INDUSTRIAL HEMP LOOKED INTO MORE SERIOUSLY

When the concept of industrial hemp is brought up, it is usually dismissed
as some kind of hippie rhetoric.

But as environmental factors worsen and the need for a serious energy
alternative arises, professor of biological sciences Angelo Capparella said
he hopes people can shed some of the misconceptions they have about hemp.

"One of the problems I see, is that there has been a tendency for people
who want to legalize marijuana also to be very involved with industrial
hemp," Capparella said.

He said this creates an automatic linkage in the public psyche that cannot
be broken easily.

Gregg Brown, ISU alumnus and Student Environmental Action Coalition
activist, contended that this linkage is a result of the aggressive
anti-drug campaign undertaken by the United States.

Anti-drug campaigns have gone a long way to discredit hemp through its
association with marijuana, though Brown said the psychoactive payload of
chemicals is relatively nonexistent in industrial hemp.

Capparella said, "We've got to break that linkage, and then have a
discussion on each issue separately, because they really are separate issues."

"On the one hand, you have the drug enforcement agency that doesn't want to
break the linkage because they think it will make their job harder,"
Capparella said. "And you have the advocates of hemp who, even though they
say they see them [marijuana and hemp] as separate issues, they're often
involved in both."

Of course legislation is one of the keys to success for industrial hemp,
and its record thus far is unsuccessful, Director of Programs for the
McLean County Farm Bureau Mike Swartz said. A law that would have permitted
research and development on industrial hemp has been struck down twice at
the gubernatorial level.

"Anything that is going to help boost the farm economy, we're going to
generally be supportive of as well," Matt Bisbee, press secretary for
Congressman Tim Johnson (R-Ill.), said.

Bisbee said Johnson supported the initiatives at the state level when he
was a member of the Illinois General Assembly, but stressed the specifics
of any proposed legislation would have to be worked out before it gained
widespread support.

However according to Manager of Public Affairs at Illinois Power Charlie
Deal, the real bottom line in determining the feasibility of industrial
hemp may beSthe bottom line.

"Whomever it is that's going to make that investment [in energy sources]
looks at what's available; what's a reliable, efficient way of generating
power today," he said.

He said the most cost-effective sources that still meet the Environmental
Protection Agency guidelines are the ones that will be used for now. Those
sources do not include industrial hemp.

"It's hard to say what's going to happen," Deal said.

The industrial hemp legislation is currently at a stalemate in Illinois,
Swartz said, and Bisbee said he is unaware of any such federal legislation.

"As long as the public stays quiet, the politicians are going to serve the
money interests," Brown said.

"We've got an [presidential] administration that's committed to the worst
possible choices that can be made," he said, "because it's in the current
corporate structure that's where the highest profits are."

Brown also dismisses the claim that legalization of hemp would open the
door for marijuana.

"I'm not going to say there's no risk in liberating this plant, but
compared to the risks of climate change, acid rain, pesticides, warsSI
think if you balance it, where's the biggest risk," he asked.

Bisbee said, "As a renewable energy source we are definitely interested in
looking into it [hemp]. We're 100 percent behind renewable energy sources."

Capparella said he hopes the public realizes the danger they are in soon,
before it is too late. He fingered the public, their apathy and their
complacency as part of the reason the situation has gotten so bad so soon.

"Scientists have good solutions but so few of them are being done because
the public doesn't believe there's even a problem," he said.

He said scientists have been doing the work, its up to the public and the
news media to perpetuate those findings. He also said he feels the values
of the American public need to be better prioritized in order to bring
about change.

"If your only value is to get as much as you can, then it's no wonder the
decisions that are made are made," Capparella said.

"But if you do have a value that extends beyond your own immediate material
wealth, then that will lead to being concerned about...the future."

Brown agreed, saying a responsible news media is imperative for a solution
to be reached on the industrial hemp issue. "Let's have a debate, let's get
real, and we can make a choice," Brown said.

"We don't have time to waste. This truth can change everything."