GROWN IN THE USA?

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Examples of inexpensive bags manufactured with hemp fiber.

ALL HEMP PRODUCTS... ...manufactured for sale in the United States are made from hemp grown on foreign soil.

The European Community has allowed the growing of hemp for years. The process requires that growers only use seed that is psychoactively inert. Cannabis horticulturalists measure the plant's drug potency in terms of a percentage of the plant's THC content. Levels below one percent THC, the psychoactive compound of primary interest to government regulators, are regarded as the industrial variety of the cannabis plant. All cannabis grown legally in Europe comes from seeds certified to be industrial grade, rather than pharmaceutical grade. Recently Canada and Jamaica have opened the door to hemp cultivation, joining a growing list of trading part ners including Germany, England, France, China, The Netherlands and the Ukraine. Put simply, hemp is not marijuana and can't be transformed into marijuana any more readily than pure heroin can be extracted from garden poppies. The linking of hemp and marijuana has more to do with old habits of the drug war than a reasoned concern for the public welfare.

Shoes made from hemp and other recycled materials.

Britain boasts 10,000 acres of the sweet-smelling crop, nestled in various secret locations throughout the balmy northern isle. (British officials don't want the crop growing out in the open and tempting misguided potheads who would steal the plants.) Jamaica is looking to the off-troublesome plant to revive its textile industry (In a twist on the usual cannabis-export relationship, an Atlanta-based company Alternative Import and Export, will reportedly advise the Kingston government on the fine points of raising the precious weed.)

Domestic commerce in hemp will continue to grow with or without a US. crop, says Ken Friedman, president of the nation's biggest hemp business, American Hemp Mercantile, Inc.. Valued at an estimated $75 million for 1995 and projected at $600 million by 2001, hemp commerce involves everything from lip balm and fanny packs to soaps, twine and clothing. American Mercantile sells mostly twine, all of it grown and processed in Hungary. The largest trafficker in hemp goods with almost $2 million in gross sales last year, American Hemp has tripled its sales volume in the course of two years and may issue a public stock offering in 1998.

"It's not so much that we need [U.S. grown hemp] for the existing hemp industry but for rural economic development," says Friedman. "The people losing out are farmers," and the people in their communities who would enjoy the benefits to local manufacturing.

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