Which party is willing to root for hemp?

Feb 04, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

In early 2016, with the loss of the Venezuelan market for rice and with sugar on the decline, Dr. Turhane Doerga made a valiant effort to introduce hemp as an alternative crop for Guyanese by forming the Guyana Hemp Society.
According to Dr. Doerga, hemp is ten times more profitable than rice and offers a line of manufacturing industries for wealth and job creation, since over 100 products are associated with hemp.
President Granger and his Coalition government in their “wait for oil” mode, never lend an ear or entertain the idea of getting hemp as an alternative crop for Rice and Sugar Cane, despite the fact that over 30 Countries around the world were cultivating hemp in contravention of the UN charter that criminalizes hemp as a psychoactive drugs.
It is no secret that several researches have been done to show that hemp, despite containing 2 percent THC, is a different plant from Marijuana, and does not produce a high if smoked.
Hemp has a high CBD (canobinoid) content. Recently, it was discovered that CDB oil is the newest but expensive painkiller of choice, because of its non-addictive mode of action – adding value to the lucrativeness of hemp cultivation.
Despite all the research, the DEA refuses to take hemp off its list of psychoactive drugs. The presence of the DEA in Guyana is suggestive that the government could have been instructed to look the other way on the hemp issue – considering that the president had refused to meet with the Guyana Hemp Society and another high-ranking official, in a lacklustre fashion, had asked members of the hemp society to find out what the Government has to do to allow them to cultivate hemp.
Telling the truth could have been conducive to making the Government appear as a puppet. The dynamic of change is now calling for legislation to stop custodial sentencing for possession of small portions of the real deal (Marijuana)- why shouldn’t farmers be allowed to cultivate hemp for commercial benefits?
This is 2020, general elections are weeks away, the oil has begun to flow, but with the lopsided contract we would only be receiving 14.5 percent on our share of the oil until some US$10 billion in capital investment is repaid.
At 14.5 percent, there will be nothing to trickle into the rural areas where sugar and rice will remain in crises and the skill of the people is in their hands to grow crops. There is no shortage of examples where people in oil-producing countries remain in abject poverty.
Moreover, the burning of fossil fuel is identified as the largest contributor to global warming. As the world seeks to develop clean alternative energy sources, oil prices may decline in the future, reducing our revenues on oil. We need to strengthen our agricultural base by introducing a new profitable crop. Hemp is the answer.
The time is right for the people in the agricultural belt and the country as a whole, to call on the contesting parties to commit to introduce hemp as an alternative crop for farmers. Let’s see which party is willing to put hemp on their manifesto!
Rudolph Singh

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