Seth Tupper notes that South Dakota is one of only nine states that have not legalized industrial hemp. Wyoming, one of the states where hemp is legal, hopes we stay that way:
Wyoming legislator Bunky Loucks has a message for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem about hemp legalization.
“Tell her I hope she vetoes it, because that would be good for Wyoming,” he said.
…Loucks figures if Noem, a fellow Republican, vetoes a bill to legalize hemp in South Dakota, there will be less competition for the Wyoming hemp industry [Seth Tupper, “While SD Waffles, Most Other States Move Ahead with Hemp,” Rapid City Journal, 2019.03.10].
(Speaking of waffles, you can use hemp to make waffles, too.)
Senator Joshua Klumb (R-20/Mount Vernon), a recent convert to hemp, tells his constituents that the Governor’s main talking point against hemp, that legalizing this versatile crop will lead to reefer madness, makes no sense:
I also struggle to connect the dots between growing industrial hemp and an increase in marijuana consumption. I have been to Colorado on Ag tours and witnessed their marijuana production first hand.
These plants are grown in very climate controlled greenhouses and genetically engineered to produce the finest THC (the part that gets you high) in the industry. I think that if we allow farmers to grow acres of hemp with a THC content of less than .03 and someone thinks that it’s worth the risk to try and grow marijuana in among their hemp after spending hundreds of dollars on licensing is foolish.
Farmers will have to obtain a license from the department of Ag to possess any part of the plant. Anyone transporting it will have to have this license. Some people say if we allow industrial hemp we are opening the door for legalization of marijuana. I will be the first to say as long as I am in the legislature I will oppose any effort to legalize this harmful substance [Sen. Joshua Klumb, “Hemp Bringing an Exciting Time for Agriculture in SD,” Mitchell Daily Republic, 2019.03.07].
After significant amendment and Senate passage last week, House Bill 1191, the Lesmeister/Youngberg hemp bill, faces another House vote this week before Governor Noem must consider whether she’s willing to veto hemp and promote economic development in Wyoming.
This bill more than anyother has caused me to shake my head in wonder about Governor Noem’s priorities. I have a real hard time understanding her opposition. She is willing to prevent South Dakota farmers from exploring the potential “next big thing” despite the rhetoric of her campaign, inaugural and state of the state addresses.
To piggy back on Mr. Nemec’s comment, let’s not forget that Representative Noem voted for the farm bill that allowed for industrial hemp. Governor Noem could have anticipated this legislation and easily put together a budget proposal to fund enforcement measures.
Further, this legislation won’t become law until July 1. I may be wrong, but I don’t think anyone will be planting any hemp until 2020, so there’s time to address most of her concerns.
Hemp is unrepentant sin – same as killing babies. Farmers who grow it for a very short time, unfortunately, go straight to hell for all eternity. Why would we want to reap and sow such sin in our back yard? Why would we risk the souls of farmers and ranchers across our state all for a few dollars?
If we let farmers grow hemp, it will turn them into dope smoking socialists, and transform them into lazy dopers who need to get a job. It would be such a disaster. We just can’t afford the ‘human’ toll it would take.
Legalized hemp would destabilize the last remaining pillar of strength our state was founded upon: 100% pure stupidity.
Will I be arrested for buying a bag of Manitoba Harvest hemp hearts at the SF Costco ??
Maybe we should look at who is voting with GNOem on this regression. After all, in order to make it all work it has to be veto proof (whatever the hell that means in South Dakota) to make it to the Gnoem’s desk. Ask your legislator how much they are getting paid under the table for that no vote.
Adam’s comment gets me thinking: even if Noem were onto something with the hemp-pot connection, wouldn’t South Dakota farmers be a pretty unlikely demographic to lead a pot-smoking revolution? They strike me more as the beer-and-shots type.
Cory, once you taste the Devil’s Weed, you are hooked for life, makes you quit your job and sit on your ass all day. America can’t afford farmers to get lazy, not now, not in the middle of this trade war they started.
They had better win this mother effing trade war, or it’s going to make them look very stupid for years to come.
Give farmers hemp feilds and they’re gonna smoke it as they obviously don’t know any better – or they’d just legalize the hemp. Clearly, SD’s aversion to hemp is in direct regards to farmers likelihood of smoking the stuff.
Sad.
