Six Farmers Arrested For Planting Hemp At DEA Office

Six farmers were arrested last week for attempting to plant hemp seeds on the lawn of federal Drug Enforcement Administration offices.

 BISMARCK, N.D. — Six farmers were arrested last week for attempting to plant hemp seeds on the lawn of federal Drug Enforcement Administration offices.

Among the five was Wayne Hauge, a 51-year-old grandfather who grows garbanzo beans in northwestern North Dakota

Hemp, the 20 farmers attending the planting event, said that hemp has none of the mind-altering chemicals found in its cousin, the marijuana plant.

“My interest here was to show that hemp is just a crop. Hemp is not a drug,” Hauge told The Associated Press after five hours in jail.

A federal judge dismissed Hauge’s case against the DEA for not approving his state license to grow industrial hemp in 2007.

The judge suggested that the farmer take his plea to Congress.

Products made with hemp such as soap are already imported into the United States.

“He dug a better hole than anyone,” David Bronner, president of Escondido, Calif.-based Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, said of Hauge after they planted about 1,000 hemp seeds on taxpayer property.