Farm
States
Signal
Renewed
Interest
in
Industrial
Hemp
1/12/01
With state legislatures across the country now coming back into session, unfinished legislative business regarding industrial hemp is back on the agenda. So far, legislators in two states, Illinois and Nebraska, have taken steps toward allowing hemp production. If the bills pass, they would join Hawaii, Minnesota, and North Dakota as states which allow either research in hemp or actual cultivation of hemp crops. This week, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill 67-47 that calls on the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University to study hemp's suitability in Illinois growing conditions and its market potential. The measure passes the Illinois Senate last year, but was stalled in the House. It now goes to Republican Gov. George Ryan for his approval. Ryan has taken no position on the bill. If he signs the measure, the legislature would have to come up with funding for the studies, which are estimated to cost between $800,000 and $1 million. Most of those costs are for fences and other security measures mandated by restrictive federal regulations. The bill's sponsors, led by Sen. Evelyn Bowles (D-Edwardsville), overcame opposition from state and federal law enforcement officials and the Illinois Drug Education Alliance, an anti-drug citizens' group. Priss Parmenter, the alliance's director, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the bill "would send the wrong message on drugs." "Drug prevention dollars have been cut over the last several years," Parmenter said. "We're scrounging all the time for dollars to do prevention. It's a little irksome when we're fighting an agricultural hemp bill when I'm at home working with kids on substance abuse issues." Opponents repeated their standard canards that hemp and smokeable marijuana are indistinguishable. Illinois State Police spokesman Capt. Dave Sanders told the Post-Dispatch that if hemp were legal, police would be unable to tell hemp fields from marijuana fields and that people arrested for marijuana possession could claim it was hemp. "The only way you're going to discern that is through the lab test," Sanders claimed. But, as Dale Gieringer of California NORML told DRCNet, "They already have to do lab tests to verify that a substance is marijuana." As for the threat of marijuana being hidden in hemp fields, Gieringer scoffed. "Sure, someone who wasn't too smart could plant smokeable marijuana in a hemp field," he said, "but all he would get is a huge cross-pollination problem. You'd end up with pot that doesn't get you high and hemp that isn't very good for fiber." And, Gieringer pointed out, "This hasn't been a problem in Europe, where several countries with strict cannabis laws allow legal hemp production." The concerns raised by anti-drug activists and police were enough, however, to sway some votes. "Agriculture is important in my district," Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) told the Quad-City Times, "however, I don't think this is the right direction to go. "It's opening the door." In Nebraska, meanwhile, Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek has reintroduced a bill to legalize the growing of industrial hemp. The bill last year was passed by the Agriculture Committee but failed to win approval by the unicameral, non-partisan legislature. Schrock told the Omaha World-Herald that all members of the Agriculture Committee except one who was sick had cosponsored the bill. Still, he said, he expects opposition to emerge. "I personally think most of that opposition will come from people who are not well informed," he said.
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