U.S. ASKS HEMP SUIT BE DISMISSED

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a judge to throw out a
lawsuit filed by several Kentucky farmers who want to legally grow
industrial hemp.

In a filing received by the farmers' alliance yesterday, the
government says the case should be dismissed. Two of the Attorney
General's arguments:

* The would-be growers cannot claim to have suffered because they
never have been allowed to grow hemp and have not had to change the
way they do business because of the crop's outlaw status.

* Even if federal law allowed hemp cultivation, Kentucky law prohibits
it, so a federal ruling on the matter wouldn't help the farmers.

The 100-member Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association and other
plaintiffs expected such a response from the government, said their
lawyer, Burl McCoy of Lexington.

The lack of surprise, however, didn't make a bitter pill sweeter for
Andy Graves, the president of the hemp association who currently farms
1,500 acres of tobacco, corn and other crops in Fayette and nearby
counties.

"The truth is, this is their way of avoiding the issues," Graves said.
"These guys don't want to know the truth and for them to make an
argument that hemp is bad, hemp is wrong, and hemp is marijuana would
be to admit that 27 other countries we recognize are wrong to allow
it.

"They don't want to argue the case because there is no rational
argument to put up.

"I don't like it. It offends me that my own government is acting like
this."

The lawsuit, filed in May, was designed to force the government's hand
and make it acknowledge the botanical difference between fibrous hemp
and marijuana. The plants are different varieties of cannabis, but
marijuana has a far higher concentration of the hallucinogen
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

Many farmers in the United States are pushing to legalize hemp, which
elsewhere has become a profitable crop that is versatile enough to use
for everything from cattle feed to trendy designer clothing.

No timetable has been set for a ruling on the government's request to
throw out the farmers' suit, which is filed in U.S. District Court in
Ashland.

McCoy said that the farmers are caught in a Catch-22 because the feds
won't budge on legalizing hemp.

93If we get a good ruling from the federal government, we have a real
shot at making it legal in Kentucky, where the legislature says, 'We
can't act because it is illegal under federal law.'"

McCoy said that the government's stubbornness simply reflects its
profound "lack of understanding about the plight of farmers in this
country and the need to keep small farms alive."

"If you lose that, you've lost a lot," McCoy said, "This whole country
was created by people who were involved in agriculture -- and grew
hemp."

Copyright 1998 Lexington Herald-Leader. All Rights Reserved

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"