Hemp product sales bring bust in Hoover
By Steve Joynt
Birmingham Post Herald

Angela Guilford said she thought the items she was selling in her
small Hoover shop were perfectly legal. After all, plenty of other
places were selling them. Now though, Ms. Guilford and her husband
Jeff Russell are charged with trafficking in marijuana, all because
she sold jewelry, seeds, hats, and other hemp items. And the case has
quickly become a focus of dealers in industrial hemp across the
nation. ôThey are pretending that this is a legitimate police
action.ö Ms. Guilford said from her store, Bohemian Rhapsody, in the
Hoover Square shopping center next to the theater. ôbut weÆve heard
that some people donÆt want our store here, and thatÆs why this is
happening.ö Because the store carries common herbs for smoking as
well as tshirts with drug slogans, ôThey think it looks like a head
shop. But I donÆt smoke or use drugs, and we donÆt sell drugÆs.ö
Hoover Police Lt. Paul Bonnecarere said the case against Ms. Guilford
is the result of nothing more than police officers doing there job.
When it was pointed out that Ms. GuilfordÆs exhusband is a Hoover
police officer, Bonnecarere said, ôThat has absolutely no bearing on
the situation.ö He said he didnÆt know how his investigators were
first alerted to the storeÆs inventory. ôOne of our officers went
into the store and bought a onepound bag of hemp seeds,ö he said.
ôFrom that, we were able to get a search warrant.ö

The seeds, Ms. Guilford said, were sterile and incapable of
producing plants. They were sold as birdseed. On June 24, nine police
officers came into the store with a search warrant and seized all of
the hemp products. On July 2, Ms. Guilford and Russell were arrested.
Russell said that while he knew what kind of items his wife sold in
the store, his only connection was to keep the books for her and put
the checking account in his name. While federal law does not allow
the growing of marijuana for itÆs hemp, the use of hemp in industrial
products is not against the law. State law is a different matter.
Said Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber. ôUnder the
stateÆs trafficking statute, marijuana is defined as any part of the
plant under the genus cannabis. That means anything that can

be identified as coming from the plant.ö While Barber would not talk
about the specific case, he pointed out that the legislature, not he,
wrote the law. When asked if he could exercise discretion in how
those laws are enforced, Barber replied, ôCertain levels of
discretion, sure.ö When it was pointed out that some states did not
define marijuana in the same way or did not enforce the law to the
point of arresting dealers of hemp clothing and jewelry, Barber said,
ôSome areas are a little looser about marijuana, and weÆre not.ö He
also said he thought the legislature probably knew that products not
meant for human consumption were made from hemp when it passed the
law. State Sen. Roger Bedford, DRussellville, laughed when he was
told about the pending Hoover case and asked, ôMade out of marijuana
plants? I didnÆt know you could do that.ö Meanwhile, some area
businesses that carried hemp products have reacted to the news of the
Hoover arrests, while others are doing business as usual. The World
Winds store in the Riverchase Galleria used to sell products made
from hemp. But the district manager Angie Lake said Wednesday, ôWe
donÆt have any hemp items anymore.ö On the Southside, the Golden
Temple still offers hemp seeds for sale. ôThey are roasted, so they
wonÆt grow.ö manager Laura Phelps said. ôWe werenÆt really aware that
was any kind of violation of the law.ö Ralph Bolen, attorney for Ms.
Guilford and Russell, said he has a container of mixed seeds for
parrots that was purchased at a local WalMart. Tenth on the list of
ingredients, he said, is the hemp seed. There is rope made from hemp
for sale all over the state, Bolen said, ôthereÆs even hemp in the
dashboards of some Mercedes cars. The use of hemp is pervasive in our
society.ö So pervasive, Ms. Guilford said, that when she went to a
book signing at a Hoover store recently and saw an offduty police
officer working security for the event, ôWhat do you think I saw
around his neck? A necklace made from hemp.ö Steve Joynt can be
reached at 2053252428 or swjoynt@aol.com

Reprinted from the Birmingham Post Herald newspaper
Thursday August 28th 1997
Birmingham, Alabama USA