the !% solution

[EWerb at aol.com]

war on drugs

war on environment

war on consciousness too

oh yeah, we got war

beware the tides that wash upon the beaches of insanity 

hold to the sands of reason, they will drift us back to the source

-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

-  PRESS RELEASE -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

-   -   -



A story is breaking in Nicaragua that should reach the world stage

soon.  I just returned from trying to turn around an ugly situation, but

left without visible results.  I hope some fair treatment in the U.S.

and Canadian media can do some good.



The story starts with a group of Canadian investors who wanted to do

some good for Nicaragua.  Bankers, builders and merchants got together

and incorporated Hemp Agro International with offices in Vancouver,

Toronto and Managua.   Their website (http://www.hempagro.com )

describes their project and development they hoped to bring to the

tropics.



Nicaragua stagnates in the aftermath of series of natural disasters and

a U.S. financed civil war.  If there was ever a place to demonstrate

industrial hemp’s utility for sustainable economic development,

Nicaragua is it.  Hemp Agro planted 100 acres of Chinese hempseed and

hired a full-time professional botanist to supervise a crop improvement

program.  The company envisioned growing a series of hempseed crops,

pressing the seeds for oil, making products from hemp oil and utilizing

the stalks for particleboard.  The project was dependent on their

developing an improved tropical variety of seed hemp, something not

being attempted anywhere else in the world.



The project took on additional significance in the aftermath of

Hurricane Mitch.  Tens of thousands of homes need to be replaced.  The

relief agencies had a choice, cut down thousands of acres of trees for

building materials or accelerate the building of the hemp stalk

particleboard mill.  Most of the traditional crops suffered heavy damage

during the storm, Hemp Agro’s crop withstood the winds and rain.  Fifty

employees were busy harvesting bags full of hemp seed and building a

mountain of hemp stalks.



That’s when a U.S. DEA agent went ballistic.  One day before Christmas,

he caused an army of black hooded soldiers to move in and occupy the

field.  The men each posed for their picture in front of the large

signboard that marked the “Hemp Agro Nicaragua, S.A. Research and

Development Site.”  See:

http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/24-diciembre-1998/nacio
nal/nacional10.html



(This and the following links are in Spanish.  For those who do not

speak Spanish, paste these URL’s into

http://babelfish.altavista.com/cgi-bin/translate?  for a rough

translation into English.)  Then they began the long task of gathering

the crop in piles and setting them on fire.

http://www.elnuevodiaro.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/26-diciembre-1998/



Dr. Paul Wylie, the Canadian horticulturist who was hired by the group

to supervise the project, was feeling pretty satisfied with his work in

Nicaragua.  His employees were busy harvesting their first crop of

seeds.  He had learned quite a bit about growing hemp in the tropics.

Christmas was approaching and the harvesting would have to stop for the

holidays.  Dr. Wylie was in a taxi on his way back from the bank with

the payroll for his 50 workers.  A black car tried to force them off the

road.  A couple of motorcycles approached.  Both Wylie and his driver

thought they were being robbed.  The driver started to head up on the

curb to get away when bullets began tearing up the cab.   Wylie and the

driver were terrified until their attackers finally identified

themselves as police.  Wylie thought his troubles were over, but they

were just beginning.



Wylie was arrested and taken to the brig.  The same prison that former

dictator, Anastasio Somoza, used for his worst political enemies.  A

perfect movie set for an 1850's western, except it's an historic

military base.  Perched on the rim of the volcano, it's got an

incredible view.   Only the prisoners can't see a thing, they are kept

in dungeons underground.



In Nicaragua, you are considered guilty until proven innocent.  Forget

the right to counsel, forget the right to remain silent, this is not

America.  In the aftermath of his arrest, ten days of hearings took

place on the case, only Wylie had no right to attend or help his

attorneys prepare.  He was locked up tight.  Bail or bond were not

available.  Without an explanation of the charges, Wylie could not even

figure out what he was being accused of.  Thankfully, his wife was able

to bring him food every day.  Without family support like this,

prisoners starve.



Because of my expertise in hemp and my legal credentials, I was asked to

hurry down to Nicaragua and help the local attorneys the investors hired

to bring reason to the situation.  I was determined to prove to myself

and the court that this really was industrial hemp and not marijuana

that was being grown.  I also wanted to visit Dr. Wylie and see if I

could raise his spirits.



It took a court order to visit a prisoner in the brig, even for

attorneys and translators.  Armed with a court order that took days to

obtain, the guards still only allowed us a short, 15-minute visit.  It

was barely enough time for introductions, and no time to get to the

details of the case.  Still, Wylie was able to briefly describe his

research methodology.



