Misunderstanding and re-discovery.

PositionSTATE of the STATE

Though Colorado Proposition 64 legalized the growing and usage of marijuana and hemp under certain conditions, the products remain illegal on the federal level. That's the reasoning Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith used to prevent hemp plants and germinating seeds from being sold at the 2nd Annual Northern Colorado Hemp Expo held in Loveland in April.

Taking a hard line on the plant, according to event organizer Morris Beegle, "The Sheriff's position is that it's still Schedule 1 and illegal on the federal level, and he can't tell the difference between a hemp plant and a marijuana plant," or the seeds, Beegle says.

With all this controversy, it's easy to ask, "How did we get here?" For a quick recap:

UNFOLDING HISTORY

18th Century: Thomas Jefferson deemed hemp an essential crop and the first drafts of the U.S. Constitution were written on hemp paper.

Late 18th-early 19th Centuries: Americans, like Betsy Ross, used hemp to make flags.

1930s: Hemp champions claim that, powerful interests from the cotton, timber, steel, oil and other industries lobbied fiercly against hemp production. As processing inventions similar to the cotton gin began coming on-line, "They essentially made it uneconomical to grow hemp by getting Washington to pass a tax on hemp production," says Zev Paiss, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Hemp Association.

World War II era (1939-1945): Hemp was one of the most widely grown and used...

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