MAKING A CASE FOR HEMP

Alex White Plume, his wife Debbie and their children, make up an average
Lakota family residing on the Pine Ridge Reservation, with one exception.

For two summers they have planted and cultivated crops of hemp on the
supposed sovereign soil of the Pine Ridge, nay - - - - - Oglala Lakota
Nation. Instead of standing up against the thugs of the Drug Enforcement
Administration as they mowed White Plume's crops to the ground for the
second time this summer, Oglala Sioux Tribal President, John Steele, stood
silently watching with his thumb stuck securely in his hip pocket.

In Lexington, Kentucky, where moonshine and tobacco have been cash products
for many years, the farmers there are hoping to do the very thing attempted
by White Plume; grow hemp as a cash crop to replace the diminishing returns
on tobacco crops.

Unfortunately, the DEA looks at the crop, known as cannabis sativa, as
dangerous because it contains tiny traces of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a
substance found in marijuana plants.

According to a well-researched article in Newsweek magazine, marijuana
contains 3 percent to 20 percent THC. Hemp is bred to contain less than 1
percent. As the magazine so aptly states, "You could roll and smoke every
leaf on a 15--ft. hemp plant and gain little more than a hacking cough."

When rope became scarce during World War II the U. S. Government encouraged
farmers to grow hemp. In 1942 the U. S. Department of Agriculture produced
a film, Hemp for Victory, in hopes that more farmers would start planting
hemp. The U. S. Government became the biggest buyer of locally grown hemp
products.

Alex White Plume saw this plant as an answer to his prayers. Hemp is a
renewable resource and an effective rotation crop that requires little or
no herbicide. In his research White Plume discovered that nutritionists and
vegetarians found that hemp oil had an unusually beneficial ratio of
essential fatty acids or good fats.

White Plume also saw the plant as a source of rope and fibers for products
as diverse as rugs and clothing. Hemp grows so tall so fast that it would
also make a great substitute for the wood that now goes into manufacturing
paper products. Millions of board feet of lumber are now cut annually to
feed the presses of America.

White Plume is a traditional Lakota. He practices the ancient spirituality
of his ancestors. He is an honest man looked upon by many as a leader in
his reservation community. He does not come from a tradition of farming as
most Lakota turned their backs on what they considered to be "stoop labor"
when the United States government tried to turn them into farmers at the
turn of the century.

But Alex realizes that times have changed. He sees in hemp a way to bring
income to the many Lakota who are now leasing their land to the white
settlers. He sees hemp as a way to get the traditional Lakota out of the
cluster houses built by the good old self-serving government and back on
their own land.

Homes built in community clusters became the darling project of Housing and
Urban Development many years ago because the houses were cheap to build
and, as many older Lakota believe, a way to get the Indian off his land. By
building homes in clusters many dollars could be saved on electric and
water lines, or so the reasoning went at the time.

But what happens when people are taken from the land and crowded into
houses built close together? It is the breeding ground of instant ghettoes.
And that is what happened on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

White Plume saw the growing of hemp as a cottage industry that would bring
self-motivation, self-respect and a brand new industrial opportunity to the
Lakota. It was easy to grow, required little cultivation or water and could
be used for everything from rope to shirts.

Next month the DEA will start enforcing a new rule that would treat foods
containing any amount of THC as controlled substances. This will make them
as restricted as heroin. The Canadian government has formally ob-jected.
And a Canadian hemp firm has filed a claim that says the DEA is violating
the North American Free Trade Agreement by failing to provide scientific
justification for the new rule.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked to block the rule.

Newsweek writes that "many farmers are watching the case because it shows
how hard the government will fight a growing movement to legitimize hemp
farming in the United States."

Right now it is legal to sell hemp products but illegal to grow the hemp
used in them. This hemp is imported.

In the meantime, the global market for hemp is growing and it is a market
Alex White Plume would like to join.

Will the leaders of the Oglala Lakota Nation, the proud descendants of
Crazy Horse, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Little Wound, Bull Bear and
Red Cloud stand up for the sovereign status of their people and tell the
DEA to go dig turnips?

Last week, White Plume stood looking over the field where his hemp crop had
been cut to the ground by the DEA. Will he try to grow it again this
summer? White Plume just shrugs and with a smile says, "Tim, why don't you
stop by for a cup of coffee in July."