BACKERS STEP UP EFFORTS TO LEGALIZE HEMP

Petition Drive For Signatures To Target Weekend Concertgoers

Organizers of a petition drive to legalize hemp production in South Dakota
hope to obtain thousands of signatures this weekend.

More than 20 people gathered Wednesday at Great Plains Coffee House in
Sioux Falls to discuss gathering signatures at the Seventh Annual "Bash in
the Grass" concert event near Volga.

Petitions began circulating in May. Backers need 13,010 valid signatures by
May 2002 to get the initiated measure on the November 2002 general election
ballot.

It would allow the planting, harvesting, possession and sale of industrial
hemp in South Dakota if it contained no more than 1 percent
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the substance in marijuana that gets smokers high.

More than 20 other states are pushing similar measures. State and federal
agriculture and law enforcement officials oppose the legalization effort.

Even if state voters approved, federal laws will still prevent farmers from
legally growing the crop.

But supporters aren't daunted and are excited about this weekend's
recruitment effort.

"Apparently we've got a real good venue," said Bob Newland, president of
SoDak-NORML, an affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws. "It's a fun place to motivate a lot of people and to get
our message out."

The group plans to display literature, circulate petitions and register voters.

Newland, 53, has acquired 3,000 signatures to date and plans to file 16,000
on the petitions to the Legislative Research Council.

Tea resident Jason Lind, 23, plans to help.

"I've been supporting this cause for a while," Lind said. "I got in this
because of the loss of trees and fuel situation. You can make a lot of
things from hemp. This shirt is made of 55 percent hemp."

Newland said opponents are "clouding the issue," and are encouraging voters
to oppose industrial hemp by saying supporters want to "smoke dope
recreationally."

Newland said the group thinks farmers should be able to legally grow
industrial hemp and that sick people should be able to use cannabis as a
medicine.

"And should adults be able to cop a buzz any way they feel like? We think
it is un-American to say anything but yes," Newland said. "But, if you
disagree with us on that issue, it does not reduce the absurdity of denying
farmers the right to market hemp."

Lind said people often confuse marijuana with hemp.

"You would have to smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole to feel any
effect," he said of hemp. "With hemp there is no danger of getting high."

In the past Legislative session, state lawmakers killed two bills that
would have allowed medicinal use of marijuana and another that would have
allowed hemp production.