hemp Defense.”
“Everybody we stop from now on that has a bag of marijuana is going to say ‘that’s not marijuana, that’s hemp.’”
He estimates the testing that necessitates will cost the state about $1.75 million the first year.
Goodman asks, “can it be tested in the field? It can’t be tested when someone is pulled over for a nickel bag? Can it be tested in a growing field? It has to be taken to a laboratory?”
Miller says, “if someone is pulled over for a nickel bag and says it’s hemp, the immediate response should be to arrest them for marijuana possession.”
Commissioner Brewer says, “oh we will,” citing the arrest of Dr. Bronner last summer for growing hemp.
Click here for the full article.
By Michael Steele, on Wed Feb 6, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET From MSNBC:
 “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” President Obama said in his inaugural address Monday. The address devoted more sentences to the environment more than any other specific subject. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.”
In that, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele said the president indicated that climate change would be a crucial part of his second term legacy.
“When I heard that line, what struck me is this is the Obamacare of the second administration” Steele said. “Climate change is going to be the sleeping dog issue that he is going to fashion and put into play, maybe a total package or piecemeal, but I think that’s going to be part of the second term legacy.”
Many assume that social issues would take a central stage in the second term, as Obama came out in favor of gay equality, against guns, and in favor of sweeping immigration reform. While those may also play a role in second-term agenda, Steele believes it’ll be climate change that has the greatest effect.
“It’s not going to be so much the social stuff that a lot of people, certainly in the conservative movement concern themselves with, it’s going to be the bigger idea that falls into that broader vision,” Steele said. “He reformed 1/6 of the nation’s economy with healthcare. Now he’s going to go to the next level with global change in the environment.”
Click here to read the full article.
By RP Staff, on Tue Feb 5, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET Last night, Kentucky Educational Television’s Kentucky Tonight program, hosted by Bill Goodman, featured a deeply substantive, and occasionally emotional, debate about the future of industrial hemp in the Bluegrass State. The combatants included The RP (Jonathan Miller), Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer, and Dan Smoot, vice president of Operation UNITE.
Mentioned in the debate were the following studies and legislative proposals.
Click below to watch the one hour broadcast:
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Feb 4, 2013 at 7:30 PM ET
As The RP (Jonathan Miller) and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer debate industrial hemp legalization with state law enforcement officials on Kentucky Tonight, join in the online debate on Twitter.
Your tweets will be posted LIVE below, and whenever possible, the panelists will respond to them, either on air, or afterwards online.
Some Guidelines:
- Use the hashtag #KYTonight somewhere within your tweet, and it will be posted LIVE below
- Refer to Jonathan Miller as @RecoveringPol, Commissioner Comer as @KYComer, and host Bill Goodman as @BillKET
- Click the following links to read the reports referenced in the debate:
By RP Staff, on Mon Feb 4, 2013 at 5:00 PM ET
KET’s Kentucky Tonight program with host Bill Goodman will discuss industrial hemp this evening at 8:00 PM ET.
Scheduled guests are:
– Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer
– Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer
– Former Kentucky State Treasurer Jonathan Miller, founder of The Recovering Politician
– Dan Smoot, vice president of Operation UNITE
The program is live on KET and at www.ket.org/live at 8:00 pm ET.
Viewers with questions and comments may send e-mail to kytonight@ket.org or use the message form at www.ket.org/kytonight. All messages should include first and last name and town or county. The phone number for viewer calls during the program is 1-800-494-7605.
You can come back to this site at 8:00 PM and join a LIVE Twitter debate — all of your tweets that use #KYTonight will be published LIVE at The Recovering Politician.
Kentucky Tonight programs are archived online, made available via podcast, and rebroadcast on KET, KET KY, and radio. Archived programs, information about podcasts, and broadcast schedules are available at www.ket.org/kytonight.
For your reading prior to or after the show, click here for a 1998 report produced by the University of Kentucky on the “Economic Impact of Industrial Hemp in Kentucky.” As you read the report, keep in mind that farmers and scientists have developed dozens of new applications for the crop since the report was prepared 15 years ago. The key findings in the report include:
- A market for industrial hemp exists in a number of specialty or niche markets in the United States, including specialty papers, animal bedding and foods and oils made from hemp.
