Lynn and Judy Osburn, where are you?

If, like me, you have perused the source material available on-line in regards to hemp usage and economic potential, then you have no doubt come across articles by Lynn Osburn.  Lynn Osburn, writing in the early nineties, appears to be the source for around 75% of what current bloggers are saying about hemp and its magical powers and awesome potential.  If I don’t find Lynn’s name, then I find sentences that are direct quotes (plagiarized apparently. Oh hempies, where is the shame?)

I don’t know about you, but I would like to know more about the genius behind the modern hemp movement.  Besides I have questions like, “Why is noone currently following through with or continuing to build on Osburn’s work from 17 years ago?”  And more importantly, “What the frick happened to this guy?” (He is apparently a guy.)  Well, this is what I have found so far.

Lynn and his wife Judy were living on their ranch in Ventura, California.  (Is the suspense building yet?)  Well, on September 28th, 2001 they got busted by the DEA for growing 270 marijuana plants that the state of California had declared legal for the use of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, a medicinal marijuana co-op.  The crop was for the treatment of some 960 registered patients.

Eventually they were let of, but then busted again a year later for a smaller crop.  This time Judy was sentenced to a year of probation while Lynn was sentenced to a year in prison for a gun charge.  This was in April of 2004.  Lynn would have been released in 2005, but the trail runs cold here.  If anyone else knows what happened to Lynn Osburn I would appreciate a tip.

To an extent this satisfies me.  It makes sense that Lynn Osburn would not be publishing research on hemp while in prison or under fire from the DEA.  But who was this guy before the bust?  What sort of degree or background led him into hemp research?  What was he doing between 1993 and 2001?  And most importantly, why is everyone so willing to quote his 17 year old papers as the truth about hemp, while no current researchers seem to be following up on and continuing his work?  I want his stuff to be true, but that doesn’t make him anything more than a dreamer like me.