HEMP FARMING STILL A POSSIBILITY

Growing industrial hemp may not be against state law in California
before long, but the state will give hemp farming the training-wheels
treatment.

Federal law currently bans hemp cultivation, but that's being
challenged in court by North Dakota, one of several states that
allows the crop to be grown. A bill pending in Congress would give
the states the sole authority to decide whether hemp could be cultivated.

After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation last year that
would have allowed hemp farming throughout the state, the bill's
proponents are back with a new tactic. In an attempt to calm the
fears of law enforcement officials -- fears that don't make a lot of
sense -- the latest revision of the hemp farming bill would allow
only a pilot program in four counties.

Actually, it was initially five counties and Butte was one of them.
The bill's politically diverse authors -- a San Francisco Democrat
and an Orange County Republican -- included Butte County because of
its strong agricultural base, its history of growing the bamboo-like
plant and support from Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley.

Butte was scratched recently, in part because Butte County
Assemblymen Rick Keene and Doug LaMalfa voted against last year's
bill, but support from the Butte County Farm Bureau could put the
county back on the list for the pilot program.

Yolo, Imperial, Mendocino and Kings counties are part of the proposed
pilot program, which would run for five years. After four years, the
state attorney general will issue a report on law enforcement impacts
to determine if the fears were unfounded. In the fifth year, the
Legislature and governor can either expand the program to the entire
state or kill it.

The newest bill, AB684, has several other safeguards built into it in
an effort to appease the law enforcement lobby. It seems to be
working. The state district attorney's association has removed itself
from the list of those opposed to the bill.

AB684 passed the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday on a 3-1
vote. It will be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee on
Tuesday as it works its way to a full Senate vote.

Passage in the Legislature shouldn't be a problem. Last year, a less
restrictive proposal passed the Senate 26-13 and the Assembly 44-29.

Getting it past Schwarzenegger may be another problem. But as a
governor who has trumpeted the importance of propping up the state
economy, he shouldn't hesitate to approve the pilot program.

He needs to recognize the absurdity of the regulations -- the fact
that it's legal to make hemp products, and to sell the seed, oil and
plant fiber, yet it's illegal to grow it. Instead, people who make
clothes, bags, scarves, shampoo, lip balm, rugs and paper from hemp
have to import the raw product.

"Our enterprising and innovative farmers should not be hindered by
senseless regulation," said Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.
"It's my hope that by giving farmers in these counties the
opportunity to supply a $270 million industry that's growing by $26
million each year, that other counties won't be far behind."

What's the hang-up? Well, hemp looks similar to marijuana and that
has some people concerned. But they soon learn that hemp, who grows
up to 16 feet tall and has no intoxicating chemicals, "bears no more
resemblance to marijuana than a poodle bears to a wolf," as Sen. Tom
McClintock famously put it last year.

Those opposed to hemp farming soon learn that farmers would not slip
a cannabis plant or two into the hemp crop because it would damage
the cannabis plant. They learn that cultivation in yards is
prohibited. They learn that all hemp farmers would have to register
the locations and acreage of commercial growing operations with a
drug enforcement agency, which would check the fields and test the
plants to make sure there's no funny business going on.

The perception problem is slowly diminishing. And that can only be
good for farmers, who are always on the lookout for crops that don't
suck up too much water and bring in a strong profit.

Farmers haven't had much of a chance to study whether hemp farming is
a good idea, maybe because it never has been a possibility. This bill
would open up new doors.