XPost: pdx.general, or.politics, alt.politics.democrats.d   
   XPost: alt.politics.republicans   
   From: pjberg@webtv.net   
      
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   News article from The Ashland (Oregon) Daily Tidings - August 18, 2007   
      
   Many know Ashland resident Andy Kerr as an ardent environmental   
   activist, but he is also on the board of directors for the North   
   American Industrial Hemp Council.   
      
   "Most of my career I've dealt with the supply side of the timber   
   economy," said the former executive director of the Oregon Natural   
   Resources Council, who was active in the so-called timber wars of the   
   1980s. "I tried to constrict supply so we wouldn't be cutting down old   
   growth forests. This is dealing with the demand side of the forest   
   conservation equation."   
      
   In April, Kerr testified before the state Senate's committee on   
   Environment and Natural Resource Committee about the possibility of   
   using hemp to replace wood as a building material.   
      
   "Hemp has great potential because it has a very long fiber that can be   
   mixed with agricultural waste to make paper and construction products   
   that are stronger than wood," he said. "Is it a miracle fiber. Well,   
   'miracle' is overused, but it is superior in many cases."   
      
   He is also a proponent of a bill that has died several times in the   
   state legislature to legalize growing hemp.   
      
   "Under the law it is legal to possess and you can import it," he said.   
   "There is a customs code, but you can't grow it. The DEA (Drug   
   Enforcement Agency) thinks it is marijuana."   
      
   Kerr says hemp is a distant relative of its more controversial cousin.   
   The difference lies in hemp's lack of Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the   
   psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that produces the high.   
      
   "As a matter of law they are the same," he said. "But as a matter of   
   fact they are not."   
      
   The reason hemp legalization efforts often fail is because hemp often   
   gets mis-identified as a drug. A bill similar to Oregon's passed in   
   California legislature but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it, and   
   a similar bill recently passed in North Dakota.   
      
   "The political reasoning is people think this makes me look weak on   
   drugs," Kerr said. "There are those who believe all forms of cannabis   
   sativa should be illegal."   
      
   He added that if any group should be opposed to hemp growing it would be   
   marijuana growers because the two plants could cross-pollinate, taking   
   the THC out of the marijuana.   
      
   "If you are a marijuana grower you don't' want hemp anywhere around   
   you," he said. "The pollen would cross-breed and next generation would   
   have half the THC."   
      
   Kerr added that the NAIHC does not take a position on marijuana, and   
   neither does he.   
      
   "I have no opinion on it," he said. "It's not my issue."   
      
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