Last week, House Representative Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas who is also running for president in 2008, was joined by 9 Democratic co-sponsors in introducing House Resolution 1009, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007. The bill would "remove restrictions on the cultivation of non-psychoactive industrial hemp." Paul gave his reasons for sponsoring the bill:

It is indefensible that the United States government prevents American farmers from growing this crop. The prohibition subsidizes farmers in countries from Canada to Romania by eliminating American competition and encourages jobs in industries such as food, auto parts and clothing that utilize industrial hemp to be located overseas instead of in the United States. [...] By passing the Industrial Hemp Farming Act the House of Representatives can help American farmers and reduce the trade deficit — all without spending a single taxpayer dollar.

Currently, industrial hemp is illegal because the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) doesn't distinguish between different varieties of Cannabis sativa. The variety used for recreation and medicine contains large amounts of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, while industrial hemp contains almost none. The requirement in Canada, where industrial hemp farming is legal, is that the leaves and flowering parts of the plant contain 0.3% or less THC.

Long story short: Smoking industrial hemp is about as psychoactive as smoking organic arugula. (To my knowledge, no research has been done on the effects of smoking non-organic, chemical-laden and pesticide-laced arugula. It's probably not a very good idea.)

The major concern from the DEA's perspective seems to be that farmers can or will grow other, more lucrative varieties of Cannabis hidden among the industrial plants. If your answer to that is, "So what?", well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. VoteHemp.com's more articulate answer is threefold: Industrial hemp is grown differently, needs to be harvested at a different time, and cross-pollination between the different varieties would reduce the THC potency of the marijuana plants, making it a poor business decision to try it in the first place.

Why is hemp an environmentally friendly crop? There are three main areas where hemp is an attractive alternative to the current status quo: clothing, paper, and energy. Hemp is often discussed as a replacement for cotton in clothing and other products. In the United States, more than 25% of all pesticides are sprayed on cotton fields. Hemp grows well without pesticides and herbicides. Hemp also yields three times more fiber per acre than cotton.

For paper production, an acre of hemp yields more pulp per acre than forests. Unlike trees, hemp can also be harvested each year, leaving what's left of the earth's forests to work their carbon sequestration magic.

Finally, hemp seeds contain about 30% oil. That hemp oil, aside from being edible, can be used for biofuel production.

More industrial hemp resources:

North American Industrial Hemp Council
Vote Hemp
Andy Kerr on Industrial Hemp