|
[ Courier-Journal
story below ] THE
LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER Justices hear arguments in Harrelson
hemp case LOUISVILLE - Justice William Cooper noted that sugar looks a lot like cocaine and wondered whether possession of sugar should be made a crime. Chief Justice Joseph Lambert wondered whether you could distinguish between a marijuana patch and a hemp field from a helicopter. Thus did The Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Woodrow Harrelson, a legal case that began more than three years ago when the actor planted hemp seeds in a rocky Lee County field, get its day before the Kentucky Supreme Court. At issue: Whether the Kentucky law that considers hemp as illegal as marijuana is too overly broad to be constitutional, or whether it is vital to keep the state from being overrun by drug dealers. While a decision from Kentucky's high court could be six months away, the outcome could determine whether Kentucky farmers, once foremost in the nation in hemp production, will be allowed to grow the crop again. A lot has happened since that June 1996 day when Woody Harrelson, wearing comfortable hemp clothing, wielded a grubbing hoe in a deliberate attempt to get arrested and set up a test of the law. By the time attorneys in suits presented their case to judges in robes yesterday, three states had taken steps to allow farmers to grow hemp, a cousin of marijuana that contains an insignificant amount of the chemical that causes a high. The three are Hawaii, Minnesota and North Dakota. Planting could begin late this year in Hawaii if permits are issued by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The Fayette County Farm Bureau recently passed a resolution that strongly encouraged the General Assembly to make Kentucky the next state to legalize hemp. That appears unlikely; a bill that would allow a university study of the crop got nowhere in the 1998 legislative session. Harrelson, an actor known for his roles in the TV series Cheers and in various movies, was not in court yesterday. He was in New York preparing to open in the play The Rainmaker. But his mother was there. And to the media crowd that covered the arguments, that was almost as good. She is Diane Harrelson, 62. She lives in Lebanon, Ohio. Like her son, she was wearing hemp clothing. She carried a hemp purse. She did not address the court, but after the attorneys and justices had their say, reporters and television cameras crowded around her. She talked about the agricultural and environmental attributes of hemp and wondered whether the DEA ¨has better things to do" than confiscate Canadian hemp seed that came into this country recently as bird food. She also mentioned that she is just completing a master of science thesis at Antioch College. The subject: The use of hemp for paper. It will be printed on paper that is 50 percent hemp. The arguments in the Harrelson case were heard yesterday at the University of Louisville's Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. It was only the second time the Supreme Court has met in Louisville. The courtroom was overflowing with students. In considering the case, the seven justices could follow two lower courts and find the state law unconstitutional. Or they could follow the state Court of Appeals, which said the matter should go back to where it began - Lee District Court - on a procedural matter. Tom Jones, the county attorney in Lee County, argued that allowing hemp to be grown in Kentucky would create a law enforcement nightmare because the plant looks so similar to marijuana until the two are mature. Harrelson's attorney, Charles Beal II of Lexington, said his client was not trying to legalize marijuana in Kentucky. But the law that lumps hemp with marijuana is not reasonable, he said. Strictly followed, Beal said, the law could be used to shut down stores in Louisville and Lexington that sell hemp clothing. ¨Based on the way the law is written today,¨Beal said, ¨there are certain copies of the Constitution that would be illegal if I possessed them in this court.¨
THE
LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL Legalizing hemp back in spotlight Louisville - A governor's task force has studied it. University professors have researched it. Legislators have debated it. A movie star has touted it. But after nearly a decade of talk, Kentucky has yet to legalize the cultivation of hemp - a plant virtually identical to marijuana, but which is far less potent than its famous cousin. Advocates of hemp say the crop could be the salvation of the small Kentucky farmer. But it appears no closer to legalization now than in 1991, when marijuana advocate Gatewood Galbraith campaigned unsuccessfully for governor in a Mercedes-Benz he dubbed his hempmobile. Eyes nonetheless are now trained on the Kentucky Supreme Court, which heard arguments yesterday in the case of the Commonwealth of Kentucky vs, Woodrow Harrelson. Harrelson is better known as Woody, famed for his acting roles in the TV show Cheers and movies like The People vs. Larry Flynt. Harrleson planted four hemp seeds in full view of the Lee County sheriff three years ago so he could take to court his argument that a law banning marijuana is unconstitutional because it also bans hemp, making it too broad and arbitrary. ¨We hope the Supreme Court hears the arguments on their merits,¨ said Joe Hickey, the executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association. ¨They're not locking farmers up in Canada for growing industrial hemp. Why should they lock up farmers in the United States?