INDUSTRIAL HEMP IS NOT A DRUG

SENATE BILL 1397 received final approval from the General Assembly this
week and now sits on Gov. George Ryan's desk. Depending on whom you talk
to, the bill would do one of two things.

* Either it would allow the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois
University to grow and research industrial hemp in order to determine
whether it might be another way for Illinois farmers to make a buck.

* Or it would send the message to Illinois' young people that it's OK to
smoke dope.

UNLESS THE governor signs the legislation, we won't know if hemp can be a
viable cash crop for Illinois farmers. But we do know that the opponents of
this bill are being ridiculous with their "the sky is falling" drug
warnings about the hemp study bill.

The governor has said he will study the bill, but he let it be known this
week that he's leaning more against it than for it. Don't get us wrong. We
are certainly not advocating drug use. But this bill has nothing to do with
drugs.

True, hemp is a biological relative of marijuana with extremely low levels
of the psychoactive drug THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Hemp, however, is not
marijuana, and it is not grown as a drug.

OF COURSE, you would not know that from listening to this bill's opponents.
The rhetoric, especially that from members of the Illinois Drug Education
Alliance, has warned over and over again that allowing farmers to grow hemp
is sending a mixed message about drugs.

That statement, which has been echoed by the Illinois State Police in its
opposition to the bill, is nonsensical. What possible mixed message on
drugs is being sent by allowing the study of a crop that is not a drug?

The real concern of these opponents is that allowing farmers to grow hemp
would somehow lead to the legalization of marijuana. That's a leap of logic
as wide as the Grand Canyon.

Surely the Illinois Drug Education Alliance opposes young people drinking
alcohol. Using the group's same logic concerning hemp, its members might
also want to push for legislation to outlaw the planting of corn in
Illinois. After all, some of that corn eventually ends up being distilled
into alcohol.

HEMP IS GETTING a black eye simply because it is related to marijuana. Rest
assured, Illinois legislators were not garbed in tie-dyed T-shirts and
voting under the glare of black lights when they passed this bill.
Illinois, as one of 16 states contemplating the study of hemp as a
legitimate crop, is in the mainstream on this matter.

Hemp will not be the salvation of Illinois' struggling agricultural
economy. Neither are farm-raised catfish, Illinois wine grapes or
blueberries, but today's farmers are looking for any and all advantages. To
take hemp out of that mix based on illogical concerns over drug use makes
no sense.

Even if this bill becomes law, the universities would need to obtain
permits from the federal government and funding for the study before any
hemp could be grown. The U of I and SIU would be under great scrutiny on
how they carry out this study, which should help calm people's fears.

DEMONIZING HEMP will do nothing to battle drugs in Illinois. In fact, most
kids will see right through the convoluted logic of banning a potentially
beneficially crop simply because of worries over its biological cousin.

We appreciate the fact that Gov. Ryan wants to educate himself on this bill
before he takes action. We trust that once he is fully educated, he won't
have a problem allowing two of the state's top universities to study the
potential benefits of hemp as a value-added crop for Illinois farmers.