Hemp activists and supporters from all over the Midwest met this past weekend at Iowa State in hopes of advancing the legalization of both marijuana and hemp.

At the annual Midwest Regional Hemp Activists meeting, activists discussed pending legislation in the Iowa Legislature that will allow ISU to research the feasibility of hemp as an agricultural crop for Iowa and for medicinal marijuana research to be done by the University of Iowa.

Activists said they need to work on gaining name recognition and increasing exposure and of supporters to advance legalization of both hemp and marijuana.

The activists said medicinal marijuana has growing support from: numerous scientific and medical journals and associations, a Nobel Laureate in chemistry, and physicians and patients across the country.

Industrial hemp has growing support from environmentalists, farmers, entrepreneurs and industry, activists said.

“Small activists can’t do much except on the local level. We need spokesmen with name recognition,” said Tim Davis, an activist from Minnesota.

Carl Olsen, of Iowa NORML, said his Web site is a good way to expose the issues.

“The NORML Web site is one of the most accessed sites on the Internet,” Olsen said. The Web site’s address is http://www.calyx.com/~olsen/NORML/norml.html.

Activists also discussed other bills in the Iowa Legislature, including one that would repeal mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders and another that opposes revocation of licenses for positive employee drug testing.

Participants, who took part in a round-table discussion while students and members of the community visited the information booths, also discussed issues surrounding Fully Informed Jury Associations.

FIJA is a national jury education organization lobbying lawmakers to write jury nullification into state law. Nullification is instituted when a jury ignores applicable laws or the judge’s instructions and votes its conscience to acquit a defendant.

They said there have been cases where jurors have been held in contempt of court for hanging a jury while voting their consciences. They discussed a case involving a University of Colorado researcher who served a 90-day sentence for being the only dissenting juror in a drug possession case.

Many activists said they consider moving to regions that accept marijuana and hemp more than the Midwest.

Because of legislative and ballot initiative measures in California, Arizona and several others states, growth and use of the plant is more acceptable and legal in some places.

Also discussed at the meeting were issues surrounding benefits of hemp legalization, practices of the “war on drugs,” changes needed in drug education, opposition for mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug offenders, the legal classification of cannabis and the disparity of the justice system.

People interested in marijuana or hemp legalization and related issues can contact Ames NORML.