CLOCKWORK ORANGE SUMMER OF SAM

Damned if Sam Clauder wasn't telling Clockwork the truth. On Sept. 10, the
state Assembly passed a resolution that acknowledges the difference between
industrial hemp and marijuana and calls for University of California
studies on the wonder plant's feasibility.

Clauder runs Californians for Industrial Renewal (CAIR), and this isn't
exactly the legislation he told us about three months ago ("Hemp, Hemp
Hooray!" June 18). That bill would have California farmers planting hemp by
the end of winter 2000. The resolution by Assemblywoman Virginia
Strom-Martin (D-Duncans Mills) also didn't enjoy the widespread bipartisan
support Garden Grove Democratic political consultant Clauder envisioned;
the final vote of 41-30 split along party lines.

But it's a step toward CAIR's ultimate goal: making the Golden State
hemp-friendly by the time the Democratic National Convention rolls into
LA's Staples Center in August 2000. As it stands, California joins seven
other states that have recognized industrial hemp's potential by passing
legislation this year.

The plant can be used to produce paper, building materials, textile fiber,
oil, paint, diesel fuel, plastics and food protein. It can be grown on
marginal farmland and requires less water than most plants once
established, as well as little or no herbicides or pesticides. It's a
vigorous plant, maturing in three or four months, allowing several harvests
per year. But unlike its distant cousin marijuana, hemp won't get you high.

Introducing her resolution, Strom-Martin said the current hemp prohibition
"makes about as much sense as prohibiting gardeners from growing poppies
because one variety is the source of opium."