Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2001
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2001 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  100 Midland Avenue, Lexington, Ky. 40508
Fax: 606-255-7236
Website: http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?lexingtn
Author: Jeanette McDougal
Note: Jeanette McDougal, a St. Paul, Minn., schoolteacher, is chairwoman of 
Drug Watch International's hemp committee.

HEMP A COVER FOR LEGALIZING POT

Separating hemp reality from hemp rhetoric is like separating fleas from 
dogs: It's hard to do, and it's temporary. When one hemp fact is 
established, pro-hemp advocates rush in with another of their own facts. 
Should we really turn for facts to former CIA Director James Woolsey, who 
bragged about his client the North American Industrial Hemp Council, by 
saying there was not a tie-dyed shirt owner among the members? He neglected 
to check their boxers. Several of the board members were either vigorous 
pro-drug advocates or their close associates.

David Morris, former vice-president of the council, pushed legalization of 
marijuana, marijuana cigarettes for medicine and industrial cannabis hemp 
for years in his columns in the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.

Andrew Graves, founding and former board member, was party to a lawsuit to 
permit the growing of industrial cannabis hemp. The two lead lawyers in 
that suit Michael Kennedy of New York and Burl McCoy of Kentucky are on the 
roster of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, an 
aggressive pro-marijuana legalization advocate.

Actor Woody Harrelson, an admitted pot smoker, marijuana and hemp advocate, 
hired Joe Hickey, executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers 
Association, as a consultant, allowing Hickey to leave his former job and 
devote all his time to hemp. Harrelson has sponsored many Kentucky hemp 
events, including a hemp essay contest for Kentucky schoolchildren, some of 
whom received a list of hemp facts intermingled with marijuana facts, such 
as, "smoking marijuana can be beneficial for emphysema, and can be used as 
a handy way to induce dry mouth before dental operations."

John Howell, former hemp editor of High Times magazine, was in Kentucky in 
1998 to help Graves, Kennedy and McCoy publicize the message that there is 
a hemp market. Howell recently represented the cannabis hemp industry at 
the National Conference of State Legislatures, without disclosing his ties 
to High Times.

High Times, one of the oldest and most militant pro-drug/marijuana 
publications in the United States, announced in its March 1990 edition an 
"extraordinary plan" to legalize marijuana:

"The way to legalize marijuana is to sell marijuana legally. When you can 
buy marijuana in your neighborhood shopping mall, it's legal ... Anything 
and everything you can think of will be made from hemp ... Supporters of 
the hemp legalization movement will be able to buy shares in hemp 
manufacturing. ... Legal and financial recognition of hemp's industrial 
value will mean legal marijuana, whether our government likes it or not! 
Pot will be legal! ... So invest in our future. Buy some legal marijuana. 
Buy a hemp shirt and wear it proudly!"

As to the economics of cannabis hemp, in 1999 about 540 Canadian farmers 
planted 35,000 acres of hemp. About 18,700 of those acres were contracted 
to a company called Consolidated Growers, which went bankrupt (Chapter 7) 
in February 2000, leaving 232 Canadian farmers (almost half of those who 
planted hemp that year) holding the hemp bag for $5 million to $6 million. 
Much of the 1999 crop is still being stored by Canadian farmers.

In 2000, in all of Canada, a mere 13,500 acres were planted, down from 
35,000 the year before. Ontario, the only province to do a costs/return per 
acre analysis, discovered that for fiber only, there was a $107 loss; for 
grain only, a $24 loss; and for grain and fiber, a $48 profit. An 
agriculture ministry official also warned farmers to have a contract with a 
reputable company before planting hemp, or they could lose $600 an acre.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the market for hemp fibers "will 
likely remain a small, thin market." The report calculates that U.S. 
imports of hemp fiber, yarn, fabric and seed in 1999 could have been 
produced on less than 5,000 acres.

The hemp liability list goes on and on and on.

At issue

Feb. 19 commentary by former Kentucky Gov. Louie B. Nunn, "We can 
differentiate between hemp, marijuana"
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