RYAN HAS DOUBTS ABOUT BILL FOR ECONOMIC STUDY OF HEMP

SPRINGFIELD - Gov. George Ryan indicated Thursday that he may veto a bill
calling for a study of the economic feasibility of industrial hemp.

"I think there's going to be some opposition to it, and I want to hear both
sides of the issue before I make up my mind," Ryan said. "My initial
thought is that I'm not for it, but my mind's not closed on it."

The bill would allow Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and the
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana to grow and study hemp, a
biological cousin of marijuana. The House passed the bill 67-47 Tuesday
after shooting it down in November. The Senate had previously passed the bill.

Proponents believe hemp could boost the state's faltering agricultural
industry. It can be used in items such as textiles and rope.

A Chicago hemp-products mail-order business gave Ryan a pair of hemp socks
last year. He thanked the firm for "such a thoughtful and useful gift" but
reportedly never wore them. Sen. Evelyn Bowles, D-Edwardsville, wore a hemp
sweater from the same company Tuesday to lobby for House passage of the bill.

Bowles said she plans to lobby Ryan to sign the bill. She said she will
seek the involvement of the presidents of the two universities.

Bowles dismissed concerns of anti-drug activists, who view industrial hemp
as a possible inroad to the legalization of drugs.

"We don't want the leaves," Bowles said. "We want the fiber and the seeds."

Both marijuana and hemp contain the hallucinogenic tetrahydrocannabinol, or
THC, although hemp has a smaller amount. The security of growing conditions
- - or lack of it - concerns Ryan.

"I'm not sure what kind of controls we could have with it," the Republican
governor said.

The Illinois Drug Education Alliance, an anti-drug citizens' group, hopes
to persuade Ryan to oppose the bill. When alliance president Priss
Parmenter heard of the governor's misgivings, she immediately called his
office Thursday to request a spot on his schedule.

The study would cost $800,000 to $1 million, but that funding has not been
approved.