Super excited to have this article of mine up on Huffington Post. An important issue that definitely needs more exposure.

Contrary to common perceptions, legalizing industrial hemp production is not a fringe issue supported only by a handful of bong-ripping stoners. Many of Tuesday’s protesters were big names in the hemp industry including Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps President David Bronner and Founder of Livity Outernational Hemp Clothing, Issac Nichelson. “We already have public support [for the issue],” says Adam Eidinger, Communications Director for Vote Hemp and one of Tuesday’s arrestees. Vote Hemp is currently supporting a bill in Congress, H.R. 1866, which would amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana and permit states to cultivate non-drug industrial hemp under state industrial hemp programs. “We’re hoping that by doing civil disobedience we’ll get some momentum in Congress,” says Eidinger.

In addition to activists, entrepreneurs across the world are changing the attitude towards industrial hemp. Ken Barker, CEO of Naturally Advanced Technologies, is working to ensure that industrial hemp is seen as a lucrative, viable resource that could change large industries, like textiles and paper, as we know them. NAT, a company operated out of Portland, Oregon, with its Crailar Fiber Technology, an enzyme treatment that makes hemp as soft as cotton, recently teamed up with industry giants Hanes and Georgia Pacific. But what is a pair of hemp underwear going to do to change the market? Actually, Hanesbrands Inc. happens to be among the world’s largest consumer apparel brands with $4.2 billion in sales last year. Think of all the cotton t-shirts that translates into. Switching the traditional material out for an equally soft hemp fiber gives the company the potential to exponentially expand the market for hemp textiles.

More here.