Pubdate: Sun, 13 Oct 2013
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
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Author: Kristen Wyatt, the Associated Press
Page: 4A

COLORADANS HARVEST HEMP DESPITE LAW

Farmer Has No Fear of Federal Crackdown on Crop, As With 'Pot,' OK'd By State

SPRINGFIELD, Colo. (AP) - Southeast Colorado farmer Ryan Loflin tried 
an illegal crop this year. He didn't hide it from neighbors, and he 
never feared law enforcement would come asking about it.

Loflin is among about two dozen Colorado farmers who raised 
industrial hemp, marijuana's nonintoxicating cousin that can't be 
grown under federal drug law, and are bringing in the nation's first 
acknowledged crop in more than five decades.

Emboldened by voters in Colorado and Washington last year giving the 
green light to both marijuana and industrial hemp production, Loflin 
planted 55 acres of several varieties of hemp alongside his typical 
alfalfa and wheat crops. The hemp came in sparse and scraggly this 
month, but Loflin said he's still turning away buyers.

"Phone's been ringing off the hook," said Loflin, who plans to press 
the seeds into oil and sell the fibrous remainder to buyers who'll 
use it in building materials, fabric and rope. "People want to buy 
more than I can grow."

But hemp's economic prospects are far from certain. Finished hemp is 
legal in the U.S., but growing it remains off-limits under federal 
law. The Congressional Research Service recently noted wildly 
differing projections about hemp's economic potential.

However, America is one of hemp's fastest-growing markets, with 
imports largely coming from China and Canada. In 2011, the U.S. 
imported $11.5 million worth of hemp products, up from $1.4 million 
in 2000. Most of that is hemp seed and hemp oil, which finds its way 
into granola bars, soaps, lotions and even cooking oil. Whole Foods 
Market now sells hemp milk, hemp tortilla chips and hemp seeds coated 
in dark chocolate.

Colorado won't start granting hemp-cultivation licenses until 2014, 
but Loflin didn't wait.

His confidence got a boost in August when the U.S. Department of 
Justice said the federal government would generally defer to state 
marijuana laws as long as states keep marijuana away from children 
and drug cartels. The memo didn't even mention hemp as an enforcement 
priority for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I figured they have more important things to worry about than, you 
know, rope," a smiling Loflin said as he hand-harvested 4-foot-tall 
plants on his Baca County land.

Colorado's hemp experiment may not be unique for long. Ten states now 
have industrial-hemp laws that conflict with federal drug policy, 
including one signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown last month. And 
it's not just the typical marijuana-friendly suspects: Kentucky, 
North Dakota and West Virginia have industrial hemp laws on the books.

Hemp production was never banned outright, but it dropped to zero in 
the late 1950s because of competition from synthetic fibers and 
increasing anti-drug sentiment.

Hemp and marijuana are the same species, Cannabis sativa, just 
cultivated differently to enhance or reduce marijuana's psychoactive 
chemical, THC. The 1970 Controlled Substances Act required hemp 
growers to get a permit from the DEA, the last of which was issued in 
1999 for a quarter-acre experimental plot in Hawaii. That permit 
expired in 2003.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last recorded an industrial hemp 
crop in the late 1950s, down from a 1943 peak of more than 150 
million pounds on 146,200 harvested acres.

But Loflin and other legalization advocates say hemp is back in style 
and that federal obstacles need to go.

Loflin didn't even have to hire help to bring in his crop, instead 
posting on Facebook that he needed volunteer harvesters. More than 
two dozen people showed up - from as far as Texas and Idaho.

Volunteers pulled the plants up from the root and piled them whole on 
two flatbed trucks. The mood was celebratory, people whooping at the 
sight of it and joking they thought they'd never see the day.

But there are reasons to doubt hemp's viability. Even if law 
enforcement doesn't interfere, the market might.

"It is not possible," Congressional Research Service researchers 
wrote in a July report, "to predict the potential market and 
employment effects of relaxing current restrictions on U.S. hemp production."

The most recent federal study came 13 years ago, when the USDA 
concluded that the nation's hemp markets "are, and will likely 
remain, small" and "thin." And a 2004 study by the University of 
Wisconsin warned that hemp "is not likely to generate sizable 
profits," and highlighted "uncertainty about long-run demand for hemp 
products."

Still, there are seeds of hope. Global hemp production has increased 
from 250 million pounds in 1999 to more than 380 million pounds in 
2011, according to United Nations agricultural surveys, which 
attributed the boost to increased demand for hemp seeds and hemp oil.

Congress is paying attention to the country's increasing acceptance 
of hemp. The House version of the stalled farm bill includes an 
amendment, sponsored by lawmakers in Colorado, Oregon and Kentucky, 
allowing industrial-hemp cultivation nationwide. The amendment's 
prospects, like the farm bill's timely passage, are far from certain.

Ron Carleton, a Colorado deputy agricultural commissioner who is 
heading up the state's looming hemp licensure, said he has no idea 
what hemp's commercial potential is. He's not even sure how many 
farmers will sign up for Colorado's licensure program next year, 
though he's fielded a "fair number of inquiries."

"What's going to happen, we'll just have to see," Carleton said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom