STROM-MARTIN SUPPORTS INDUSTRIAL HEMP

As the region's annual marijuana crackdown gets under way, a North Coast
lawmaker proposed Friday to allow legal cultivation of industrial hemp, a
non-intoxicating form of the cannabis plant.

Assembywoman Virginia Strom-Martin said prohibiting growers from
cultivating the potentially highly profitable hemp instead of the illegal
variety "makes about as much botanical sense as prohibiting gardeners from
growing poppies because one variety is the source of opium."

Industrial hemp is a nontoxic plant that was grown legally in the United
States through World War II, when it was used to produce maritime rope in a
national "Hemp for Victory" campaign. Hemp, which can be legally grown in
30 countries around the world, including Canada, France, Germany, Australia
and China, has been used to produce paper, building materials, plastics and
food protein.

Strom-Martin, D-Duncan Mills, said Friday she will introduce a resolution
in the state Legislature asking state authorities to consider legalizing
hemp in California so it can be grown as an agricultural and industrial crop.

"Industrial hemp could be of immense benefit to both the economy and the
environment of the North Coast, and rural California in general,"
Strom-Martin said.

Strom-Martin said it's time for the state to deal "rationally rather than
hysterically with a crop whose promise is great and whose time has come."

Attorney General William Lockyer could not be reached Friday for comment on
Strom-Martin's call to legalize hemp. But a representative for the Campaign
Against Marijuana Planting, a state program targeting illegally grown
marijuana, contended Friday that for every argument made in favor of hemp
legalization, there is one against.

The spokesman did not elaborate and declined to be quoted by name.

Hemp proponents say it is clear the North Coast would be ideal for growing
the non-intoxicating version of cannabis sativa, based on the volume of the
potent but illegal variety of cannabis cultivated now.

Meanwhile, early results from the state's annual anti-marijuana campaign
show that in the first 10 days, nearly 34,000 pot plants were ripped up in
Mendocino and Humboldt counties by special teams of dope raiders. That
reflects about 75 percent of the statewide total seized so far by CAMP.

But authorities say there's so much marijuana growing in the region's
rugged backcountry that it will be nearly impossible for CAMP-led teams to
raid all the known growing sites, let alone afford agents time to trample
through the woods in search of new gardens.

"There's just an awful lot of marijuana growing out there," said Mendocino
Sheriff's Capt. Kevin Broin.

Broin said about 10 state agents are now working along with the county's
two-person pot team to hack down maturing marijuana gardens in Mendocino
County.

Broin said about 13,400 plants scattered across 42 sites in areas
surrounding Boonville and Dos Rios were seized over a four-day period. Last
week, almost 14,000 plants were pulled up in the Potter Valley, Willits and
Irmulco areas, he said.

So far, no arrests have been made. Some weapons have been found at sites
where armed growers or their hired guards camp to protect the marijuana
gardens.

"The growers hear the helicopters coming and head for the hills," said
Broin. "In one way, that's OK because it avoids the potential for
confrontation. But we'd still like to hold them accountable."