February 14, 2000 -- Hemp was legally planted in the United States for the first time since 1937 on the island of Oahu last year. It has been legalized (in principle) in North Dakota and other states - Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico and Virginia - passed bills in 1999 to study the potential for production of "industrial hemp."

Similar legislation continues to proliferate, indicating growing enthusiasm for hemp as an alternative crop. During the past three years, 22 states have
approved some form of legislation or resolution supporting industrial hemp, including New Hampshire, Maryland, Iowa, Vermont, Tennessee and Montana.

Proponents insist industrial hemp could become a "Cinderella crop," much like the soybean. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
maintains that "the U.S. market for hemp fibers is, and will likely remain, a small, thin market."

Industrial hemp is a variety of the species Cannabis sativa L., which is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances
Act.
However, industrial hemp contains no more than three-tenths of 1 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, and that makes it
different than the plants grown for recreational drug use, proponents have said.

Currently it is legal in the United States to buy and sell products made from industrial hemp, such as clothing, but not to grow the crop in most states. Retail stores
that sell hemp-based products import them from other countries. Industrial hemp is legally grown in 29 countries, including Canada, Germany and China.

"I'm not interested in smoking this product; I'm interested in growing it," said Ed Schrock, a Nebraska state senator who introduced legislation to legalize
industrial hemp in January. Industrial hemp is good for the earth because it requires little or no fertilizer or insecticide, he said.

On April 17, 1999 North Dakota Governor Schafer signed HB 1428 legalizing industrial hemp by decreeing, "any person in this state may plant, grow, harvest,
possess, process, sell, and buy industrial hemp."

On April 12, 1999, North Dakota's Senate passed HB1428 by a landslide vote of 44 to 3. The week before, the state House of Representatives passed the bill by
86 to 7.

The problem with legalization on the state level is anyone wishing to plant hemp must still answer to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and that
agency insists industrial hemp production would only provide a cover for growing marijuana.

That's why Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura wrote a letter to President Clinton, urging the president not to let the federal government "stand in the way" of
Minnesota farmers wishing to apply for federal permits to grow industrial hemp. On June 4, 1999, the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill that paved the way for
growing experimental plots of industrial hemp in the state.

But the DEA is allowing experimental planting of hemp in Hawaii under rigorously supervised conditions. Hawaii's House of Representatives on March 9, 1999,
passed an industrial hemp bill with 47 Members voting yes and only 3 voting no. The bill authorized privately funded industrial hemp seed variety trials to be
conducted in Hawaii.

Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano signed the bill making it legal for the first hemp test plot to be planted in America since 1937. Cayetano also hosted a hemp seed
planting ceremony at quarter-acre plot on Oahu on December 14, 1999.

Alterna Hair Care Products, which uses hemp in its line of shampoos and conditioners, presenting the $200,000 check (on hemp paper) to the state of Hawaii to
fund the research project in cooperation with the University of Hawaii.

Built exactly per the strict requirements set forth by the DEA, the quarter-acre is surrounded by chain-link fencing with razor-wire top, and a 24-hour infrared
security system. Construction was completed in September, allowing for the state permit application to be submitted. The state permit issued in October and the
federal permit application was submitted promptly to the DEA.

Even if the DEA drops its opposition, the USDA insists industrial hemp would not provide much of a boon to financially strapped farmers. A recent USDA report,
Industrial Hemp in the United States: Status and Market Potential, estimates that U.S. imports of hemp fiber, yarn, fabric and seed in 1999 could have
been produced on less than 5,000 acres, and that the potential seems high to quickly reach an oversupply situation in the market for hemp products. Uncertainty
about long-run demand for hemp products and the potential for oversupply in the small, thin industrial hemp markets, also cast shadows on the prospects for
hemp as an economically viable alternative crop for American farmers.

Among the report's key findings:

• Given the average size of farms in the United States (about 500 acres), just a few farms could have supplied the hemp fiber and seed equivalent of 1999
  import
  levels.
  
• Despite the similarities between hemp and linen, the lack of a thriving flax (linen) production sector in this country (despite no legal barriers) suggests that
  hemp would not be able to sustain an adequate margin of profit for a large production sector to develop.
  
• Although the market potential for hemp seed as a food ingredient is unknown, it probably will remain small, like the markets for sesame and poppy seeds.
  
• The prospects for hemp oil in food markets are limited by its short shelf life, the fact that it can't be used for frying, and its lack of U.S. Food and Drug
  Administration certification as "generally recognized as safe."
  

The report is available electronically on the USDA's Economic Research Service Web site (Adobe
Acrobat
Reader required). To find out more about the pro-hemp movement in the United States, check out the Industrial Hemp
Information Network or North American Industrial Hemp Council Web sites. For an international perspective
(Canadians have been growing hemp legally since 1998) visit the Canadian Industrial Hemp Council Web site.