Dr. Lester Grinspoon said he doesn't begrudge retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey the right to speak against the use of marijuana, but he objects to McCaffrey saying that doctors who prescribe it could be prosecuted.

McCaffrey was invited to deliver the March 7 lecture on treatment for addiction as part of a conference at the Harvard Medical School.

McCaffrey "has no scholarly accomplishments and is doing harm by insisting that patients who need this medicine desperately should be subjected to confiscation and arrest," Grinspoon said Thursday.

Grinspoon is editor of the Harvard Mental Health Letter and author of "Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine." He has resigned from his affiliation with the Norman E. Zinberg Center for Addiction Studies at Cambridge Hospital, but is still part of the Harvard faculty.

McCaffrey intends to deliver the lecture as planned, a spokesman said.

The Sentencing Project, which advocates changes in incarceration policies, estimated 1.46 million black men of a total voting age population of 10.4 million have lost the right to vote due to a conviction.

It said 510,000 black males were permanently barred from voting due to laws in effect in 13 states while the remaining 950,0000 were ineligible to vote due to laws in effect in 46 states on offenders in prison or on probation and parole.

The study, which looked at racial disparity in sentencing, found that blacks had been incarcerated at a rate 7.66 times that of whites, up slightly from the level that prevailed in 1988.

It said the increase in the nation's prison population stemmed from longer sentences for violent offenders and increased convictions and incarceration for drug offenders.

Marc Mauer, the groups's assistant director, acknowledged the need for imprisonment of those who posed a serious threat to the community, but also recommended various alternatives.

He called for greater efforts to create jobs as one way to reduce violent crime, to give judges more discretion at sentencing, especially for low-level drug offenders, and to support community policy and crime prevention programs.

[Felons are allowed to vote in Oregon once they are no longer incarcerated. - ed.]

The ruling was considered a major victory by 42-year-old Grant Krieger who is campaigning for the legalization of cannabis for medical use in Canada.

Darcy McKenzie of Saskatchewan Government Insurance says: "We're just following the guidelines that the use of any drug for any medical purpose is OK."

SGI is the agency that approves the province's driver's licenses.

Krieger says he provided the board with a prescription for the drug from a physician in the Netherlands, and testified that he no longer gets impaired when using marijuana, which he both smokes and ingests.

Canada's criminal code outlaws the possession of marijuana, but McKenzie says the board followed "the guidelines set by the Canadian Medical Association and the American Medical Association in concert with our legislation in Saskatchewan."

He told United Press International: "There's not a lot of extensive research in this issue, and let's be fair, doctors have prescribed ... the use of cannabis in Canada for glaucoma."

McKenzie said he believes it is the first time the SGI medical review board has dealt with the issue of the medical use of cannabis.

Says Krieger: "It was a just and well-thought decision."

Krieger sparked the review process when he admitted on a license application last August that he uses marijuana to relieve muscle spasms and pain associated with multiple sclerosis.

An Interdiction Math Story Problem

The 12-step program, developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, relies heavily on submission to God, and the lower court says the state's use of the program is state support of religion.

A prisoner in New York's Shawangunk correctional facility, David Griffin, wanted to participate in the state's family reunion program.

But because he had admitted to long-term heroin use in the 1950s and 1960s, he was told that he would also have to participate in the prison department's alcohol and substance abuse treatment program.

The abuse treatment program used the 12-step approach originated by AA.

Griffin went to court, saying he is not religious and that the requirement violated his rights under the First Amendment.

Though the state won at lower levels, an appeals court eventually ruled the requirement violated the Constitution.

New York asked the U.S. Supreme Court for review. The justices denied the request without comment Monday.

(96-372, Commissioner Coughlin et al vs David Griffin)

Harrelson, Hemp Win Round In Court - Law's Definition Called Too Broad

In the Commonwealth vs. Woody Harrrelson, the actor scored an important victory yesterday.

