OVERHEATED HYPE ABOUT HEMP

Jeanette McDougal of Drug Watch/Minnesota badly misled your readers about an
important issue of public policy: whether America's farmers should be
permitted to grow industrial hemp, as farmers are permitted to do in
England, Canada, France and Germany [Free for All, May 8]. McDougal says no,
claiming that industrial hemp is marijuana, and that in any event industrial
hemp is not an "economic" crop. She could not be more mistaken.

In the first place, industrial hemp is not marijuana. Industrial hemp is
legally grown throughout Europe and Canada precisely because it has too low
a concentration of cannabis's psychoactive ingredient (THC) -- often
three-tenths of one percent or less -- to make it possible to use it as a
drug. Moreover, growing industrial hemp is an effective way to undermine
marijuana cultivation. This is because industrial hemp degrades, through
cross-pollination, the potency of marijuana that is anywhere near it.

McDougal's contention that no market exists for industrial hemp is false.
This country has a multimillion-dollar hemp market -- for hemp may be
legally imported into the United States, even though, illogically, it cannot
be grown here. Thus, American farmers are forbidden to supply not only our
own domestic market for industrial
hemp but also the larger international market. The harm to our farmers is
particularly severe, since the price for industrial hemp is good, and will
stay good, because of the large and growing list of products that can be
made from it. The plant's long fibers and oil are ideal for paper, carpets,
building products, fabrics, lotions and many other uses. Recognizing this,
legislatures in North Dakota, Virginia, Minnesota and Montana recently have
legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp, and other states are moving in
the same direction.

While wheat today nets a farmer in McDougal's state only $25 an acre,
industrial hemp nets a Canadian farmer right across the border more than
$250 an acre. It is depression time in rural America. Industrial hemp -- an
easily grown, easily processed, rotational crop that replenishes the soil
and is significantly more profitable than wheat -- can potentially help save
many Minnesotans' and others' family farms from the auction block.

Our organization -- including our counsel, James Woolsey, whom McDougal
attacks personally -- is composed entirely of those who support the legal
and regulated cultivation of industrial hemp for industrial products. None
of us supports marijuana legalization. Our board includes representatives of
American agriculture and industry, as well as distinguished scientists.
McDougal falsely identifies as members of our board two individuals who
resigned some time ago and makes a great deal out of the alphabetical order
of another
organization's Web site listing. The issue of industrial hemp is far too
important to be debated on the basis of such ill-informed and frivolous attacks.

Erwin A. Sholts

The writer is chairman of the North American Industrial Hemp Council.

Original LTE:

HEMP IS MARIJUANA

Saturday, May 8, 1999; Page A17

It is shocking that former CIA director James Woolsey -- at one time the
chief intelligence gatherer for the whole United States -- failed to
properly gather information about his client, North American Industrial Hemp
Council (NAIHC). Woolsey assures us that none of NAIHC's members wears
tie-dyed shirts [Federal Page, April 30].
Perhaps he should check their boxers. Some of the group's members and
directors are vigorous pro-drug advocates.

Had he checked, lobbyist Woolsey would have discovered that founding member
and immediate past-NAIHC vice president David Morris has been pushing
legalization of marijuana, marijuana cigarettes for medicine and industrial
cannabis hemp for years in his columns in the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.

Another board member, Andrew Graves, is party to a lawsuit brought by the
Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative to force the federal government to legally
permit the growing of industrial cannabis (marijuana) hemp. The two lead
lawyers in the suit -- Michael Kennedy of New York and Burl McCoy of
Kentucky -- are on the roster of NORML, the National Organization for Reform
of Marijuana Laws, an aggressive pro-marijuana legalization advocate.

Surfing the 'Net would have further edified lobbyist Woolsey. He could have
observed for himself the hemp-marijuana drug connection; he could see for
himself that NAIHC appears in alphabetical order right after
NORML, the Lindesmith Center, Marijuana Policy Project and other
pro-marijuana organizations on the International Hemp Association Web site.

Had Woolsey done a proper background check on "industrial hemp," he would
have found that the market does not support the need for another expensive,
labor-intensive, hard-to-process, bast fiber, "industrial hemp." We are
keenly aware, as should Woolsey be, that industrial cannabis hemp can be
refined or "cut" for marijuana street dealing. That is exactly one of the
reasons NORML and other pro-drug groups support Woolsey and the NAIHC effort.

It is my hope that upon review of so-called "industrial hemp," Woolsey will
honorably resign.

Jeanette McDougal

The writer is co-chair of Drug Watch/Minnesota.