LEGALIZATION OF HEMP DEBATED

No less than Christopher Columbus, Betsy Ross and Thomas Jefferson
were brought into Tuesday's legislative debate on whether to legalize
the growing of industrial hemp.

Columbus and almost every other sailor of his time used hemp-sails.
Ross made the first American flag out of hemp. And Jefferson wrote
the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper, possibly grown by hemp
farmer George Washington, Sen. Ed Schrock told the Agriculture
Committee.

But hemp use is considered a criminal act by the Drug Enforcement
Administration because of the plant's best-known byproduct: marijuana.

For the second consecutive year, Schrock introduced a bill (LB273)
allowing the growth and cultivation of hemp - which has only enough
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) to give you a headache instead of a high.
THC is the active ingredient in marijuana.

The bill, aimed at providing a new market for strapped farmers,
limits industrial hemp to a THC level of 0.03 percent.

One opponent of the bill, Peggy Kelley of Omaha, said studies showed
that 0.25 THC is enough to have a psycho-active effect.

Responded Schrock: "And tests show that no matter how much of
industrial hemp you smoke, the percentage of THC does not go up."

Under the bill, the state Department of Agriculture would license and
regulate hemp production. Growers would have to register, undergo
background checks and be monitored by the ag department and the DEA.

Schrock cited the historical uses of hemp and the current uses of
industrial hemp in Canada, which legalized its cultivation in 1999
and currently has 35,000 acres planted. The United States is the only
industrial country that does not allow the growing of industrial
hemp, he said.

Hemp also requires much less fertilizer, fewer pesticides and less
labor to grow successfully.

Saying hemp is too closely tied to marijuana, opponents of LB273 said
allowing farmers to grow hemp would lead to soaring costs for
drug-control efforts.

"Legalize hemp and you legalize marijuana," said Sue Dugan, director
of Omaha anti-drug group PRIDE. "Don't fall for that business of
'Let's just study the use.' It's been studied."

As for promotion of the industrial uses of hemp - in hats, shirts,
dresses, paper, bricks, shingles, wildlife cover, erosion control,
cosmetics and clipper-ship sails - Dugan said too much of the
marketing is tied to pro-marijuana efforts.

"I need the no-use message," she said. "Kids are not being told
enough about the dangers of marijuana."

A much longer line of advocates testified for almost three hours
about the benefits and uses of industrial hemp.

Eleven other states have similar programs under DEA supervision.
Tuesday afternoon, the Iowa Senate advanced a bill to allow the
growth of industrial hemp, citing its potential benefit to farmers.

But opponent Kelley, who said she was testifying as a concerned
mother, saw potential for abuse: "Under the guise of farming, less
noble people may try to plant marijuana in a field of hemp."

Botanist Christian Elowsky countered that hemp and marijuana look
distinctively different and hemp is usually planted much closer
together. Cross-pollination with hemp also would dilute the THC
potency of marijuana, he said.

The Agriculture Committee did not have time to act on the bill Tuesday evening.