We hope to educate people from all walks of life about hemp’s amazing uses and benefits. We believe that if more people knew about all the amazing things that industrial hemp could do to create a healthier and sustainable economy, healthier and more energy efficient homes, thousands of non-toxic products, and healthier air, water, food and soil — that Americans would come together to support industrial hemp farming in every state in the US.
It’s important to know that despite there being legislation in some states making it legal, a permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is still required to plant it. However, the DEA continues to make it impossible to get a permit. For a complete resource about industrial hemp issues and facts, updates on legislation, events nationwide and all the things you can do to help bring hemp back to the U.S. go to www.votehemp.com
To date, nine states have legalized the cultivation and research of industrial hemp, including: Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, and West Virginia. However, farmers must get permission from the DEA in order to grow hemp, because federal law still prohibits cultivation, or they face the possibility of federal charges or property confiscation, despite having a state-issued permit.
What can you do to help with the national effort to legalize industrial hemp farming?
• Support our film. Our goal it to complete the documentary by 2012 so then we can then work with community partners and media outreach organizers to get the film seen across the nation.
Contribute here
• Write letters to your legislators and National officials including President Obama and Attorney General Holder. http://capwiz.com/votehemp/home/
• Buy hemp products! Every dollar you spend on products made with hemp is a vote supporting the need for the U.S. growing here.
• Sign up for News and Updates from organizations like www.votehemp.com,
• Celebrate Hemp History Week: The 2nd Annual Hemp History Week is taking place May 2nd-8th, 2011. The sponsors and supporters of Hemp History Week include Vote Hemp, the Hemp Industry Association, and leading hemp manufacturers, natural foods retailers, celebrities, farmers, historians and hemp advocates. “Hemp History Week is all about celebrating the goodness of hemp”
What can you do to help with the national effort to make homes and products less toxic?
Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families is a nationwide effort to pass smart federal policy to protect us from toxic chemicals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, has found flame retardants PBDEs—a group of suspected neurotoxicants—in the blood of over 95 percent of Americans that have been tested. These same chemicals are found in umbilical cord blood and breast milk. A recent UCSF study found 43 different chemicals in nearly every pregnant women tested—including flame retardants, plasticizers, phenols, perfluorinated chemicals and perchlorate—and we know this is only a fraction of the chemicals circulating in our bodies.
When Congress passed the original Toxic Substances Control Act, it allowed 62,000 chemicals to continue to be used without requiring testing to determine whether they were safe for human health. Since then, the government has regulated just five of those original chemicals. Meanwhile, for the 22,000 chemicals introduced since 1976, manufacturers have provided little or no information to the Environmental Protection Agency about potential health and environmental impacts.
From Frances Beinecke’s Blog. Testifying to Congress: It’s Time to Keep Our Families Safe from Toxic Chemicals (http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/)
Tell Congress the time is long overdue to protect Americans from the myth and dangers of “better living through science.”
• Support updating the Toxic Substances and Control Act.
For more information, please email us at:
crew@bringingithomemovie.com
