Two of the biggest third-party political names in the country met Friday to commiserate over how tough it is to get funding, recognition and their names on the ballot, and to brainstorm about making it better. Ventura and Nader, a longtime consumer advocate, talked about legalizing industrial hemp, getting better ballot access for third parties and lowering the cutoff from 15 percent to 5 percent support for allowing candidates into national debates.

The Crime Prevention Committee in the state House of Representatives killed a bill that might have allowed the University to grow industrial hemp. The committee voted down the bill 10-7 on Tuesday amid concerns voiced by Tim McCormick, head of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Minneapolis. McCormick said his organization does not discern between marijuana and industrial hemp, and that legalizing hemp could send the wrong message to youth.

Legislators sat around a table late into the evening passing around a bag of hemp—hemp chips, that is. Legislators in the House Agriculture Committee were debating the merits of a bill that would allow the University to conduct research on industrial hemp. Made from the same plant as marijuana—cannabis sativa L.—the product is thus illegal to grow.