HEMP GROWER'S QUALIFICATIONS QUESTIONED

University Hasn't Heard Of Jailed Man

The claimed alma mater of Paul Wylie, the Burlington hemp grower who's
been in a Nicaraguan jail cell for 18 days, has never heard of him.

Wylie's nephew Grant Sanders, president of Hemp Agro International,
which has been charged with growing marijuana instead of hemp on a
57-hectare state-sanctioned farm, claimed Wylie earned a doctorate in
horticulture from the University of Guelph.

But according to university records Wylie, 45, has never attended the
University of Guelph, or received any degrees there, said spokesperson
Lori Hunt.

Desmond Cobble, one of the five British Columbian investors wanted on
drug charges along with Sanders, Wylie and Nicaraguan Oscar Danilo
Blandon, said he had been told that Wylie had a Ph.D. and had been
involved in the hemp industry for more than 20 years.

Wylie's sister-in-law, Linda Wylie, said she didn't think he had
attended university, and had only recently started working with hemp.

Canadian hemp growers contacted by The Star said they have never heard
of Wylie.

Nicaraguan officials allege the Canadians grew 150 million kilograms
of marijuana, calling it the largest such operation ever in Central
America.

The Canadians are claiming they were growing nothing more than
industrial hemp, a strain of Cannabis sativa which doesn't have the
high levels of the mind-altering chemical THC found in marijuana.

Hemp Agro said they had contracts for their first hemp crop -- oil and
fibre -- already lined up.

The Star requested evidence of verifiable contracts but Sanders
refused to provide them, citing confidentiality concerns. Even under
assurances of complete anonymity for the other companies involved,
Sanders said he wasn't able to provide any documents.

At the preliminary hearing, Nicaraguan authorities said the plant they
tested had 1.6 per cent THC -- far above the 0.3 per cent that would
be allowed for hemp growers in Canada, but still well below a level
that could be sold as a drug, said U.S. attorney Don Wirtshafter, who
testified at the hearing.

The cultivation of hemp became legal in Canada in March 1998 after a
60-year ban. Hemp is not cultivated legaIly in the United States.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which doesn't recognize a difference
between hemp and marijuana, may have pushed the Nicaraguans to take
action, Wirtshafter said.

The involvement of Blandon, who financed Nicaraguan Contra rebels in
the 1980s by importing cocaine into America, may have been another
strike against the Canadians, he said.