HARRELSON ASKS POT LAW BE OVERTURNED

(Picture: Actor Woody Harrelson, center, Joe Hickey, left, Executive
Director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative, and Donna Cockrel,
former Simpsonville school teacher, outside the Kentucky Court of Appeals
in Frankfort yesterday)

FRANKFORT -- In the battle to legalize hemp, a crop proponents claim has a
wondrous future in medicine, fiber, fuel and food, actor Woody Harrelson
considers Kentucky the front line.

Harrelson, who owns part of a company that markets products made from hemp,
planted four industrial hemp seeds in Lee County in June 1996. Since then,
he has tried to force the courts to recognize a difference between hemp and
its narcotic cousin, marijuana.

His lawyers asked the Kentucky Court of Appeals yesterday to overturn the
Kentucky law that makes no differentiation and makes possession of either a
crime. "The government does not have a rational basis for tossing hemp into
the same basket as marijuana," said Charles Beal II.

Lee County Attorney Tom Jones, who has handled the case since the
beginning, said the problem is that marijuana and hemp plants cannot be
readily differentiated, which would pose huge problems for law enforcement
authorities. "They're saying we'll be overrun with drug traffickers," Jones
said.

Harrelson's case was decided in the district court on the basis of a judge
proclaiming there is a distinction between the two plants. Harrelson still
has a charge of possession of marijuana pending against him in Lee County
and could still be tried if the appeals courts refuse to side with him.

"The way the statute is drafted now, he would be convicted," Beal said
after the hearing. "It might take a little longer, but we'll be back."

Even if Kentucky courts establish a legal difference, federal law makes no
distinction and marijuana possession and cultivation are federal offenses
as well. Industrial hemp contains small amounts of the drug THC that gives
marijuana smokers their high.

"If they make it legal here in Kentucky, then it's going to be grown in
Kentucky and we'll fight it out as necessary," said Harrelson, who sat
quietly during the oral arguments, but caused more of a stir outside, where
he signed autographs for court personnel and posed for pictures.

Judge William Knopf, who presided for the three-judge panel, said a ruling
could come within six weeks, though such speed would be unusual for the
appeals court. Plus there are some complicating legal issues, such as
whether the trial judge should have held the initial hearing in a county
other than where Harrelson was charged.

Whatever happens, Beal and Jones said they expect the Kentucky Supreme
Court to be asked to review the case.

Copyright 1998 Lexington Herald-Leader.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson