I, together with several other passionate advocates of the hemp industry have recently given evidence at the Standing Committee on Environment, Resources and Development investigating this industry in Tasmania. Industrial hemp, not to be confused with its marijuana cousin, has countless possibilities for value adding and the creation of jobs and boost to the economy.
So what is stopping it from taking off?
The main problem is the onerous amount of permits and licences etc required before a farmer can even contemplate growing it. There are 21 of these as opposed to only 12 for growing opium poppies. Yet industrial hemp has virtually no psychoactive ingredients while we all know how potent opium is! Furthermore every single part of the plant can be used, nothing is wasted and it can be grown in rotation with other crops. If planted in July it can be harvested in 90 days as a fibre crop followed by a second planting which can produce seed later in the season. It can be used to sequester carbon giving us lucrative carbon credits, remediate toxic land and improve saline soils while employing little chemicals and irrigation.
Why do we not have the laboratory facilities here to check the THC content of the crop? Instead it has to be sent at great expense to Western Australia. Why do we not have a processing plant for extracting the oil from the seed here? Instead it has to be sent to Victoria? There is already a portable harvester cum decorticator invented by Adrian Clarke which could be used here to expand into hemp fibre production. Why has David O’Byrne, the minister for Economic Development not investigated all these matters? We have science facilities and researchers at Utas why are we not utilising them?
Another very large hurdle is the fact that we are the only country in the western world not to allow hempseed and its oil for human consumption. Yet for decades other countries in the world have gained the benefit. At present Food Standards Australia and New Zealand is debating whether to lift this ban, which again is totally unnecessary because way back in 2002 it had already been approved by them but Federal and State Governments of the time knocked it back. We have wasted 10 years of possible production.
I also want to know why no one in government has obtained legal advice as to whether or not Australia is contravening the UN Convention, Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961 which states; However, the cultivation of the cannabis plant exclusively for industrial purposes (fibre and seed) or horticultural purposes is not subject to the convention. Governments, both Federal and State, have had 10 years since the last ruling to check this out. Why has it not been done? If we are indeed contravening this act we could immediately remove industrial hemp from the State’s Poisons Act and thus negate all these rules and regulations leaving the hemp industry to expand exponentially becoming a lifesaver for the Tasmanian economy.
Already many of the states in the USA have passed legislation enabling the cultivation of industrial hemp they are just waiting for their Drug Enforcement Agency to give the go ahead. Monsanto and other global companies are currently attempting to patent cannabis varieties. If we do not act now we shall lose any advantage we might have had.
The time for talking is over. We need action now.
