Section Articles: High on Hemp Once revered, then reviled, hemp is gaining ground Hawaii Plants Hemp Hopes Hempformation ------------ Café Utne Event: March 1-14 Author Ted Williams discusses how hemp can save the family farm. Go there -->

Hempsters ended the century on a high note in December, when political, business, and spiritual dignitaries gathered in Hawaii to ceremoniously plant the first sanctioned hemp crop on U.S. soil since 1957. But because of financial limitations and biological frustrations, the tiny plot-a quarter of an acre in Oahu's Whitmore Village-will hardly satisfy hemp proponents' dreams.

The project is funded by Alterna Applied Research Laboratories, Los Angeles, which has used hemp seed oil in its hair-care products since 1998. Because the Drug Enforcement Administration insists that the crop be treated as a Schedule I narcotic-its term for any plant containing even a hint of marijuana's active ingredient, THC-$25,000 of the $200,000 had to be spent on security, including a 10-foot-high barbed wire fence, round-the-clock guards, and infrared surveillance cameras.

That the DEA sanctioned the effort at all was a major coup, testament to the tenacity of Hawaii state representative Cynthia Thielen, who spent three years pestering officials. Although Hemp Industries Association spokesperson Mari Kane says Thielen's legalization efforts are as much pro-family as pro-business (Thielen's son owns the Hawaiian Hemp Company), the growth of industrialized hemp could help reduce the state's 5.4 percent unemployment rate and reverse the downturn caused by the loss of its largest export, sugar cane, to Caribbean and Central American competition.