KY. FARMERS FILING SUIT IN ATTEMPT TO LEGALIZE HEMP

Several Kentucky farmers and agricultural organizations are filing a federal
lawsuit today to force the legalization of industrial hemp as a crop in the
United States.

One of the plaintiffs, Fayette County tobacco farmer Andrew Graves, said the
time is right for a challenge to anti-hemp policies.

“Hemp is no more controversial today than tobacco is," said Graves, 40,
president of the 100-member Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association,
which also is a plaintiff in the suit.

"You can go into any grocery store or co-op today and find all sorts of hemp
products," he said. "But as a farmer, I'm not allowed to participate in that
part of the economy. I want a judge to explain that to me."

Industrial hemp is one variety of the plant genus cannabis, as is marijuana.
However, marijuana plants contain 10 percent to 20 percent of the
hallucinogenic chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Hemp typically
contains less than 1 percent of THC.

The tall, cane-like hemp was grown widely in the United States, and
particularly in Kentucky, and its tough fibers used for products like rope,
paper and clothing. But starting in 1937, the federal government – hoping to
eliminate hemp's cousin plant, marijuana -- began to pass laws restricting
most types of cannabis growth and trade.

Today, it's illegal to grow hemp in the United States. Hemp-related products
sold in this country are made from fibers grown in other Western nations,
such as Canada, which raises the ire of American farmers looking for new
cash crops.

In their lawsuit, to be filed in U.S. District Court in Lexington, the
farmers contend Congress never meant to outlaw hemp as it cracked down on
marijuana. The anti-hemp policies were the mistaken interpretation of the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Justice Department, they allege.

The suit names those agencies and Attorney General Janet Reno as defendants.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Famularo of Lexington, who likely will argue the
federal government's case, did not return two telephone calls to his office
yesterday.

At the heart of the suit is the clear botanical difference between hemp and
marijuana, said Lexington lawyer Burl McCoy, who helped prepare the arguments.

Many pro-hemp advocates -- including the plaintiffs in this case – oppose
marijuana legalization, because marijuana, with its THC, can be used as a
narcotic. "Our farmers aren't asking to legalize drugs," said Joseph W.
Hickey, executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association.

"One farmer told me, 'Why would I want to grow a field full of marijuana?'"
Hickey said. "'It would be like having 300,000 cases of beer sitting out
there behind two little strands of barbed wire. There would be problems.'"

Historically, Kentucky was a major producer of hemp, and the state's courts
have been the focus of legal challenges to laws making it illegal to grow
the plant.

Last July, Lee Circuit Judge William Trude struck down part of a state law
that viewed industrial hemp and marijuana in the same light. The defendant
in that case, actor Woody Harrelson, challenged the law by planting four
hemp seeds in Lee County.

Trude's ruling is pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

In coming weeks, the University of Kentucky will release a study that shows
how much hemp could boost Kentucky's economy, Hickey said yesterday.

Aside from providing a crop as profitable as tobacco, hemp farms probably
would lead to jobs-heavy processing plants throughout the state that could
turn the plant's leaves and seeds into a variety of useful items, he said.

"The hemp industry today is where the plastics industry was in the 1920s and
'30s," Hickey said. "We could be on the ground floor of something big."

All Contents © Copyright 1998 Lexington Herald-Leader.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett