HEMP ADVOCATE PAYING FOR MINUTES OF FAME

Appearance on PBS' 'Frontline' leads to court appearance today, but
Noblesville man has no regrets.

Doug Keenan talks with a speed and passion of a man who has seen the light.
Even if it's an illegal one.

So when an opportunity arose to air his views on the subject, Keenan did.
On April 28, the electrical engineer showed off a handful of marijuana
plants in his Noblesville home for a PBS Frontline program: Busted:
America's War on Marijuana.

The program title was prophetic for Keenan

Police obtained a warrant to see just what was going on at the home, said
Hamilton County Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey D. Wehmueller.

"Although there may be some people who would like to see marijuana
legalized, until that happens, it's still illegal and we frown on that type
of behavior in Hamilton County," he said.

Keenan's segment of the program, which focuses on Indianapolis and Indiana,
was filmed just before Thanksgiving. Wearing a buttoned shirt and tie,
Keenan looks like a recruiting poster for computer programmers.

Knowing his name was being used and his face shown, Keenan said, he
disassembled his growing operation.

However, the day after the program aired, police descended on his home and
found a small amount of marijuana inside.

Keenan, 35, and his wife Theresa, 37, were charged with possession of less
than 30 grams of marijuana, a misdemeanor, and a felony charge of
maintaining a common nuisance.

Today they'll appear in court for the first time, before a Hamilton County
magistrate.

It all started when Keenan spotted a message on an Internet site that said
Frontline was looking for a Midwest marijuana grower.

He figured there had to be someone better than him because he had only a
few plants. But he let it be known that if no one else came forward, he'd
consider doing it.

Afterall, the timing seemed right.

In recent years, he and his wife had become outspoken advocates of hemp and
helped put on an annual hemp festival.

He had also been diagnosed with testicular cancer four years ago. It was
treated and is in remission. During his treatments, he found that eating
"hemp trerats" helped him deal with the nausea.

But the experience left its mark.

"After you get cancer, your whole life is free," he said. "Every day you go
after that, you can devote it to whatever purposes you want to."

While the Frontline program focused on its recreational use-something
Keenan does not reject-he is drawn to its industrial and medicinal
qualities, too.

He believes hemp will become a viable crop and says Indiana could become a
production and manufacturing state. He skips through history and other
possibilities of its use, like a dealer fanning a deck of cards.

He figures others share his views. He's not really all that different from
his neighbors, he says.

"I was born here. Educated here. I wouldn't mind dying here. I love this
state."

A native of Martinsville, he has an electrical engineering degree from
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He is the father of two children, ages
14 and 9.

Among his accomplishments is a patent on the universal remote control for
the operation of a video-cassette recorder, cable box and television. He
acquired the patent, since sold, while working for RCA, now owned by
Thompson Consumer Electronics.

He left Thompson last year and has been writing a book. Most recently he
and his wife became partners in a Broad Ripple store called the Magic Bus,
which sells hemp clothes and other items.

He just thinks people are misguided about cannabis.

"When we first got into this, people asked, 'Why?'" Keenan said. The answer
was simple: "Because no one else is and someone has to."

Theresa. whose friends call her Tee, adds: "I found it amazing for a plant
that God put here, how did it ever get so out of hand."

It's not so much that the couple are for legalizing marijuana as they
believe society has to stop throwing people in prison for it.

"There's better uses for police resources," Keenan said.

Any marijuana he's grown has been only for the couple's use, and even his
arrest hasn't made him regret his decision to go public.

"If anything, it makes me sleep easier at night," he said. "The one thing
which I was keeping a secret in my life, I'm not keeping a secret anymore."

Checked-by: Richard Lake