Pubdate: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Copyright: 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Contact: 900 North Tucker Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri 63101 Website: http://www.postnet.com/ Forum: http://www.postnet.com/postnet/config.nsf/forums Author: Mary Massingale, Post-Dispatch Springfield bureau Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp) ANOTHER BILL IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE WOULD PROMOTE HEMP CULTIVATION SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - It's the plant that just won't die. Legislation to allow industrial hemp to be grown under controlled circumstances has sprouted again in the Illinois House, a little more than a week after Gov. George Ryan vetoed a similar bill. However, the new proposal cuts Southern Illinois University at Carbondale out of the project, which is spearheaded by the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. "The University of Illinois is ready to move faster than Southern," said Rep. Ron Lawfer, R-Stockton, sponsor of the bill. Sen. Evelyn Bowles, D-Edwardsville, sponsored the vetoed bill and is backing Lawfer's proposal. She said eliminating SIUC from the study was a matter of economics. "We have to have a secured area, and U of I has a secured area already, which will reduce the cost factor," Bowles said. The vetoed legislation would have provided $1 million in state money for both the University of Illinois and SIUC to study industrial hemp as an alternative crop for Illinois farmers. A spokesman for SIUC said the university still would like to take part if funding is available. "We were and remain interested in participating," said Scott Kaiser. "We're willing to do the work. We would need funding to do it whether from the state or a private source or a combination of both." Lawfer's bill calls for private funding of the study and would limit the levels of the hallucinogenic tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in the hemp that is grown. Both hemp and marijuana contain THC, although hemp has smaller amounts. Ryan cited both the study's cost and hemp's relationship to marijuana when vetoing Bowles' bill. "We drafted this bill based on the governor's veto message," Bowles said. Critics of industrial hemp view the crop as a possible inroad to the legalization of marijuana. Priss Parmenter, president of Illinois Drug Education Alliance and a substance abuse counselor in Olney, Ill., said she was not surprised at the new hemp proposal but remains bewildered at the crop's popularity. "Why would they choose a crop that has controversy around it and not even explore the alternative crops that are already being researched?" Parmenter asked, adding later, "What's behind this?" In his veto of Bowles' bill, Ryan said the study would "send a mixed message to the youth of our state" about drugs. "I don't understand that," Lawfer said. "There's a difference between industrial hemp and marijuana . . . and kids are smart enough to know the difference." The bill is HB3377 and awaits a House committee hearing. - ---