An Eastern Kentucky judge presiding over a case involving Harrelson ruled that a portion of a state law that lumps industrial hemp with marijuana is unconstitutional.

The ruling could be the first step toward making hemp a legitimate crop for farmers, an idea endorsed by the Kentucky Farm Bureau and others, but opposed by law enforcement.

But the prosecutor in the case could still be tried and convicted.

Harrelson, who stars in The People vs. Larry Flynt, was in Lexington in May for an international conference on industrial hemp and made a side trip to Lee County to plant what he said were four hemp seeds.

The planting was a calculated challenge to the state law that makes no distinction between marijuana and hemp.

Industrial hemp is a cousin of marijuana that has little of the chemical that produces a high in users. Industrial hemp has .3 percent or less of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient that produces a high. Potent marijuana can have 10 percent or more THC.

In the ruling filed yesterday, Lee District Judge Ralph McClanahan II said there should be a distinction between parts of the plant that have THC and parts that don't. The definition of marijuana under which Harrelson was charged "is constitutionally defective due to its overbroad application by including non-hallucinogenic plant parts," the judge said.

"There's a judge with vision," Harrelson said yesterday in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "I couldn't be happier. This is a great day."

But Lee County Attorney Tom Jones said he intends to appeal McClanahan's ruling to Lee Circuit Court and continue with Harrelson's prosecution. If convicted, the actor faces up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.

Jones said his reading of the judge's ruling is that seeds with any THC are illegal, and that Harrelson has admitted under oath that the seeds he planted had a small amount. Experts say that no hemp seeds are devoid of THC.

An appeal had been expected no matter which side prevailed in the constitutional question.

Charles Beale, one of Harrelson's Lexington attorneys, said the case probably will go at least to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. At that level, a ruling has statewide impact.

Hemp's supporters tout the plant as a source of everything from paper to fabric to lip balm and say it could help Kentucky's beleaguered tobacco farmers. Environmentalists like it because it doesn't need herbicides or pesticides and can save trees.

But police say it would just cause marijuana enforcement problems.

At a hearing in the Harrelson case, Kentucky State Police Sgt. James A. Tipton, a member of the Governor's Marijuana Strike Force, testified that if hemp were legal, farmers in a financial bind might try to sneak a few marijuana plants among the hemp stalks.

Hemp advocates say that would be unlikely because the plants are cultivated quite differently and because the hemp would lower the THC content of the marijuana, making it less valuable.

Sidebar

A royal condemnation of marijuana

How much does Lee District Judge Ralph McClanahan II dislike marijuana?

Almost exactly as much as King James I disliked tobacco.

In declaring unconstitutional part of a state law that equates industrial hemp with marijuana yesterday, the judge wanted to make it clear that he was in no way endorsing marijuana.

To help do so, he lifted some of the words penned by the English king in his 1604 "Counterblaste to Tobacco."

Here's how the king described smoking tobacco 393 years ago:

"A custom loathsome to the eye, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."

Here's how the judge described marijuana yesterday:

"The use of the hallucinogenic properties of marijuana is an act loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the stinking fumes thereof leads to the pit that has no bottom by the association of the consumer to the source of such controlled substance."

The judge said through a spokesman yesterday that it would be improper for him to discuss any aspect of his decision because the case still is pending.

The king is most often associated with another widely quoted work, the King James Version of the Bible.

A district court ruling that called a state law outlawing marijuana unconstitutionally vague and overly broad was a small victory for actor and hemp-activist Woody Harrelson.

Lee District Judge Ralph McClanahan II ruled yesterday that state law don't differentiate between hemp and marijuana, hemp's psychoactive cousin. The ruling is law only in that Eastern Kentucky county, but Harrelson said it's a start.

"I definitely see it as a victory," he said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "We'll start with the county, and it'll spread to the state. There's no question it's a happy day for all of us in the hemp movement."

Harrelson was arrested June 1 after planting four industrial hemp seeds on a small plot of land he bought for the purpose. The actor, partner in a California company that makes clothes and other products from imported hemp, was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and faced 12 months in jail.

