MINOT, N.D. -- Not surprisingly, two North Dakota farmers have lost their appeal in an attempt to secure approval to grow industrial hemp.
The North Dakota Legislature in 2007 made it legal to grow the crop in the state, and Wayne Hauge and David Monson received the first two licenses. But the licenses must first be approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which steadfastly maintains that hemp, a cousin of marijuana, is a drug and refuses to act on the license requests.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the case's dismissal by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, who threw the case out of court and suggested the farmers take their case to Congress.
So far, they've had no luck there either.
At a time when some states are pushing to legalize marijuana, and the federal government knows it can't adequately police the considerable number of small-scale marijuana growers, we fail to see why the feds have remained so rigid on its hemp opinion.