Dr. Wylie described it as the George Washington Carver method of crop

improvement.  Start with seeds from as close to the original source as

possible.  (Hemp originated in S.E. Asia.)  This way you get the most

genetic diversity.  Plant a million plants.  From these, find the

thousand specimens that best match your breeding objectives.  From these

prime plants, plant a million seeds.  Plant the seeds from the best 1000

plants for five years and you will see spectacular improvements in the

breeding of that crop.



It was an ambitious attempt to create a tropical variety of low THC

industrial hemp, but the U.S. DEA got in the way.  Our drug warriors

refuse to recognize a difference between hemp and marijuana.  This is

why the DEA is being sued by a group of Kentucky farmers.  The U.S.

employed DEA agent looked at the plant in a microscope and saw the

glandular trichromes characteristic of Cannabis.  He concluded therefore

it must be marijuana, never considering that legal industrial hemp also

has these characteristic parts.



Nicaragua is in a vulnerable position.  It needs a massive influx of

foreign aid to begin its recovery from the civil war and Hurricane

Mitch.  Pressure from the U.S. diplomats forced the government to act

quickly.  One government minister after another came to court to

kowtowing to the foreign imperialists.  Politicians who praised the

project a week before began denying that they gave approval or claimed

that the investors lied to get their permits.

Ten days of hearings were held over the New Year’s holiday.  The tide

turned from whether a crime had been committed to which government heads

would roll for allowing this scandal to develop.



The scandal has occupied the front page in Managua’s three papers since

it broke the day before Christmas.  As the tide turned against the

defendants, the papers got more vicious.

http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/nacio
nal/nacional10.html



http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/nacio
nal/nacional5.html



http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/31-diciembre-1998/nacio
nal/nacional1.html



http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/naci
onal11.html



http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/naci
onal10.html



Monday’s paper featured one story about the trial

http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/04-enero-1999/nacional/naci
onal7.html



and another entitled “They Sell Crack in the Schools” about a government

report that ended up describing the 100 acre bust.

http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/04-enero-1999/nacional/naci
onal1.html



Each of the Canadians investors in the project are now charged with

major drug crimes.  They are subject to arrest in Canada and extradition

to Nicaragua under the reciprocal provisions of the treaties intended to

bring narcotrafficantes north for trial in the U.S. or Canada.  We are

not describing a typical bunch of criminals.   Hemp Agro International

was founded by established Canadian citizens who wanted to do some good

for the world.  As part of their many applications for permits from

various Nicaragua Agencies, the group provided the authorities with

paperwork certifying they each had clean criminal records in Canada.

Most had never thought about ever finding themselves in a criminal

court.



One problem confuses the issue for all involved.  For the position of

local manager, the investors chose to hire an historic figure, Oscar

Danilo Blandón.  Blandón is a central character in the C.I.A. drug

running scandal that was so well exposed by Gary Webb in the San Jose

Mercury News and in his recent book Dark Alliance.  Blandón was one of

the founders of the Contra party and remains well connected with the

power structure in Nicaragua. But to finance the contra armies in the

Reagan 1980’s, Blandón helped import tons of cocaine into America.  He

served almost two years in a federal prison.  Blandón holds an MBA, is

bilingual and became quite excited by the potential of what hemp can do

for his country.  He proved a natural choice for project manager.   But

the tide turned.  When the government and media branded this research

plot as the “largest marijuana bust in the history of Central America,”

Blandón’s checkered history seemed to be as proof that these gringos

were up to no good.



Hemp Agro had obtained more than twenty licenses for conducting business

in Nicaragua.  The Agricultural Ministry was informed as to their plans

and had issued licenses for the importation of Chinese seed.  Nothing

was hidden here, the company was doing all it could to enlist government

support for the planned particleboard mill and oil crushing mill.  The

government ministers were invited to see the field.  A large sign marked

its location.  The paperwork filed in Nicaragua gave the names of all of

the investors.  Would these steps be taken for a field of marijuana?



The defense lawyers decided to put me on the stand to give expert

testimony about hemp.  It was a frustrating experience.   “We call it

‘going to Vietnam’” the attorneys told me in an effort to prepare me for

the hearing.  “It’s brutal, ugly and take no prisoners.”   They were

right.  The usual civil behavior of attorneys that I am used to was not

present there at all.  It was war.



We prepared more than 100 pages of journal articles translated into

Spanish for the court.   But because these were not originals, they were

not admissible.  Court was held in a cramped office lined by desks with

old manual typewriters.  It proceeded slowly because a secretary needed

type a live transcript.  In my case, since my Spanish was not up to

speed, a translator did his best to make meaning of my technical

presentation, phrase by phrase.  It crawled slowly.  When a question was

posed to me, the transcript would be made, the secretary would read it

back as my translator put it in English, I would answer pausing for the

translation and the typing.  It dragged on until 7:00 p.m. on New Years

Day.



