MARIJUANA'S MUCH-MALIGNED COUSIN

Traditional jurisprudence frowns on guilt by association--unless the
defendant is a plant called industrial hemp and the prosecutor is the
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Recently a coalition of farmers,
environmentalists and businesses petitioned the drug agency and the
Department of Agriculture to stop treating this plant as a criminal just
because it is related to marijuana, a controlled substance. Otherwise,
America's farmers and entrepreneurs will be at a disadvantage as other
industrial democracies try to exploit hemp's commercial potential and
environmental benefits.

The revival of interest in industrial hemp, which has 1 percent or less of
the delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, called THC, that gives marijuana its
psychoactive effect, flows from the versatility of its seed and fiber. The
seed can be converted into food oil, animal feed, paints and cosmetics. The
fiber can be turned into textile, rope, carpets, paper products and
construction materials. In at least 10 states, farmers also want to asses
its value as a rotation crop that is pest- and disease-resistant. Ford
researchers abroad are studying it as a lightweight material for radiator
grills and other auto parts.

Neither the drug agency nor Barry McCaffrey, the President's drug policy
advisor, find this persuasive. Legalizing hemp, his office says--removing
from the D.E.A.'s controlled-substance list--would confuse everyone,
especially eighth graders, whose marijuana use has tripled in the last five
years. Hemp, it warns, would provide camouflage for growing marijuana. But
hemp and marijuana do not cohabit well. Hemp, grown mostly for its fibrous
stalk, is planted in dense stands. Marijuana is not, since drug traffickers
want a bush with leaves rich in THC, which added sunlight helps provide.

To ease law enforcement's fears, proponents have offered a compromise. The
agency would revise its rules to legalize hemp but award jurisdiction to
the Agriculture Department. Agriculture would distribute certified seed
with a THC level of 1 percent or less to farmers it licensed; it would
inspect field too. The marketplace, not myopic rules, should determine
hemp's future in America.