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Even a dead fish can go with the flow. -- Jim Hightower
January's Lowdown
Yes we can manage this country without the corporate priesthood--the cooperative movement shows us how
We're being told by today's High Priests of Conventional Wisdom that everyone and everything in our economic cosmos necessarily revolves around one dazzling star: the corporation. This heavenly institution, the HPCW explain, has such financial and political mass that it is the optimal force for organizing and directing our society's economic affairs, including the terms of employment and production.
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Drug war stupidity
How stupid is America's War on Drugs? Ask Jean Laprise, a Canadian farmer who raises industrial hemp.
Hemp is a cousin of marijuana, though hemp can't make you high because it contains so little of THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gives marijuana its oomph. Instead, hemp is used to make a vast array of products—from paper to building materials, from food to biodegradable plastic, from beer to birdseed.
Birdseed is what got Laprise in trouble with America's Drug Enforcement Agency. He shipped to a U.S. customer a 20 ton load of birdseed that included hemp seed in the mix. The hemp seed is high in nothing but protein and is good for birds and people, but the DEA had the whole load impounded, saying it contained a trace of the dreaded THC.
Let me give you three numbers. Marijuana must have at least 4% THC to get anyone high. Industrial hemp is only 1% THC, so you can't get high on it. Laprise's birdseed mix tested out with a THC content of 0.0014%. Even a bird couldn't get a buzz on that.
To compound this raw stupidity, the DEA demanded that Laprise recall 17 loads of hemp based products he had earlier shipped to the U.S.This recall included hemp seed used by Nutiva, a California company that makes granola bars. As a result, Nutiva had to suspend production, forcing a layoff at the company.