NOD FOR HEMP TRIAL UNDER TIGHT SECURITY

High security will surround the country's first industrial hemp crops, due
to be planted in a two-year trial starting this spring.

Health Minister Annette King announced the Government's go-ahead yesterday,
but warned stringent security would be slapped on growers prepared to pay
the hefty costs of taking part.

Crops would be subject to random inspection by a raft of agencies,
including police, to make sure they were not being used to hide cannabis,
which is identical in appearance to its industrial cousin.

Growers would have to pass background checks by police.

At the end of the trial, which will determine hemp's commercial viability
as a crop, any unused plants will be burned or ploughed back into the soil.

Hemp has potentially lucrative uses, including exotic oils, insulation,
cosmetics, textiles and rope.

Groups including Federated Farmers and the Green Party have been pushing
for commercial hemp growing, which is banned without ministerial approval.

Industrial hemp, like cannabis, is classified as illicit under the Misuse
of Drugs Act, but it has tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels 10 to 20 times
lower than that which gives cannabis its potency. The trial crops will be
randomly checked for THC levels.

People would have to smoke "a telegraph's pole" worth of hemp to get high,
Federated Farmers grains manager Kevin Geddes said.

Mrs King said hemp's classification under the Misuse of Drugs Act meant
careful consideration of any application to grow the crop. "We've set out
some pretty strict guidelines as to how the trials will proceed . . . it is
pretty tightly controlled.

"But it has been allowed because it is strongly supported by Federated
Farmers and others in New Zealand as something we ought to look at as being
of economic benefit to New Zealand," Mrs King said.

Officials estimate it would cost up to $50,000 initially to grow one
hectare of industrial hemp. That compares with between $1000 and $1500 for
a hectare of barley. The costs include importing seed, the initial capital
outlay and meeting the stringent security requirements, including fences.

Green Party co-leader Rod Donald said there was no good reason for
preventing hemp trials and linking it with cannabis was "without any
foundation".

He was concerned at the potentially prohibitive costs of complying with the
rules surrounding yesterday's announcement.

"When I was in France last year hemp was grown in open paddocks with no
problems and I would hate New Zealand farmers to be put off diversifying
into hemp because they have to build expensive boundary fences," he said.