ILL. BILL WOULD STUDY HEMP AS ALTERNATIVE CROP

The Illinois Legislature has approved a study of industrial hemp as a
possible crop for Illinois farmers, putting the state's most controversial
agriculture issue on Gov. George Ryan's desk.

Critics of the measure worry it will provide fodder for drug-culture
advocates who view it as a first step to public acceptance of recreational
marijuana. Hemp is a biological cousin of marijuana and contains the same
hallucinogen - tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC - though in smaller amounts.

Under the measure, Southern Illinois University's main campus in Carbondale
and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana would grow hemp under
controlled conditions to study its economic potential. Hemp is used in much
of world to make rope, textiles and other materials, but cannot be grown
legally in most of the United States.

Proponents say the hemp study could provide a profitable alternative crop
for Illinois farmers struggling with low corn and soybean prices.

The House approved the study by a 67-47 vote. The Senate had passed the
measure.

Ryan has not taken a position on the bill. If he signs it, the Legislature
still would have to come up with funding for the study, estimated to cost
between $800,000 and $1 million. Much of that money would be for
barbed-wire fences and other security measures around the plots of hemp
grown by the universities.

State Sen. Evelyn Bowles, D-Edwardsville, who is the bill's top proponent
in the Legislature, shook hands on the House floor while wearing a beige
turtleneck sweater made from hemp.

"It's warm, it's nice, it's very comfortable," said Bowles, who has spent
more than a year trying to get the study approved. "I have all kinds of
hemp products that go from paper to hair products to lotions to cooking oil."

Though hemp cannot be grown legally in Illinois, hemp clothing and other
products can be imported and sold here. Bowles - who said she bought the
sweater from a Chicago hemp-products mail-order business - said that market
could provide the economic boon that Illinois farmers are looking for.

The Illinois Drug Education Alliance, an anti-drug citizens' group, fought
to prevent passage of the bill, with the help of state and federal law
enforcement officials who also oppose it.