UNIVERSITY COULD GROW, STUDY HEMP SOON

The University could soon grow industrial hemp along with corn and soybeans.

The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday 72-43 to allow
the University to study industrial hemp. The Illinois Senate, which
passed a similar bill in February, will vote on the current bill in the
next few weeks.

Illinois Gov. George Ryan vetoed the previous bill, but has not issued a
comment on how he will respond to the new legislation.

"We'll have to wait until the bill gets to the governor's desk," said Ray
Serati, deputy press secretary for the governor.

Donald Briskin, a University professor of plant physiology who would likely
head the hemp study, said he is unsure about how Ryan will respond to the
bill.

"There still is opposition," Briskin said. "It's hard to say whether (the
bill) will address what he's concerned about."

He said the study would measure the extent to which new European varieties
of hemp can grow here and would answer questions about the crop's
performance in a Midwestern environment. "It (would be) a feasibility
study <#151; an assessment of how useful hemp is," Briskin said.

He said uses of industrial hemp would include manufacture of fibers,
textiles, paper and new kinds of plastic.

Industrial hemp has a lower quantity of the psychoactive chemical
tetrahydrocannabinol than regular hemp.

THC, the active chemical in marijuana, must be completely absent from the
industrial hemp that would be in the study, according to the bill.

State representatives Tom Berns, R-Urbana, and Rick Winkel, R-Champaign,
voted for passage of the bill. Sen. Stanley Weaver, R-Champaign, said he
would support the bill when it reaches the Senate.

Briskin said he thinks concerns connected with the bill about increased
marijuana growth are unfounded.

"The reality is that the plants would be regulated," Briskin said. "You
have to be licensed to grow it. It's not like growing corn or soybeans.
It's very different."

He also said the study could benefit the University.

"The U of I could end up being a center (for industrial hemp research),"
Briskin said. "It would provide leadership, mainly because it would be the
first big ag university (to study hemp)."