Ron Paul: Hemp for Victory

America's most famous libertarian talks about making hemp legal again—and what budget cuts he and liberals can agree on.

Hemp/Wiki Commons image

Josh Harkinson
Mother Jones

Though the recession triggered the current budget stalemate in Congress, its roots can be traced back to Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and his quixotic bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. While his campaign didn't win a single primary, the Ron Paul Revolution minted a new generation of libertarian activists and his supporters helped lay some of the organizational and ideological groundwork for the tea party movement that swept in a raft of small-government legislators last fall, including Paul's son, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

For the first time since I began writing about Paul and his movement more than three years ago, he agreed to speak with me over the phone yesterday. The occasion was his desire to talk about his support for legalizing industrial hemp. Hemp, a non-psychoactive variety of cannabis famously grown by the likes of George Washington and promoted in the World War II propaganda film Hemp for Victory, is an envrionmentally-friendly source of fiber and protein. Paul is the author of several hemp legalization bills, the latest of which will be promoted in May during the second annual Hemp History Week.

Rep. Paul spoke with me about why the federal ban on the super-fiber is further evidence of "government stupidity," how liberals and libertarians can cooperate in the budget debate, and his plans for 2012.

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