ANOTHER BILL IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE WOULD PROMOTE HEMP CULTIVATION

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - It's the plant that just won't die.

Legislation to allow industrial hemp to be grown under controlled
circumstances has sprouted again in the Illinois House, a little more
than a week after Gov. George Ryan vetoed a similar bill.

However, the new proposal cuts Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale out of the project, which is spearheaded by the University
of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

"The University of Illinois is ready to move faster than Southern,"
said Rep. Ron Lawfer, R-Stockton, sponsor of the bill.

Sen. Evelyn Bowles, D-Edwardsville, sponsored the vetoed bill and is
backing Lawfer's proposal. She said eliminating SIUC from the study
was a matter of economics.

"We have to have a secured area, and U of I has a secured area
already, which will reduce the cost factor," Bowles said.

The vetoed legislation would have provided $1 million in state money
for both the University of Illinois and SIUC to study industrial hemp
as an alternative crop for Illinois farmers.

A spokesman for SIUC said the university still would like to take part
if funding is available.

"We were and remain interested in participating," said Scott Kaiser.
"We're willing to do the work. We would need funding to do it whether
from the state or a private source or a combination of both."

Lawfer's bill calls for private funding of the study and would limit
the levels of the hallucinogenic tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in the
hemp that is grown. Both hemp and marijuana contain THC, although hemp
has smaller amounts.

Ryan cited both the study's cost and hemp's relationship to marijuana
when vetoing Bowles' bill.

"We drafted this bill based on the governor's veto message," Bowles
said.

Critics of industrial hemp view the crop as a possible inroad to the
legalization of marijuana.

Priss Parmenter, president of Illinois Drug Education Alliance and a
substance abuse counselor in Olney, Ill., said she was not surprised
at the new hemp proposal but remains bewildered at the crop's popularity.

"Why would they choose a crop that has controversy around it and not
even explore the alternative crops that are already being researched?"
Parmenter asked, adding later, "What's behind this?"

In his veto of Bowles' bill, Ryan said the study would "send a mixed
message to the youth of our state" about drugs.

"I don't understand that," Lawfer said. "There's a difference between
industrial hemp and marijuana . . . and kids are smart enough to know
the difference."

The bill is HB3377 and awaits a House committee hearing.