Pubdate: Mon, 31 Jan 2000
Source: Argus Leader (SD)
Copyright: 2000 Argus Leader
Contact:  P.O. Box 5034, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5034
Fax: (605) 331-2294
Website: http://www.argusleader.com/
Forum: http://www.argusleader.com/info/forum.html
Author: Lance Nixon

LAWMAKERS EXPLORE HEMP'S POTENTIAL AS CASH CROP

South Dakota lawmakers will discuss this week whether industrial hemp is a 
potentially lucrative value-added crop for farmers or a headache for law 
enforcement.

The House Agriculture Committee takes up a proposal Tuesday that could open 
the door to hemp production in South Dakota.

Supporters say hemp is the honest but misunderstood cousin of the illegal 
drug marijuana. The plant produces oil, seeds and a fiber that can be used 
to make clothing and other products.

"This is an amazing plant and there's an amazing amount of stuff coming 
down the pike with this," said Watertown-area dairy farmer Joe Stein. "It's 
a value-added crop."

There is one significant difference between hemp and marijuana, supporters 
say. Hemp doesn't pack enough of the chemical substance 
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, to get someone high. Both plants are
varieties of the same species, Cannabis sativa, which is a controlled 
substance in the United States regardless of its narcotic content.

House Bill 1267 sanctions production of industrial hemp with a THC content 
of 1 percent or less. The bill adds that anyone harvesting, possessing or 
selling industrial hemp with a THC content greater than that is guilty of a 
Class 2 misdemeanor, although no violation will be prosecuted unless THC 
content is greater than 3 percent.

But even as Rep. Robert Weber, R-Strandburg, introduced the bill last week, 
a recent report from U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research 
Service was downplaying hemp as a new crop for farmers, saying it's likely 
to remain a "small, thin market."

The report pointed out that in Canada, where industrial hemp is legal, the 
35,000 acres grown in 1999 oversupplied the North American market.

The report adds that hemp oil has poor prospects because it has a short 
shelf life and can't be used for frying; that the hemp seed market is 
likely to remain small like the market for sesame and poppy seeds; and that 
the textile market for hemp fiber, judging by the textile demand for linen 
derived from the legal crop, flax, is not likely to be profitable.

But Bob Newland of Hermosa -- a member of the Libertarian Party who has 
been pushing the issue with a series of postcards to state lawmakers in 
recent months -- counters that the market will develop if industrial hemp 
is legalized.

Weber said the bill seems to have a good many supporters in the House, and 
added that the real effect of the legislation would be to send a message to 
Washington to change federal policies on hemp.

"We're trying to get the federal government to back off and let us raise it 
like they do in Canada and some other places," he said.

Nineteen other states have considered hemp legislation since 1995 and 
several have approved it. Minnesota and North Dakota allow production if 
farmers obtain permits from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

But law enforcement officers see some problems with the legislation -- one 
of them the fact that industrial hemp and marijuana look alike.

"It sounds like an enforcement nightmare," said Lt. Mark Moberly of the 
narcotics section of the Sioux Falls Police Department. "How would you 
separate the hemp growers from the people who are growing marijuana for 
recreational use? The alleged difference is the THC level, which you cannot 
see with the naked eye."

Moberly adds that the issue becomes more complicated because proponents of 
legalizing marijuana frequently piggy-back on the issue of legalizing 
industrial hemp. In South Dakota there's at least some basis to what 
Moberly says.

Newland is president of the Mt. Rushmore State Chapter of the National 
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws -- which is one reason he 
probably won't be testifying for the hemp bill in Pierre.

"As a matter of fact, they have told me to stay home," Newland said. "The 
prime sponsor did say that I should not testify in favor of the bill 
because they (lawmakers) connect me with drug legalization."

Stein, the Watertown farmer, finds hemp's kinship with marijuana 
unfortunate. "Hemp compared to marijuana is like comparing a Chihuahua with 
a pit bull. They're both dogs, but they're very different kinds of dogs." 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake