Pubdate: Tue, 09 Apr 2002
Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2002 Charleston Daily Mail
Contact:  http://www.dailymail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/76
Author: Sam Tranum
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp)

WV GOVERNOR SIGNS HEMP BILL

Ready For New Cash Crop State Prepares For Commercial Growth Of Industrial Hemp

CHARLESTON, West Virginia - Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglass 
used to oversee the state workers who slashed and burned wild 
marijuana in an effort to eradicate it from the hills of the Potomac 
Valley.

But that was more than two decades ago. Now Douglass is the man in 
charge of growing hemp in West Virginia.

"I sit here and whatever the laws demand, we in the Department of 
Agriculture will attempt to move in that direction," Douglass said 
this week.

Gov. Bob Wise recently signed the Industrial Hemp Act, kicking into 
motion a plan for West Virginians to cultivate the marijuana-like 
plant for use in clothing, bath products, car dashboards and other 
products.

Skeptics say hemp is marijuana by another name. But Sen. Karen 
Facemyer, R-Jackson, who sponsored the Hemp Act, said there is a big 
difference -- industrial hemp won't get anyone high.

Proponents hope West Virginia can take advantage of an untapped 
market. No other state is producing hemp for the commercial uses at 
this point, though Hawaii is growing a test crop.

There is still at least one major hurdle between West Virginia and 
hemp wealth - - the federal government isn't sure whether it's going 
to allow commercial cultivation of hemp.

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman has said industrial 
hemp cultivation is stuck in legal limbo. When asked whether it was 
legal to grow industrial hemp, Bill Steffick of the federal drug 
agency said he couldn't answer that question.

"You have some questions there that I basically can't answer because 
this is just an area that there's going to have to be some more 
discussion on this," he said.

Douglass said step one for the state's industrial hemp project is 
going to be navigating the federal rules. He said he hopes to work 
with West Virginia University's Davis College of Agriculture to do 
some experimentation on growing industrial hemp.

Bill Vinson, associate director for the agriculture school's 
experiment station, said the school stood ready to help.

"I don't know the specifics. I do know that we are ready to support 
West Virginia Department of Agriculture in their research programs in 
whatever way we can," he said.

Facemyer said she hoped the ambiguities in the laws regarding 
industrial hemp would be resolved by the time the university's 
research was done and the state was ready to move into commercial 
production.

She said advocates of industrial hemp have been pushing hard for its 
legalization. U.S. Rep. Nick Joe Rahall, D-W.Va., has said he'll 
support that effort.

"Illegal drugs have no place in American society," he said in a statement.

"But industrial hemp is not a drug. Thirty nations -- including 
Canada and Japan -- harvest industrial hemp that we import into our 
country. Our farmers could become a part of this global industry."

This will not be the first time that West Virginia University has 
helped the state with research for cannabis. Or the first time state 
residents grew a hemp crop.

During World War II, the Japanese interrupted American's Philippine 
hemp supply. The federal government asked states to pitch in and grow 
hemp so the Navy could have all the rope it needed to fight the war.

Douglass said the hemp he was in charge of eradicating years ago 
spread from an old rope factory in Petersburg.

Besides making rope from it, West Virginia has toyed with using hemp 
as a legal drug.

The Legislature legalized marijuana use for medical purposes in the 
late 1970s. At the time West Virginia University was involved in 
research on how effective the drug was in treating glaucoma and the 
side effects of cancer treatment.
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