Some people recently wrote in to the Auburn Reporter to express their opinion concerning Auburn’s intent to soon choose a flower to represent the city.

While I agree that government officials getting together to pick a flower – and the subsequent change in various documents and signs around the city – is a waste of money, I see this as an opportunity to start a new crop in Washington state and stop importing from Canada.

You need flowers to get seeds, and Auburn’s flower should produce the most nutritious seed known to man. Auburn’s new city flower should be industrial hemp. Just walk into any grocery store around Auburn, it should be pretty easy for you to find the hemp milk. Unlike soy milk, it is made with hemp seed/nuts that have more omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids than flax seeds.

There is no point in having a city flower whose cultivation is forbidden, so we have to do two things here. First, choose the industrial hemp flower as Auburn’s official city flower. Second, go to sensiblewashington.org and sign up to volunteer. Also look for Sensible Washington on facebook. This is the best way to get a petition and help collect signatures to allow Auburn’s city flower to grow free in Washington once again.

– Jared Allaway