McClanahan didn't let Harrelson completely off the hook. He said a trial must be held on whether the seeds were capable of producing plants that contain THC.

Harrelson argued that hemp would be a viable alternative for Kentucky farmers facing hard times with proposed restrictions on tobacco and would be better than cutting down trees for paper. Prosecutors said legalizing industrial hemp would worsen problems involving psychoactive varieties of the plant.

McClanahan sympathized with law enforcement but said the state went about things the wrong way.

"The use of the hallucinogenic properties of marijuana is an act loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs and in the stinking fumes thereof leads to the pit that has no bottom," McClanahan wrote. He said regulating the drug is a legitimate concern.

"Unfortunately, the Commonwealth has impermissibly regulated an otherwise legal substance to reach this end," he wrote.

Federal bans are aimed at plant parts that contain psychoactive THC, the judge said, not parts useful in making fiber and other products. He noted the state changed its legal definition of marijuana in 1992 from the federal one without explaining why.

Hemp was widely used during World War II in the manufacture of rope, cloth, paper, oils, cosmetics and other products, and Kentucky once led the nation in hemp production. The plant is legally grown in Europe, Canada and China.

Lee County Attorney Tom Jones, who prosecuted the case, said he intends to appeal, even though it means setting the stage for a statewide precedent.

"If I don't take it up, then they'll do it in another county," he said. "And we have about as strong a case as we could put on ... so we might as well meet the enemy head on and conquer them here."

Harrelson said he will take the case as far as necessary.

Defense lawyer Burl McCoy of Lexington said the ruling already has precedent value.

"What would happen is the next person who is charged in Lee County or Pike County will pull this judgment out", he said. "And then it would be up to the judge to decide what he wanted to do."

But farmers shouldn't go out and start planting hemp seeds, said Andy Graves, president of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative.

"I think that the federal government is the ultimate power here through the DEA," he said. "And when we have the OKs from those folks, then I believe that I will encourage farmers to step up to the field and start growing."

[End quote]

[For information on hemp in Kentucky contact:]

Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association
P.O. Box 8395
Lexington, KY 40533
Tel. (606) 252-8954

Bank Of Montreal Sponsors Vancouver Hemp Show February 17-18

A staid bank and a plant beloved by potheads entwined in a non-hallucinogenic trade show

By Ian Mulgrew

The times are certainly a changin' when the Bank of Montreal is sponsoring a "pot" conference.

Oh, the pin-striped money merchants call it "industrial hemp," but as the poets say, a rose is a rose is a rose, and cannabis is, well, cannabis.

At the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre on Feb. 17 and 18, hundreds of farmers, manufacturers, academics and researchers will gather from around the globe to discuss reviving Canada's long-dead hemp industry.

They'll fly in on Canadian International Airlines, another conference supporter, not a cloud of pungent, hallucinogenic smoke.

There will be a trade show featuring hemp products, discussion panels about the need to address shrinking world wood-fibre resources and papers on where government regulators stand.

"We expect about 400 to 500 farmers, forest industry types, government people and producers at the symposium," said Sotos Petrides, president of Wiseman Noble Sales & Marketing, the local event and publishing firm that is co-sponsoring the show.

"We expect about 1,200 at the trade show but they will be more buyers, entrepreneurs and investors."

Petrides noted that hemp grown for industrial use is related to the recreational marijuana favored by drug connoisseurs.

Industrial hemp, however, contains much less of the psychotropic chemical THC.

"We are not going to be addressing any of the recreational or medicinal issues surrounding its sister plant," he said.

"We are focusing solely on industrial hemp and the desire to legalize its production again, particularly to address the looming shortage of wood fibre."

Growing hemp has been illegal in Canada since 1938.

Since 1994, farmers and researchers have planted hemp across Canada under experimental licenses from Health Canada to determine its agronomic characteristics, yields, processing requirements and potential products.

They have been trying to determine which strains of the much-denigrated weed can be grown where and what it can be turned into.

