EU CONCERNED OVER HEMP AID AND MARIJUANA LINK

BRUSSELS, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The European Union may cut aid to hemp growers
amid concern that public money is being used to legitimise the cultivation
of marijuana, EU sources said on Tuesday.

The European Union has become concerned that controls over industrial hemp
farming, the responsibility of national authorities, are insufficient and
have allowed EU subsidies to go to illegal marijuana plantations.

``We are looking at the question of controls, and whether member states are
carrying out sufficient checks,'' said Gerry Kiely, spokesman for European
Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler.

Industrial hemp, the similar-looking but less potent cousin of marijuana,
is used to make paper, rope and canvas. It is grown mostly in France,
Spain, Britain and the Netherlands.

Kiely said the area devoted to hemp production in the EU had mushroomed in
recent years -- from around 9,000 hectares (22,200 acres) in 1995-96 to
some 35,000 to 40,000 hectares (86,500 to almost 100,000 acres) in the
1998-99 season.

Farmers have been able to reap rich rewards from the EU, with a per hectare
subsidy of 700 Ecus ($761). Under the proposals now being drawn up by the
European Commission, the EU's executive arm, this will be cut to 500 Ecus.

``With such an expansion in the area, we have to look at whether we need to
be subsidising this at all,'' one source said.

Others said there was concern the hefty rise in the area may not always
have been translated into a corresponding rise in the production of legal
goods.

``So far there's no proof, but there is a suspicion that not all the
increase has been used for paper and rope,'' one said.

It is not so much the level of aid that has attracted the marijuana
growers, but in registering for EU hemp subsidies, they could legitimise
their business, sources said.

The EU will pay around 15 million Ecus in subsidises to produce industrial
hemp this year. Under the rules the plants must contain virtually no THC,
the psychotropic chemical that gives marijuana its euphoric properties. ($
- - 0.920 European Currency Unit ECUs)