Non-Smokable Kind

Revival of hemp industry at hand?

Some say the weed, once produced widely in Iowa as a contribution to the
WWII effort, could be a valuable crop here again.

By GEORGE ANTHAN
The Register's Washington Bureau Chief

Washington, D.C. -- Iowans were startled in the mid-1960s when newspaper
headlines proclaimed that cannabis sativa, better known as marijuana, was
growing on the Statehouse grounds.
Actually, it shouldn't have been a surprise -- and it most likely wasn't
a plot by counterculture forces to embarrass the state.
It was simply that cannabis, also better known for centuries as hemp,
had
been produced widely in Iowa as a patriotic (and profitable) contribution
to
the World War II effort. It was part of a program to provide vital rope and
sheeting for the Navy.
And the seeds of this hardy weed simply had stayed around, even after
hemp production was prohibited, popping up in ditches, at the edges of
fields -- and on the Statehouse grounds.
Now, some farmers and agricultural researchers are trying to
re-establish
the hemp industry in the United States, contending it can be highly
profitable.

Iowa a Garden Spot
The move to resurrect hemp output is centered in Colorado, Missouri and
Kentucky, but agricultural experts agree that Iowa represents ideal growing
conditions for cannabis.
In fact, delegates to this year's national convention of the American
Farm Bureau Federation voted overwhelmingly in favor of research into
revival of an industrial hemp industry in the United States.
The United States currently imports a small amount of raw hemp from the
Philippines, Britain and China for processing into a variety of products.
Hemp advocates say many more finished hemp-containing products are imported
-- products that could be produced here.
Industrial hemp, its proponents contend, doesn't offer the euphoric
impact of marijuana because it contains less than 1 percent of the chemical
THC, which produces the effects.
There have been periodic reports since World War II of attempts to
harvest wild-growing hemp in Iowa and to convert it to smokable material.
But self-described "experts" say it's highly inferior, if not downright
repellent, as a drug.

Paper, Canvas, Cloth
Cannabis fiber, which is separated from the plant's stem, is essential
to
the manufacture of certain kinds of cordage and also is used in making
paper, canvas and a popular cloth for clothing. Oil from the plant is
manufactured into caulking material, paint, plastics, varnish and soap.
Hemp was a major crop in the southeastern United States until the
mid-19th century, when cheaper imports began arriving. But it became a
vital
crop in the Midwest, especially in north-central Iowa, as World War II cut
off overseas supplies.
A 1943 report in The Des Moines Register notes: "Growing the weed as a
crop looked a little silly to some farmers at first. Many were skeptical.
They had known hemp only as marijuana, a harmful narcotic, a weed smoked by
drug addicts."
The report continued: "Government men told farmers the war had cut off
imports of Manila hemp and sisal fiber" and that "farmers need not worry
about growing a narcotic." By the end of the war, more than 4,000 Iowa
farmers were growing hemp on tens of thousands of acres, with prices
guaranteed by the government.
Herbert Howell, a farm management specialist at Iowa State University
from 1934 until 1973, said in addition to promoting hemp production, the
government set up about a dozen hemp processing plants in Iowa during the
war.

A Surprise
ISU economist Neil Harl, who grew up on an Iowa farm, said: "I was a kid
then, but we viewed it as part of the war effort, and it was a surprise to
many law-abiding Iowa citizens to learn it had another use."
Bob Winter, a northeastern Colorado farmer and president of the Weld
county Farm Bureau, is a leading advocate of an industrial hemp industry
and
contends the Justice Department's Drug Enforcement Administration is
"brainwashing state legislators and local law enforcement officials into
opposing the move.
Winter said international trade treaties signed by the United States say
that any hemp with less than three-tenths of 1 percent THC shall be
considered industrial hemp, and not marijuana.
"But current U.S. law does not differentiate between industrial hemp and
marijuana," he said. "Thanks to these laws, the U.S. lags behind other
world
powers in hemp production and must import raw hemp pulp for manufacture
here."
Winter and the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project, which he helped
organize, estimate that industrial hemp producers would reap a profit of
more than $500 an acre, based on current prices.
"Everybody agrees this is a good idea except the drug enforcement
people," he said.

Potential Reflected
Dennis Stolte, a Farm Bureau official here, said the group's backing of
industrial hemp "was a bit of a surprise to a lot of us. It shows the
potential for hemp and reflects farmers' looking for alternative crops."
Stolte said hemp "grows like a weed, with very little need for
pesticides
or cultivation. And its water needs are not very great."
In a recent publication, the Farm Bureau says that many new varieties of
the cannabis sativa plant available in Europe contain less than three
tenths
of 1 percent THC and that "European farmers have been growing hemp for over
20 years without any problems related to marijuana."
But the DEA hasn't budged. Agency officials here said hemp is just
another name for marijuana although federal law does exclude from the
"marijuana" designation the stalks and fibers from hemp plants and products
manufactured from these fibers.




Colorado Hemp Initiative Project
P.O. Box 729
Nederland, CO 80466
(303) 784-5632



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