OPINION

INDUSTRIAL HEMP ISN'T AN EVIL WEED

Hemp is a source of strong fibers and nutritious oils, say those who want
to resume cultivation of the crop in the United States. Hemp is the evil
weed known as marijuana, say others who want the ban to stay in place. As
far as Canadian farmers are concerned, those two groups may go in a corner
and fight it out. Their government has just lifted the prohibition, and
they are now sowing their first crop of Cannibus sativa in 60 years. That
they won't face competition from American farmers pleases them no little.

What exactly is hemp? Well, hemp is an herb native to Asia. It was a staple
crop of Colonial settlers. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew
hemp. Hemp paper was used in early drafts of the Declaration of
Independence, and hemp ropes kept generations of American ships sailing the
Seven Seas. Up until the 1980s, the city of Newport, R.I., was still using
Colonial-era water pipes made of wood wrapped in hemp. The hemp looked
pretty good after 200 years.

Hemp's strength and versatility are appreciated today. It goes into paper,
auto parts, textiles, oils. Hemp is also environmentally friendly. The
plant requires very little in the way of herbicides, pesticides and
fertilizers. A carpet maker in Georgia plans to market a hemp carpet that
could eventually be turned into compost.

Canadian farmers are planting an industrial type of hemp, not the kind that
hippies smoke. Nevertheless, anti-marijuana groups fear that permitting
any hemp production would open the door for legalization of pot. Their
concerns are not unfounded. The industrial hemp plant looks an awful lot
like its smokable cousin, according to the office of National Drug Control
Policy in Washington. Who would ever find the euphoric versions of the
herb tucked into the acres of waving industrial hemp?

The Canadian government insists it is keeping close tabs on the production
of hemp. Farmers growing it must be licensed, and they may not produce
plants that have more than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive ingredient. And
the Canadians will send around inspectors to ensure that farmers are
growing hemp intended for rope, not dope. We will see.

Pro-pot activists are euphoric over the return of industrial hemp. They see
its potential for opening the door to marijuana legalization. It also
affords new opportunities for their cult-like worship of the weed. The
magazine Hemp Times, for example, carries ads for a hemp-material backpack,
marketed by a company in Costa Mesa, Calif. And there's the Jefferson
Shirt, made of guess what, and sold by the Coalition for Hemp Awareness, in
Chandler Heights, Ariz. Were all these products rolled up into a giant
joint, they wouldn't produce much of a high.

Hemp's raffish reputation has made it a bit fashionable elsewhere. The
Galaxy restaurant, in Manhattan, offers waffles flecked with hemp seeds and
mesclun with a vinaigrette of hemp seed oil. Hemp, by the way, is said to
taste like a cross between hazelnut and walnut.

American farmers feel left out. North Dakota's legislature last year voted
to have the state university study the potential of industrial hemp as a
crop. "Although lots of jokes persist, I am serious about" the bill, said
Republican Representative David Monson. "This is as American as baseball
and apple pie." (Did he know that the Galaxy restaurant has apple pie with
hemp-flour crust on its menu?) The University of Vermont asked Vermont
farmers whether they would like to grow hemp. They would.

Agricultural groups have put distance between themselves and the weed
smokers. But would it be a bad thing if the legitimization of hemp led to
fewer sanctions against pot? Not in my opinion. Marijuana has been smoked,
albeit illicitly, for a long time. It does not appear to be physically
addictive. Researchers have yet to produce convincing evidence that
marijuana serves as a gateway to more serious drug use. Domesticating pot
production would certainly eliminate a bloody smuggling trade that plagues
our Southern border.

The "Reefer Madness" movement, which froze hemp farming in 1936, deserves
an exhibition case at the Smithsonian with no hope for parole. Perhaps the
time has come to become grown up about hemp and resume cultivation of this
unnecessarily vilified herb.

Checked-by: Richard Lake