PRISONERS PULL POT-PULLING DUTY

The Two Inmates Were Assigned To Pick And Burn Wild Hemp Growing On The Road
Between Oakhill And The Prison Farm.

Wisconsin prison officials Thursday put two prisoners to work on
Highway M in Fitchburg pulling and burning "Wisconsin green" -- wild
hemp.

Rodney James, president of AFSCME Local 3021, the union that
represents state correctional officers, says there's something wrong
with prisoners "picking something known to be illegal."

James, a sergeant at Oakhill Correctional Institution, said someone
found the low-grade marijuana growing on the road between Oakhill and
the prison farm in Oregon this week.

"They pulled the plant, brought it in and lit one of the leaves,"
James said.

Institution officials then called the Fitchburg Police Department and
were told to remove it, said Corrections Department spokesman Bill
Clausius. Prison officials obtained a burning permit, and four or five
small hemp plants were burned at about 11 a.m. Thursday, he said.

Hemp typically contains 1 to 2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
chemical that gives pot smokers a buzz, while cultivated marijuana
generally has 4 to 6 percent THC content. "Hemp is a weed -- with
negligible amounts of THC," Clausius said.

In an email to James, Steve Kronzer, director of the state Bureau of
Correctional Enterprises, said a farm captain directly supervised the
harvest and destruction of the plants on Thursday.

No one should be surprised at this little hemp resurgence, Kronzer
said. Prior to 1959, the correctional farms grew hemp as a cash crop
to produce binder twine in the factory at the prison in Waupun.

Ten years ago, Oakhill had local drug enforcement agents come in and
destroy a bumper crop of wild marijuana that had been found on the
farm, James said. This time, they opted to use inmates.

Clausius said he didn't know the offenses for which the two inmates
are serving time.

It is illegal to grow industrial hemp in the United States.