SOURCE: Atlanta Journal / Constitution

ATLANTA JOURNAL/CONSTITUTION: Sure, Alabama is used to its share
of criticism, but from across an ocean? The war of words broke out
last month after police arrested two Hoover shop owners for selling
hemp products, citing the state's strict marijuana laws.

When Hawaiian legislator Cynthia Thielen, a Republican, found out about the
arrest via the Internet, she called for a statewide boycott of the Cotton
State. "If the district attorney there in Birmingham is going to equate
hemp with marijuana, then Alabama should be avoided like the plague," says
Thielen, a fan of the clothing made from the stalks of cannabis plants.
Thielen credits the hemp industry for helping Hawaii find "alternative
economic industries" after sugar plantations bottomed out.

Told of Thielen's clothing of choice, Jefferson County District Attorney
David Barber replied, "She'd have a problem" if she visited Alabama.