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New bill awaits Gov’s approval
By Hempology | September 17, 2007
The Ukiah Daily Journal, CA
13 Sep 2007
Ben Brown
AG HEMP MEASURE APPROVED BY SENATE
Late Tuesday night, the California Senate passed a bill that would allow four counties, including Mendocino County, to participate in a pilot program to test the viability of growing industrial hemp in California.
Assembly Bill 684, sponsored by Assemblyman Mark Leno ( D-San Francisco ) and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore ( R-Irvine ), would institute a five-year program to test the viability of growing industrial hemp in California with pilot programs in Mendocino, Imperial, Kings and Yolo counties.
The bill now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for approval or veto.
The bill is an amended version of one that passed both the Assembly and Senate in 2006, but was vetoed by Schwarzenegger. It has been amended to address his concerns.
“The bill is a response to the governor’s detailed veto last year,” said Patrick Goggin, legal counsel for Vote Hemp.
It defines industrial hemp as a hemp plant containing less than three-tenths of 1 percent THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. Crops will be sampled, and if the amount of THC exceeds 1 percent the crop will be destroyed.
Mendocino County Agricultural Commissioner Dave Bengston said Mendocino County was likely chosen as one of the pilot counties because of its reputation for marijuana cultivation.
Some of the critics of legalized hemp have said growing the plant would allow those growing marijuana to hide an illegal crop with a legal one.
Bengston said any attempt to do that would meet with failure because the hemp would cross pollinate the marijuana and render it useless as a drug.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has said he does not expect to have a problem with the bill, should it be signed into law, because of the provisions it contains on allowable THC.
More than 30 countries grow industrial hemp, some of which is exported to the United States. Increased sales of hemp products have increased hemp farming in Canada, where 48,000 acres of the plant were farmed in 2006, according to Vote Hemp.
Industrial hemp can be made into numerous items, including food, clothing, paper, body-care products, bio-fuels and auto parts.
According to Leno, passage of AB 684 would give California farmers access to a $270 million industry that is growing at the rate of $26 million a year.
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