And the effort is part of a growing international movement.

In England, for instance, one farmer last year grew more than 1,600 hectares for use in textiles and livestock bedding. In the Netherlands, researchers are creating the world's largest hemp seedbank. In Poland, they are using hemp in construction materials and hemp-wool blends.

"This plant can be grown, processed in our own factories, products can be manufactured in our own country and sold to the world in an environmentally friendly way," Petrides said.

"Instead of relying on resources that are exported, this is a renewable, sustainable crop that can create jobs at every level."

As for the bank, well, it may be using Bob Dylan's songs in its advertising, but you won't even get a smile with a counter-cultural nudge-nudge, wink-wink about the hemp conference.

"We recognize the value of this potential emerging market which will support Canadian agriculture and farmers," said Peter Brown, the bank's agricultural manager.

"The interest in reintroducing this crop has been gaining momentum for the past few years."

HEMP HAS MANY USES

Capital letters indicate new material to be added to existing statute. Dashes through the words indicate deletions from existing statute.

First Regular Session

Sixty-first General Assembly

LLS NO. 97­0430.01 PLC HOUSE BILL 97­1274

STATE OF COLORADO

BY REPRESENTATIVE K. Alexander;

also SENATOR Matsunaka.

AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK & NATURAL RESOURCES

A BILL FOR AN ACT

CONCERNING THE INTRODUCTION OF ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROPS IN COLORADO.

Bill Summary

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does not necessarily reflect any amendments which may be subsequently adopted.)

Authorizes Colorado state university, in cooperation with the commissioner of agriculture, to grow test plots of industrial hemp, sunnhemp, and kenaf in order to research their use as alternative fiber crops.

Creates the Colorado alternative fiber crop committee to investigate the potential of industrial hemp, sunnhemp, and kenaf for use as an alternative fiber crop. Requires the committee to make recommendations to the commissioner based upon its investigation.

Allows the committee to solicit gifts, grants, and donations to fund the research.

Requires the commissioner and Colorado state university to report and make recommendations to the general assembly concerning both the agronomic study performed by Colorado state university and the investigation performed by the Colorado alternative fiber crop committee.

Specifies that these studies do not affect the strict control of marijuana in this state.

Repeals the article on July 1, 2000.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

SECTION 1. Title 35, Colorado Revised Statutes, 1995 Repl. Vol., as amended, is amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW ARTICLE to read:

ARTICLE 27.7

Alternative Fiber Crop Development Act

35­27.7­101. Short title. THIS ARTICLE SHALL BE KNOWN AND MAY BE CITED AS THE "ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROP DEVELOPMENT ACT".

35­27.7­102. Legislative declaration. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY HEREBY FIND, DETERMINES, AND DECLARES THAT COLORADO FARMERS AND RANCHERS NEED ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROPS IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. CROPS SUCH AS INDUSTRIAL HEMP, KENAF, AND SUNNHEMP ARE PROMISING FIBER, SEED, AND OIL CROPS. THESE CROPS CAN HELP REVITALIZE COLORADO'S FARM ECONOMY BY SPAWNING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW VALUE­ADDED INDUSTRIES IN RURAL AREAS. THERE IS A WORLD­WIDE SHORTAGE OF FIBER AND A HIGH DEMAND FOR NON­WOOD FIBER PRODUCTS. IT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE STATE ECONOMY TO PURSUE RESEARCH INTO THE VIABILITY AND MARKETS FOR THESE CROPS TO BENEFIT COLORADO FARMERS AND RANCHERS. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY FURTHER FINDS THAT RESEARCH CONCERNING THE AGRONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE FIBER CROPS, RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE REGULATION OF FUTURE COMMERCIAL FIBER CROP PRODUCTION, AND INVESTIGATION OF MARKETS FOR FIBER CROPS IS NECESSARY FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE CITIZENS OF COLORADO.

