UNION APPROVES OF HEMP LEGALIZATION

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- The South Dakota Farmers Union is supporting a petition
drive to legalize industrial hemp production.

The group's delegates were unanimous in supporting the petition during
their convention last weekend in Sioux Falls. Supporters of the petition
need 13,010 valid signatures by May 2002 to get the measure on the November
election ballot, an effort that will be helped if rank-and-file union
members sign.

The measure would allow the planting, harvesting, possession and sale of
industrial hemp in South Dakota if it contained no more than 1 percent
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the substance in marijuana that makes people high.

More than 20 other states are pushing similar measures. State and federal
agriculture and law enforcement officials oppose legalization.

"I'm pleased not so much that they just endorsed our efforts, but the
wonderful thing about it is, there was not a single voice of dissent," Bob
Newland, president of SoDak-NORML (National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws), said.

Newland said that because hemp is imported to the United States, farmers
should be allowed to produce it.

"We truck Canadian hemp right past barely surviving South Dakota farms," he
said. "The absurdity of the situation is glaringly obvious."

Senate Majority Leader Barbara Everist, R-Sioux Falls, said the petition
has problems because industrial hemp is illegal at the federal level.

"Federal law pre-empts state law," Everist said. "In past legislative
sessions, we haven't been convinced that the crop can be readily
distinguished from marijuana per se, or that it would even be valuable."

Rep. Frank Kloucek, D-Scotland, said he was surprised by the unanimous vote.

"I don't see any problem with industrial hemp," Kloucek said. "We're
already importing it from all over the world. The twine we buy comes from
Brazil."

Newland began circulating petitions in May.

State lawmakers killed bills last year that would have allowed medicinal
use of marijuana and another that would have allowed hemp production.