Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jan 2006
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2006 The Media News Group
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Author: Larry Mitchell, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp)

LOCAL AG LEADER SEES BENEFITS IN GROWING HEMP

A local Farm Bureau leader sees potential benefits for farmers in a
bill that would legalize growing "industrial hemp," a plant related to
marijuana.

"If it's something farmers in the area can grow and make money, and
it's legal, I don't see any problem with it," said Tod Kimmelshue, a
member of the boards of directors of both the state and Butte County
Farm Bureau organizations.

Assemblyman Rick Keene, R-Chico, doesn't share Kimmelshue's enthusiasm
for Assembly Bill 1147, which passed the Assembly Thursday.

Keene said he and most other Republican Assembly members fear that
making it legal to grow industrial hemp would create problems for law
enforcement and perhaps encourage drug use.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, passed
the Assembly by a vote of 44-32. Only one Republican supported the
bill, Assemblyman Chuck Devore of Irvine, who co-authored the measure.

According to Leno, in 1937 the federal government mistakenly put hemp
in the same category as marijuana because the plants look similar and
both contain THC, the intoxicating chemical in marijuana. The
difference is that hemp contains only a tiny amount of THC, not enough
to have mind-altering effects on people.

Keene said he didn't see any need to legalize growing hemp. He said he
was told that if there was cross-pollination between marijuana and
hemp, the hemp's THC content could increase.

Keene said the legalization of growing hemp is advocated as "a first
step" by those who wish to legalize growing marijuana.

Leno's bill now moves to the state Senate.

According to a legislative analysis of AB1147, industrial hemp can be
used to make paper, clothing, rope, food products, biocomposite
products that can replace fiberglass and plastics, biofuel to produce
ethanol, and body-care products.

Statistics on hemp grown in Canada show the acreage has risen from
3,200 in 2001 to an estimated 10,000-15,000 in 2005. It is grown
through dry-land farming and in irrigated environments. It has little
need for pesticide as it shades out competing weeds.

Six states -- Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota and
Virginia -- have made it legal to grow hemp, but so far they only
allow limited cultivation for research purposes, the analysis stated.

Kimmelshue said its conceivable hemp could become a viable crop in
California.

"Farmers are always looking for new crops to grow," he said. "It all
depends on the economics."

As long as hemp was grown for its value as a food, fiber or other
products and it couldn't be used as a drug, Kimmelshue said he saw no
reason to oppose legalizing its cultivation.

It "could be good for the local economy," he said.

BACKGROUND: Hemp, a relative of marijuana, is illegal to grow in
California and most other states.

WHAT'S NEW: The state Assembly, on a party line vote, passed a bill
that would allow farmers to raise "industrial hemp," which contains
just tiny amounts of the intoxicating chemical in marijuana.

WHAT'S NEXT: The bill, co-authored by a Northern California Democrat
and a Southern California Republican, now moves to the Senate.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin