SOME SEE PROFIT IN HAWAII HEMP

The governor this week approved House Bill 22, legalizing cultivation of
industrial hemp -- a plant related to marijuana -- on a plot of highly
secured land at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

With the first planting expected this fall -- and a crop up to 90 days
later -- Hawaii's experiment marks the first of its kind in the United
States. North Dakota and Minnesota passed similar legislation this year,
and legislatures in Montana, Virginia, Vermont, Illinois, Oregon and
Colorado are considering measures. But state and federal law enforcement
agencies still must examine and permit the hemp crops.Widely used in other
countries, such as China, Canada and Germany, hemp products are consumable
and wearable. Hemp, for example, can be made into durable fibers that can
be used for rope and material for clothing. Hemp building materials are
more fire retardant and hurricane resistant than most similar materials
currently available in Hawaii.

Although hemp is not smoked and cannot be used as a drug, it has remained
illegal since the 1970s because the Drug Enforcement Administration of the
U.S. Department of Justice does not distinguish between marijuana and hemp
THC levels.

Marijuana contains large amounts of the psychoactive chemical THC that can
provide a "high." Industrial hemp contains minuscule amounts of THC, but
the low levels cannot create a high.

Cheers And Jeers

Many politicians and businesspeople are cheering the state Legislature and
the governor, saying hemp growth would stimulate the economy, strengthen
the agriculture industry, foster new hemp products and hemp-related
businesses, and lower prices of hemp products currently on the market.

Rep. Jerry Chang, D-South Hilo, who helped push the hemp bill through, said
the UH experiment will prove whether industrial hemp is a viable crop for
Hawaii.

Rep. Cynthia Thielen, R-Kailua, Kaneohe Bay Drive, also fought hard for the
legislation. She cited the potential for local production of three main
items: hemp-based food, and hemp seed oil and building materials.

If such products were available in the islands, Hawaii could avoid paying
higher prices for similar -- and inferior -- imported materials, she said.

Not everyone, however, is bullish on industrialized hemp, especially
county, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Those opposing the legislation say that rather than helping the local
economy, hemp growth will pave the way for more drug problems.

Marijuana, critics say, would be legalized next.

Capt. Thomas Nitta of the Honolulu Police Department's Narcotics Division
said he and the department strongly oppose legalizing industrial hemp.

Police officers, prosecutors and other citizens fought the legislation last
session.

Retail Cultivation

Local businesspeople don't seem to share their fears. Instead, they seem
high on the potential economic benefits of growing hemp locally.

Debbie Ah Chick, co-owner of the Global Village Market in Kailua, said
growing hemp locally would likely would lower the price of hemp products.

Imported fabrics from China and other foreign countries raise prices "out
of control," she said.

Ah Chick sells backpacks, hats, aloha shirts, picture frames, jewelry and
women's clothing made out of hemp, but the materials are so outrageously
priced that few people buy them, she said.

A woman's dress, for example, may sell for $50 in a linen blend and for
more than double that if made in hemp, she said.

"The prices scare people off," Ah Chick said.

At Island Hemp Wear on Kauai, Peter and Shannon Thielen wholesale aloha
wear and board shorts made from industrial hemp. Their 4-year-old company
brings in around $500,000 annually, but they'd sell more if hemp were in
larger supply and less expensive.

It is impossible to quantify how much industrial hemp will help Hawaii
business, Peter said, but it will create innumerable opportunities for
manufacturing hemp foods and growing hemp seeds.

Damian Paul, owner of The Source Natural Foods in Kailua, already sells
hemp chips and has sold other hemp foods, which he stopped selling because
popularity waned with increasingly higher prices.

In addition to helping the local food industry, legalization of hemp crops
would help bring back small farming operations and boost the economy, Paul
said.

Farming And Science

One private company fully backing the experimental crop at UH is Alterna, a
high-end hemp hair-care product maker that invested $200,000 in the project
at Hawaii's request.

The Los Angeles-based company purchases hundreds of barrels of hemp oil
overseas for its line of beauty products, according to President Michael
Brady. But the investment will not benefit the company directly or
immediately because the size of the Hawaii crop will be too small, taking
up just one acre of land.

However, the crop may encourage other states to follow suit, and this will
help Alterna in the future, said Brady. If enough industrialized hemp is
produced in the United States, the company's costs will decrease, and
consequently its prices.

In addition, Brady said, the company's products would be accessible to a
wider base of customers.

The Alterna grant will pay, in part, for an "investigator," or scientist,
to develop an industrial hemp seed that can grow in Hawaii.

That scientist is David West, a plant breeder, author, geneticist and
co-founder of the North American Industrial Hemp Council. He has spent the
last two decades trying to perfect industrial hemp crops.

"I'm where the rubber meets the road," West said. "I have to see this
project through from beginning to end."

How the project expands to help the Hawaii economy will depend largely on
government encouragement. If state and federal agencies allow hemp growth
in other controlled areas throughout the state, rather than treating it as
a high-security problem, the crop should have a very positive effect on the
state, West said.

"This first crop is just a political act," he said. "But in order for this
to be a decent scientific experiment, we'll have to have more than one crop
on one acre."

Three crops a year are expected to be cultivated from this acre on the
Manoa campus.

Legislators may re-examine the experiment next year to determine its success.