If you’re thinking about pot-smoking hippies, garrulous Erwin “Bud” Sholts is about the last person who would come to mind.
A good thing, too, because Sholts has no tolerance–none – for what he calls “the giggle factor” associated with marijuana. And, no, a thousand times no, hemp is not marijuana, even if the feds can’t (or won’t) distinguish between the two.

For 12 years, Sholts, a former administrator with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and a longtime Oregon resident, has been drumming up popular and legislative support for the legalization of industrial hemp production in the state, which supporters say could be a valuable cash crop.

He’s organized eight conferences on the topic, solicited support from all parts of Wisconsin and formed an organization, the North American Hemp Council, to promote the cause. Supporters around the country are promoting legalization of the crop.

Industrial hemp may be the ultimate green crop, requiring few herbicides and pesticides, adopted to wide swaths of the country, and serving as a prolific source of food, fiber and fuel.

The only thing blocking industrial hemp appears to be the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which insists hemp and marijuana are nearly the same , despite a raft of evidence to the contrary.

Wisconsin used to be a leading producer of hemp before the federal government cracked down on marijuana, a cousin of hemp.

“It’s quite silly, really,” Sholts said, shaking his head.

The government initially distinguished between the two types of cannabis until 1970 when a federal court lumped all forms of cannabis together.. Since then, hemp proponents have tried to get the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to change its mind, but to no avail. The resulting impasse has led to heated confrontations in several states between those trying to grow a crop and federal agents who treat any attempt to grow hemp as a criminal endeavor.

Experts (and presumably pot smokers) say industrial hemp would give you about as much buzz as smoking your socks. Proponents of industrial hemp say drug agents’ attempts to eradicate remaining patches of hemp, known as ditchweed, patches of which remain from the days when it was a crop, make about as much sense as stomping on flower gardens to eradicate poppies. (Disclosure: A friend and I smoked some ditchweed in 1964, to no discernable affect save for a raspy throat.)

Eradicating ditchweed also eliminates a valuable source of germplasm that’s well-adapted to local conditions.

Hemp production still attracts anti-establishment types, self-described  “hempsters,” who make exaggerated claims for cannabis as a solution to most of the world’s problems, but the organized attempt to legalize industrial hemp includes retired generals, industrialists and scientists, as well as environmentalists and farmers.

It could be a multi-billion dollar business, replacing many of oil-based synthetic fibers. Sholts said a major manufacturer of carpets has agreed to use hemp from 500,000 acres to produce recyclable carpets that wouldn’t end up in landfills. The fiber can’t be imported, since hemp must be harvested at exactly the right time to meet the manufacturer’s specifications.

The Drug Enforcement Agency’s recalcitrance might be laughable were its raids not conducted with all the ferocity and munitions associated with an assault on Columbian drug cartels.

One widely publicized incident involved the White Plume family on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Several other American Indians help the family in it is attempt grow hemp, a possible economic boost on the reservation where unemployment exceeds 85 percent.

The Native Americans thought they had the right to do so as a sovereign nation, but armed federal agents arrived anyway and destroyed the crop, and have continued to do so every year since then.

A Californian who tried to obtain permission to grow a small plot for papermaking experiments was told the field must be surround by an eight-foot-high chain link fend, flood lights, alarms linked to law enforcement and a 24-hour guard. State and federal officials agreed – but rescinded permission when voters in California approved a resolution legalizing marijuana for medical uses.

More than 30 industrialized democracies, including Canada, distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana. Legislatures of 16 states have passed resolutions to study or grow industrial hemp. Wisconsin has a similar bill awaiting a hearing.

Last October, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation that would have  established a five-year pilot project in four counties to allow farmers to legally supply numerous California manufacturers with hemp (including seed, oil and fiber) from Canada and elsewhere. The pilot project would have given the hemp industry an opportunity to assess the crop’s impact on the state economy and allowed law enforcement to measure any negative effects hemp farming might have had on their drug eradication efforts.

The cultivation of industrial hemp would have been legal only only if it contained no more 0.3 percent THC.

Arthur Hanks, executive director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, Regina, Saskatchewan, said production in Canada, where hemp is mostly grown for its seeds, is a specialty crop, with production varying between 12,000 and 50,000 acres in recent years.

There’s limited interest in the hemp as a source of fiber, considering Canada’s massive forest industry, and a lack of fiber-processing facilities. Growers must obtain a license to grow hemp, which is still a controlled substance, but marijuana production “is not a major issue. The U.S. is very, very paranoid about this and overreacts a lot. Canada is a little more relaxed. It’s rather silly to criminalize hemp because of marijuana.”

Hemp production in Canada is concentrated in the western provinces, where farms are large (the average farm size in Saskatchewan is 12,000 acres). He thinks the same might be true of seed production in the U.S., but noted that it would be advantageous to process fiber closer to manufacturing facilities and to population centers, which would give an edge to smaller scale production in states like Wisconsin.

“Probably the worst place in the world to grow marijuana is in a hemp field,” Hanks said. “We’ve gotten over that fear.”

Others agree, noting that the industrial hemp contains extremely low levels of THC (as low as 0.5 percent), the desired psychoactive ingredient of marijuana, and high levels of another molecule that actually blocks THC. According to a white paper from the North American Industrial Hemp Council, it’s “extremely unlikely anyone would attempt the “expensive, hazardous and time-consuming process” of extracting THC and eliminating the anti-THC compound.

Paul Mahlberg, a former plant breeder at Indiana University who was one of a few researchers to obtain a license to grow and study cannabis for 32 years, studied more than 150 strains during his career.

While there’s scientific evidence that there are at least two or three species of cannabis, the court decision that classified everything as one species makes the matter moot, Mahlberg said.

The varieties grown for industrial uses and marijuana are “quite different plants,” and those who object to industrial hemp “are not really rational,” Mahlberg said from his retirement home in Door County.

Pollen from industrial hemp can contaminate marijuana plants 50 miles away, reducing the THC content by 50 percent, Sholts said. Researchers say growing industrial hemp would actually make marijuana useless as a drug plant.

Canada permitted research on hemp production before it legalized production, which Hanks said was an important factor in determining the right varieties and production practices,

Sholts said the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other government agencies have enthusiastically greeted proposals to legalize the study and production of hemp, but proponents are silenced and the proposals never receive an official hearing. But Sholts also said the reports are still circulating and is optimistic that proponents will eventually prevail.

Mahlberg, who is a board member of North American Hemp Council, said the hemp legalization won’t get a hearing in Washington until after the next presidential election.

In his testimony before a committee in the Oregon Senate, Andy Kerr, a board member of the council and a well known environmentalist, noted that the DEA’s own records show that more than 90 percent marijuana plans seized by law enforcement in the U.S. are industrial hemp.

Although the U.S. prohibits the production of industrial hemp, it allows the import of numerous hemp products, including birdseed (the hemp seeds are supposed to be sterilized). It’s used for the plastic side panels in Mercedes Benz and other cars.

It can be used in products as diverse as particle board and as a nontoxic replacements for fiberglass. Mahlberg said hemp costs and weighs half as much as fiberglass.

“I think we will be able to win this cause,” Mahlberg said.

The real problem is that hemp and marijuana have similar leaves,said Sholts, quoting a remark by R. James Woosley, legal counsel the North American Hemp Council and former director of the CIA.

That may not sound like a compelling argument against hemp, but it appears to have been effective for several decades.



The Drug Enforcement Administration did not respond to a request for an interview.