35­27.7­103. Definitions. AS USED IN THIS ARTICLE, UNLESS THE CONTEXT OTHERWISE REQUIRES:

(1) "COMMISSIONER" MEANS THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE.

(2) "COMMITTEE" MEANS THE COLORADO ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROP COMMITTEE CREATED PURSUANT TO SECTION 35­27.7­105.

(3) "INDUSTRIAL HEMP" MEANS ALL PARTS AND VARIETIES OF THE PLANT CANNABIS SATIVA, WHETHER GROWING OR NOT, CULTIVATED EXCLUSIVELY FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES THAT MEET THE CRITERIA ESTABLISHED BY THE COMMISSIONER BY RULE PURSUANT TO SECTION 35­27.7­104 (4). "INDUSTRIAL HEMP" IS NOT PSYCHOACTIVE AND IS SEPARATE AND DISTINCT FROM MARIHUANA OR MARIJUANA.

(4) "INDUSTRIAL HEMP PRODUCTS" MEANS ALL PRODUCTS MADE FROM INDUSTRIAL HEMP, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO CLOTH, CORDAGE, FIBER, FOOD, FUEL, PAINT, PAPER, PARTICLE BOARD, PLASTICS, STERILIZED SEED, SEED MEAL, SEED OIL, AND VIABLE SEED FOR INDUSTRIAL HEMP CULTIVATION IF SUCH SEEDS ARE OBTAINED THROUGH THE COMMISSIONER BY RULE PURSUANT TO SECTION 35­27.7­104 (4).

(5) "KENAF" MEANS THE PLANT HYBISCUS CANNABINUS.

(6) "MARIHUANA" OR "MARIJUANA" MEANS ALL PARTS OF THE PLANT CANNABIS SATIVA, WHETHER GROWING OR NOT, THE RESIN EXTRACTED FROM ANY PART OF THE PLANT, EVERY COMPOUND MANUFACTURE, SALT, DERIVATIVE, MIXTURE, OR PREPARATION OF THE PLANT, ITS SEEDS OR RESINS, IF NOT OBTAINED FROM THE COMMISSIONER AS PERMITTED BY RULE PURSUANT TO SECTION 35­27.7­104 (4). "MARIHUANA" OR "MARIJUANA" DOES NOT INCLUDE INDUSTRIAL HEMP OR INDUSTRIAL HEMP PRODUCTS.

(7) "MARIHUANA CONCENTRATE" MEANS HASHISH, TETRAHYDROCANNABINOLS, OR ANY ALKALOID, SALT, DERIVATIVE, PREPARATION, COMPOUND, OR MIXTURE, WHETHER NATURAL OR SYNTHESIZED OF TETRAHYDROCANNABINOLS. "MARIHUANA CONCENTRATE" DOES NOT INCLUDE INDUSTRIAL HEMP OR INDUSTRIAL HEMP PRODUCTS.

(8) "TETRAHYDROCANNABINOLS" OR "THC" MEANS THE SAME AS THE DEFINITION SET FORTH IN SECTION 12­22­303 (32), C.R.S.

(9) "SUNNHEMP" MEANS THE PLANT CROTALARIA JUNCEA.

35­27.7­104. Colorado state university ­ agronomic research ­ reports ­ commissioner of agriculture authority. (1) NOTWITHSTANDING ANY PROVISION OF LAW TO THE CONTRARY, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY IS AUTHORIZED TO UNDERTAKE AND SUPERVISE AGRONOMIC RESEARCH INTO INDUSTRIAL HEMP, SUNNHEMP, AND KENAF FOR THEIR USE AS ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROPS. COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY MAY COLLABORATE WITH OTHER RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES IN CONDUCTING THIS RESEARCH. THE COMMISSIONER SHALL OVERSEE THE RESEARCH BY COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY. SUCH RESEARCH SHALL BE MUTUALLY AGREED UPON BY THE COMMISSIONER AND COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY AND SHALL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

(a) TWO TEST PLOTS OF NO MORE THAN FIVE ACRES EACH OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP, SUNNHEMP, AND KENAF CULTIVATED WITH DIFFERENT IRRIGATION, ELEVATION, AND SOIL CONDITIONS. THESE TEST PLOTS ARE TO BE ESTABLISHED IN THE 1998 GROWING SEASON.

