RALEIGH Perry Parks, a 68-year-old former Vietnam helicopter pilot, is relentless in his campaign to convince the N.C. legislature to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

He doesn’t just walk the halls of the legislature, often attired in his old National Guard uniform. To publicize his cause, he agreed to be photographed smoking a bong – a picture seen on national television and in newspapers as far as way as Japan.

“I call it the hit heard around the world,” Parks quips. Parks has a habit of turning up at the side of notable political leaders, whether it be Gov. Bev Perdue, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis or President Barack Obama.

He has twice convinced the N.C. Democratic Party’s executive committee to pass a resolution supporting legalizing marijuana for medical reasons, although party leaders seem skittish about the issue.

But it will be far harder to convince the legislature to do so. A bill legalizing medical marijuana did not get very far last session when the Democrats were in control. The measure, sponsored by state Rep. Kelly Alexander, a Charlotte Democrat, likely faces an even more difficult road now that Republicans are in power.

But that has not deterred Parks, who believes that if he just has a chance to sit down and explain his position, people will come around to his point of view.

He is doing this, Parks says, for his fellow veterans, many of whom are dealing with chronic pain, and have found that marijuana provides relief.

“I have veterans that call me every day who are being arrested or being kicked out of VA clinics because we don’t have a state law,” Parks says.

Inhaling marijuana provides Parks with relief from his pain from severe degenerative disc disorder and arthritis.

But while veterans are his primary motivation, the bill that has been introduced would make medical marijuana available to anyone who meets the medical guidelines. In December, Parks was elected president of the N.C. Cannabis Patients Network, a group that counts 1,000 members.

Second attempt
This is the second session that a bill legalizing marijuana for medical purposes – but not legalizing it generally – has been introduced in the state legislature. Last session, the bill got a hearing in the House Health Committee, but this time it has not gotten that far, and is stuck in the House Rules Committee, a burial ground for bills.

Rep. Stephen LaRoque of Kinston, co-chairman of the Rules Committee, said he would hold a hearing if the N.C. Medical Society expressed an interest in it. But the group, which represents doctors, has not endorsed the bill.

Alexander said much of the political and medical establishment is wary of endorsing the legislation, although privately many will say they know people who have been helped by the medical use of marijuana.

“Everyone in the world of officials is afraid of it,” Alexander said. “That is why open discussion and open dialogue is important.

“Some people have what I call a Cheech and Chong view of the issue,” Alexander said. “Frankly, if you look at it through that lens it makes it more difficult to take it seriously and makes it more difficult to listen to the evidence out there about its medical efficacy.”

Alexander said there are 20 ailments on which medical marijuana has been proven to have some positive effect, including helping those undergoing chemotherapy treatment. And he cited a recent article published by the National Institute of Health that suggested that cannabis can play some role in slowing the growth of cancer tumors.

The bill would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for a number of prescribed ailments and conditions such as cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Crohn’s disease, hypertension, severe nausea and epilepsy. The state Department of Agriculture would oversee a licensing system for growing marijuana.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. But no state in the more socially conservative South allows it.

Parks says he gets it. He is career military, a resident of small-town North Carolina, and a Christian. “This stuff totally removed my pain,” Parks says of the marijuana. “I couldn’t believe it. I prayed about it. My preacher told me I was still wrong.”

Parks spent 28 years in the military, as a chief warrant officer 4, flying helicopters in Vietnam and later with the National Guard.

During his 30 months in Vietnam, Parks said he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Stars and was awarded the Air Medal 31 times.

He went through a difficult period after Vietnam with drugs, but got his life back together, married and raised a family, eventually settling in Rockingham. He became a corporate pilot for Murphy Farms and worked as a pilot examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration.

He has also had a bit of fame. He was one of five American soldiers who served in World War II, Vietnam or the Middle East featured in the film, “The Good Soldier,” which won an Emmy last year. Parks irritates some veterans in the legislature. Rep. Grier Martin, a Democrat from Raleigh, who is a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserves, has told him it is inappropriate for him to wear his National Guard uniform while lobbying. And to some, his aggressive advocacy at times crosses the line.

Earlier this session, he crashed a news conference held by former Gov. Jim Hunt on the subject of saving Smart Start, the early childhood advocacy program. As puzzled reporters looked on, Parks said legalizing medical marijuana would help bring extra revenue to the state to help save programs like Smart Start.

Parks says he is driven by the stories of his fellow vets, who are facing discrimination as they seek relief from their pain.

“I’m just persistent because it’s such a disgrace that it’s considered criminal in this state,” Parks said, “and in other states everything is fine.” Source.

September 13, 2010 – In Asheville, N.C., a home built with thick hemp walls was completed this summer and two more are in the works.

Dozens of hemp homes have been built in Europe in the past two decades, but they’re new to the United States, says David Madera, co-founder of Hemp Technologies, a company that supplied the mixture of ground-up hemp stalks, lime and water.

The industrial hemp is imported because it cannot be grown legally in this country — it comes from the same plant as marijuana.

Its new use reflects an increasing effort to make U.S. homes not only energy-efficient but also healthier. Madera and other proponents say hemp-filled walls are non-toxic, mildew-resistant, pest-free and flame-resistant.

“There is a growing interest in less toxic building materials, says Peter Ashley, director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control.

“The potential health benefits are significant,” he says, citing a recent study of a Seattle public housing complex that saw residents’ health improve after their homes got a green makeover.

The U.S. government has not taken a “systemic approach” to studying chemicals in homes and instead addresses problems such as asbestos, lead, arsenic and formaldehyde only after people get sick, says Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, a private research group.

She says green building so far has focused mostly on the environment, not the health of the people inside.

Ashley agrees that federal attention has been “sporadic,” but says an interagency group began meeting last year to tackle the issue more broadly. He says HUD is funding more research on the health and environmental benefits of eco-friendly homes.

Some green-rating programs, such as the one run by the private U.S. Green Building Council, give points for indoor air quality.

“We are taking the next step in green building,” says Anthony Brenner, an artist who designed Asheville’s first hemp home. “We’re trying to develop a system that’s more health-based.”

Brenner says he’s been searching for non-toxic materials because he wants to build a home for his 9-year-old daughter, Bailey, who has a rare genetic disorder that makes her extremely sensitive to chemicals. “We have to keep her away from anything synthetic,” he says, or she’ll have seizures.

He says a hemp home can be affordable, even though importing hemp makes it more expensive than other building materials, because skilled labor is unnecessary and hemp is so strong that less lumber is needed.

The hemp mixture — typically four parts ground-up hemp to one part lime and one part water — is placed inside 2-foot-by-4-foot wall forms. Once it sets, the forms are removed. Although it hardens to a concrete-like form, wood framing is used for structural support.

“This is like a living, breathing wall,” Madera says. Hemp absorbs carbon dioxide and puts nitrogen into the soil, so it’s good for the environment, he says.

Alex Wilson, executive editor of Environmental Building News, says hemp can be grown with minimal use of chemicals and water. He says it has a midlevel insulating value (R-2 per inch) but is usually installed in a thick enough wall system to make it appropriate for all but the most severe climates.

The mixture, “Tradical Hemcrete,” has not previously been used in U.S. homes, but in 2008 it went into a community center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Badlands, S.D., as well as a small chapel and pottery studio near Houston, says Mario Machnicki, managing director of American Lime Technology, a Chicago company that imports hemp from the United Kingdom.

Asheville’s second hemp home will be finished in about six weeks, says builder Clarke Snell of the Nauhaus Institute, a non-profit group of designers, engineers, developers and others interested in sustainable urban living.

Snell says the home, which has 16-inch-thick walls, is airtight and energy-efficient. He expects it to meet rigorous Passive House Institute standards, which call for homes to use up to 90% less energy than regular ones.

“On the coldest day in winter, the body heat of 10 people should heat the home,” he says. “We’re basically building a European home.”

Snell says his group will own the 1,750-square-foot house, and its engineer will live there for a couple of years to monitor energy use.
He doesn’t know how much it will cost because, as a prototype, it was built with donations and volunteer labor.

The owners of the first hemp home say it cost $133 a square foot to build, not including land and excavation.

“That’s pretty remarkable” for a custom home in Asheville, which is a pricey area, says Karon Korp, a writer who moved into the house in July.

Korp says she and her husband, Russ Martin wanted primarily an energy-efficient home. They’re not particularly sensitive to chemicals, but they were drawn to Brenner because of his modern aesthetic and green building enthusiasm. She says they’re thrilled their house is made of a renewable, toxic-free material and hope it sets an example for the nation.

“Hemp could replace tobacco if it were legalized,” says Martin, Asheville’s GOP mayor from 1993 to 1997. He says some area tobacco farms have gone bust.

Martin says they have spent less than $100 a month so far to cool the home, which has 3,000 square feet plus a garage. It has 12″ thick walls, Energy Star appliances, dual-flush toilets, high-performance windows and LED lights. Korp says they might add a windmill, because the house sits atop a mountain.

They say they have fantastic views. “We seen the sun rise,” he says, and she adds, “and the sun set.” Source.