THE BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS Bowling Green, Kentucky April
26, 2000

Kentucky Governor Stumping for hemp

Former governor touts benefits of the product for Kentucky
farmers

By Mitchell Plumlee City News Reporter

Industrial hemp production could be the way of the future for
Kentucky farmers faced with the loss of tobacco revenue,
according to former Gov. Louie Nunn.

Nunn, a Republican and former farmer, spoke Tuesday at Western
Kentucky University during the first Southern Kentucky Hemp
Expo.

"I used to be skeptical about hemp 'til I read about this and
realized that this was the way of the future," he said.  "Desperate
times call for desperate measures.  Times have turned away from
tobacco.  We're losing farmers just like we lost soldiers in WWII.
Farmers are the lifeblood of this state."

Hemp, already grown in Canada, could help family farms continue in
Kentucky, Virginia and the forefront of the tobacco industry, Nunn
said.

"We can't live in the past; we must look to the future," he said.
"Kentucky needs to be in the forefront."

But Kentucky might be beaten in the hemp race by other states,
including Illinois, which in 1999 passed legislation giving certain
groups freedom to study the use of industrial hemp.

One of many roadblocks to over come in industrializing hemp
products is the mind set of law enforcement agencies, Nunn said.

"The (Kentucky) State Police need to be educated about it," he
said. "If someone is growing industrial hemp, they have to get a
federal license and can be inspected at anytime."

Rep. Roger Thomas, D-Smiths Grove, who will speak Thursday
night at the expo, said that hemp planted near marijuana will lower
marijuana's potency by reducing tetrahydrocannabinol - the
chemical that causes its narcotic effect.

"The THC stays the same the first year they are planted close
together," Thomas said.  "But, from the second year on, the THC
content in marijuana is lowered because of cross pollination."

This year, the tobacco industry is going to make only one-third of
what it did three years age and needs to come up with alternative
crops, Thomas said.

Enthusiastic expo participants stopped Nunn in the hallway to
discuss the Kentucky Hemp Museum, which exhibits a history of
industrial hemp products.

Museum owner Craig Lee of Versailles and Nunn showed up
hemp-based products including tennis shoes, animal feed and an
inside panel of a Chevy Lumina made from 30 percent hemp and 70
percent propylene.

"They're using a product just like this here in Bowling Green at the
(GM) Corvette (Assembly) Plant," Nunn said.

Lee said interior parts made of hemp are being used at Toyota's
Georgetown plant.

"All of these parts can be recycled, he said, holding a piece of
particle board made from hemp.

One of hemp's big advantages for Kentucky farmers is that
tobacco processing equipment can be used to process hemp, Lee
said.

Contact:  mplumlee@bgdailynews.com (502) 782-3240.