INDUSTRIAL HEMP VIABLE CROP

A petition is currently circulating in the state to put the issue of
whether growing industrial hemp should be legal onto the November 2002
ballot. As the absurdity of the current laws banning hemp become more and
more apparent, this debate will arise more frequently until logic - and new
laws - prevail.Before I explain myself and any of you accuse me of being a
hippy, or worse, let me throw a few facts your way:

While it is part of the same family as marijuana, industrial hemp usually
contains less than 1 percent of the hallucinogen tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC). There is no getting high off it, in other words. But because it does
belong to the same family, under a federal law hemp cannot be grown
commercially in the United States.

During World War II the U.S. government launched a campaign called "Hemp
for Victory," promoting the need for farmers to grow hemp to help with the
war effort. This program chronicled some of the thousand-year history of
how hemp had been used - it covered the prairie schooners and made the
riggings for the gunship Old Ironsides - and how tough and versatile it
was. With the import of cheaper fibers, much of the U.S. growing of
industrial hemp was curtailed. During the war, however, these imports were
cut off and the U.S. Department of Agriculture had to put out a plea to
"patriotic" farmers to grow this "indispensable" crop.

The United States imports about $300 million in hemp products a year from
places such as Canada, where industrial hemp is a legal crop. That's money
that U.S. farmers or Indians on South Dakota's reservations could be earning.

Many countries in Europe - led by Germany - are beginning to put materials
from plants like hemp into their vehicles. As the European countries pass
more laws protecting the environment such use of hemp will increase,
driving up the demand.

So, not only is industrial hemp useless as a mind-altering drug, but it was
once legal in this country and the U.S. government actively promoted its
growth.

But there is another issue brewing that highlights the contradictory nature
of the U.S. stance. This concerns the Lakota people, especially those on
Pine Ridge. In 1868, America entered into a treaty with the sovereign
nation of the Lakota Sioux. That treaty, according to Bob Newland, who is
pushing the petition drive, "provides that members of the tribe may produce
food and fiber on the various reservations."

The topic of hemp came up a lot during a recent visit of mine to Pine
Ridge, where Alex White Plume has twice had his industrial hemp crop
leveled by agents from the DEA (once they came at sunrise by helicopter -
no reports whether it was a black one or not). Many on the reservations
view this issue as an economic issue as well as an issue of sovereignty.
For starters, growing hemp is fairly easy, even on some of the poor-quality
land on the reservations. The bottom line for many on Pine Ridge, which is
living under a sentence of brutal poverty, is that growing hemp could
provide a cash crop that could help tremendously. It is seen by some as one
way out of the terrible dependence on federal funds and of becoming more
self-sustaining. And yet, to them, it appears as if the federal government
is bent on not allowing them this opportunity. For the record, Alex White
Plume has not been charged with any crime in connection with the two
federal raids on his hemp crop.

Drug enforcement agencies say their jobs would be complicated because
industrial hemp looks so similar to marijuana. But with a little bit of
paperwork industrial hemp growing could be easily regulated.

Changing the law in South Dakota wouldn't supersede the federal law, but it
certainly would put more pressure on the federal government to review its
nonsensical stance. Will they want to continue to force an issue that could
spiral into matters of sovereign rights on the reservation over a crop that
they once used to promote?

Farmers from Canada and some of the other 32 countries where hemp is legal
have an alternative - and lucrative - crop denied to the American farmer
already wrestling with low commodity prices.

As of the end of November, Newland had more than a quarter of the
signatures he needs to get this issue onto the ballot next year. He
deserves all the help he can get.