- Additional markets could emerge for industrial hemp in the areas of automobile parts, replacements for fiberglass, upholstery, and carpets. Using current yields, prices, and production technology from other areas that have grown hemp, Kentucky farmers could earn a profit of approximately $320 per acre of hemp planted for straw production only or straw and grain production, $220 for grain production only, and $600 for raising certified seed for planting by other industrial hemp growers. In the long run, it is estimated that Kentucky farmers could earn roughly $120 per acre when growing industrial hemp for straw alone or straw and grain, and $340 an acre from growing certified hemp seed.
- Industrial hemp, when grown in rotation, may reduce weeds and raise yields for crops grown in following years. Several agronomic studies have found that industrial hemp was more effective than other crops at reducing selected weeds. One study found that industrial hemp raised yields by improving soil ventilation and water balance.
- The economic impact if Kentucky again becomes the main source for certified industrial hemp seed in the United States is estimated at 69 full-time equivalent jobs and $1,300,000 in worker earnings. The total economic impact in Kentucky, assuming one industrial hemp processing facility locating in Kentucky and selling certified seed to other growers, would be 303 full-time equivalent jobs and $6,700,000 in worker earnings. If two processing facilities were established in Kentucky, industrial hemp would have an economic impact of 537 fulltime equivalent jobs and $12,100,000 in worker earnings. If one processing facility and one industrial hemp paper-pulp plant were established in Kentucky, industrial hemp would have an economic impact of 771 full-time equivalent jobs and $17,600,000 in worker earnings.
- If just a fraction of the agricultural counties in Kentucky went into the industrial hemp business, thousands of jobs and sizable earnings would be created. If just one-fourth of Kentucky’s 90 agricultural counties went into industrial hemp business, approximately 17,348 jobs would be created and $396 million in worker earnings generated yearly.
- These economic impact estimates reflect possible outcomes for Kentucky given a national industrial hemp industry that is focused in specialty niche activities that have been demonstrated to work in Europe. It is important to remember, however, that technologies are under development that may allow industrial hemp products to compete in bulk commodity markets. The economic impacts that would occur if these technologies were found to be commercially feasible would be substantially greater than those identified in this report.
By Krystal Ball, on Mon Feb 4, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET New GDP numbers were released last week. For the first time since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009, the economy actually shrank. And things were just starting to look pretty solid! What the heck happened? You know, I actually think the Gipper may have an answer here.
Yeah. Pretty much. Look deeper at the GDP numbers and it becomes clear that government really is the problem here. Consumer spending was up. Business spending on equipment was way up and housing investment was also way up. Sooo…. What gives?
Well there’s this: federal government spending dropped at an annual rate of 15% or this chart from the Washington Post
Defense spending in particular was dramatically pared back in the last months of 2012. Businesses also depleted their inventories but that’s no big deal since consumer spending was up and they’ll have to restock at some point. The real story here is cuts in federal spending. This is what austerity looks like, my friends. At a time when our recovery is still on shaky legs, cuts in federal spending could easily send us right back into a recessionary tailspin. In fact, if federal spending had just remained even, we would have had over 1% growth. Not amazing but positive territory.
But you might say, this is probably a one-time deal right? After all, we had the whole fiscal cliff situation and they were probably preparing for the sequester cuts that were supposed to take effect in January.
That’s all true but it’s also not the whole story. Take a look at this chart. Since the beginning of 2009, the private sector has been in positive territory, consistently contributing to economic growth. Meanwhile the private sector has mostly been a drag with this final quarter being one of the most dramatic examples.
 What’s more, we’ve just ended the payroll tax cut so middle-class folks will have less money in their pockets and may very well start spending less. We’ve also still got large sequester cuts on the horizon that could drive public spending down even further, and Republicans still seem to think it might be fun to use a government shutdown or debt ceiling crisis to force further cuts. You guys sure know how to show a girl a good time.
Look, there’s no question that over the long term, we’ve got to balance budgets and pay down our debts. But short term deficit hawkishness is hurting us badly. Our problem is not relief for storm victims or Federal money for family planning services, it’s a tax base that is too low to support rising health care costs and an aging population over the long term. Let’s deal with those problems over the long term. But for now, Congress, how about we just try to avoid shooting ourselves in the foot. I know blaming government for a lack of spending is not the type of blaming government that the GOP enjoys, but in lean times it’s the only type of blaming government we can afford. You know, what would really be great is some stimulus but I understand that’s probably too much to ask. For now, let’s just keep the government from reversing the private sector-led recovery that’s already underway.
(Cross-posted from MSNBC.com)
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Mon Feb 4, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET How much does it cost to travel the world for a year? Between $26,821-36,534 for two people*. In 2012 we spent $26,821**. In 2011 we spent $36,534***.
As always, the devil is in the details, those asterisks that terrorize our lives…those evil symbols that advertisers have trained us to recognize as “it’s possible, but only for a hypothetical person that we’ve never actually met, who managed to work through our very convoluted systems that our programmers assured us wasn’t possible”. Our numbers though are real, it’s what we’ve actually spent, visiting countries as expensive as Japan and Australia, and as cheap as Vietnam and Sri Lanka. This is every dollar we’ve spent traveling hundreds of thousands of miles. The asterisks are because everyone travels differently, these differences are the details that determine how much it would actually cost you.
HOW WE TRAVEL
We travel to see the sights, meet the people, taste the foods and try new things. We keep a budget as a guide, not as a limiter. Our costs reflect the following decisions:
– The length of our trip has never been a goal, we aren’t trying to stretch our time abroad by staying places for extended periods or saving money.
– We spend money on experiences. We didn’t hesitate to spend $600 per day to visit North Korea, $50 for the “world’s best” pizza in Sao Paulo, or $1000 hiking in New Zealand.
– We travel overland whenever possible. Grueling at times, overland travel has given us the opportunity to see more of countries, savor the local foods and interact with locals the way they travel. How else would you experience this!?!
We met Amit by overland traveling in India. Later he showed us Israel, this “Amit” tour was one of our 2012 highlights.
– Hostels and Couchsurfing are home. We stay in dorms when private rooms cost substantially more. We only Couchsurf when we can connect with a host, not just to save money.
– We average a new city every four days. We set off with the goal of seeing whatever interested us in the world, having visited over 200 cities we learned that a lot of the world interested us. Moving costs money as shown by transportation (ground and air) being our largest area of spending.
– We didn’t visit Europe or North America. Our costs reflect a vast majority of time spent in the developing world, which is substantially cheaper than Europe, the USA or Canada. We set off with very few goals, but number one was to see the rapidly changing developing world, we have keep true to this mission.
These are the things that affect our spending, for everyone it is different. We’ve met people that are comfortable spending $20/day and people that couldn’t possibly be comfortable for less than $1000/day.
Read the rest of…
Matt and Erica Chua: Cost to Travel the World
By RP Staff, on Fri Feb 1, 2013 at 5:00 PM ET KET’s February 4 Kentucky Tonight program with host Bill Goodman will discuss industrial hemp.
Scheduled guests are:
– Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer
– Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer
– Former Kentucky State Treasurer Jonathan Miller, founder of The Recovering Politician
– Dan Smoot, vice president of Operation UNITE
The program is live on KET and at www.ket.org/live at 8:00 pm ET.
Viewers with questions and comments may send e-mail to kytonight@ket.org or use the message form at www.ket.org/kytonight. Viewers may also submit questions and comments on Twitter @BillKET, #kytonight, or on KET’s Facebook page. All messages should include first and last name and town or county. The phone number for viewer calls during the program is 1-800-494-7605.
Kentucky Tonight programs are archived online, made available via podcast, and rebroadcast on KET, KET KY, and radio. Archived programs, information about podcasts, and broadcast schedules are available at www.ket.org/kytonight.
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