HOUSE SHOOTS DOWN HEMP BILL

Its supporters got a brief glimpse at success, but hemp will not be taking
its place alongside lumber, apples and maple syrup as a homegrown state
product anytime soon.

By a vote of 192-152, the House yesterday rejected a bill to legalize the
growing of industrial hemp, the biological cousin of marijuana - even after
several House committees had approved the proposal. The House did hold onto
the bill for further study, casting it back into the limbo it has occupied
for much of the past three years as several other states have proceeded to
legalize the cash crop.

Supporters of the bill say legalization would give New Hampshire farmers a
profitable new option and put the state at the forefront of a gradual trend
toward domestic production of the crop. As it stands now, farmers can apply
to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for permits to grow hemp only
in the handful of states that have legalized it, which include Minnesota and
Hawaii. As a result, most hemp-based products - which include rope, clothing
and paper - are made from hemp grown in Canada and Europe.

Opponents of the bill, among them Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, argue legalizing
industrial hemp would give a cover to local marijuana growers who could
disguise true pot plants among hemp plots. While the bill's supporters note
that hemp plants contain far lower levels of the chemical that produce
marijuana's high, and that the two plants can be differentiated by sight,
local law enforcement officials have argued that having to discriminate
between them would take too much time and money.

The push for legalization seemed to be gaining momentum in the current
session, as the House rejected an attempt to shelve the bill, and supporters
won strong committee support for an amended bill with harsher provisions for
anyone who grew hemp without a permit.

Yesterday, though, hemp advocates in the House failed when their own
double-barreled strategy to advance their cause backfired in their faces.
Foes of the bill were able to invoke a recent ruling by a federal appellate
court in a case brought by Rep. Derek Owen, a Hopkinton Democrat who
challenged the federal prohibition against hemp growing in a 1998 lawsuit.

In its ruling, the court found the DEA is right to outlaw hemp production
without a permit, since federal drug laws seemed to include hemp in their
definition of marijuana. In the House, hemp opponents cited the decision as
proof that hemp was in fact virtually identical in appearance to marijuana,
and that it would be irresponsible for the state to legalize it.

The bill's supporters retorted, in vain, that the court's confirmation that
hemp fell under current marijuana statutes did not preclude the state from
allowing farmers to apply for special permission from the DEA. In addition,
said Rep. Karen McRae, it would not be difficult to instruct local police in
telling the two kinds of plant apart.

"I'm sure the law enforcement community can get educated to know which plant
is which," said McRae, a Goffstown Democrat. She added, "I don't think the
whole police community is (against the bill), but certainly those at the top
are."

McRae made light of the notion that hemp could be put to the same purposes
as marijuana, noting that there may be more THC - the operative chemical in
marijuana - in a frozen banana peel than in hemp.

This didn't convince Rep. Andy Peterson, a Peterborough Republican, who
argued legalizing hemp would send teenagers the message that "the House
believes a little THC is okay."

Rep. Henry Mock, a Jackson Republican, disputed the argument that legalizing
hemp would give farmers a new weapon in fighting sprawl - farmers had plenty
of other options for open fields, such as timothy and alfalfa, he said.

Mock was just one of several lawmakers who took full opportunity of the pun
possibilities in a debate about hemp. Several representatives joked that the
House had spent too much time "hashing" out the bill; Mock urged that the
proposal "go up in a great big puff of smoke."

After the vote, the bill's supporters said their defeat was the result of
intensive lobbying in recent days by local law enforcement officials.
"There's a lot of nasty politics behind all this. People were looking for an
out, and the court decision gave them an out," said Mark Lathrop, a West
Chesterfield farmer who runs a hemp-product store in Keene.

One of the bill's leading supporters, Rep. Amy Robb-Theroux, held out hope
that further education of lawmakers about the difference between hemp and
marijuana would win passage for the bill.

Still, said Robb-Theroux, a Claremont Democrat, watching legalization lose
again had made her wonder whether she would run for reelection in the fall.

"I'm a bit disillusioned by what the process does here," she said. "It's
takes a little while to educate 400 members."