BILL TO LEGALIZE HEMP GOES UP IN SMOKE

One senator's innovation is a door to horror for another.

Sen. Gene Tyson of Norfolk said the legalization of the production of
industrial hemp could tap potential growth and profit for Nebraska farmers.

Sen. Jim Jensen of Omaha said allowing industrial hemp to be grown in
Nebraska "is scary, because in fact, kids are going to try this, and
eventually try the real stuff and you'll have to call paramedics to revive
them."

Somewhere in between there could be a resolution to a bill that would open
the Nebraska market to the cultivation of industrial hemp - a plant related
to, but without the hallucinogenic properties of, marijuana.

But the Legislature will not decide the issue until next January, because
bill sponsor Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek bracketed LB273 after a long
discussion Wednesday afternoon.

Many opponents, including the Nebraska State Patrol, believe that allowing
the industrial hemp, which lacks the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) to create a
high, will lead to confusion for law enforcement agencies.

"It looks like marijuana and it opens the door to too many negative
things," Lt. Rhonda Lahm of the State Patrol said. "It would create a
conflict of federal and state law. Federal law prohibits the growth of any
cannabis sativa, no matter what the level of THC is."

Susie Dugan of Omaha Pride said allowing the growth of industrial hemp
could confuse children and "sends the wrong message and could promote more
marijuana use by Nebraska children."

Schrock proposed the bill because industrial hemp has been grown and used
throughout the world to produce paper, fiber, rope, clothing, bricks,
shingles, wildlife cover and cosmetics.

"No matter how much of this stuff you smoke you cannot get high," he said.
"I would be the last one in the Legislature to promote the legalization of
marijuana, but this is almost the anti-marijuana."

When industrial hemp cross-pollinates with marijuana, THC levels are
reduced to hemp's levels.

Hemp was a staple crop in the birth of the United States - in the
manufacture of sails, paper, even the first American flag. But its use
dropped with the invention of synthetics and cotton blends and in 1937,
when the federal government criminalized marijuana use.

Sen. Eliane Stuhr of Bradshaw argued the cultivation of hemp was a
money-loser and there was already a surplus of the material. She noted that
Illinois passed a similar bill that was vetoed this year. Schrock pointed
out that farmers would not have to grow hemp and that passage of the bill
would not lead to hemp farming until approved by the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

The bill also required that farmers would have to be licensed and cleared
by the DEA. Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Elkhorn said that requirement alone
scares him from the bill.

"If it's not dangerous, why do we have to have farmers fingerprinted and
their backgrounds checked?" he asked.

Schrock said a major detriment of the bill is that those who support
marijuana's legalization see the measure as the first step.

Sen. Ernie Chambers argued that too little real information was debated on
the bill.

"I have not heard so much misinformation and mythological stuff in a long
time," he said. "These groups that are horrified by hemp . . . are not
horrified by the new strain of heroin.

"This is nonsense. All the arguments are reaches. They say the whole state
will go to Hades in a handbasket if we pass this and they are wrong."