REASONABLE APPROACH Legislature should resurrect hemp research bill

Kentucky lawmakers looking for constructive ways to occupy their time
during the first annual General Assembly next year might want to do
something for the state's farmers -- something like reviving House
Bill 855.

The bill would allow state universities to conduct research into
production of industrial hemp. The bill passed the House this year on
a 63-31 vote, was reported out of the Senate Agriculture and Natural
Resources Committee (albeit without a recommendation), but remained
stuck in the Senate Rules Committee when the session ended.

As The New York Times noted in an editorial a couple of years ago,
industrial hemp suffers unfairly -- from guilt by association. Its
distant cousin is marijuana. That's pot, grass, the stuff some folks
smoke illegally -- to get high.

But industrial hemp differs from marijuana in some very important
ways. The stuff in marijuana that gives you that buzz --
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- is virtually non-existent in industrial
hemp. Marijuana's THC content runs as high as 20 percent; industrial
hemp's THC content is less than 1 percent.

Marijuana is grown for its leaves; industrial hemp is grown for the
fiber of its stalk. And when the two plants are grown in close
proximity, cross-pollination from the industrial hemp cuts the THC
content of marijuana, making it less valuable on the illegal drug
market. So, pot growers aren't going to use industrial hemp as a
cover for growing their own product.

Canada, China and European nations grow industrial hemp without
problems. A handful of states in this nation are experimenting with
production of the crop. The American Farm Bureau supports research
into the growing of hemp. So does the Kentucky Farm Bureau. Hemp's
supporters also include two former governors: Republican Louie Nunn
and Democrat Edward T. Breathitt.

There are good reasons that hemp, which once was a staple of
Kentucky's Farm economy, is getting a new look worldwide. It's a
hardy, pest- and disease-resistant source of fiber that can be used
for everything from clothing to paper products to an alternative for
plastic.

Yes, the growing of industrial hemp is now illegal in the United
States. But someday, perhaps soon, that will change. The plant serves
too many useful purposes for this ban to remain in effect
indefinitely.

If Kentucky begins research on the production and marketing of hemp
now, we can be ready to help farmers return to hemp-growing when the
ban is lifted.

And Kentucky farmers, reeling from the rapid decline of the tobacco
economy, badly need that kind of help.

Hemp can't replace tobacco. The estimated $200- to $600-per-acre
return on hemp is far below the return on tobacco.

But it's considerably higher than the return farmers can get from
most other crops, and it might make the difference in saving a few
family farms in this state.

That's sufficient reason for the 2001 General Assembly to allow state
universities to begin research into industrial hemp.