KY. HOUSE PASSES AMENDED HEMP BILL

One State University Could Cultivate It Experimentally

FRANKFORT, Ky. - The state House yesterday voted for the return of
industrial hemp to Kentucky, but only as a strictly regulated experiment at
a public university.

Originally, House Majority Whip Joe Barrows wanted the General Assembly to
allow farmers to grow hemp statewide as a partial replacement for tobacco,
which is losing its value as a cash crop. The stalks, seeds and oil of hemp
grown in other countries are used in a variety of products.

But Barrows compromised on House Bill 855 by agreeing to limit industrial
hemp growth to university research. Too many lawmakers feared that allowing
industrial hemp on farms also would encourage covert cultivation of
marijuana, said Barrows, D-Versailles.

"The evidence is out there that suggests that (industrial hemp) is a viable
agricultural alternative crop and that we ought to pursue that in
Kentucky," said Barrows.

However, he added, "Many issues that come to this legislature require a
process of education and building confidence before members are willing to
take a great big leap."

Industrial hemp and marijuana are subspecies of the Cannabis plant.
Industrial hemp has much lower levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
chemical that gives people a high when they ingest marijuana. Despite that
difference, and despite a long history of hemp production in Kentucky until
after World War II, state law defines any Cannabis plant as marijuana, and
therefore illegal.

The House voted 63-31 in favor of HB 855. As amended, the bill would
require the Kentucky Agriculture Department and one of the state's research
universities to grow industrial hemp for study, and to explore the economic
benefits of hemp production. The Council on Postsecondary Education would
choose one university from those that apply.

Federal law does not prohibit industrial hemp production, although states
that want to grow hemp as Hawaii began to in December must receive permits
and follow strict rules set by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In two years, the General Assembly can return to the subject and perhaps
decide to allow industrial hemp production statewide based on what it has
learned, Barrows said.

HB 855 still has a bumpy road ahead, including the Republican-controlled
Senate and Gov. Paul Patton, who yesterday repeated his concerns that
industrial hemp plants could be used as camouflage for marijuana plants.

Some House members who voted against the bill yesterday echoed that
concern. Some also questioned whether the plants were truly that different.

But yesterday's vote continued Kentucky's drift away from total opposition
to hemp.

The Kentucky Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the law that
equates hemp with marijuana; two lower courts have ruled the law is overly
broad. And on Tuesday, four former governors Louie Nunn, Edward "Ned"
Breathitt, Julian Carroll and Brereton Jones endorsed the original version
of HB 855 that would have allowed hemp farming statewide.

About a dozen hemp advocates, watching the vote from the House gallery,
said the slower approach satisfied them.

"This may be our best way through the door," said Donald Coulter, president
of Hemp Fed Beef in Willisburg, wearing a hemp button-down shirt with a
hemp necktie for the occasion.

"We need time to educate the public and our local, state and federal law
enforcement," Coulter said. "Canada did five or six years of study before
they started their first production crop a few years ago. Since then, they
haven't looked back."

Some of hemp's supporters in the House preferred the original bill but
voted for the amended version. If Kentucky falls behind other states that
now have permission to grow hemp Hawaii, North Dakota and Minnesota it
could lose a foothold in the hemp products market, warned Rep. Steve Nunn,
R-Glasgow.

"I'm disappointed that we are postponing a decision that could help farmers
in our state, for two years or more, largely out of fear and
misunderstanding," Nunn said. "I think it's an opportunity lost forever."