PETITION TO MAKE HEMP LEGAL PREPARED

PLAN INCLUDES LICENSING FARMERS, TRACKING SEEDS

WASHINGTON -- Industrial hemp has 25,000 uses ranging from construction
material to paper to clothing, but smoking it to get stoned is not among
them. Yet proponents of hemp say it could give farmers a financial high.

"There's an incredible opportunity," said Jeffrey Gain, a hemp proponent
and former chief of the National Corn Growers Association. "There is too
much emphasis on too few crops. We need to start adding crops."

But right now, the federal government bans cultivation of industrial hemp
and considers it a controlled substance, no different from its
hallucinogenic cousin marijuana. Several groups, including the North
American Industrial Hemp Council and the Resource Conservation Alliance,
want to change that.

They are preparing to petition the Drug Enforcement Administration to drop
hemp from the controlled-substance list. They also want the Agriculture
Department to set up a system of certifying hemp seeds and licensing farmers.

"We're asking them to refine the definition of marijuana," said Ned Daly,
director of the Resource Conservation Alliance, yesterday. "Hemp is not a
drug and cannot be used as a drug."

Hemp has a long history in the United States. George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson grew it. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp
paper. During World War II, the federal government mounted a "Hemp for
Victory" growing campaign for many military uses, including ropes, tents
and parachute cords.

Some agricultural economists say farmers today could gross up to $500 an
acre for hemp. Canada legalized it earlier this month after a 60-year ban,
in part because of the income potential for farmers. Several U.S. states
are also promoting hemp research.

In Kentucky, hemp supporters said the petition was the beginning of a
campaign to make hemp as commonplace as flax.

"We want to force the DEA to come to grips with the fact that hemp is not
marijuana," said Andy Graves, a tobacco grower who is president of the
Fayette County Farm Bureau and a member of the board of the North American
Industrial Hemp Council.

Graves said the council expects a decision from the DEA within six months.
If the agency refuses to declassify hemp as an illegal product, the council
will take the issue to court.

Canada's decision last year to legalize the crop is a major new advantage,
hemp advocates said.

Gale Glenn, a Clark County farmer who formerly sat on the industrial hemp
council's board, predicted that U.S. officials' opposition to hemp will
wilt under pressure from farm groups once Canadian growers begin shipping
it to U.S. manufacturers.

England finally legalized hemp after the European Union lowered trade
barriers and English companies began importing hemp from France, Glenn said.

"I can't imagine that American farmers will sit by and watch U.S. companies
importing this crop from Canada," she said. "That's what it is going to
take because I think the DEA will dig in their heels until farmers get up
in arms."

Hemp and marijuana are both varieties of the cannabis sativa plant. But
hemp typically contains less than 1 percent of the active ingredient, THC,
that makes pot smokers high. Marijuana plants contain 10 percent to 20
percent THC.

"It's not psychoactive," said Paul Gordon Mahlberg, a biology professor at
Indiana University.

Still, the DEA and President Clinton's drug control policy director, Barry
McCaffrey, say hemp's legalization could hinder efforts to stamp out
marijuana.

"A serious law-enforcement concern is that a potential byproduct of
legalizing hemp production would be de facto legalization of marijuana
cultivation," McCaffrey's office said in a statement. "The seedlings are
the same and in many instances the mature plants look the same."

Those who want to end the ban say that is just blowing smoke. They say hemp
plants are far taller than marijuana, are grown much closer together and
typically are not allowed to flower. The flowering produces the buds most
sought after by marijuana growers.

"The dope argument lacks any merit," said Hawaii state Rep. Cynthia
Thielen, a Republican who says farmers in her state want hemp as an
alternative to sugar and pineapples. "You can tell the difference. You're
licensing farmers so you know where the crop is. If someone's growing that
isn't licensed, bust them."

Graves and Glenn pointed out that all of the seven major democracies in the
world except the U.S. already allow hemp to be grown.

"In England and Western Europe they have no problem distinguishing
industrial hemp from marijuana," Glenn said. "Their drug enforcement people
are no brighter than ours. Yet they seem to be able to see the difference."

The Agriculture Department, however, questions how profitable hemp might
actually be: It is labor intensive and cheaper alternatives already exist
for many of its uses. For instance, hemp linen costs $15 a square yard,
compared with only $7.50 for flax linen.

"Hemp production in the United States has no demonstrated economic value
potential as a cash crop," the McCaffrey statement said.

But proponents are undeterred, noting that Canadian farmers plan to plant
5,000 acres of hemp this spring and farmers in England and Germany have
turned solid profits from it for years.

Graves said hemp is more expensive than current alternatives because it has
to be imported. Once an infrastructure is in place, the cost of hemp
products will be competitive, he said.

Some of the more unusual uses for hemp include reinforcement in concrete,
as a replacement for fiberglass in cars, in shoes and even as a cosmetic oil.

Proponents also say hemp is good for field rotations that help sustain soil
and reduce insects.

CANADIAN GROWER TO SPEAK

Jean Laprise, a Canadian who plans to grow 2,000 acres of hemp this year on
his farm in Ontario, will be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of
the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association. The meeting is scheduled
April 4 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Fayette County extension service
offices at 1145 Red Mile Place.

© Copyright 1998 Lexington Herald-Leader.