THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER

Lexington, Kentucky March 24, 2000

Ky. court reverses rulings for Harrelson
By Andy Mead
Staff Writer

The "natural born tiller's" legal winning streak ran out yesterday at the Kentucky Supreme Court.

In Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Woody Harrelson, the high court reversed lower court rulings and said a state law that makes no distinction between hemp and marijuana is constitutional after all.

The decision comes nearly four years after the actor used an old grubbing hoe to plant four hemp seeds in a Lee County field.

It is a blow to efforts to make hemp once again a viable crop for Kentucky farmers dealing with cutbacks in tobacco allotments. It is a victory for law enforcement officials who argued that legal hemp would make it more difficult to enforce marijuana laws.

And it came on the same day that a state Senate committee gave only lukewarm endorsement to a bill that would allow university research on hemp.

House Bill 855, which in its original form would have allowed Kentucky farmers to grow hemp, has been endorsed by four former governors and Lexington's Urban County Council.

But it was amended by the House to allow only research.

The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee yesterday approved the research bill, but did so in a way that will require a show of support before it can be brought up for a vote on the Senate floor.

Harrelson, who was a regular on television's Cheers and has starred in several movies, including The People vs. Larry Flynt and Natural Born Killers, was in Kentucky in 1996 attending a Lexington conference on hemp.

He also spoke to an elementary school class in Simpsonville and, on June 1, went to Beattyville to plant the seeds.

The planting was a calculated effort to set up a legal challenge to a state law that defines marijuana as "all parts of the plant cannabis sp."

Harrelson said the seeds he planted were bred in France to contain only a tiny amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gives marijuana smokers a high.

His trial was held in Booneville in Owsley County. It attracted a crowd. People took pictures. They asked for autographs. Kentucky media mixed with reporters from People magazine and Reuters news service.

The first judge to hear the case, Lee District Judge Ralph McClanahan II, ruled that the definition of marijuana under which Harrelson was charged "is constitutionally defective due to its overbroad application by including non-hallucinogenic plant parts." A circuit court judge later agreed, but the high court said yesterday that both were wrong.

All seven Supreme Court justices agreed, but they did so in three separate opinions.

The justices said the legislature had properly classified THC as a controlled substance, adding that "the mere fact that hemp may contain less THC than marijuana is of no consequence."

And, the high court said, "the arguments of the defendant regarding the legalization of hemp are matters more properly for the General Assembly and not the judicial branch of government."

The high court also said there was reason to believe that legalizing hemp could cause problems for law enforcement. And it said there was no "no credible evidence that hemp would ever be a successful domestic crop."

The ruling also calls into question the legality of shirts, handbags and other hemp products sold in Kentucky.

"The way I read the decision, if any of the items... contain THC, they could be illegal," said Charles Beal II of Lexington, one of Harrelson's attorneys.

And it means Harrelson could stand trial again on a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana.

On the day of his first trial, prosecutor Tom Jones said he had offered Harrelson a deal: 30 days in jail, or stay away from hemp and marijuana in Kentucky for a year. The deal was rejected.

Now Harrelson could face up to 12 months in jail and a $500 fine.

Jones couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. His secretary said he was in court and had not seen the decision.

Joe Hickey, the executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, said Harrelson is vacationing with his family in Hawaii and wasn't near a telephone.

Hickey said the court ruling is not a serious setback.

"The court feels the legislature needs to address the issue and that's where we are right now," he said.