Pubdate: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 Source: Lincoln Journal Star (NE) Website: http://www.journalstar.com/ Feedback: http://www.journalstar.com:80/info/about_ljs/letform Address: PO Box 81609, Lincoln, NE 68508 Email: 2000 Lincoln Journal Star Fax: (402) 473-7291 Author: Ken Hambleton HEMP BILL ADVANCES OUT OF COMMITTEE LINCOLN - Hemp grew out of the Agriculture Committee Thursday afternoon by a unanimous 7-0 vote. Under the bill, industrial hemp - argued as a nonhallucinogenic cousin of the drug cannabis sativa - would be grown by licensed farmers under supervision of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the state Department of Agriculture. Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek introduced LB273 with the hopes of expanding markets for industrial hemp. He said that many other states -- and most other industrial countries, including Canada -- have developed their own markets for hemp, and the United States currently imports some for products ranging from clothes to house-building material. "I really don't think this bill and the use of industrial hemp is as controversial as it might first look," Schrock said. He added that there is no chance of getting any more than a headache from smoking hemp. The original bill was amended to help law enforcement agencies in regulating the growth of hemp. "We've done some things requested by the DEA and the State Patrol to make it so someone with hemp - a concentrate of 0.3 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the hallucinogen in marijuana) - and a license, is different than a guy on the street with the drug in a baggie claiming he's growing hemp," said Rick Leonard, research analyst for the Agriculture Committee. Even though the bill advanced out of committee, it appears unlikely to reach the floor of the Legislature for debate since there are so many bills ahead of it, Schrock said. If he determined to make the bill a priority or if the committee chose to do the same, there is a chance, he said. A similar bill advanced out of committee last year but did not reach the first round of debates. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth