FARMERS WILL SUE TO LEGALIZE HEMP CROPS

EXINGTON, Ky. -- More than 25 years after hemp was last grown in America
legally, a group of farmers and trade organizations plans to sue the
federal government on Friday to make hemp a lawful crop again.

The plaintiffs intend to argue in U.S. District Court here that the illegal
status of hemp, by definition of the Controlled Substances Act of 1972,
violates a 1937 determination by Congress that the plant poses none of the
psychoactive problems caused by its cousin, marijuana.

The plaintiffs say in their lawsuit, the first of its kind, that Congress
had stipulated hemp, which has many commercial uses, was different from
marijuana and that hemp's prohibition by the Drug Enforcement
Administration violates the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers
of government.

But the central thrust of the legal action is economics, with thousands of
farmers throughout the South and Midwest looking at hemp as another crop to
include in their annual rotations that now involve grains, vegetables and
tobacco.

For many of the farmers, particularly those here in eastern Kentucky who
are almost wholly dependent on tobacco for their income, hemp would provide
a viable hedge as a disease-resistant plant -- especially when the future
of tobacco in the country is so uncertain.

As the region's most valuable crop, tobacco can generate as much as $5,000
an acre in gross sales. Most food crops, like corn, soybeans and wheat,
don't have anywhere near that kind of return. But farmers like Jim Barton,
whose family raised hemp in Lexington when it was last legal -- during a
"Hemp for Victory" drive in World War II -- predicted that an acre of hemp
could gross as much as $1,200.

"Hemp is no more controversial today than tobacco is," said Andrew R.
Graves, a plaintiff in the suit as president of the Kentucky Hemp Growers
Council, a group of 60 would-be hemp farmers, including Barton. "You go
into any store and you can buy hemp products. But he and I as farmers" --
he pointed to Barton -- "get no portion of that money. That makes no sense
to me."

Terry Parham, a spokesman for the drug administration, said the agency had
not seen the lawsuit and, as a result, would have no comment.

Imported hemp products, now manufactured in more than two dozen countries,
including Canada, have been abundant in the United States for years. They
include animal feed, shoes, clothes, paper products and bedding for horses.

The frustration of would-be hemp farmers and marketers in the United States
- -- and the basis of the lawsuit -- centers on the long-standing policy of
the Department of Justice and the DEA to make no distinction between hemp
and marijuana because they contain the same psychoactive chemical --
delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC. Government officials
fear that hemp would provide camouflage for growing marijuana.

But the lawsuit argues that Congress in 1937 recognized the differences
when it passed the Marijuana Tax Act and excluded hemp from any
prohibition. And scientists have determined that THC constitutes less than
1 percent of hemp's weight, not enough to cause any psychoactive effects,
compared with 4 percent to 7 percent for marijuana.

For many years, hemp played a large role in American farming. George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew it, and many towns were named after
it, like Hempstead, New York. In the early decades of the country, it was
especially useful in making sails and paper products.

Despite the 1937 law that made a distinction between hemp and marijuana,
hemp farming virtually died out over the three decades that followed,
except for the wartime program. By then, rayon, nylon and other fabrics had
captured its market. The law was repealed when the 1972 act was passed,
dooming hemp for good as a domestically grown crop.

The farmers' lawsuit asks that the court rule that it was illegal for the
executive branch of government to ban hemp, that chemical distinctions
between marijuana and hemp should be recognized and that states should have
the right to regulate hemp production.

As a result, Graves said, a new market would emerge for farmers at a time
when many of them are struggling to stay in business.

"If nobody considers the plight of the farmers, then we're in a heck of a
fix," he said. "Everybody wants you to get rid of tobacco, but nobody wants
to talk about what you do to replace it."

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski