UI RESEARCH ON INDUSTRIAL HEMP GETS NOD

SPRINGFIELD - Plans to study industrial hemp at the University of
Illinois were revived Friday.

The House voted 72-43 to allow the UI to study the plant as a
possible cash crop.

Gov. George Ryan vetoed a similar bill Feb. 23, saying it "would send
a mixed message to the youth of our state at a time when marijuana
use has doubled in our rural areas over the past eight years alone."

State Rep. Ron Lawfer, R-Stockton, said he reworked the bill to
address the governor's concerns.

The new version of the bill would direct researchers to develop a
strain of the plant that is completely free of THC, the psychoactive
chemical in marijuana that gives a high to users.

Typically, industrial hemp has a THC level of .3 percent or lower.

State Rep. Rick Winkel, R-Champaign, voted against the bill in
January, but supported it Thursday because of the promise to
eliminate THC entirely.

The new bill also requires the UI to get the money from federal or
private sources, so no state funds are used for the project,
addressing another one of Ryan's concerns about the old measure.

Don Briskin, a plant physiology professor at the UI, hopes to head up
the study. He has said Illinois has an ideal climate for hemp
production and the crop is lucrative for Canadian farmers.

Illinois State Police dropped their opposition to the bill when a
provision was included directing Western Illinois University to study
the impacts on law enforcement of legalizing industrial hemp.

Anti-drug groups such as the Naperville-based Educating Voices still
oppose the measure, claiming it opens the door to legalized marijuana.

"It would make it extremely difficult to enforce the laws we have on
the books against marijuana," said Judy Kreamer, the group's
president.

Someone could plant real marijuana in the middle of an industrial
hemp field and law enforcement officials might not be able to tell
the difference, she said.

There are other alternative crops with no drug elements that would be
better for Illinois farmers, Kreamer said.

State Reps. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, and John Turner, R-Atlanta,
voted against the bill.

Reps. Tom Berns, R-Urbana; Bill Black, R-Danville; Julie Curry,
D-Mount Zion; Dale Righter, R-Mattoon; and Dan Rutherford, R-Pontiac,
joined Winkel in voting for the hemp study.

The Senate approved the old version of the bill and is likely to
approve the new one. Then it would go to the governor for his
signature.

Ryan is not ready to comment on the new version of the bill, said
Ryan spokesman Ray Serati.

The UI would have to get permission from the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency before the hemp study could go forward.

Hawaii is the only state to plant a test plot of industrial hemp.