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.

"If 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.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)