Source: The Lexington Herald-Leader Pubdate: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 Section: Business Section (Page C1) Author: Staff, Wire Reports PETITION TO MAKE HEMP LEGAL PREPARED PLAN INCLUDES LICENSING FARMERS, TRACKING SEEDS WASHINGTON -- Industrial hemp has 25,000 uses ranging from construction material to paper to clothing, but smoking it to get stoned is not among them. Yet proponents of hemp say it could give farmers a financial high. "There's an incredible opportunity," said Jeffrey Gain, a hemp proponent and former chief of the National Corn Growers Association. "There is too much emphasis on too few crops. We need to start adding crops." But right now, the federal government bans cultivation of industrial hemp and considers it a controlled substance, no different from its hallucinogenic cousin marijuana. Several groups, including the North American Industrial Hemp Council and the Resource Conservation Alliance, want to change that. They are preparing to petition the Drug Enforcement Administration to drop hemp from the controlled-substance list. They also want the Agriculture Department to set up a system of certifying hemp seeds and licensing farmers. "We're asking them to refine the definition of marijuana," said Ned Daly, director of the Resource Conservation Alliance, yesterday. "Hemp is not a drug and cannot be used as a drug." Hemp has a long history in the United States. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew it. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. During World War II, the federal government mounted a "Hemp for Victory" growing campaign for many military uses, including ropes, tents and parachute cords. Some agricultural economists say farmers today could gross up to $500 an acre for hemp. Canada legalized it earlier this month after a 60-year ban, in part because of the income potential for farmers. Several U.S. states are also promoting hemp research. In Kentucky, hemp supporters said the petition was the beginning of a campaign to make hemp as commonplace as flax. "We want to force the DEA to come to grips with the fact that hemp is not marijuana," said Andy Graves, a tobacco grower who is president of the Fayette County Farm Bureau and a member of the board of the North American Industrial Hemp Council. Graves said the council expects a decision from the DEA within six months. If the agency refuses to declassify hemp as an illegal product, the council will take the issue to court. Canada's decision last year to legalize the crop is a major new advantage, hemp advocates said. Gale Glenn, a Clark County farmer who formerly sat on the industrial hemp council's board, predicted that U.S. officials' opposition to hemp will wilt under pressure from farm groups once Canadian growers begin shipping it to U.S. manufacturers. England finally legalized hemp after the European Union lowered trade barriers and English companies began importing hemp from France, Glenn said. "I can't imagine that American farmers will sit by and watch U.S. companies importing this crop from Canada," she said. "That's what it is going to take because I think the DEA will dig in their heels until farmers get up in arms." Hemp and marijuana are both varieties of the cannabis sativa plant. But hemp typically contains less than 1 percent of the active ingredient, THC, that makes pot smokers high. Marijuana plants contain 10 percent to 20 percent THC. "It's not psychoactive," said Paul Gordon Mahlberg, a biology professor at Indiana University. Still, the DEA and President Clinton's drug control policy director, Barry McCaffrey, say hemp's legalization could hinder efforts to stamp out marijuana. "A serious law-enforcement concern is that a potential byproduct of legalizing hemp production would be de facto legalization of marijuana cultivation," McCaffrey's office said in a statement. "The seedlings are the same and in many instances the mature plants look the same." Those who want to end the ban say that is just blowing smoke. They say hemp plants are far taller than marijuana, are grown much closer together and typically are not allowed to flower. The flowering produces the buds most sought after by marijuana growers. "The dope argument lacks any merit," said Hawaii state Rep. Cynthia Thielen, a Republican who says farmers in her state want hemp as an alternative to sugar and pineapples. "You can tell the difference. You're licensing farmers so you know where the crop is. If someone's growing that isn't licensed, bust them." Graves and Glenn pointed out that all of the seven major democracies in the world except the U.S. already allow hemp to be grown. "In England and Western Europe they have no problem distinguishing industrial hemp from marijuana," Glenn said. "Their drug enforcement people are no brighter than ours. Yet they seem to be able to see the difference." The Agriculture Department, however, questions how profitable hemp might actually be: It is labor intensive and cheaper alternatives already exist for many of its uses. For instance, hemp linen costs $15 a square yard, compared with only $7.50 for flax linen. "Hemp production in the United States has no demonstrated economic value potential as a cash crop," the McCaffrey statement said. But proponents are undeterred, noting that Canadian farmers plan to plant 5,000 acres of hemp this spring and farmers in England and Germany have turned solid profits from it for years. Graves said hemp is more expensive than current alternatives because it has to be imported. Once an infrastructure is in place, the cost of hemp products will be competitive, he said. Some of the more unusual uses for hemp include reinforcement in concrete, as a replacement for fiberglass in cars, in shoes and even as a cosmetic oil. Proponents also say hemp is good for field rotations that help sustain soil and reduce insects. CANADIAN GROWER TO SPEAK Jean Laprise, a Canadian who plans to grow 2,000 acres of hemp this year on his farm in Ontario, will be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association. The meeting is scheduled April 4 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Fayette County extension service offices at 1145 Red Mile Place. © Copyright 1998 Lexington Herald-Leader.