DON'T HEMP ME IN, SAYS STORE OWNER

STATE legislation is preventing Tasmania from cashing in on a lucrative
hemp industry, says the joint owner of a new Hobart shop.

Brandt Teale, whose HEMPen THINGS shop opens in Collins St today, must buy
his stock of hemp-based products - including skateboards, body lotions,
soaps, shampoos and clothing - from interstate or overseas. Pure hemp oil
cannot be brought into Tasmania for manufacturing but it is used to make
products in all other states.

And while Tasmanian growers can conduct commercial hemp crop trials, they
cannot sell most of the raw product so the fibre and oil has to be brought
in from overseas. "All the industrialised countries in the world except
Australia and America grow hemp commercially," Mr Teale said yesterday.

"Our hemp soap supplier in New South Wales has just won a lucrative
contract to export his soap to Greece and Europe.

"I would like to see that for Tasmania, too, but at the moment our rules
and regulations mean we are missing out on that opportunity."

Mr Teale said that, back in the 1940s, a car body was created by Henry Ford
from cellulose plastic made from the hemp plant and, until the 1920s and
'30s, hemp was one of the most common clothing fibres.

"Today, it is used to make brake and clutch linings, paint, cosmetics,
paper, building materials and thousands of other items," he said.

"And the plant produces four times more pulping fibre per hectare than trees.

"So it is not new but the processes for using it are new and it is becoming
very economically viable to produce top-quality items from the plant."

A surfboard made from hemp is one of the more unusual items in the new shop.

But Mr Teale and co-proprietor Lisa-Jane Estreich are quick to distance
their new business from the other hemp plant variety - that used for
mind-altering effect.

"The plant used for commercial production has the psycho-active ingredient
THC bred out of it," Mr Teale said.

"We've had some people saying 'Look, a surfboard made out of marijuana'.

"But the commercial hemp plant has nothing to do whatsoever with the
psycho-active plant, with the drug. "They are completely different issues
and we want to distance ourselves from the drugs debate."