Pubdate: Thu, 18 Aug 2005
Source: Sun, The (UK)
Copyright: News Group Newspapers Ltd, 2005
Contact:  http://www.the-sun.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/433
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?330 (Hemp - Outside U.S.)

LEAF IT OUT, YOU DOPES

BEFUDDLED thieves are targeting a field of hemp -- wrongly thinking they 
can get high by smoking the leaves.

The crop looks and smells similar to cannabis, but its oil is used for 
cattle feed and paint and the rest is turned into rope and textiles.

Yet on Monday cops caught a gang of 12 with 60 bags of leaves. Next day a 
police helicopter was scrambled as more raiders fled.

Farmer Rachel Hobson, 36, of Rotherham, South Yorks, said: "It's 
ridiculous. You could smoke the whole field and it wouldn't get you high.

"The gene which produces a narcotic has been bred out of it."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom