Hemp seen as potential crop

BY GREG EDWARDS
TimesDispatch Staff Writer

''I couldn't take a hemp pair of (blue) jeans and ingest
them and in any way, shape or form get high,'' Jon
Gettman, a doctoral student at George Mason University,
assured a Virginia General Assembly subcommittee
yesterday.

That assurance came as the HouseSenate subcommittee,
led by Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, DCharlottesville,
began looking at the feasibility of Virginia farmers
growing industrial hemp. Industrial hemp is one of
several varieties of the same plant, cannabis sativa,
grown for the drug marijuana.

A major issue in letting Virginia farmers grow hemp is
assuring that it not be diverted to illegal use. The
state would have to get permission from the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration before it could allow the
growing of hemp, even for research purposes.

Industrial hemp contains only a fraction of the chemical
THC that gives marijuana its euphoric effect, said
Gettman, a past president of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Law. Also, industrial hemp
is grown for its stalks and is planted more densely than
marijuana hemp, which is grown for its leaves and
flowers, he said.

Licenses would be required of farmers growing hemp,
Gettman said. And the crosspollination from industrial
hemp might actually dilute the strength of plants raised
for marijuana, he said.

Gettman warned the committee that corn, cotton and tree
farmers, who see hemp as a competing crop, may oppose
its legalization and promotion in Virginia. But the
Loudoun County resident said, ''The public interest may
not coincide with the private interests.''

Hemp is a versatile plant whose fiber and seeds can be
used to make cloth, ethanol, paper, particle board,
plastics and many other products. Other states studying
the economic potential of hemp include Colorado, Hawaii,
Kentucky, Missouri and Vermont.

Eric Steenstra, vice president of Ecolution, a Fairfax
distributor of hemp clothing, jewelry and other
products, passed around for the subcommittee's
inspection a $65 pair of blue jeans and a $45 tan,
shortsleeved sweater made in Europe from hemp.

Steenstra, who talked about the market potential for
hemp, said his 3yearold company's sales have climbed
from $200,000 in 1994 to $1.2 million last year. Hemp,
which requires less pesticide and herbicide to grow, is
making gains over cotton among environmentally conscious
consumers, he said.

The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, the state's largest
farmers' organization, supports research into the
potential for hemp as a crop in Virginia, said Martha
Moore, senior assistant director of public affairs. That
research, which is supported by the Farm Bureau's
national organization, could best be done through the
Cooperative Extension Service's network of agricultural
experiment stations, she said.

The state needs to conduct research into the types of
hemp that grow best in Virginia, provide a regulatory
scheme under which farmers can legally grow hemp and
provide the certainty in public policy that will attract
investment to the hemp industry, Gettman said.

Subcommittee member Del. H. Morgan Griffith, RSalem,
said he was encouraged by the possibilities for
industrial hemp. If the experiment stations can't find a
profit in in, though, it wouldn't be worth tackling all
the legal problems posed by growing hemp, he said.

Van Yahres, who is also chairman of the House
Agriculture Committee, said he became interested in hemp
while studying alternative crops for Virginia tobacco
farmers a couple of years ago. Although there are really
no substitutes that will provide the income to farmers
that tobacco can, hemp is a crop that might supplement
farm income as tobacco demand drops off, he said.

Van Yahres said he hopes to have a representative of the
DEA as well as someone from the experiment stations at
the subcommittee's next meeting, probably midAugust. He
said he plans to have a recommendation on hemp ready for
next year's General Assembly.

No one has made fun of him about his interest in hemp,
Van Yahres said. The only one who's mentioned it, he
said, is his opponent in this fall's House elections.

© 1997, Richmond Newspapers Inc.