(b) FOUR TEST PLOTS OF NO MORE THAN TEN ACRES EACH CULTIVATED WITH DIFFERENT IRRIGATION, ELEVATION, AND SOIL CONDITIONS. THESE TEST PLOTS ARE TO BE ESTABLISHED FOR THE 1999 GROWING SEASON.

(2) THE COMMISSIONER AND COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY SHALL ISSUE JOINT REPORTS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONCERNING THE FINDINGS OF THE AGRONOMIC RESEARCH. THE FIRST REPORT SHALL BE MADE BY JANUARY 15, 1999. THE FINAL REPORT SHALL BE MADE BY DECEMBER 15, 1999. THE REPORTS SHALL CONTAIN:

(a) RESULTS OF THE AGRONOMIC RESEARCH, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIFFERENTIAL FIBER YIELDS AND AGRONOMIC VIABILITY OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP, SUNNHEMP, AND KENAF, WATER USE PER YIELD PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS, TIMING OF WATER STRESS EFFECTS ON PRODUCTIVITY, OPTIMUM PLANTING DATES AND POPULATIONS, FERTILITY REQUIREMENTS, INSECT AND PATHOGEN PROBLEMS, WEED CONTROL, AFTER­HARVEST RESIDUE CHARACTERISTICS AND SOIL EROSION POTENTIAL, GROWTH RATES AS INFLUENCED BY ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS, AND OPTIMUM HARVEST TIMING AND METHODS;

(b) RESULTS OF THE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE INDUSTRIAL HEMP PLANTS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THC AND CANNABIDIOL CONCENTRATIONS OBTAINED FROM THE TEST PLOTS AND THE METHODS USED TO SAMPLE THE INDUSTRIAL HEMP CROP; AND

(3) THE FINAL REPORT SHALL INCLUDE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEGISLATION TO DEFINE INDUSTRIAL HEMP AS DISTINCT FROM MARIHUANA OR MARIHUANA CONCENTRATE, REGULATIONS, IF ANY, THAT MAY BE NECESSARY FOR THE COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL HEMP AND ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROP INDUSTRY, AND THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE COLORADO ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROP COMMITTEE PURSUANT TO SECTION 35­27.7­105 (4) (b).

(4) THE COMMISSIONER IS AUTHORIZED TO PROMULGATE THE RULES NECESSARY TO IMPLEMENT THIS SECTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 4 OF TITLE 24, C.R.S. SUCH RULES SHALL INCLUDE AT A MINIMUM:

(a) CRITERIA FOR INDUSTRIAL HEMP PARTS AND VARIETIES TO BE USED IN TEST PLOTS;

(b) CRITERIA FOR VIABLE INDUSTRIAL HEMP SEEDS TO BE USED IN TEST PLOTS.

35­27.7­105. Colorado alternative fiber crop committee ­ mission ­ appointments ­ report. (1) THE COLORADO ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROP COMMITTEE IS HEREBY CREATED AND SHALL BE COMPOSED OF NINE MEMBERS WHO SHALL BE APPOINTED BY THE COMMISSIONER FOR A TERM OF TWO YEARS. THE MEMBERS SHALL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING REPRESENTATION:

(a) ONE MEMBER SHALL BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE;

(b) ONE MEMBER SHALL BE A REPRESENTATIVE FROM COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY'S DEPARTMENT OF SOIL AND CROP SCIENCE;

(c) THREE MEMBERS SHALL HAVE A MINIMUM OF FIVE YEARS EXPERIENCE IN COLORADO AS A COMMERCIAL FARMER OR RANCHER AND BE FAMILIAR WITH INDUSTRIAL HEMP, SUNNHEMP, OR KENAF;

