GROUPS SEEKING TO LEGALIZE HEMP IN SOUTH DAKOTA TO MEET IN PIERRE

Three groups working to legalize hemp production in South Dakota will be
"commemorating the part South Dakota-grown hemp played in the effort to
defeat tyranny from '42 to '45," according to a promotional publication
titled "Hemp for Victory!"

On Friday and Saturday [Sept. 14 and 15, 2001] from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., the
South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council, SoDakNORML, and SoDak Cannabis
Coalition will be holding a "Hemp for Victory! Celebration" at the Whiskey
River Outpost two miles east of Pierre on Highway 34. The celebration will
include live music, a collection of WWII posters and ads, and the Department
of Defense film, "Hemp for Victory".

During WWII, So. Dak. farmers grew hemp for use by the U.S. military,
specifically for rope for the Navy, according to the publication. It also
suggests that hemp was grown prior to the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, which was
"passed to protect synthetic material producers and the petroleum and paper
industries from the competition from hemp".

The organizations sponsoring the celebration would like to see marijuana
legalized so "peaceful honest mature people will be able to cop a buzz any
way they want to in the privacy of their own homes," and would like to see
legislation passed which would allow anyone to "plant, cultivate, harvest,
possess, transport, sell or buy industrial hemp (cannabis) or any of its
by-products with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of one percent or
less," according to the publication.

It says that "hemp can save South Dakota farms," and that proceeds from the
celebration will be used for the petition drive to "put hemp back in South
Dakota fields".