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HEMP DIES IN WAHIAWA

America's only legal experiment in growing hemp died Sept.  30.  The U.S.  Drug Enforcement Agency killed the 4-year-old project through delays in granting a permit to geneticist David West.

The DEA thinks hemp will get you high.  It won't -- but you can use it to make food, clothes and buildings.

West and DEA agents ground up all the hemp seeds at the quarter-acre plot in Wahiawa.  He told the Weekly, "I'm a little numb, but I'm at least relieved to have this albatross off my neck." West continued: "We have a drug-war-industrial complex in this country.  It will go on forever, because they just keep the medicine show rolling -- now it's meth amphetamine.  It's all about job security for police and prisons."

Republican Rep.  Cynthia Thielen, a major supporter of the project, said, "This is a terribly sad loss of economic opportunity for the state.  Industrial hemp is a value-added crop.  And it was legal in the U.S.  until the 1940s!"

West's success in growing hemp in these latitudes apparently upset authorities.  He pointed to a break-in at the facility two years ago: "I won't speculate who it was, but it was very professional.  They were there specifically for seeds, and they didn't miss any."

Meanwhile, the Hemp Industries Association is predicting victory in a battle to prevent the DEA from banning hemp foods.  The 9th U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule within six months.

Canada, China and much of Europe permit harvesting of hemp.  The plant's users have included Washington, Jefferson, Siddhartha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Pliny the Elder and Ralph Nader.