HEMP PRODUCTION GOES INTO REHABILITATION

KEMPTVILLE -- John Madill is a mild-mannered agronomist based at Kemptville
College of Agricultural Technology who specializes in soybeans, forages,
small fruits such as strawberries, and "oddball crops."

Soft-spoken Madill might have been the last guy to anticipate that he'd ever
be asked to undergo a criminal record check during the normal course of his
agricultural duties.

But that's exactly happened to Madill after he applied to Health Canada to
become an official sampler for an oddball crop of long, tall plants with
familiar-looking serrated leaves beginning to dot the countryside.

That crop is hemp which, although fully authorized for industrial production
earlier this year, is still treated with deep suspicion by skittish federal
officials -- many of whom never wanted it legalized in the first place --
wary of its age-old association to kissing-cousin cannabis.

Banned 60 years ago, hemp was only cleared for a return to the Canadian
agricultural scene after months of badgering by the Senate and an
intervention by Health Minister Allan Rock. Under duress, reluctant
bureaucrats finally consented to prepare the necessary regulations.

These servants of the people had stalled shamelessly for close to two years
despite the fact parliamentarians had passed Bill C-8 permitting renewed
cultivation of the once acclaimed Canadian crop. When the officials said
they needed another year, the Senate and Rock heaved the book at them.

But they still made it almost impossible to grow hemp this year. Not only
were prospective hemp farmers required to demonstrate no criminal record,
they were swamped by a mound of complex licensing paperwork at the eleventh
hour when they should have been out planting.

As of June 30 this year, Health Canada's Therapeutic Products Directorate
had issued 262 licenses across the country to grow hemp for commercial and
research purposes. That was about 100 licenses less than the number of
applications received.

In all, 2507 hectares were licensed for cultivation although the directorate
has no way of knowing how many hectares actually went into production. Going
by reports from various farm agencies, the complicated approval system
resulted in many licensees failing to get a crop in the ground.

Hemp was banned after authorities decided it was too difficult to
differentiate between the branch of the family with psychoactive THC and the
branch without it. Unfortunately, three generations of Canadians lost the
benefits of THC-free hemp and the oil derived from its seed, a valuable
renewable resource useful in manufacturing building materials, textiles,
rope, carpet, soap, cosmetics, paint ... even automobile components.

In placing so many restrictions on hemp's return to credibility, the current
crop of bureaucrats is obviously having as much trouble as their forefathers
in separating two branches of the same family tree. And just in case anyone
missed the point it ain't going to be easy to grow hemp in this country,
before legally selling a crop a farmer is required at his expense to have
the THC content verified. A level higher than .3% and ... she's starting to
smell like wacky tabaccy, boys! That's where John Madill comes in. At a $25
cost to himself, Madill underwent a cop check which ascertained -- just as
he suspected -- that he has no criminal record.

Madill's successful application made him the only person in Eastern Ontario
authorized to sample and transport hemp. He is one of only a few such
samplers in the province as hemp production takes a few hobbled steps back
into the sunlight.

Why did Madill swallow principle and go through the aggravation? "Because a
grower called looking for the service and there was nobody else," he
explained, adding Kemptville College felt it should get involved at this
stage in case markets fall into place for hemp and it returns to some
semblance of its glory days as premier crop.

Following directions in a technical manual issued by the federal
directorate, Madill will retrieve hemp samples when requested by a farmer
and ship them off to federal laboratories in Toronto or Winnipeg where
they're tested for THC. Each sample costs the producer $135 which includes a
final report from Madill. So far, the agronomist said, he has only been
charging mileage for his personal services.

And so far, he's only been called into action twice, once for Marvelville's
Jeff MacDougall whose organically grown hemp suffered from extensive
moisture damage, and once for Pontiac County growers who planted 12 acres as
a pilot project. In both cases, the sampler said, the hemp came in under the
magic 0.3% THC.

So, despite the worst efforts of the ever-vigilant federal bureaucracy --
which, to its credit, claims to be looking at ways of streamlining the
application process -- hemp is still taking a bit of a foothold in its first
year back from disgrace.

And get this! While the new-age officials seem to be concerned that
marijuana will somehow get mixed in with the hemp, Madill says pot can't be
successfully planted in a hemp field because the amount of pollen produced
by hemp negatively effects THC levels.

The feds should put that in their pipe and smoke it!

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst