HAHN PITCHES INDUSTRIAL HEMP

Who would imagine that Rep. Gene Hahn, the conservative state
representative from rural Cambria, is perhaps the biggest supporter
in the Assembly of legalizing marijuana?

Well, it's quite a stretch to say Hahn is a supporter of legalizing
perhaps the biggest drug dogging police agencies in the United
States. What he is in favor of, however, is industrial hemp, a
potentially fruitful product also grown from the cannabis sativa
plant. Despite hemp's potential uses, supporters say the material
gets a bad reputation because of the close association the plant has
with marijuana, the most notable symbol of the nation's drug culture.

The two substances, while seemingly very different, are from the same
plant. The chemical nature of any one plant, however, is determined
by the genes of that plant and the breeding processes that created
it. Some plants get engineered for drug use, others for industrial hemp.

Those in the latter category have a world full of uses, according to
supporters. Hahn introduced proposals in 1999 and 2001 aimed at
changing the nationwide ban on hemp production. Neither has made the
Assembly floor for a vote.

But the 1999 resolution might interest motorists during this
$3-per-gallon era of gasoline; it mentions that hemp can be used for
automobile fuel, among a host of the more commonly considered uses
such as textiles and paper.

Although automobile fuel isn't a primary reason Hahn is pushing
industrial hemp, it's one among many, including building materials.
In his Madison office, Hahn has a piece of particle board made from
hemp fiber, stocked with other grains such as wheat straw and
cornstalks and held together with glue made from soybeans. Knock on
it, and "you'd swear you're wrapping on a piece of wood," Hahn said.

Who knows? As building prices go up, "I think people will start
getting receptive about looking for something else to use," he said.

But why now with a hemp push in Wisconsin? Any measure Hahn
introduces would almost certainly die when the state Legislature's
session largely wraps up this month. The federal Controlled
Substances Act also restricts states from fully legalizing the crop,
and it only permits growing industrial hemp under the strictest of
rules and with a permit issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Virtually all hemp sold in the United States - which is legal - is
imported. Hahn said the National Conference of State Legislatures
estimates importing hemp costs industries $120 million annually.

So growing domestic hemp is gaining support nationwide, Hahn
believes. Since 1995, lawmakers in 26 states have introduced
legislation to legalize industrial hemp to varying degrees, according
to his office and Vote Hemp, an organization dedicated to opening
markets for industrial hemp. Measures have passed in 14 states.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced a bill in the U.S. House of
Representatives in June 2005 that would have decriminalized the
production of industrial hemp. It defined industrial hemp as the
breed of cannabis sativa and any part of such a plant that contains
less than 0.3 percent delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical in
marijuana that gives users a "high." Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., of
Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District, is one of 11 co-sponsors of
the bill, which remains buried in House committees.

Hahn has supportive causes in Wisconsin as well. Organizations
including the National Farmers Organization of Wisconsin and the
Wisconsin Agribusiness Council supported industrial hemp in recent years.

Sides Trade Salvos

Some farmers like the idea of growing hemp for several reasons,
according to Don Hamm, president of the National Farmers Organization
of Wisconsin. Hemp could be an alternative crop and a new market
possibility, and it can grow on marginal land and serve as a good
rotational crop, Hamm said.

Organic farmers in particular support hemp as a rotational crop,
because hemp can clean out alfalfa fields for corn planting the
following year without using synthetic herbicides. Hahn also said
Wisconsin agriculture could support more than one hemp harvest every year.

But while hemp has quite recently been an issue in some states,
Wisconsin isn't among them, Hamm admitted. "I haven't really heard
much lately because it's been so far on the back burner that it's
tough to think that there would be something coming down the line
anytime soon," he said.

That's just fine with law enforcement agencies at all levels. Alison
Kogut, deputy press secretary for the U.S. Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said, "Hemp, kind of like medical marijuana, is often
used as a wedge issue to advance the cause of marijuana legalization."

Columbia County Sheriff Steven Rowe said marijuana sellers currently
"cut" or dilute purer marijuana with so-called "ditchweed," which has
a negligible amount of tetrahydrocannabinols or THC, the psychoactive
chemical in marijuana. The cannabis plants used for industrial hemp,
even if containing lower levels of THC than standard marijuana, would
serve the same effect, Rowe said.

"At this point, unless somebody can really convince me, I think it
would be an enforcement nightmare," he said of legalizing hemp
production. Rowe also expressed concern about hiding drug-grade
marijuana inside hemp fields.

The North American Industrial Hemp Council, a group supporting the
use of industrial hemp, has issued a number of reports refuting some
of the law enforcement concerns. In one report from 1998, David West,
who has a doctorate in plant breeding, wrote that growing marijuana
and hemp in close proximity would allow cross-pollination and seeds
that would be good for neither use in the future, defeating either
objective of a grower.

What's more, getting a high from the limited amounts of THC in
industrial hemp would require eating an extraordinary amount of hemp
fiber, essentially a high-fiber laxative, or quickly smoking about a
dozen cigarettes of low-THC industrial hemp. The side effects of
either would deter that behavior, West concluded.

Not everyone buys that argument. Detective Lt. Wayne Smith of the
Columbia County Sheriff's Department noted that a 1968 study
published in the journal Science showed highs were possible off
marijuana that had THC concentrations as little as 0.3 percent, the
same grade introduced in the U.S. House bill last summer as the THC
limit for industrial hemp.

"The marijuana that people sort of romanticized or think of as
harmless .. is the stuff they're talking about growing now for hemp,"
Smith said.

Legalizing industrial hemp could also require government regulation
of the crop, Kogut said. Legalizing possession of some kinds of
cannabis but not others would also add substantial cost and time to
court systems as crime labs tested all suspected marijuana for the
level of THC present in a sample, according to a 1999 memorandum from
the Department of Justice to the Assembly Committee on Agriculture
that heard Hahn's resolution.

"That'd be a logistical nightmare to try and enforce," Smith said.

Despite the raging debate, Hahn said he's optimistic, expressing hope
in a news release that action in other states will encourage action
on industrial hemp in Wisconsin. Still, he recognizes the controversy
of the issue. "It's an uphill battle," he said.