(d) ONE MEMBER SHALL HAVE A MINIMUM OF FIVE YEARS PUBLIC ADVOCACY OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP AND COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL HEMP PRODUCTS;

(e) ONE MEMBER SHALL BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COLORADO STATE PATROL;

(f) ONE MEMBER SHALL BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COUNTY SHERIFFS OF COLORADO; AND

(g) ONE MEMBER SHALL BE A PERSON THAT THE COMMISSIONER BELIEVES WILL BEST REPRESENT THE STATE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE CROP FIBERS SUCH AS INDUSTRIAL HEMP, SUNNHEMP, AND KENAF.

(2) THE COLORADO ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROP COMMITTEE SHALL RESEARCH INDUSTRIAL HEMP REGULATION POLICIES IN OTHER AREAS, INCLUDING COUNTRIES OTHER THAN THE UNITED STATES, AND MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COMMISSIONER FOR SIMILAR POLICIES IN COLORADO. THE COMMITTEE MAY RECOMMEND LEGISLATION TO ALLOW PERMANENT COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP, SUNNHEMP, AND KENAF. THE RECOMMENDATIONS SHALL ENSURE THAT FARMERS AND RANCHERS WILL BE ABLE TO PRODUCE THESE ALTERNATIVE FIBER CROPS, SPECIFICALLY INDUSTRIAL HEMP, SAFELY AND PROFITABLY. THE COMMITTEE SHALL INVESTIGATE EXISTING AND POTENTIAL MARKETS FOR INDUSTRIAL HEMP, BOTH IN COLORADO AND ELSEWHERE. THE COMMISSIONER SHALL INCLUDE THE FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE IN THE FINAL REPORT TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PURSUANT TO SECTION 35­27.7­104 (3).

(3) THE COMMITTEE IS AUTHORIZED TO FUND THIS RESEARCH FROM GIFTS, GRANTS, AND DONATIONS FROM INDIVIDUALS, PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS, FOUNDATIONS, OR ANY GOVERNMENTAL UNIT; EXCEPT THAT NO GIFT, GRANT, OR DONATION MAY BE ACCEPTED BY THE COMMITTEE IF IT IS SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS WHICH ARE INCONSISTENT WITH THIS ARTICLE OR ANY OTHER LAWS OF THIS STATE. THE COMMITTEE SHALL HAVE THE POWER TO DIRECT THE DISPOSITION OF ANY SUCH GIFT, GRANT, OR DONATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS ARTICLE.

(4) (a) THE COMMITTEE SHALL ISSUE A PRELIMINARY REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER CONCERNING THE STATUS OF ITS RECOMMENDATIONS, AND THE METHODS OF INVESTIGATION USED, BY NOVEMBER 15, 1997. THE COMMISSIONER SHALL REVIEW THE REPORT AND MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COMMITTEE CONCERNING THE SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF ITS FINAL REPORT.

(b) THE COMMITTEE SHALL ISSUE ITS FINAL REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER BY DECEMBER 15, 1999. THE REPORT SHALL INCLUDE, BUT SHALL NOT BE LIMITED TO, POLICIES FOR LICENSING OR REGISTERING FARMERS TO GROW INDUSTRIAL HEMP, METHODS FOR INSPECTION OF FIELDS, RECORD KEEPING, PENALTIES, POTENTIAL PROBLEM ISSUES, AND WHETHER THE COMMITTEE SHOULD CONTINUE ITS INVESTIGATION.

35­27.7­106. Controlled substance laws relating to marihuana. EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED OTHERWISE BY THIS ARTICLE, ALL LAWS CONCERNING THE STRICT CONTROL OF MARIHUANA AND MARIHUANA CONCENTRATE AS A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE SHALL REMAIN IN EFFECT.

35­27.7­107. Repeal of article. THIS ARTICLE IS REPEALED, JULY 1, 2000.

SECTION 2. Safety clause. The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety.

[End]