The courtroom was crowed with newspaper reporters and photographers who

would crowded in to snap close-ups of my face.  Nobody was introduced

and I was not allowed to ask any questions.   When I was done the

lawyers commenced arcane legal arguments centering on why I did not

present an embossed identification of myself as an attorney and

botanist.    The judge kept my bar card.   I am used to court, but this

was something else. It was an ambush.



I was able to describe for the court the differences between hemp and

marijuana.  I explained the difference in the way the crop was grown and

harvested.  The evidence was that the employees were beating the

harvested plants on a rail “like beans.”  This was clearly grown and

harvested seed hemp and was totally inconsistent with the methods of

planting and harvesting marijuana.  I explained that contrary to the

assertion of the DEA, that international law gave Nicaragua sovereignty

to decide the question for itself.  “Cannabis grown for the purpose of

industrial use” was excepted from the treaty provisions.   A limit on

the level of THC in the crop was up to Nicaragua to define.

Switzerland, for example, has not set a limit.



 I described the market for the seeds and why the oil was so special.  I

explained that the test performed by the DEA incapable of discriminating

hemp and marijuana.  DEA agents were not violating the sovereignty of

Canada or Switzerland, yet they felt at home running roughshod over our

Central American neighbor.  I explained why the researchers had to go to

China for their seed, nothing close was available in Europe or America.

The low-THC European varieties were for a far different latitude and

climate and would not work in Nicaragua.  Besides, they are all so

protected by plant patents, registrations and restrictive contracts that

the seeds would have to be bought every year.   This means they would

never acclimate to the Nicaraguan growing conditions and would be too

unreliable to anchor an industry.  China has grown hemp for seed for

thousands of years.  The people of the region where the seeds originated

do not even have a concept of the use of the hemp plant as a drug.



I told the judge of the 22 web sites I found that sold marijuana seeds.

The minimum price offered was $5 per seed.  At 60,000 seeds per

kilogram, a kilo of seeds would be worth $300,000.  The 15,000-kilogram

container shipment from China would be 4.5 billion dollars if it were

marijuana.  I said it was impossible and crazy to assume that this much

seed could be marijuana.  Besides, I told the court, this particular

shipment of seeds was examined by the U.S. Customs while the container

was being transshipped in Long Beach, California.  The container was

emptied for a DEA inspection.  Only hempseeds were found.   They

released the shipment to go forward to its destination in Nicaragua.



I described what a hemp economy could do for Nicaragua in terms of

employment and self-sufficiency.  I gave good references for the

Canadian defendants whom I had met.  I tried to help, but it felt like I

was talking to air.  Yesterday, the judge found probable cause to hold

the defendants up for charges.  Dr. Wylie will have to languish in jail

while the government works to extradite the other defendants from Canada

and the U.S.  Once arrested and returned “to the scene of the crime”,

the defendants will have no more rights than Dr. Wylie did upon his

arrest.  Most of the defendants were only inactive investors in the

project.  They have never set foot in Nicaragua.  Now they will have to

hire attorneys, fight extradition and suffer having their reputations

smeared around the world.



Nicaragua seems adept at shooting itself in the foot on a regular

basis.  What started out as an exciting project to bring a new industry

to a place it was truly needed, has now turned into an international

scandal.  It’s not just the investors who are affected.  For Nicaragua

to progress it will need help from foreign industries and

industrialists, foreign technology and technologists.  When the story of

how Dr. Paul Wylie was treated for his efforts in Nicaragua is spread in

the international community, it will be hard to get others to commit to

even visiting the country.  The real losers are the local compesinos who

stood to gain steady employment in the project.  As it is, the

government agents kept the $5000 payroll they seized from Dr. Wylie.

The workers missed their Christmas pay.



There are no winners in this story.  The toll will continue as long as

our government obscures the difference between hemp and marijuana and

its agents run roughshod over the rights of the people of Central

America.





I am trying to get some help spreading the word on this story.  If the

government spreads it, it will be all about marijuana.  The word hemp

will not make it into the story.  I have to come out aggressively to get

the word to the media that there is a lot more behind this "bust" than

meets the eye.  Anyone with suggestions is welcome to write or call.



For more information, please contact Don Wirtshafter (740) 662-4367

or Grant Sanders, Hemp Agro International   (905) 681-1110





--

Don Wirtshafter, Ohio Hempery Inc.     Products the Earth Can Afford

Call or write for our free catalog:      Order Line 1-800-BUY-HEMP

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