KY. COURT REVERSES RULINGS FOR HARRELSON

Actor Challenged Law That Lumps Together Hemp, Pot

The "natural born tiller's" legal winning streak ran out yesterday at the
Kentucky Supreme Court.

In Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Woody Harrelson, the high court reversed
lower court rulings and said a state law that makes no distinction between
hemp and marijuana is constitutional after all.

The decision comes nearly four years after the actor used an old grubbing
hoe to plant four hemp seeds in a Lee County field.

It is a blow to efforts to make hemp once again a viable crop for Kentucky
farmers dealing with cutbacks in tobacco allotments. It is a victory for
law enforcement officials who argued that legal hemp would make it more
difficult to enforce marijuana laws.

And it came on the same day that a state Senate committee gave only
lukewarm endorsement to a bill that would allow university research on hemp.

House Bill 855, which in its original form would have allowed Kentucky
farmers to grow hemp, has been endorsed by four former governors and
Lexington's Urban County Council.

But it was amended by the House to allow only research.

The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee yesterday approved
the research bill, but did so in a way that will require a show of support
before it can be brought up for a vote on the Senate floor.

Harrelson, who was a regular on television's Cheers and has starred in
several movies, including The People vs. Larry Flynt and Natural Born
Killers, was in Kentucky in 1996 attending a Lexington conference on hemp.

He also spoke to an elementary school class in Simpsonville and, on June 1,
went to Beattyville to plant the seeds.

The planting was a calculated effort to set up a legal challenge to a state
law that defines marijuana as "all parts of the plant cannabis sp."

Harrelson said the seeds he planted were bred in France to contain only a
tiny amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient
that gives marijuana smokers a high.

His trial was held in Booneville in Owsley County. It attracted a crowd.
People took pictures. They asked for autographs. Kentucky media mixed with
reporters from People magazine and Reuters news service.

The first judge to hear the case, Lee District Judge Ralph McClanahan II,
ruled that the definition of marijuana under which Harrelson was charged
"is constitutionally defective due to its overbroad application by
including non-hallucinogenic plant parts."

A circuit court judge later agreed, but the high court said yesterday that
both were wrong.

All seven Supreme Court justices agreed, but they did so in three separate
opinions.

The justices said the legislature had properly classified THC as a
controlled substance, adding that "the mere fact that hemp may contain less
THC than marijuana is of no consequence."

And, the high court said, "the arguments of the defendant regarding the
legalization of hemp are matters more properly for the General Assembly and
not the judicial branch of government."

The high court also said there was reason to believe that legalizing hemp
could cause problems for law enforcement. And it said there was no "no
credible evidence that hemp would ever be a successful domestic crop."

The ruling also calls into question the legality of shirts, handbags and
other hemp products sold in Kentucky.

"The way I read the decision, if any of the items ... contain THC, they
could be illegal," said Charles Beal II of Lexington, one of Harrelson's
attorneys.

And it means Harrelson could stand trial again on a misdemeanor charge of
possession of marijuana.

On the day of his first trial, prosecutor Tom Jones said he had offered
Harrelson a deal: 30 days in jail, or stay away from hemp and marijuana in
Kentucky for a year. The deal was rejected.

Now Harrelson could face up to 12 months in jail and a $500 fine.

Jones couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. His secretary said he was
in court and had not seen the decision.

Joe Hickey, the executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative
Association, said Harrelson is vacationing with his family in Hawaii and
wasn't near a telephone.

Hickey said the court ruling is not a serious setback.

"The court feels the legislature needs to address the issue and that's
where we are right now," he said.