¨ Kentucky was once one of the nation's leading producers of hemp - which was used to make rope and sails, among other things - until it was outlawed nationally in the 1930's. Despite hemp's history in Kentucky, the drive to legalize it has gained ground faster elsewhere. Canada legalized the growing of hemp last year, and this year Hawaii, Minnesota and North Dakota allowed some experimental crops. But in Kentucky the legalization effort has failed in the face of opposition from law enforcement and from research that casts doubt on its economic benefits for farmers. Lt. Kevin Payne, a spokesman for the Kentucky State Police, said that agency opposes legalizing hemp because it would make things easier for marijuana traffickers. He rejected the arguments of hemp advocates who say that hemp is not a drug and the two crops can easily be distinguished. ¨I think they're trying to pull the wool over somebody's eyes when they make those arguments,¨ Payne said. Hemp and marijuana are the same plant species. But they are grown differently, and hemp yields a larger stalk and has lower quantities of THC, the substance that gives smokers their high. Hemp advocates call it ¨industrial hemp¨ to emphasize its commercial uses and to distinguish it from marijuana, which many hemp supporters say they don't want legalized. The Kentucky Hemp Museum and Library, whose financial backers include Harrelson and media mogul Ted Turner, commissioned a study by three UK researchers that said legalizing hemp could generate 771 jobs in Kentucky and $17 million in additional earnings. Advocates also argue that because it is grown differently from marijuana. There are simple field tests that would allow police to permit farmers to grow hemp while still eradicating marijuana. The say Canada and Europe haven't seen a sharp rise in marijuana use because hemp is legal in those places. ¨Why is our law enforcement the only law enforcement in the world that doesn't get it?¨ Hickey asked. Whoever is right, the issue has been kicked around more in Kentucky than in many other places. In the mid-1990's, then Gov. Brereton Jones formed a task force to study legalizing hemp, although it quickly disbanded after issuing a disputed report that said the crop didn't have much economic potential. That was the last time the General Assembly gave any consideration to seriously studying the issue, said Rep. Jack Coleman, D-Burgin, a member of the House Agriculture Committee. He said at the time most people in agriculture ¨pretty much wrote it off.¨ ¨I don't think it's been taken seriously since,¨ Coleman said. Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he has never been lobbied about the issue. ¨I think it's one of those issues that's good for a sound bite, but there's not much substance behind it,¨ Shaughnessy said. ¨I don't think the people that are advocating it because if they were, then they would be talking to legislators, and they're not.¨ But that doesn't mean the legislature won't consider the issue. Sen. David Boswell, D-Owensboro, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he is firmly opposed to marijuana, but believes the General Assembly should consider studying industrial hemp further. ¨Things have a tendency to come of age,¨ he said. ¨Maybe this has.¨ But Boswell, who said he doesn't know if he would support legalizing hemp, said his committee has no plans to discuss the issue and he doesn't know of anyone who will introduce a bill in the session starting in January. Indiana also hasn't seen any serious move to legalize hemp, said Joe Pearson, the assistant commissioner of agriculture. Pearson said that although some people have expressed interest in growing hemp, he doesn't think the state will do anything unless it is first legalized by the federal government. Arguments that it could be an effective alternative to lucrative tobacco don't fully hold up, at present. A study on behalf of the Kentucky Long- Term Policy Research Council found that while tobacco can produce earnings of up to $1,000 per acre, the most profitable form of hemp, as seed, would return at most $600 an acre. Other forms would bring as little as $200 per acre. And it said those returns would fall if competition increased. On of those competitors could be Hawaii, which, like Kentucky, has been a leading state in the illegal cultivation of marijuana. Rep. Cynthia Thielen, a Republican in the Hawaiian House of Representatives, said she co-sponsored a bill that allows the state to grow an experimental hemp crop. She said officials are still waiting for a permit from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which hasn't officially said whether it will allow it, although she expects approval. Thielen, the assistant minority leader, said she took an interest in the issue after her son, Peter Thielen, who sells Hawaiian shirts made of hemp cloth from China, suggested that she look at hemp as an alternative to sugar, which is dying out as a viable cash crop. Her first reaction, she said, was ¨Oh no, that's a drug.¨ But she said she has educated herself by traveling to France, England and other countries where hemp growing is legal and found it doesn't promote drug use. ¨What I can't understand is why Kentucky isn't moving ahead,¨ she said.
INSERT: ALL ABOUT HEMP: WHAT IS HEMP? Hemp is a tall annual plant that provides fibers for making rope and cloth. It is raised in Asia, where it originated, and in Europe and North America. Marijuana is made from the dried leaves and flowering tops of the cannabis plant. But industrial hemp strains do not produce enough THC, a psychoactive chemical, to produce a high in users. HISTORY: Hemp, considered the oldest cultivated fiber plant, was growing in Kentucky by 1775; it was the state's largest cash crop until 1920. Between 1914 and 1933, 33 states prohibited hemp use except for medicinal and industrial purposes. In 1937, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which made hemp production nearly impossible. Some farmers grew hemp during World War II under federal license. PRODUCERS: Growing industrial-strain hemp is allowed in China, France, Russia, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Canada and Romania. PROHIBITION: Hemp production is prohibited Australia, Mexico and the United States (Hawaii, Minnesota and North Dakota have voted to allow hemp-growing experiments). COMMERCIAL USES: Paper (including newsprint), diapers, rope, carpet, insulation, fabrics, oil paint, varnishes, ink, motor oil, soap, shampoo, margarine, granola and birdseed. |
|
|
|
|