That is really how the far right thinks, Andy. Secretly she probably is a closet pot smoker, though. Hypocrites usually are.
Our other infamous female political executive leaving USAF for UTx, El Paso.
Governor Noem has given Wyoming its wish. Within hours of the House’s approval of the Senate’s amendments, Governor Noem whipped out her pen and vetoed HB 1191. She calls on South Dakota to stand as an example to others:
Note that on CBD, Kristi Noem, a woman who professes loathing of the federal government and who picked one of the biggest special interest lobbyists in South Dakota to run her transition team, Noem says we should defer to a federal agency and ignore the big-money “special interests.”
What a spoiled little conceited brat she is for doing that to SDs farmers. Billie Sutton would NEVER had treated SDs farmers this way.
And SD becomes the joke of the Nation once again………
MN farmers have been cultivating Hemp since 2015. This is truly embarrassing the statement she put out.
Oh Noem. She states in her veto statement that she sees the bill as a Trojan horse, cranky arthritic grannies who are on high CBD pain cream, suggesting they are secretly pot heads who don’t love god enough. Or some such nonsense. Noem then points to marijuana proponents as the big players behind the popular support for the hemp bill. The Gov even suggests there are lobbyists supporting CBD! Heavens. There are at least three lobbyists. They are registered with a foreign drug company. Okay, they created a subsidiary in the US but GW Pharmaceuticals is US based Greenwich BioSciences who has the registered lobbyists. With Noem’s amendment recommendations, GW Pharma would have had a monopoly in South Dakota. That seems to be part of the reason Noem is having a hissy fit. Noem wants to turn the CBD using grannies into felons for using something they bought off of Amazon while giving GW Pharma exclusive rights to South Dakota. For what purpose Kristi?
We just ‘aren’t ready yet’ to go after our fair share of the National economic pie because liberals want to ‘undermine law enforcement.’
If there were a real man in Pierre, he’d grab her by the pussy and talk some sense into her – maybe even ‘start kissing’ her because he ‘just can’t help it.’ That would surely help her see the light.
Billie Sutton, hell. I don’t think Jackley would have vetoed it.
Dingbat Palin-Trump wannabe Governor has nothing to offer but a pretty face and Neanderthal logic.
I’ve never been a supporter of medicinal or recreational pot or hemp or CBD oil. But one of the reasons I’m hesitant about it is that there are lobbyists involved for all of this. That’s why I find it odd that Noem’s reasons for being against it comes down to a lack of lobbyists, other than for CBD oil: “No other type of hemp producer or processor retained paid lobbyists this Session.” Paid lobbyists seem to be what she values. Not facts, not what constituents think. Just paid lobbyists. That’s a really corrupt way of think about governing.
It’s not surprising, though. After being in the DC swamp, I expect Noem has no idea how to govern, other than to listen to a bunch of paid lobbyists tell you what to do. When there is a lack of those lobbyists, she has no clue.
It’s funny how every other state has figured out how to do this. Wisconsin figured it out, and that was under Scott Walker, who was almost as dumb as Noem. Most states are going ahead to create a state industry for a state market, not an interstate market. Noem is cutting off the ability of SD entrepreneurs to compete once the interstate market opens up. It’s the next little thing, not the next big thing, that is going to provide jobs in the long run. But why not engage in the typical South Dakota dithering, as with wind and solar power. It’s just pissing away opportunity and jobs. Who needs those?
Then there is the FDA canard. The reason FDA hasn’t approved any of these products is because there has been a federal ban on research on any of these products. And, really, FDA has been captured by Big Pharma. They put out all sorts of drugs of questionable benefit, or worse.
“Our focus must be on leading for South Dakota’s next generation.” (K Noem)
I don’t know if she realizes it, but the “next generation” is LEAVING SD for those more sinful states that aren’t trying to get back to the 1950s.
Noem’s veto statement is such a bunch of BS. CBD oil is no different than the dozens of other OTC products that crowd shelves in Walgreens and CVS stores.
The National Institutes of Health has been studying CBD oil and found it effective for several chronic conditions including anxiety, depression and others. It’s helped with arthritis too. NIH doesn’t have enough data yet to make a final recommendation to the FDA.
All the code words Noem used and that we hear regularly from the SDGOP mean the goal is to keep the state WHITE, ignorant, malleable, patriarchal and minimally educated.