I am ashamed of the Oregon Senate taking the "normalization" bate. When will this country smarten up about Ethan and his band of legalizers who want nothing in the long run but to get high on their weed. Ashamed, ashamed, ashamed.

By even including this proposed measure on your website, you are engaging in sensationalism in journalism. The amount of THC in hemp is so small that it is unlikely to lead to intoxication in amounts that an individual could reasonably smoke. It is therefore insignificant. Historically, hemp was a very important crop in the United States that was replaced by cotton only because it was cheaper to produce and harvest because of the use of slave labor. Hemp continues to be used throughout the world for the production of cloth and as a source of fuel. To imply that it is like marijuana is inaccurate and misleading. It miseducates the public and is a disservice to the formation of a potentially viable and vital source of revenue for Oregon as well as other states. We need to be very clear that hemp is NOT POT.

WOW, the story of the day! They already allow medicinal marijuana, so what's the difference? The pot culture is taking hold and this country will pay the price again in the long run, just like the damage the tobacco and alcohol industries have caused.

1. Maybe Verde can explain the logic behind this idea that "pot culture" will cause damage like tobacco (440,000 deaths/yr./USA)and alcohol (over 100,000). More likely legalizing cannabis will destroy the tobacco and alcohol addiction empires as we know them today by giving youngsters in pursuit of inspiration a true choice. Patrick Petit, a WHO spokesman, suggested tobacco now costs the USA economy $180 bil. a year (Feb. 7, 2008). 2. Diane, I see nothing wrong with JT discussing hemp, because its absence indirectly inflicts many health dilemmas such as the addiction to poisonous agricultural "medicines" used to control the cotton boll weevil etc. 3. Use of misleading slur words like "high" and "pot" does nothing to describe the uses of THC fairly and is, I fear, a tactic of "useful idiots" whose function is to protect the doomed hot-burning overdose cigarette industry.

...Just wanted to back up the guy above me... Cannabis and hemp are completely different, and the fact that we have to overturn a law from the 70s on a federal level just to grow one our the EARTHS best natural renewable resource and reap the rewards is SAD. When is the "pot" culture gonna grow a backbone and come out of the closet! Were here to stay, and to help, not HURT. they say freedom isn't FREE... Go plant a seed n grow a tree!

Thanks for the positive feedback. I said above why not use hemp, they are already using marijuana anyway, we might as well get good use out of hemp. It is an awesome rope making material. My point is, if they are concerned about the THC in Hemp, they have already legalized medicinal marijuana, so what's the difference? The other half my statement goes to the fact that so many of you continue to push this pro-pot adgenda and will not stop until it is decriminalized. I believe that is wrong. We should not allow another harmful substance to be abused like alcohol and tobacco.

I don't care how you live your life or what you do, until it effects the rights, freedoms and lives of others. Allowing healthy americans to use drugs is going to negatively impact society as a whole. And true our foods are another problem and you may know a few people that only smoke weed. But isn't smoked weed a problem in itself. But what about the rest of society? What is wrong with our society when people will go to great lengths to get high, get drunk and avoid sobriety. Allowing people to get stoned is not the answer we are looking for. We have more people killed in one year from DUI collisions than we lost in the War in Iraq from start to today. And these are sometimes innocent women and children, grandparents, preists and professors, doctors and artists, not warriors who are armed to protect themselves. Having freedome Dwayne comes with responsibility, and people like your friends that smoke weed can't handle responsibility, especially when they are under the influence. I am looking forward to the changes that are coming, I am sure my points will be proven. We shall reap the whirlwind of the pot adgenda.

Prohibition is the worst possible way to deal with any substance that is used by millions of people. Use is not abuse. Confusing the two words has cost us more in human tragedy than can possibly be said. In Portugal HIV, drug use, and criminality went DOWN when drugs were decriminalized. Regulation IS law and order. Prohibition is like poking your own eyes out. You have to be able to see something in order to moderate its use. I can't believe we are still having this argument!

Okay Brinna, how are we doing with the regulation of Alcohol? You are so smart, you can't pick a country with totally different culture and apply it here. Our culture is so diverse it will fail. We have more teenagers getting into DUI alcohol collisions right now and killing people and themselves and now you want to give them drugs too. Alcohol is easy to determine influence, polydrug use is very difficult to observe with an untrained eye. And you want to go there. If Portugal is so awesome, save your money and buy a fricken plane ticket. Live Sober!

This article is about allowing hemp production -- a crop for economic growth -- for one state. Hemp is not marijuana, and yet the government has yet to overturn the outdated law.