REGIONAL HEMP CROP TO GET GREEN LIGHT

Health Minister Allan Rock is in Tillsonburg today to announce regulations
that will allow hemp to be grown in Southwestern Ontario fields this summer.

Rock's announcement marks hemp's return as a commercial crop 60 years after
it was outlawed by the federal government.

London-Fanshawe MP Pat O'Brien and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MP Rose-Marie Ur
welcomed the move Thursday.

O'Brien said "there's a lot of interest that it has long-term possibilities
and great growth potential as an industry.''

Ur, who helped lobby for the change, said "hemp was a major crop in Lambton
County. With profit margins similar to corn and soybeans, hemp is
environmentally friendly.''

O'Brien said he expects the regulations, to be in place for this year's
growing season, will be strict and "particularly vigilant because the move
was approached cautiously.''

Commercial hemp, a close relative of the marijuana plant which was banned
in 1938, can be used in everything from shirts to paper, rope, carpet,
automotive parts and even coffee.

Advocates of hemp have lauded it as a valuable crop that could produce jobs
and reduce the depletion of forests while opponents have argued it could be
a front for trafficking in marijuana.

At least two companies in the London region have said the move opens the
door to thousands of hectares of hemp being grown in Southwestern Ontario.

Kenex Ltd. of Pain Court in Kent County and Middlesex County-based Hempline
Inc. have said they plan to build processing plants and contract farmers to
grow hemp.

Jean LePrise of Kenex said Thursday the company has a plant near Pain Court
and hopes to contract with up to 50 farmers "using about two thousand acres."

LePrise was among prospective company representatives who met federal
officials in January to review proposed rules for the hemp industry.

LePrise said he has no idea what the regulations may include but hopes
they're refined from those outlined in January.

"The market for hemp looks good in the long term,'' he said. An official
with Hempline couldn't be reached for comment. While Rock's announcement
at Tillsonburg's Annadale House at 4 p.m. today opens the door for
commercial hemp, it's expected there will be tough regulations including
terms to ensure people can't get high from it.

Other regulations are expected to require licences and control growth and
storage.

Lynn Harichy, a London woman campaigning for changing marijuana laws to
allow medicinal use, said she'll be in Tillsonburg to push her case to Rock.

"I'm going to try to give him a copy of a letter I already e-mailed to him.
The cause isn't going to go away,'' she said.

Copyright (c) 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media
Corporation.