STATE PLANS FOR HEMP FARMING

Ventura Seeks Cooperation From Resistant DEA

Minnesota is moving ahead with efforts to allow its farmers to grow
industrial hemp, a close cousin of marijuana that proponents say could
offer an alternative crop with high potential.

Gov. Jesse Ventura is expected to write to federal drug authorities today
outlining his planfor implementing pro-hemp state legislation enacted last
spring.

His plan, however, calls for cooperation from the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), which wields full authority over controlled
substances and has strongly opposed reviving the U.S. hemp industry.
Meanwhile, fierce debate continues over whether hemp offers enough
commercial potential to justify the costly security controls likely to
be imposed on its cultivation.

Controls are in store because DEA officials and hemp enthusiast agree
on one thing: Food- and-fiber-producing hemp and smokable marijuana are
nearly indistinguishable varieties of the same Cannabis plant, differing only
in their content of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahyrocannabinol (THC).

Ventura’s letter is expected to propose that would-be hemp
farmers apply for permits through the state Board of Pharmacy and the
DEA.

But the rules for commercial hemp cultivation in Minnesota would
be set by the DEA, which so far has had one simple rule: Don’t do it.
“The policy has not been changed,” Tom McCormick, head of the DEA’s
Minneapolis office, said Wednesday. “But we are seriously looking at
it right now. The decision will be coming out of Washington.”

It could come in less than a year, he said. The government’s review has
been accelerated by growing interest in hemp production. Pro-hemp
laws were enacted this year in Minnesota, Hawaii, Nebraska and North
Dakota.

North Dakota, in fact, is farther along the hemp trail than
Minnesota, having reclassified hemp as an oilseed crop. It also has
enacted provisions for growing and processing hemp. But even if the
DEA allows hemp crops, it’s unclear how profitable they may be. Some
critics raise specters of the Jerusalem artichoke scam that ravaged
rural Minnesota in the 1980’s.

“There may well be zero market for this stuff,” said Minnesota
Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver, who
has consulted with state trade and agriculture officials to shape
Ventura’s hemp policy.

“But we have an obligation to be helpful to those folks who are interested.”
Hemp seeds produce an oil that can be used to make tofu, butter, cheese,
salad oils and other foods.

Hemp fiber can be used to make clothing, ropes, paper, particle-board
products and more. But even “Hemp John” Birrenbach of St. Paul, an
avowed marijuana advocate, said, “There are marketing and processing
problems.”

In addition, mandatory security measures probably would cut
deeply into producers’ profits. McCormick said the DEA likely will
require farmers to post bonds of up to $1,000 an acre to pay for
government seizure and burning of hemp that crosses a THC threshold of
about 0.3 percent.

THC levels of 0.5 percent or greater are considered potent, he said.
Hemp farmers also probably would have to pay license fees for criminal
background checks and governmentinspections, he added.