A CRIMP IN HEMP: MISSOURI FARM BUREAU REVERSES COURSE ON CROP

Jefferson City, MO. (AP)

Missouri Farm Bureau, an active promoter of crop research, has reversed
its position and now opposes studying the possibilities for hemp, a less
potent cannabis cousin of marijuana.

Never has Missouri's largest farm organization opposed research for
potentially moneymaking crops, leaders said, and critics of the reversal
called it an overreaction.

But the Farm Bureau's policy making delegates, who represent nearly 88,000
member families, were swayed by opposition to hemp from the Missouri State
Highway Patrol during the farm group's annual convention at Lake of the
Ozarks earlier this week.

The Patrol superintendent, Col. Walden Wilhoit, told delegates that law
enforcement officers cannot tell the difference between hemp and marijuana
in the field without testing the level of its narcotic ingredient, THC. He
also argued that there's no big market for hemp grown in Missouri.

"If the Highway Patrol has serious concerns, then our membership does as
well," said Charles Kruse, President of the Missouri Farm Bureau. " The
Highway Patrol is a highly respected entity."

But Hemp boosters said there's no way to find out more about a potential of
growing the tall, fibrous stalks in Missouri without research in the state
and that they have proposed severe restrictions, including frequent THC
testing by law enforcement and research oversight by the University of
Missouri.

Missouri Farm Bureau spokesman Estil Fretwell said the new position will be
submitted to the American Farm Bureau for possible addition to its national
platform during its convention next month in Charlotte, N.C.

American Farm Bureau, with 4.6 million members, is currently on record
encouraging hemp research.

Boyd Vancil, a fourth generation family farmer from Poplar Bluff, said he
want legal research on hemp with less than 1 percent THC, a level that is
certified in European countries with thriving hemp markets. Marijuana's
THC level can run from 5 percent to 20 percent.

"The difference between hemp and marijuana is like the difference between
beer and nearbeer," said Vancil, whose family sells foreign grown hemp at
wholesale and retail.

Hemp products include bed linens, curtains, reusable coffee filters and
clothing. Vancil said hemp is mold resistant, can be grown annually
instead of the 10 30 year rotation for trees, requires fewer chemicals and
can create jobs locally with processing of the raw hemp.

Equating hemp with marijuana is "a common misconception...We get about a 95
percent positive response from people once they take five minutes to
understand the differences," Vancil said.

Vancil's family has sold 60,000 pounds of Canadiangrown hemp so far. One
customer is a Massachusetts paper company that also manufactures nonhemp
paper for U.S. currency. Another planned hemp used us a Georgiabased
carpet manufacturer with $1 billion in sales, Vancil said.

Missouri led the nation in production of hemp in 1860, and in the Civil
War's Battle of Lexington in western Missouri, hemp bales were rolled
toward the enemy as shields for advancing soldiers. During World War II,
Washington launched a "Hemp for Victory" program to encourage production to
replace other materials in short supply.

But since the 1950's, federal drug agents have made no distinction in
enforcement between hemp and marijuana.

In December of 1996, the Missouri Farm Bureau delegates endorsed backing
legislation to allow a state permit process for growing hemp and for
funding hemp research.