HEMP BILL ADVANCES OUT OF COMMITTEE

LINCOLN - Hemp grew out of the Agriculture Committee Thursday afternoon by
a unanimous 7-0 vote.

Under the bill, industrial hemp - argued as a nonhallucinogenic cousin of
the drug cannabis sativa - would be grown by licensed farmers under
supervision of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the state Department
of Agriculture.

Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek introduced LB273 with the hopes of expanding
markets for industrial hemp. He said that many other states -- and most
other industrial countries, including Canada -- have developed their own
markets for hemp, and the United States currently imports some for products
ranging from clothes to house-building material.

"I really don't think this bill and the use of industrial hemp is as
controversial as it might first look," Schrock said. He added that there is
no chance of getting any more than a headache from smoking hemp.

The original bill was amended to help law enforcement agencies in
regulating the growth of hemp. "We've done some things requested by the DEA
and the State Patrol to make it so someone with hemp - a concentrate of 0.3
percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the hallucinogen in marijuana) - and a
license, is different than a guy on the street with the drug in a baggie
claiming he's growing hemp," said Rick Leonard, research analyst for the
Agriculture Committee.

Even though the bill advanced out of committee, it appears unlikely to
reach the floor of the Legislature for debate since there are so many bills
ahead of it, Schrock said. If he determined to make the bill a priority or
if the committee chose to do the same, there is a chance, he said.

A similar bill advanced out of committee last year but did not reach the
first round of debates.