Hemp legalization closer to reality?

California is ready to grow green

When most people think about hemp, they don't realize that hemp and marijuana are not the exact same plant, but very different variations of a related plant.

Nonetheless, marijuana might might just be hemp's best friend.

With a growing movement in California to legalize marijuana, it seems hemp legalization cannot be that far behind if California voters make marijuana legal via proposition in 2010.

Where's the hemp: Santa Anita Mall

Et tu Vans?

I really need a new pair of street shoes. So I thought I would give the mall in Santa Anita one last chance to find some hemp shoes.

I've stopped here in the past searching for organic clothing - whether hemp, organic cotton, or bamboo in the past. Maybe its the economy, but I didn't see hardly anything that was a weed - anything organically grown.

Even worse, the Vans store - which has normally offered some hemp shoes - didn't offer any hemp shoes any longer. All of them, they told me, have been shipped to the outlet stores.

Bummer, unless a Vans outlet store is in your vicinity.

Anyway, makes me think that I'm going to have to pick up those hemp shoes from Neo 39 before they are also gone.

My future black hemp shoes at Neo 39?

Has YT found what he's looking for?

Found several pairs of hemp shoes at Neo 39, but only one of them was black - a pair of Saucony's. Sure wish I could find a wider selection of hemp shoes in Old Town.

Id stop by the Vans store again, but I'm still mad after my last Vans shopping trip. Of course, this trip wasn't much better. Fricken sale's people don't even know they have hemp.

Nonetheless, I think the Sauconys might work, but I have to come back and try them on with shorts.

Do you wear weed? Check out more of YT's hemp adventures at Iwearweed.com.

Stinky hemp shoes

Smell resistance?

I have sweaty feet, and sweat means stink. Thus, I thought that hemp shoes might alleviate this nuisance. Unfortunately, one pair of my hemp shoes is the stinkiest pair I currently own. Now, perhaps, this is much more about the sole of the shoe, which is not made of hemp, and it has nothing to do with the hemp at all.

Moreover, I have a few other pairs of hemp shoes as well that are not stinky. Nonetheless, I've noticed nothing about my hemp shoes that makes me believe that hemp shoes fight foot odor better than any other kind of shoe.

Still, that was a minor and insignificant reason for my hemp shoe purchases.

Wanted: Black hemp shoes

Should I get them?

Damn it.

I went to the Vans store in Old Town Pasadena to check out some shoes. They had this new pair of hemp shoes, but they were brown and I'm looking for black shoes.

So, I asked the salesperson if they had them in black. "I don't think they make them in black," she replied.

Thus, today, I almost bought these brown hemp shoes at the Vans Store. Thankfully, I got caught up at Barneys in Old Town Pasadena and had a few too many.

Fortunately, however, I came home and checked out the Van's website and found these black hemp shoes.

Anybody else shopping for black hemp shoes?

Hemp Legalization: Let's grow up America

The dangers of hemp?

These are some of my hemp shoes. Speaking of hemp shoes, I just saw a really cool pair yesterday at the Van's Store in Old Town Pasadena.

Anyway. So, let's roll some hemp and smoke it.

Feel better?

No. In fact you probably have a headache because hemp is not a drug. Hemp has very little THC, the ingredient in marijuana that makes it a drug worthy of regulation.

Hemp, on the other hand, is used for clothes, food, car parts, etc. and on and on. Hemp is an industrial product. Yet, it is still illegal just because it looks like marijuana. So, only looks matter? Not reality?

Certainly there have been relatively recent studies, such as the infamous University of Wisconsin hemp-hammering study that essentially claims hemp might not be very useful today compared to other crops.

Perhaps. Minimally, nonetheless, hemp is a great organic product that is conducive to other organic crops, minimally. Even the UW study acknowledges that fact.

The point is, legalize it and let's see what happens. It's already a billion+ industry. Yet, American companies have to import hemp because it looks like marijuana?

Let's grow up America, or are we still just skin deep?

Ron Paul seeks to legalize hemp

Join our hemp legalization campaign

Just watched CNBC's PowerLunch coverage of Ron Paul's attempt to legalize hemp farming in the US. Let's do it people. I'll be posting a link later to the CNBC video segment.

Join our campaign to legalize hemp