It's Definitely Not Your Father's Hemp.

States are eyeing a new crop for cash-strapped farmers--hemp.

The "weed" was grown extensively in the United States for the first 150 years of the republic--it was used in the paper on which the Declaration of Independence was written, in Betsy Ross' first flag and in early Ford cars.

A federal prohibition on growing hemp has been in place for more than 50 years because of the notoriety of its "kissing cousin," marijuana. (Hemp has very little of the narcotic chemical found in pot.)

Today, (imported) hemp can be used in as many as 25,000 products, including rope, clothing, diapers, car parts and carpet. Oil from the seeds is used in shampoo, beer, vitamins and lip balm.

A number of states have considered legislation to allow research and study of industrial hemp as a cash crop, but only Hawaii has been authorized by Uncle Sam to plant it.

The Maryland legislature sent HB 1250 to Governor Parris Glendening to establish a four-year pilot program, beginning July 1. The law requires the state secretary of agriculture to administer the pilot program in consultation with state and federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration. Only state-owned land may be used to grow industrial hemp during the pilot program.

The Illinois General Assembly is moving to approve SB 1397 that would allow Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and the University of Illinois (no strangers to marijuana) to study the feasibility of industrial hemp production and present their findings to the legislature in January 2002. Part of the Illinois study would explore the removal of all the psychoactive chemical, tetra-hydrocannabinol, from industrial hemp.

Illinois Senator Evelyn Bowles said that she sponsored her bill to provide the state's ailing farm economy with an alternative agriculture crop. "We're asking for a two-year study. If we put a cork in every bottle that comes along with some new idea or some new proposal, we'd still be back in the Dark Ages."

NCSL will host a session, "This Is Not Your Father's Hemp," during the 2000 Annual Meeting in Chicago. For more information, call David Naftzger in the Washington, D.C., office, [phone] or Cathy Atkins in the Denver office, [phone].