GROWING HEMP LEGALLY ON HOLD IN STATE

Strict Federal Rules Overshadow State's Year-Old Legislation

A year after the West Virginia Legislature legalized growing industrial
hemp, the crop hasn't been grown in the Mountain State and it probably
never will be -- at least without an act of Congress.

Growing industrial hemp is legal by state code, but federal regulations
make it next to impossible. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration
only allows marijuana growth for research purposes, and only then under the
strictest of security.

The federal government doesn't make a distinction between the marijuana
people smoke to get high, which contains a psychotropic chemical and the
industrial hemp, which contains less than 1 percent of the substance.

That means West Virginia farmers can't legally grow hemp commercially, a
legislative interim committee learned Tuesday, but it doesn't mean state
Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglass won't keep joking about his own
marijuana efforts.

Douglass recently bid on and bought property near his Mason County farm
that State Police acquired years ago when a person illegally grew marijuana
there.

"As we're dealing with hemp, I might as well announce it: Your commissioner
of agriculture has a pot barn," Douglass joked, adding quickly, "That's not
to be confused with industrial hemp."

Theoretically, if Douglass did want to grow industrial hemp on his
property, he'd have to do it under strict security like two other states
currently interesting in commercializing hemp.

North Dakota State University was authorized by the North Dakota
Legislature to study industrial hemp as an alternative crop, but the
university still hasn't grown industrial hemp because its had such a hard
time meeting federal standards, according to a report by Deputy Agriculture
Commissioner Steve Hannah.

In Hawaii, industrial hemp is grown for research purposes only, focusing
mainly on the cosmetic use of hemp seed oil. That state's one-quarter-acre
plot is surrounded by a 12-foot high fence and 24-hour motion detectors
connected to a commercial security system, Hannah said. West Virginia
agriculture officials sent a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration
asking exactly what the requirements for security are. Until the federal
government makes a distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana,
however, Hannah said it's unlikely that even research hemp would be grown.

"Growing industrial hemp commercially in West Virginia is economically
infeasible under current federal law that considers it illegal," Hannah
wrote in his report to the committee.

Douglass said several states were trying to get the government to classify
industrial hemp differently than marijuana.

"This hemp issue will come up again," Douglass said.