Attached are our 1998 letter to OMB along with our two administrative petitions, one filed with USDA and the other with DEA, the single memorandum we filed in support of both petitions, our proposed USDA and DEA rules, and the DEA s letter denying our petition. We believe that the United States economy, environment, and national security would greatly benefit from the re-introduction of industrial hemp in domestic agriculture and manufacturing. Because cultivation and processing of industrial hemp requires little or no use of pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides, introducing the crop as a substitute for other crops will improve our environment. And, use of fast-growing, durable industrial hemp for making paper products will reduce the need to deplete our forests. Indication of the value of industrial hemp is found in a 1994 Executive Order listing hemp as a strategic crop essential to national security.
Today there are numerous indications of the economic promise of industrial hemp.
Another key market for industrial hemp is in biocomposites. Johnson Controls, Inc., today is producing automobile door panels that are 25 percent industrial hemp in its Holland, Michigan plant. Indeed, prominent U.S. and foreign businesses are already selling U.S. consumers a range of products made from hemp grown abroad. Other nations around the world permit industrial hemp growth and are fast developing cultivation and processing methods. Under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Pub.